Nicholas Volpe

Nicholas A. Volpe (19111992) was an American artist, noted for his portraits of Hollywood celebrities, presidents, sports figures, and other famous personalities. He is said to have painted more movie stars than any other artist in America.

Early years Volpe was born in New Haven, Connecticut, to an Italian immigrant family. He began his primary education there and became especially talented as a young violinist. His parents sent him to Italy to continue his violin studies, assuming he might take it up as a profession. He grew homesick for his home in the U.S. however, and soon returned to New Haven to finish his high school education.

After Volpe graduated high school, where he had also played football, he was accepted at Syracuse University on a football scholarship. Rather than major in music, he gravitated towards art as he discovered his natural talents as an artist. Upon graduation he was offered a professorship at the university to teach art. He turned down the offer, deciding that he needed more time to develop his artistic skills more fully. He subsequently entered an art contest with thousands of other contestants and was one of six who won the coveted Tiffany Foundation Art Scholarship Award.

Beside his annual Academy Awards paintings, Vople painted commissions such as Frank Sinatra's album Only the Lonely in 1958. This earned him a Grammy Award for Best Album Cover.

During Volpe's career, he would paint Sinatra 24 times, more than any other celebrity, including a full-size painting now displayed at the Friars Club of Beverly Hills.

With his fame as an artist increasing, in 1964, he was commissioned by The Beatles to paint portraits of each of the four members of the group during their first American tour. He was also commissioned to do a portrait of Johnny Cash for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

After winning a Grammy he was also commissioned by Hollywood's famed Brown Derby restaurant to paint portraits of up to 200 top recording artists to be displayed in the restaurant's Hall of Fame Record Room. His Oscar paintings were displayed in the restaurant's "Academy Room," created for showing Volpe's art. Along with stars and sports figures, he painted portraits of leading political figures, including John F. Kennedy, Winston Churchill, Dwight D. Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan. He traveled to Israel to paint its first Prime Minister, David Ben Gurion.