Mr. Cucaro was 88 when he died in San Rafael of pulmonary problems on Jan. 31.

He was a familiar figure on the bohemian San Francisco art scene in the 1940s and 1950s, showing and selling his paintings of clowns, seascapes, crowd scenes and other subjects, in North beach bars, bookstores and nightclubs such as the hungry i.

Sales of Mr. Cucaro's color-splashed pictures -- which included images of the Golden Gate Bridge, the Sausalito waterfront and his daughter, Angelique -- caught on, and were a staple for many years at the Cory galleries on Geary Street and at Fisherman's Wharf. He called his style of realism a blend of impressionism and expressionism, and it had a popular appeal.

Mr. Cucaro was born Pascal Cucaro in Youngstown, Ohio. After serving in the Army in World War II, he settled in San Francisco to attend the California School of Fine Arts, which later became the San Francisco Art Institute. He lived with his family for many years in Sausalito, where he became a familiar and popular character, carrying his pictures under his arm and selling them from place to place.

"He was the most interesting guy, always walking around Sausalito with a crazy hat on his head and telling great stories,'' said Fred Mayer, a retired Sausalito pharmacist and condom advocate whose Bridgeway Avenue store was part of the bustling Sausalito scene for years.

"I don't know much about art, but this guy did stuff that was different, and people bought it from all over the world,'' said Mayer, who owns more than 150 Cucaros, including paintings done on yardsticks and tin cans.

Mr. Cucaro's dealer, the late Edward J. Cory, made news in 1968 when a customer who was later confined to the state mental hospital at Napa bought a Cucaro painting of Angelique for $52,500. The state attorney general sued Cory for allegedly inflating the market for Cucaros by using "a mentally disturbed person's check,'' as The Chronicle characterized it, to bolster his claim that Mr. Cucaro was "the greatest artist in America, bar none.''

Mr. Cucaro also was known for his generosity, said Mayer, who recalls the artist drawing ducks and other pictures on chipped floors and walls in the pharmacy and elsewhere to brighten up the world.

Mr. Cucaro is survived by his wife, Maria, of Mill Valley and his daughter, Angelique, of Pacifica.

This article appeared on page B - 7 of the San Francisco Chronicle