Carlo de Fornaro

Carlo de Fornaro (sometimes spelled Carlo di Fornaro) (1872–1949) was an artist, caricaturist, writer, humorist, and revolutionary.

His work is in the collection of the US National Gallery of Art and Harvard's Fogg Art Museum. His caricatures have been compared to those of Sem, Leonetto Cappiello, and Carlo Pellegrini.

His 1902 book Millionaires of America contains color caricatures of the captains of American industry.

Life

Fornaro was born in Calcutta to "Swiss-Italian" parents. He was raised in Italy and Switzerland, then studied architecture in Zurich and painting at the Royal Academy of Munich. He returned to New York in 1909, and published his Diaz, Czar of Mexico: an arraignment, which led to a trial for criminal libel against a nonresident by the editor of the Mexican newspaper El Imparcial. He was convicted and sentenced to one year in the Blackwell's Island Prison (now Roosevelt Island), where he served 8 months, and upon his release, was fêted by the Vagabonds lunch group of the National Arts Club. He was also invited to a dinner at Joel's Bohemia on October 4, 1910,

He documented his incarceration in the book A modern purgatory and advocated for prison reform. Krishna's Gift, the legend of the diamond Prince Tissa, the legend of the ruby Amrita, the legend of the sapphire Vanadeva: the legend of the emerald Uttara: the legend of the turquoise Asneha: the legend of the opal Isvara's ring: the legend of the jade The necklace of untold sighs the legend of the coral The tear of Soma: the legend of the pearl The tears of Kusa: the legend of the topaz Shiva: "the Destroyer": the legend of the moonstone White lotus: the legend of the cat's eye Max Cramer de Pourtalès, Carlo de Fornaro, Millionaires of America, New York, 1902 full view Carlo de Fornaro, Diaz, Czar of Mexico: an arraignment, by Carlo de Fornaro with an open letter to Theodore Roosevelt, 1909 full view Carlo de Fornaro, Mortals and Immortals, 1911 full view Carlo de Fornaro, Carranza and Mexico, New York: Mitchell Kennerley, 1915 full text Carlo de Fornaro, What the Catholic Church has done to Mexico, Latin American News Association, 1916 Carlo de Fornaro, A Modern Purgatory, New York, 1917 full view Paul Eldridge, Carlo de Fornaro (cover design), And the Sphinx Spoke, Boston: The Stratford Company, 1921 Giacomo Casanova, Carlo de Fornaro (translator), Memoirs of Jacques Casanova, New York: Lieber & Lewis, 1923 Carlo de Fornaro, John Wenger, New York: Joseph Lawren, 1925 Carlo de Fornaro (translator), A. Zaidenberg (illustrator), The Arabian Droll Stories, New York: The Lotus Society, 1929 Carlo de Fornaro, The Chinese Decameron, New York: The Lotus Society, 1929