Cosmo deSalvo showed interest in art, at a very young age. An old photo shows him at an easel, drawing about age 9. By the time he was 16, he was working as an 'errand boy' and apprentice for a local artist.
He attended school at the NY Evening High School for Men in New York City in 1913 and the NY Evening School of Industrial Art 1915-1918, also in New York City. He studied architectural drawing, cast drawing, life, composition and painting. He attended the Atelier Corbert Gugler in NY, and went on to apprentice with James Wall Finn, muralist for Stanford White, for five years.
He opened a studio on East 57th Street in NY in 1922, and worked with many well know artists over the years including Ezra Winter, Bill Arbieter, John Veggezzi, Ed LaCosta, Alexander Bonano, Alden Twachtman, Joseph Rossi, J. Serra and Paul Chafin.
During the Depression he was known as "The Artist of 57th Street. He did commissions for French and Company, from 1922 until his "retirement" in 1967.
Beginning his career as a muralist, he decorated many well know buildings, both public and private. Some of the most recognized works are the ceiling in the Basildon room at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in NY, the Balloon room at the Hotel Carlyle in NY, and murals for the Chrysler Corp and the Engineering Building in Detroit.
He assisted Ezra Winter, working with a staff of European artists, on the Cunard Building main floor ceiling, and also murals at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY, the Philippine Embassy in Washington DC, three murals at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre in NY, and the Rockefeller Music Hall in NY.
He decorated the private residences of prominent persons including Walter P. Chrysler, John Jacob Astor, Gladys Swarthout, Byron Foy, Merriweather Post, Mrs. Annenburg, Grace Moore, and Ambassador Bliss.
Restorations of "Old Masters" paintings was also a big part of his career. He restored the carton for Raphael's Transfiguration. He did many restorations through Bobby and Cathy Gregory's "Old Master Painting Preservers, such as paintings of El Greco, Raphael Sanzio, Peter Paul Rubens, Rembrandt, Memling, Da Vinci, etc. Paintings restored by Mr. deSalvo now hang in the Metropolitan Museum, National Gallery, and in many other leading museums and private collections.
Mr. deSalvo spent his life in New York City and Long Island. He married Claire Muhlinghaus, and had two children. He enjoyed surf fishing, and gardening, and never really retired until he was in his 80's. He enjoyed life and the beauty in it!
