Rinaldo Cuneo was born in San Francisco on July 2, 1877,[1][note 1] part of an Italian American family of artists and musicians.

[2][3] The family lived on Telegraph Hill in San Francisco's Italian American neighborhood of North Beach.

[1][2] Cuneo enlisted in the Navy at age twenty, during the Spanish–American War, and served for three years aboard the Oregon as a gunner.

[9] From 1916 to 1917 Cuneo worked for a tugboat service while living in San Anselmo, painting maritime scenes in his spare time.

[2][4][9][10] Arthur Millier of the Los Angeles Times wrote that Cuneo's landscapes "breathe the essential strength and poetry of his region.

[1] Cuneo said that "a landscape should embrace volume, simplicity, unity, a good sense of color values, rhythm of line, and above all, light.

"[12] In 1934 Cuneo received a commission from the Public Works of Art Project to paint two lunette murals of Bay Area Hills in the foyer of Coit Tower.

[13][note 1] Although he had been a popular artist with many well-received exhibits throughout his life, Cuneo had found himself unable to successfully market his paintings due to the economic conditions created by the Great Depression.