Edgardo Simone, Accordion Player, Art Deco Silvered Plaster Sculpture, ca. 1925

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Edgardo Simone, (Italian/American, 1890-1948)
Classically trained in Italy at the Beaux Arts Academy in Rome from 1906 to 1913, Edgardo … Read more Edgardo Simone, (Italian/American, 1890-1948)
Classically trained in Italy at the Beaux Arts Academy in Rome from 1906 to 1913, Edgardo Simone became a famous sculptor in Italy and the United States using mediums of terracotta, ceramic, bronze, and plaster. He earned a Doctorate of Design and Sculpture at the Academy and then emigrated to the United States where he worked in New York, Chicago and southern California. His style was influenced by Art Nouveau, Art Deco and other modernist influences.

In Italy, he had received three times the Croix de Guerre and was decorated by King Victor Emmanuel II and Queen Margherita. Before moving to America, he had much recognition in Italy. He had created war and city monuments, and tombstones in twenty-six Italian cities. When he arrived in New York City, one of the newspapers carried a headline: "Italy's greatest Sculptor Arrives in New York."

In New York, Simone became prominent in society and did many portrait busts including such of Thomas Edison, John J. Pershing, Henry Ford and Louis Brandeis. Sally Rand, the famous fan dancer of Chicago's World's Fair in 1933-1934, sat as a model in his studio as did President Franklin Roosevelt and author Theodore Dreiser.

In 1940, he married composer Radie Britain (1897-1994) in Arizona, and five years later, she became the first woman to receive the Julliard Publication Award for a composition she dedicated to Charles Lindberg and his historic flight across the ocean to Paris. After marriage, the couple moved to Coronado, California where Simone crafted works for Franciscan missions. In the 1940s, they moved to Los Angeles, and he worked at MGM Studios doing busts of Hollywood celebrities, such as Marlene Dietrich and David Niven. He also created a full-sized depiction of Jesus Christ for an alter scene in the movie, The Song of Bernadette; and a ceramic piece modeled by the wife of illustrator, Howard Christy. Edgardo Simone died in Hollywood in 1948. See less