Joseph Raffael

American artist who describes his style as contemporary realism and who takes his inspiration from the natural world. The youngest of three children and the only boy, he contracted meningitis in 1940, age 7 and was often ill as a child. His father was not availabe to him and his mother died when he was 14, in 1947. In school he loved drawing and his art provided an escape from his lonely life. He attended the School of Art at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Art and Science in Manhattan and earned his BFA from Yale University as well as a Fullbright Fellowship to study in Florence, Italy. Illness and sadness followed. In 1963 he contracted a serious case of hepatitis and in 1964, his father died. His work "Padre Morto" was inspired from his experiences. He became fascinated wit Gurdjieff, Krishnamurti an Jung an married Judy Davis in 1968, an artist who shared his interest in their philosophic and spiritual ideas. He adopted her two sons and in October 1969 they welcomed their daughter who was born in California to which they had moved from New York. The couple separated in April 1980; one month later, their son Matthew died. He began living with May-Lannis and her three children in 1984. Two years later, January 5, 1986, they married. With many exhibits and awards to his name, a collection of his work was released in book form in 1998: "Reflections of Nature: Paintings by Joseph Raffael" amassed by Donald Kuspit and Amei Wallach. Link to Wikipedia biography