Nicholas Volpe

[Excerpted from the portfolio packaging:]

Connecticut-born Nicholas Volpe, distinguished artist, is a graduate of Syracuse University. Volpe was head of art faculty at Jacksonville College, Florida, before coming to Hollywood where he designed many motion pictures and did scores of portraits of civic leaders and leading film figures. He has a lifetime contract to do portraits each year of the actor and actress awarded the ACADEMY OF MOTION PICTURE ARTS AND SCIENCES “OSCAR” for best performance. He is a golden “Grammy” winner for his cover design of the Frank Sinatra record album, “Only the Lonely.” Volpe’s popular panel feature, “BYWAYS,” appears in the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner. Plans for syndication are in the offing.

[Excerpted from elsewhere in the packaging:]

A number of years ago the prominent artist, Nicholas Volpe, embarked on a venture of recording, through portraiture, the stars who had received the ACADEMY AWARD since the ACADEMY AWARDS were conceived in 1927. And so he began to haunt the picture morgues of the Hollywood studios, for many of the recipients had passed on. He searched private collections, film libraries, old magazines for any bit of information that would help him in rendering the studies. The very first winner, Emil Jannings, who won the award in 1928 for “The Way of All Flesh,” was hardly an auspicious start for Volpe, for nowhere could he find any satisfactory material on what Mr. Jannings looked like as he grew old in the film. In desperation Volpe looked up Ern Westmore, the make-up artist who actually made up Emil Jannings, and from Westmore’s verbal description of the make-up, the portrait was accomplished.

In the artist’s mind the theme was now set as to how to interpret the whole project—whenever an actor or actress altered their identity in characterization, Volpe decided to draw a double portrait—as the players really looked and as they appeared in characterization. Then notice how in the single studies the theme of the characterization is handled—a kind of smile, a kind of frown, a quality in the eyes, the set of the head, a suggestion of costume . . . All contribute to the end result: the only complete collection of portraits in charcoal of the actor and actress presenting the best performance each year since 1928, and who received the coveted ACADEMY AWARD golden statuette—“OSCAR.”

[Webmaster’s additional notes:]

Emil Jannings was nominated not only for his performance in “The Way of all Flesh” but also for his performance in “The Last Command.” In 1927-28, the rules allowed nomination for multiple roles. Similarly, Janet Gaynor is depicted by Volpe in only her role from “Seventh Heaven.” She also received the award for her performances in “Street Angel” and “Sunrise.”

By the way, the elusive image of Emil Jannings as an old man in “The Way of All Flesh” can be seen on this website by going to Gallery » Best Actor Portraits.

Nicholas Volpe, who was born in Connecticut on May 21, 1911, died in Oceanside, California, on February 11, 1992.