Rico Lebrun, Surrealist Artist, Drawing for Dante's Inferno, 1963, lithograph

Drawing for Dante's Inferno, 1963, lithograph, 14 1/8 x 9 1/4" edition of 2000, signed.

Rico (Federico) Lebrun (Naples, December 10, 1900 – Malibu, May 9, 1964) was an Italian-American painter and sculptor. Lebrun was born in 1900 in Naples, Italy. He initially studied banking and journalism before taking art classes at the Naples Academy of Fine Arts from 1919 to 1921. Following this he went to Florence, where he studied as a muralist. He moved to California in 1936. while exhibiting in New York, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Toronto.

In the mid-1950s, his work focused on the experience of the concentration camps at Buchenwald and Dachau.He is best known for his series of paintings on "The Crucifixion." Lebrun once remarked that he was interested in “changing what is disfigured into what is transfigured,” aiming to depict “mineral and spiritual splendor.” "

Lebrun was always known as a remarkable draftsman. In addition to the powerful line of his drawings there is also a deep social message. His drawings are expressions of sympathy for the poor, the outcast and social injustice. His Crucifixion series was prompted by the constantly repeated history of man's blindness and inhumanity. This theme was also evident in his War and Concentration Camp Series of drawings. His life was devoted to accurately mapping the unknown regions of the human form and heart."

His work influenced many of the most important 20th century Californian artists.