Marco Sassone (Italian American, b. 1942) expressionist oil on canvas painting of Venice. Signed by the artist upper right. Framed. Marco Sassone moved to Florence in 1954, where his interest in painting began. He studied architectural drafting at the Istituto Galileo Galilei, and sold his first works, watercolor sketches, to tourists.Sassone studied with painter Silvio Loffredo, who had been a pupil of the Austrian artist Oskar Kokoschka. These artists formed Sassone's early influences. In November 1967, after the destructive flood that had devastated Florence, Sassone traveled to the United States where he settled in California.