Vitty A. Mattus: ARTIST VITTY A. MATTUS (1914

''Tornado', (1939). Vitty A. Mattus, Oil on board. Private collection.

'Palollo Valley, Oahu' 1943, Vitty A. Mattus. Watercolor on paper. Private collection

VITTY A. MATTUS (February 6, 1914 – June 2, 2014) was an American Regionalist painter and commercial illustrator. best known as a landscape artist, he was an exceptional figurative painter and produced an exceptional body of mid twentieth century compositions.

Born an immigrant Lithuanian family in Worcester, Massachusetts, Mattus’ father was a manager at American Steel & Wire Company. He studied at the Worcester Art Museum under Umberto Romano and later, under American Muralist Leon Kroll in the late 1930’s.

He apprenticed under Kroll, who had exhibited in the 1913 Armory Show, with his installation of ‘THE WAR MEMORIAL MURALS’ at the Worcester (MA) Municipal Auditorium (1938 - 1939).

His early work ) between 1935 and 1940 consisted of regional watercolors documenting life in New England during the period. His painting ‘Tornado’ (1939), was awarded the Gold Medal by the Grumbacher Company, and toured many museums as part of a WPA (Works Progress Administration) exhibit in 1940 -1941.

Mattus’ painted numerous watercolors while stationed in the Hawaiian Islands during WWII. They remain his most notable work, as they document rural life in Hawaii before tourism changed the landscape (1941 - 1945).

In addition to his own work, Mattus taught painting and portraiture, and worked later as an illustrator and staff artist for the Worcester Telegram & Gazette ( Newspaper). Mattus died in Worcester, Massachusetts in 2014 at age 100.