Chicago-born Anthony Angarola celebrated his native Midwest in his art, especially the ethnic neighborhoods. The son of Italian immigrants, it took him nine years to put himself through the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Then he became a teacher himself. Art historian Susan S. Weininger writes that he loved to paint out of doors and often would take his classes to favorite spots. He enjoyed finding simple shapes in urban scenes such as Bench Lizards. Just after returning from Italy on a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1929, Angarola died, at age 36, from a car accident.
