From the Alamo to Dallas’s Fair Park, Pompeo Coppini left his monuments across Texas.  Discover more about this amazing artist from Dr. Richard B. McCaslin at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 30, at the Allen Public Library.

Born in 1870, Pompeo Coppini grew up in Florence, Italy, where he studied at the Academia di Belle Arte. In 1896, he immigrated to the United States, arriving in New York with $40 in his pocket and no knowledge of English. Coppini found a modicum of success working as an apprentice to established French and American sculptors, but when the artist got wind of an opportunity in Texas, he packed his bags. 

Coppini arrived in San Antonio just after Thanksgiving in 1901. Dr. McCaslin declares, “a 32-year-old Italian immigrant named Pompeo Coppini arrived in Texas to make a single statue.  During the next fifty years, he completed more than two hundred works, dozens of which were public monuments that greatly influenced the way Texans viewed many different people and events in their past.”

Coppini later established studios in Chicago and New York, but he ultimately made San Antonio his permanent home, living there until his death in 1957. 

Former chair of the History Department at the University of North Texas, Dr. McCaslin is the author of “Pompeo Coppini: Defining the Historical Landscape in Texas,” which appeared in The Art of Texas: 250 Years, ed. Ron Tyler (Texas Christian University, 2019). This book won a Publication Award, Center for the Advancement and Study of Early Texas Art, and an Honorable Mention, Non-Fiction Category, Texas Philosophical Society. 

Can’t be there in person? The program will be streamed live on ACTV. Find viewing options at Watch ACTV or view online at  ACTV.org or YouTube.com/AllenCityTV

The library is located at 300 N. Allen Dr. Call 214-509-4911 for additional information