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Fran Cervoni Brenes (August 1, 1913 – January 17, 2001) was a Puerto Rican painter, poet, professor and political activists from Guayama, Puerto Rico.

Early Years

Fran Cervoni Brenes (Francisco Cervoni Brenes) was born in the town of Guayama, Puerto Rico, on August 1, 1913 to political activist Fran Cervoni Gely (1889–1933) and Matilde Brenes Grau (1891–1916). When he has eight years old, his family moved to the town of Humacao, Puerto Rico. By that time his father enrolled Cervoni in a correspondence drawing course offered by an art school in Washington, DC. He carried out the tasks of the correspondence course for around two years.

In 1933 his father promised to Cervoni that he would study drawing and painting in Madrid, Spain. Unfortunately, his father, Francisco Cervoni Gely, died that same year, thus the hopes of Cervoni of studying in Europe were interrupted. After his father’s death, he moved to the town of Rio Piedras, located in San Juan, Puerto Rico, with his brothers and sisters, and his father’s second wife Carmen Viera Viera. While living in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Cervoni tried to win a scholarship to study art that was offered by the Government of Puerto Rico. In 1934 master painter Alejandro Sánchez Felipe arrived in San Juan, Puerto Rico, later becoming Cervoni’s first teacher.

Alejandro Sánchez Felipe encouraged him to study art in Spain. Under his tutelage, Cervoni learned about art history, the Old Masters, and the importance of preserving art across European museums. Determined to study art at Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Cervoni decided to study social work and applied for a job on the agricultural fields in the town of Caguas, Puerto Rico. After nine months, he had enough money to embark to Spain. Before leaving for Spain, Cervoni visited his friend Pedro Albizu Campos for guidance and blessing.

Academic Formation in Europe

From 1934 to 1936, Cervoni studied art at Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando. It was there that he had his first experience from the classical masters. While in Spain, Cervoni studied under the tutelage of Aurelio Arteta and Jose Garnelo. He was friends with famous Spanish painters Juan Alcade Alonso and Antonio Buero Vallejo. From his friendship with Victorio Macho, Cervoni acquired precious knowledge in the arts of sculpting. During those years, his friend Rafael Alberti was an inspiration to continue with his poetry. On a brief memoir written by Cervoni in 1992, he explained that Puerto Rican Nationalist Party leader, Lieutenant Carmelo Delgado Delgado, was his roommate during his time in Madrid. Cervoni wrote the following poem for Carmelo Delgado Delgado:

Spanish Version (original) Quiero hacer un poema corto, amarillo. Sorprendo una mariposa, La escribo.

English Version I want to make a short poem, yellow. I surprise a butterfly, I write it.

While vacationing in Puerto Rico in 1936, the Spanish Civil War (17 July 1936 - 1 April 1939) started and Cervoni was unable to return to Madrid. He was unable to recover any of the paintings during his last year at Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando. In 1937, Cervoni went to study at École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts (ENSBA) in Paris under the tutelage of Charles-François-Prosper Guérin. While in Paris, he also studied at Académie de la Grande Chaumière. By that time Cervoni lived at Collège d'Espagne, now part of Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris, where he met and lived with famous Spanish writer Pío Baroja y Nessi and Spanish painter José Gutiérrez Solana. He also had a friendship with André Malraux, with whom, together with Pío Baroja y Nessi, had philosophical debates about the Civil War.

In 1938, Cervoni went to study at Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze, in Florence, Italy, under the tutelage of Felice Carena. While studying in Italy, Cervoni was usually accompanied by Felix Bonilla Norat, renowned Puerto Rican painter, and by Puerto Rico’s most respected art historian, Osiris Delgado, with whom Cervoni kept a strong friendship. During his stay in Italy, Cervoni visited Rome, Pompeii, Venice and Milan, among others. In 1939, Cervoni left Italy and returned to France. He decided to stay in the town of Saint-Restitut in the south of France to focus his paintings on landscapes. When World War II started, he went back to Paris. He eventually was able to get to Le Verdon-sur-Mer, France, and left Europe for the last time aboard the SS Manhattan on October 15, 1939.

Professional Career in Mexico

Cervoni arrived in Mexico City in 1940 looking to learn from masters such as Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros. He became one of the first Puerto Rican painters that moved to Mexico to study art, preceding his future friends and colleagues Rafael Tufiño and Antonio “Tony” Maldonado. For three years Cervoni studied at Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas de San Carlos, now Academia San Carlos. Cervoni also studied muralism under the tutelage of Diego Rivera. For a while he worked as a book illustrator and in-house artist for the publishing house Editorial Orion.

While in Mexico, Cervoni won the Chair of Perspective Studies at Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas de San Carlos becoming one of its permanent professors. He was also offered the Chair of Perspective Studies on Interior Design at Universidad Femenina de Mexico. Cervoni opened his own studio where he restored paintings, painted portraits, and offered courses on drawing and painting. On his spare time Cervoni became acquaintance with Spanish philosopher José Gaos. At the Architect Faculty of Academia San Carlos, Cervoni met master architect Francisco Centeno and both exchange courses with one another in the art of perspective.

In the 1940s Rafael Hernandez, Puerto Rico’s most respected composer, was living in Mexico. Rafael Hernandez asked Cervoni to compose an operetta, which was later title “Alma Criolla”, written by Cervoni with music of Hernandez. Cervoni became good friend with Mexican modernist poet Carlos Pellicer and anti-facist Spanish poet León Felipe Camino Galicia. While in Mexico, he got married and had two sons. Mexico became Cervoni’s second home and the compass that would dictate the rest of his life.

Return to Puerto Rico

In 1947 Cervoni received an invitation from the Higher Education Council at the University of Puerto Rico to become the in-house artist and to teach both arts and humanities courses. In 1948 Pedro Albizu Campos was invited as a guest speaker at the Río Piedras Campus of the University of Puerto Rico. The chancellor of the university, Jaime Benítez, did not permit Albizu access to the campus and the students went on strike. Cervoni’s friendship with Pedro Albizu Campos, and his support to the student strike, resulted in his destitution as in-house artist and professor at the Humanities Department.

In 1948 Cervoni painted FLOTARÁ AUNQUE SE OPONGA EL VIENTO (It will float even against the wind) “like a shout of rebellion in the colonialist peace that Puerto Rico lived.” His friend Juan Antonio Corretjer wrote:

“Upon returning to Puerto Rico, after a prolonged absence in Europe and Mexico, Cervoni, still in the prime of his youth, initiated a series of canvases that is already a complete cycle of patriotic painting. Fortunately for Puerto Rico, the cycle does not close yet; Cervoni is in full control of himself and his art, and the mine of his cava is as deep as it is rich. This wonderful series of canvases starts with FLOTARÁ ALTHOUGH THE WIND IS OPPOSED, and culminates now in that other unique painting in Puerto Rican painting, in which, with Jayuya's combat as inspiration, it is again the flag the star in the canvas. I make an aside for a tiny Cervoni’s painting. It is titled: "Albizu Campos returns to Atlanta", and is one of the best of all Puerto Rican paintings.”

Cervoni’s ties with the pro-independence movements in Puerto Rico resulted in multiple attempts against his art and person. His studio was burned by the opposition and many paintings were lost. In 1959 Cervoni became a founding member of Movimiento Pro-Independencia (MPI) with other respected intellectuals and artist such as René Marqués, Emilio Díaz Valcárcel, José Luis González, Pedro Juan Soto, José Torres Martinó, Tony Maldonado, Lorenzo Homar, and Rafael Tufiño, among others. On April 19, 1967 the offices of Movimiento Pro-Independencia where burned by the opposition, and Cervoni’s original MASACRE DE PONCE painting was lost.

In the early 60s Cervoni, among other artists, met at the Puerto Rican Athenaeum, Ateneo Puertorriqueño in Spanish, to create the Association Pro School of Visual Arts, Asociación Pro Escuela de Artes Plásticas in Spanish. Its mission was to request from the Government of Puerto Rico a location to create a visual arts school. All requests were denied. In 1966 the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture accepted the idea, and founded the Escuela de Artes Plásticas y Diseño de Puerto Rico. Since 1966 until 1989, Cervoni was an active member of the school, teaching the arts of perspective among other courses.

In 1992, Cervoni organized his only solo exhibition at the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture. The exhibition was composed on 162 paintings dating from 1937 until 1992. Cervoni also exhibited 48 drawings and sketches from his time as a student in Europe and Mexico. About such drawings and sketches, Cervoni stated the following: “In this collection I expose some works of my student period, aware that they are weak valuable works, but that they constitute the formative part of my learning and my plastic experience.”

Cervoni kept his art studio and school opened in Santurce, Puerto Rico, from 1948 until the mid 1990s. He died on January 17, 2001 at the Ashford Presbyterian Community Hospital.