Covelli - Vito

Covelli, Vito (1882-1958)

In 1882 Vito Covelli was born in southern Italy in the city of Bari. He attended public schools and night school studying electricity and electrical chemistry. He began his study of art under Ugenti in 1890. He came to the United States in 1903. In New York City in 1905, he studied art under Kenyon Cox. Covelli became a well known landscape painter, and his paintings were exhibited in New York City from 1910-1915. In 1913 he married the former opera star, Claire Felice de Guine, and in 1926 the couple moved to “heavily wooded land” on West Hill Road in Barkhamsted, Connecticut. There they lived simply, without electricity or an automobile. Vito painted while Claire composed music and wrote poetry. The Covellis called their place a “National Rural Art Museum,” and when visitors stopped by, the two would show them the hundreds of paintings in their home. In 1937 Covelli joined the WPA Federal Arts Project and painted for the art project until spring 1941. He completed 125 oil paintings of the nearby landscape. His art was allocated throughout the state to such institutions as public schools, state sanatoria, mental health hospitals, schools for the developmentally challenged, the Soldiers’ Home in Rocky Hill, and Fort Wright on Fishers Island in the Long Island Sound. In 1958 Vito Covelli died. He was predeceased by his wife in 1955. The family continues to live at his residence on West Hill Road and has retained many of Covelli’s paintings.

Sources: WPA Artist’s Work Card; WPA Biography; AskART; Ernest N. Dickinson, “The Secret of Happiness is Richly Theirs,” Hartford Courant Magazine, October 19, 1952; Claire F. Covelli’s obituary,Hartford Courant, January 21, 1955; Obituaries: January 25, 1958,Hartford Courant, January 35, 1958, Waterbury American, January 25, 1958, Litchfield Enquirer, January 30, 1958, Torrington Register, January 25, 1958; “Barkhamsted,” Hartford Courant, January 26, 1958.

Works of Art Listed in CT Archives’ database from Vito Covelli:

Covelli, Vito