Raffael - "Red Lily" Realistic watercolor painting of red lily floating among other vegetation with reflections on the water

Joseph Raffael • American B: 1933

Red Lily C: 1992 • Watercolor on Paper 44 1/2” x 60”

Depression-era Long Island was a hard place to find beauty unless you knew how to look. Young Joe Raffael’s three older sisters remember him as so shy he never said a word until the age of 5. Their upbringing was typical in every way. Mom stayed home and cooked. Dad worked long hours managing an A&P grocery store. No great poverty. No great riches, either. Just an achingly boring life for a boy who wanted to live the life he saw in the movies. A big life filled with beauty.

With two immigrant grandfathers, young Joe grew up with a sense anything was possible. His Sicilian grandfather opened a small grocery around the corner from the Brooklyn Museum of Art. The Swiss grandfather became a successful businessman. Saturday art classes at the Brooklyn Museum, paid for by taking odd jobs, were Joe’s first step toward turning the possible into the actual. Summer outings at the beaches on Brooklyn’s eastern shore sparked a lifelong love of shimmering water. The young boy became an artist whose love of beauty was celebrated in monumental watercolors of nature’s wonders.

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Along the journey from young movie fan to celebrated artist, Raffael began to feel “there is more mystery in light than shadow.” This belief led to a love affair with a part of the world where light is life. The Mediterranean seacoast in the south of France is a mystical place filled with shimmering seas and sun-splashed scenery. Joseph Raffael first glimpsed these charms in the movies of his youth.

After two weeks of tragedy in 1980, including a divorce and a child’s death, Raffael was determined to simplify and beautify his life. With second wife, Lannis, he visited Cap d’Antibes, the legendary artists community along the Mediterranean seacoast. There they rented in a bright white villa with turquoise shutters and yellow accents, surrounded by brightly colored cockatoos and other exotic birds. They never left. Today Raffael tends a magnificent garden surrounding a small pond, gazes out over the shimmering Mediterranean Sea and paints lushly detailed large watercolors, still searching to unlock the mysteries of light.

Canton Museum of Art Permanent Collection
Purchased in the name of the MacKenzie Girls from the sale of the St. Nicholas of Bari painting given by Robert MacKenzie and with additional funding from the Margretta Bockius Wilson Fund, 993.2

4 Ways to Sound Smart When Viewing at The Canton Museum of Art

1.
“An odd fact: When the front door of his Cap d’Antibes villa opens, a little bell tingles … just like it did at his grandfather’s Brooklyn grocery store.”

2.
“Almost all of his watercolors are monumental in size, so leave your Reading Glasses at home.”

3.
“His garden pond is framed with Tibetan Prayer Flags that are normally placed high on Himalayan hilltops so the wind can carry the prayers of those in need.”

4.
“He became a very spiritual man after his first marriage ended and a young son died within a two week period. His second wife was his spiritual counselor.”

Hindes Timeline. Scroll over images to see timeline.

1933

Born Joseph Raffaele in Brooklyn, New York, the youngest in a family with three daughters. His father, Joseph, was a manager at A&P Grocery Stores. His mother, Cora, stayed home and loved to cook.

1940

He began drawing and credits his remarkable artistic talent to his Sicilian grandfather who owned a small grocery around the corner from the Brooklyn Museum of Art and was always drawing signs for the store featuring large melons and stringbeans.

1951-54

Studied at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Art and Science in New York City.

1954-56

Studied at the Yale University School of Art under Joseph Albers whose mantra was “Color is the most relative medium in art.” Albers theories on how colors are related to the reflection of light on surfaces obviously had a profound effect on Raffael.

1956-60

Worked as a freelance textile designer at the Jack Price Textile Studio.

1958-60

Studied in Florence, Italy, on a Fulbright Fellowship. Began painting complex, colored watercolors of flowers. In 1960 he was awarded a Louis C. Tiffany Fellowship.

1963

Mounted his first New York exhibition, Umbrian Watercolors, at the d’Arcy Gallery. Nearly died during a months long battle with Hepatitis. Changed his artistic style to incorporate “real life” images based on photographs.

1966

Taught at University of California at Davis before returning to New York to teach at the School of Visual Arts. He moved permanently to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1969.

1969

Married Judy Davis, an artist and instructor at Bennington College. The couple had two children, Rachel and Reuben. Judy also brought two other children, Robert and Matthew into the marriage.

1973

Quit teaching to paint full time. The following year he received first prize at the Tokyo International Biennale. Became well-known through a Time Magazine article showcasing his watercolor paintings and written by Robert Hughes.

1980

Within a two-week span, his first marriage ended and a young son died in an automobile accident. Wracked by grief, he sought spiritual answers.

1984

Married his spiritual counselor, Lannis Wood, who became his artistic muse and the subject of many future paintings.

1986

Moved to Cap d’Antibes along the southern French seacoast.

2007

His work was featured in a cover story in Watercolor Magic Magazine.