The following information was provided by the artist unless otherwise noted.

One of New York's leading preservation architects, an activist and pioneer in the field of architectural preservation for over forty years, Giorgio Cavaglieri is also an accomplished painter of gouaches. Born in Venice in 1911 into a comfortable family, he originally wanted to be a painter. Circumstances determined that he train as an engineer and architect, graduating magna cum laude in 1932 from Milan Politecnico. He worked as an architect in Italy for a few years, served in the Italian Air Force, and had his own architectural office until 1938 when, as a result of Mussolini's laws stripping Italian Jews of citizenship, he became an Italian exile in the US. He briefly worked in Baltimore before serving in the US Army in the liberation campaign of Europe.

After the war Cavaglieri came to New York City where he became renowned for his transformation and adaptive re-use of old and historic buildings such as his conversion of the old Jefferson Market Courthouse into a library; his designing of the old Astor Library, at 425 Lafayette Street, into Joe Papp's Shakespeare Festival Public Theater; and the creation of the Delacorte Theater in Central Park.

Painting has always been an anchor to his original ambition and so, wherever he is, Cavaglieri always paints, hence the variety of the many images of the numerous places in the world he has known: Paris, Amsterdam, Prague, Berlin, Venice, New York, Beijing, and Mexico.

Cavaglieri is a past president of the New York Metro Chapter of the Victorian Society and past chairman of the Board of Trustees of the National Institute of Architectural Education. He was very active in the 1960s in the establishment of New York City Landmarks preservation law.

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