Sante Graziani Sites

The oil-on-canvas mural "Joseph DeFord and His Friends Building the First Cabin" was painted with federal Treasury Section of Fine Arts funds. The work was installed in the lobby of Bluffton's historic post office building in 1941.

"Titled 'Lover's Leap,' the mural was painted in 1942 by Graziani. It portrays an early gathering that was held to raise funds for the city's swinging bridge. Graziani was influenced by American artists Thomas Hart Benton, Grant Wood and John Steuart Curry. He once said the three artists were the Holy Trinity of art while he was in school. Kathleen Almelien, art teacher at Columbus Community High School, said the work is a classic example of the type of mural painting popular in the United States in the 1930s and '40s. Many of the artists were funded through related initiatives of the...