Kenyon Cox
(1856 - 1919)
"Kenyon Cox, a leading academician and mural painter at the turn of the century. From Warren, Ohio, Cox studied in Paris with Carolus-Duran in 1877 and with Jean-Leon Gerome from about 1875 to 1882. It was Gerome's solid modeling and sharp, precise linearism that later dominated Cox's art. His chief interest was in beautifully rendered, academically correct figural compositions centered on the female nude and inspired by the popularity of such subjects at the Paris salons. Good examples of such work are An Eclogue (1890, NCFA) and A Blond (1891, NAD). The American public found the sensual qualities of such works disturbing, and Cox, receiving little appreciation, turned to magazine illustration for a living. As a result of the new impetus given to American mural painting by the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, Cox was eventually able to apply his methods to the creation of monumental allegorical murals. For such works, Cox chose the relatively flat and decorative style of mural painting associated with the French artist Pierre Puvis de Chavannes and he, too, preferred simplified contours, light tonality, and the generalized rendering of classically derived figures. Cox was a constant defender of traditional values in painting. His views were expressed in many magazine articles and, expecially, in his books: Old Masters and New (1905); The Classic Point of View (1911); Artist and Public (1914); Concerning Painting (1917)." DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN ART; Matthew Baigell, Harper and Row.