Throwback Thursday Remembers Robert De Niro Sr.

Well, a De Niro recently made some small waves by making gay hearts, and straight ladies' hearts, get all a-flutter. And no, it wasn't the rough-hewn magnetism of the über-famous actor Robert De Niro Jr, but rather it was his gay father, Robert De Niro Sr., a painter who died in 1993, who has made the internet stand up and take notice of some early pics of him.

These pics of both Roberts, taken when Robert Jr. was just a lad in 1946, show a tousle-haired Robert Sr. in his kitchen with his son, and people are smitten by his model-handsome features, and taken by the haunted look in his eyes. Like his son will become decades later, he knows how to work that camera!

They love him so much that a few years ago, when the pics first made the rounds and a poll was set up asking "Who's hotter, Robert De Niro or Al Pacino?" One comment had this to say:

The correct answer is Robert DeNiro’s dad pic.twitter.com/n1dzEDMhjw

— It’s me, Morticia🖤🕷 (@doll_furious) May 14, 2023

Robert Sr. was born in 1922 in Syracuse, NY, to an Irish-American mother and an Italian father whose parents emigrated from Farrazzno, Italy in 1887. He would go on to study art under the Bauhaus master Joseph Albers at Black Mountain College, but would soon leave, finding the strict, analytical style not to his more improvisational and instinctive style. He'd pick up schooling with Hans Hofmann at his Provincetown, MA, summer school. Hofmann's teaching on Abstract Expressionism and Cubist formalism was more akin to De Niro's leanings as an artist, and helped him cement his tastes and personal style.

As noted on his Wikipedia page, "critics praised DeNiro's compositions filled with improvised areas of vibrant color that gave way to loosely painted still lifes and curvaceous nudes."

Robert Sr. met fellow artist Virginia Admiral at Hofman's school, whom he married in 1942. The couple moved into an apartment in Greenwich Village, which became a center of the arts in a manner, as they befriended and hosted such luminaries as Anaïs Nin and Henry Miller, playwright Tennessee Williams, and the actress and famous Berlin dancer Valeska Gert. Robert Jr. was born in 1943, and the couple split soon after, when Robert Sr. came out as gay and started a relationship in 1944 with the poet Robert Duncan.

He would go on to not a small amount of success in the art world, if not exactly gaining the mainstream name recognition and success as some of his contemporaries like Jackson Pollock. He would receive awards and backing from Peggy Guggenheim's museum and foundation, would travel the world teaching and painting, and would eventually return to America, teaching in various institutions. His work belongs in private and museum collections across the country and internationally.

In 2014, Robert Sr. was the subject of a short documentary, Remembering the Artist, from HBO Films and his more famous son. Said Robert Jr.: "The thought of what he's done, all his work, I can't not but make sure that it's held up and remembered... So I just want to see him get his due. That's my responsibility, and he used to always say that artists are always recognized after they're long gone."

Robert Sr. died of cancer on the morning of May 3, 1993 (his 71st birthday), at his Manhattan home. He is interred at Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York. Through the Robert De Niro Sr Prize, a $25,000 gift created by his son through his Tribeca Film Institute and his remaining work, and the internet, of course, his name and fame, though never as recognizable as he had hoped, will continue to visually delight.

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