Gaetano Meo

Gaetano Giuseppe Faostino Meo (1849 – 16 January 1925) was an Italian-British artist's model, landscape painter, and a noted craftsman in mosaic and stained glass. His unpublished autobiography is a useful source for art historians of the Aesthetic Movement and Edwardian Era. and grew up in the town of Laurenzana, in Basilicata, southern Italy. In 1864, Meo (age 15) and an older brother walked from Naples to Paris. Playing harp and lute, they supported themselves as street musicians while saving money for passage to the United States. Pre-Raphaelite painter Simeon Solomon claimed to have discovered the 18-year-old playing harp in the streets. That same year, in London, he painted a head-and-bust oil portrait of Meo as Bacchus.

Edward Burne-Jones

Edward Burne-Jones, Dies Domine Window (1876), St. Michael & St. Mary Magdelene Church, Easthampstead, UK. (circular window at top) Edward Burne-Jones used his mistress, Maria Zambaco, and Meo as the models for Phyllis and Demophoön (1870).—thought to be Richmond's elegy to Charlotte. Meo later assisted Richmond on murals, acted as his business manager in negotiations with clients, and for more than ten years led the team that executed Richmond's mosaics at St. Paul's Cathedral. Simeon Solomon, The Sleepers and One that Watcheth (watercolour, 1867), Leamington Spa Art Gallery, Warwickshire, UK Edward Burne-Jones, Phyllis and Demophoön (watercolour, 1870), Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham, UK Warrington Museum & Art Gallery, Warrington, UK Edward Burne-Jones, Dies Domine (watercolour, 1873–1874), unlocated. William Blake Richmond, The Watchers (1873–1876), Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City Hamo Thornycroft, The Mower (bronze, 1888–1890), Tate Britain, London William Blake Richmond, Venus and Anchises (1890), Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, UK Looking towards London from the Heath; Tooley's Farm; and Wyldes Farm are in the collection of the Camden Council.

Mosaics Choir and apse mosaics (1892–1904), St. Paul's Cathedral, London In the 1880s, Powell & Sons appears to have sent Meo to Italy to study the mosaics of Ravenna, Venice, Sicily and Rome. The following year Richmond received the design commission to create neo-Byzantine mosaic murals for the walls and ceiling of the cathedral's choir and apse. "Richmond chose to abandon the flat surface of mosaicists like Salviati, in favour of a more vibrant treatment, based on the use of jagged, irregular glass, set at angles to the plaster, so that it would catch the light." The commission was expanded in 1902 to include mosaics for the barrel-vaulted choir aisles and quarterdomes.

Executing the designs of architect Halsey Ricardo, Meo supervised creation of the large mosaic dome for the hall of Debenham House in London, 1912–1913.

Executing the designs of Scottish architect Robert Weir Schultz, Meo led the team in creating the mosaics for the Chapel of St. Andrew and the Saints of Scotland at Westminster Cathedral, 1913–1915.

Executing his own designs, Meo created mosaic panels for the Church of St. John the Baptist in Clayton, West Yorkshire, 1916–1918. Francesco Giovanni Luigi Meo (16 August 1872, Fulham, London – 21 January 1933, East Dulwich, London) Margarita Maria Agnes Meo (1876, Kensington, London – 6 March 1956, Eastbourne, London) May Gibson Craig would not consent to a divorce until 1932, after Craig and Elena Meo had permanently separated. Craig fathered other illegitimate children: a daughter with actress Jess Dorynne, a daughter with dancer Isadora Duncan, a son with poet Dorothy Nevile Lees, and a daughter with his secretary/translator Daphne Woodward. Alfonzo Giovanni Battista Meo (4 September 1890, Hampstead, London – 10 June 1916, Somme, France). Lieutenant Giovanni Meo died in World War I during the buildup to the Battle of the Somme. Taormina Bertha Meo (1891, Hampstead, London – 1959, Eastbourne, London) He dramatized portions of his manuscript for a 25 November 1994 broadcast on BBC Radio 3.

Helen Craig—great-granddaughter of Gaetano Meo, and daughter of Edward and Helen Godfrey Carrick—is the illustrator of the Angelina Ballerina children's stories. In 2018, she and mosaic artist Tessa Hunkin restored the Meo grave at Hampstead Cemetery.