Meeting Valentino Molina: Lifting the Veil on the Incredible Life of a Savannah Artist

Valentino Molina was born in Savannah, Georgia, in 1879. He was a talented and insecure young man whose life took a positive turn when his nude painting Cleopatra caught the attention of two elegant ladies who became his mentors. It then became a colorful roller coaster of events during the volatile late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Valentino became successful as a portraitist and lived in Canada, Spain, aristocratic London, Gay Paris, and southern France. He was affiliated with royalty, John Singer Sargent, Rudolph Valentino, and other rich and famous notables of the era. His paintings can be found in galleries in Canada, Spain, England, and in private collections here and abroad, as well as at the Telfair Museum in Savannah.

This is also the story of Molina's art, music, sexuality, the mystery of naked Cleopatras, and a home renovation that led to the discovery of his past as well as his surprising affiliation with the Gignilliat family of Savannah.