Ernest Peixotto

Ernest Clifford Peixotto (1869–1940) was an American artist, illustrator, and author. Although he was known mainly for his murals and his travel literature, his artwork also regularly appeared in Scribner's Magazine. His 1916 work Our Hispanic Southwest is famous for including the first written appearance of the ethnic slur "spic" (although, in fact, it had previously appeared with a different spelling and pronunciation).

Biography

Born on October 15, 1869, in San Francisco, California, Peixotto was one of five children in a Sephardic Jewish family. He studied art at the Mark Hopkins Institute of Art with Emil Carlsen, who encouraged him to go to Paris. Taking his advice, Peixotto went to France in 1888 and studied at the Académie Julian under the tutelage of Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant, Henri Lucien Doucet and Jules Joseph Lefebvre. While in France, he visited the colony of the American Impressionists and befriended Theodore Robinson. He spent a total of six years in France, returning to San Francisco in 1894. The following year, he moved to New York City, and joined the staff of Scribner's Magazine.