There is scarcely a china painter who does not know the name of D.M. Campana for it has been one of the most prominent in the field for well over half a century.  Mr. Campana founded the Campana Art Company at the turn of the century with china painting materials as its specialty.  Has developed his own line of excellent china colors which he used in painting all his fine works and which are sold with his name exclusively.

            Marostca, Italy, a town near Venice, was his birthplace.  Working in nearby ceramic factories as a child, he learned to decorate pottery, a skill which brought him ready employment when, in his early twenties, he migrated to America—with ten dollars in his pocket.  In a few years, he had saved enough money to go back to Venice for training at the Academy di Belle Arti.

            His studies completed, he returned to the United States, immediately establishing a reputation as a china painter and teacher of the art in Chicago.  His own work was pictorial, in the manner of an oil painting on canvas.  Human figures and faces, sometimes painted on out-sized china forms ranging from plaques two feet in diameter to vases four feet high, were his favorite subjects.

            “…T is the strongest work of the kind yet established here,” commented the Chicago Tribune in 1901.  “It dwarfs pitifully… the other figure subjects…His brush are broad, his draughtsman ship excellent, and his color satisfying…”

            He won many medals and prizes for his most unusual approach in this medium.  His method of painting was to apply the basic colors to be used without detail and fire the piece at about 1400 F, then alternately to add more color and fire until he had the results he wanted.   Reds were left until the last so there would be no chance of diminishing the strength of the color through repeated firings.

            Mr. Campana died at the age of eighty-five in December, 1956.  His memory lives on in his many fine works and in the over fifty books which he wrote on art instruction in every field.  These books are found the world over and have helped many an aspiring artist to the road of success.  We, of the D.M. Campana Art Co., are pledged to carry on with the high quality standards which he so stressed in his lifetime.