ANTONIO CIRINO (1888-1983)
Taking a look at a nocturnal oil painting, "Rum Runners, Motif #1 Rockport"
Noted Rhode Island artist Antonio Cirino has depicted two New England traditions in this impressionistic nocturnal work titled Rum Runners, Motif #1 Rockport. Beginning in the 1920’s, Cirino would summer and paint annually in Rockport, Massachusetts where he became one of the founding members of the Rockport Art Association. Rockport became an important summer refuge him and a location where he would produce his most important canvases. As Rockport gained notoriety as an artists’ haven, artists flocked to the town to capture its authentic New England imagery. Lester Hornby (1882-1956), a RISD trained painter and etcher, spent the later years of his career living and working as a mentor to art students in Rockport. As the story goes, Hornby would send his students out to paint whatever scenes caught their eyes, but he soon noticed a trend in the imagery that came back. The aspiring artists repeatedly painted the little red fishing shack standing at the end of a granite pier in the town’s harbor. It was the quintessential icon of a New England fishing town, right down to the ever-so-slightly weathered paint. It became a “motif” — the french term for a theme within a work of art that often repeats itself. Legend has it that upon critiquing yet another rendition of the shack, Hornby exclaimed “What? Motif No. 1 again!” and Rockport artists, including Cirino, have been calling it that ever since.
The scene depicts a small group of men unloading their barrels of molasses, the essential ingredient for the dozens of local illegal regional distilleries during the era of Prohibition of that favored New England spirt rum. The tradition of producing this local favorite dated back to colonial times, when the production of New England rum was both a turning point in transatlantic commerce and a brazen step towards liberty. Using methods handed down from our European ancestors and ingredients procured from the New World, colonists created a profitable niche in 18th century spirit sales. At the peak of its popularity, colonials supposedly consumed more than 5 gallons of rum per person each year, paying mere shillings per gallon. Threatened by this new source of economic independence, the British Parliament imposed a tax on imported molasses. Throughout the colonies, bans and legal measures were passed to limit or halt distillation, but New England’s thirst proved more powerful than the law. Colonists happily adopted their patriotic posts as rum runners and smugglers, helping the spirit to spread like wild fire and firmly fix itself into New England culture.
Antonio Cirino was born in Italy in 1888, immigrated to Providence at age two and was raised among the bustle of Atwells Ave, the center of business and culture for Providence’s Italian population in the early 20th century. A colorful and confident personality, he amused many and enraged others in his lifetime. In 2021 it is his iconic repertoire of paintings, be it the woods of Lincoln, Rhode Island, the little church spire in East Providence or the fisherman in their picturesque old wooden boats in Rockport, that solidify his legacy as a painter.
“When painting with a lion’s heart and in deep fervor, I wandered through the labyrinths of life, the country side, yea the wood interiors, mountain passes and the shores of the rivers and ocean and running streams conjuring up new worlds of beauty, ideas without ancestors, fact and fancies that stirred complacency and composure all this while in a world of facts or hard realities…” Cirino 1981
Cirino attended the Providence Technical School, graduated from Rhode Island School of Design in 1909 and received a Bachelor’s of Science Degree from Columbia Teachers College in 1912. Then the young man went directly to the Rhode Island School of Design to teach jewelry design commencing a thirty-five year teaching career. He co-authored a significant textbook, Jewelry Making and Design with A.F. Rose. While the number of Italian Americans swelled in Providence from 18,014 in 1894 to 42,044 in 1920, Cirino selected an uncommon path compared to fellow immigrants from his generation. He distinguished himself with a college degree and teaching position in higher education.
This diminutive figure, with his imposing personality started off in the Federal Hill neighborhood teeming with vendors selling their goods in push carts and the sounds of live chickens and rabbits in wooden cages and went on to achieve great success in the world of art. Upon his death he left the majority of his paintings to the Salmagundi Club in New York City and the Rockport Art Association, two institutions he felt critical to his growth and success as an artist. In addition, he established the Antonio Cirino Memorial Fund at The Rhode Island Foundation to provide scholarships for those pursuing graduate degrees to teach art.