Alessandro Mastro-Valerio, "Two Nudes, image 9 7/8 in x 9 1/2 in sheet 20 1/2 i x 20 1/2 in, archivally matted and framed. Mastro-Valerio was born in Italy in 1887. He studied at Sallvator Rosa Art Institute. In 1913 he moved to Chicago. After establishing himself as a commercial artist, he opened a portrait studio painting portraits of the elite in the Chicago area. He was a highly regarded painter and watercolorist prior to the start of his printmaking career in 1930 . Although best known for his mezzotints, which won him many awards, he worked in drypoint, etching, aquatint, wood engraving among other forms of print making. In 1949 he won the Cannon prize from the National Academy of Design forone of his abstract aquatints. During the twenty-two years that he produced prints, the primary source for his inspiration was the female nude. His two departures were from 1931-1933 when he produced landscapes and from 1950-1952 when he produced a body of abstract images. This print comes from this 1950 to 1952 abstract era.