Alfonso Toran, Flamingoes, oil on Masonite,10 by 8 inches. Signed lower right.
A painter, decorator, designer, lecturer, writer, and teacher, Alfonso Toran received awards for his work in Italy, France, and the United States. Born in Naples, Italy, Toran came to this country in 1914. He served with the United States Army in France during World War I, returning home with a French war bride to Waltham, Massachusetts, where he began painting miniatures on watches and clocks for the Waltham Watch Company.
Alfonso Toran, Fishes, oil on board, 15 7/8 by 19 7/8 inches. Signed lower right.
Moving to New York City, Toran was director of the Creative Studios of Art & Decoration, painting murals for the hotel’s Delmonico, Pierre, New Yorker, and Waldorf-Astoria, the Texaco, and Chrysler Buildings, and for private homes including Elizabeth Arden’s, the Guggenheim’s, and the Vanderbilt home on Park Avenue. At the Waldorf, Toran paintings were exhibited by the Johnson Jewel Company.
Alfonso Toran, Cockatoo, oil on Masonite, 10 by 8 inches. Sighed lower right.
Toran began coming to Hollywood for the winter season in 1950. Here Toran concentrated on miniature paintings, exhibiting more than 100, twice annually in New York’s Greenwich Village. The art editor of the Fort Lauderdale News, March 3, 1963, commented on Toran’s exhibit of flower, fruit, and bird paintings at the Messina Gallery in March, “The small canvasses by Toran are gems. Not unlike Salvador Dali in technique and draftsmanship, they depict perhaps hackneyed subjects such as flower vases, Chinese figurines…but the rendition and execution of these subjects is something to behold. Minute detail such as in the Toran series on astrological symbols. These paintings reveal an amazing feat of painting, requiring patience and determination.”
Listed in Who’s Who in American Art, Toran was a charter member of the Hollywood Arts and Crafts Guild. Tragically he was killed by a car while crossing Hollywood Blvd. on April 7, 1965. In January 1968 a commemorative exhibit of Toran’s work, 1898-1965, was held at the Hollywood Art Museum.
Alfonso Toran, oil on board, 10 by 7 by inches.
Born: Naples, Italy. Died: April 7, 1965, Hollywood, Florida. Education: In Italy, Institute of Arts; University of Florence. Membership: Hollywood Arts and Crafts Guild; Florida Federation of Art. Exhibits: Washington Square Outdoor Art Exhibit, Greenwich Village, October 1952; Hollywood Arts and Crafts Guild, exhibit in local stores, November 1952; Hollywood Arts and Crafts Guild at Black Forrest Theater Restaurant, Hallandale, January 1953, small still-lifes; Hollywood Arts and Crafts Guild, Hollywood Beach Hotel Country Club, February 1954, The Chinese Red Vase and The Chinese Horse; Hollywood Arts and Crafts Guild, 4th Annual, March 1955, Hollywood Recreation Building 218, North Federal Highway, first prize, still life, Goddess of the Peony; Florida Federation of Art annual convention and exhibit, Miami Beach, November 1955; Hollywood Arts and Crafts Guild, at Hollywood Federal Savings and Loan, March 1959, third prize, Flowers; Messina Gallery, NE Ninth St. Fort Lauderdale, March 1963, thirty flower, fruit, bird and landscape paintings; Commemorative exhibit, 1898 -1965, Hollywood Art Museum, January 1968. Directory: Listed in the Hollywood City Directory, 1953, 1957-58, 1960, as an artist with a studio at 1608 Washington.
