James Crandall: painting Lucca
16-11-2011 / Culture and Entertainment / Lee Adendorff
LUCCA, 16 November - Both visitors and locals will recognise the scenes in James Crandall’s paintings of Lucca. A woman looking in a shop window, a barista preparing the morning coffee, a girl looking for scooter parking: they are snapshots of the everyday life in a city that is not only a treasure trove of history but also home to real people and the daily events and small rituals that make up real lives.
James is a regular visitor to Lucca, and his award-winning paintings have found an appreciative audience in the United States, where he lives and works. Yet his love affair with Lucca was not a chance encounter.
James’ grandfather Carlo Casali was born in San Concordio, Lucca and emigrated to the United States in 1920, following an uncle and his older brother who had settled in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He would never see his parents Annibale Casali and Emma DeSanti again, as they passed away a few years later.
In Pittsburgh, where Carlo worked in the restaurant business with his brother, he met Rosaria, an Italian-born girl. They were married in 1926. In the 1930s the young couple moved to San Francisco, where Carlo moved up in the restaurant trade to the position of the Maitre D’ at the Sir Francis Drake Hotel. In the 1940s he bought his own business in the seaside resort of Santa Barbara and there he made his fortune, eventually owning several restaurants.
Like many immigrants of their generation, James’ grandparents formed a close-knit group with other Italians, but their children were raised as Americans. “My grandparents spoke Italian to each other, and to people of their generation, but choose not to teach their children, so my mother only knew a little, and I in turn knew only a few words,” he recalls.
James’ family visited Lucca twice to see their relatives in the 1960s and 70s, no small feat considering the travel and cost involved at the time. The visits were short, and hampered by a lack of common language, and over the years contact between the American and Italian relatives fell by the wayside.
In 2000 James felt the need to re-establish contact with his Italian family and he and his wife began to study Italian in earnest, making contact with a cousin, Gabriella, who was also keen to meet them again. In 2001 they arrived in Italy for a reunion trip. The beginnings were not auspicious: they learned of the events of September 11, 2001 as they arrived in Venice, but James recalls that despite that terrible news, their time with the family in Lucca was marvellous.
“I had anticipated a single gathering, some friendly but awkward conversation, and little else, but instead we were welcomed with open arms and great affection. Several of my mother's first cousins and their families came to meet us, that first dinner arranged by Gabriella blossomed into many invitations, other outings to see local sights. We discarded our plans to tour other parts of Italy and spent the rest of our trip in Lucca,” he recalls.
Since then, the Crandalls have visited Lucca almost every year. “We have seen most of the tourist attractions but our greatest pleasure is everyday life in Lucca: shopping in town, eating out and making meals at home, visiting friends, taking passiegata on the walls in the late afternoon. There have been special times as well -- an evening at the Teatro del Giglio, September Festa, the city atmosphere during Natale,” says the artist.
During every trip, James – who has worked for almost his whole career as a freelance illustrator in the advertising industry – has taken thousands of photographs, which he uses as the basis of his paintings of Lucca. “On some trips I have used a portable easel, working outside, and although those were valuable experiences, they proved to be more of invitation to conversations than an effective way to work!” he says.
The paintings, with their very personal take on life in Lucca, have proved particularly popular among the large Lucchesi population in the Sacramento and San Francisco area where James and his wife live. “People are particularly interested in small scenes of everyday life, whether they are images of patrons at a salumeria, vendors in street markets, or altar boys in procession at the Festa,” remarks Crandall.
A volume of selected paintings by James Crandall ‘Painting Lucca: An American artist in his grandfather’s hometown’ was published earlier this year.
More information about the artists and his work can be found on his website.
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