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Dean Cornwell (1892 - 1960)
Size:
Height – 41cm x Width – 30.5cm
The State Capitol, Jefferson City, USA was started in 1915 and
completed in 1925. The scheme consisted of four pendentives each 731.5
cm high (24 ft), 146.3 cm (48ft) wide at the top and 457 cm (15ft) wide
at the base; additionally there were 8 lower dome panels approximately
487 x 853 cm (16 x 28 ft).
Dean Cornwell, one of the most successful American illustrators of
the first half of the Twentieth Century worked as Brangwyn’s assistant
from 1926-1930. Dr Libby Horner has suggested that Cornwell – who
frequently outlined his own designs in blue – produced this sketch of
the recently finished State Capitol murals to demonstrate his
skill
to Brangwyn whom he hoped would employ him as a studio assistant. His
desire to work as Brangywn’s assistant at this point
was to benefit from Brangwyn’s experience as one of the most successful
living muralists: Cornwell was shortly to start work on his own project,
a commission for the Rotonda of the Los Angeles Public Library,
1927-32.
Provenance: Private collection, America
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Dean Cornwell, an American illustrator, worked as an assistant to Frank Brangwyn between 1926 and 1930, helping with the Skinner Murals (second series) and the British Empire panels. He was a close friend and travelling companion of Helck who advised Cornwell to study with Brangwyn in preparation for his mural project the rotunda of the Los Angeles Public Library (1927-32). For over three decades, Dean Cornwell was recognized as the “Dean of
Illustrators”, and was a celebrated and well-known name during his
lifetime. He was widely regarded as an instructor and idolized by a
generation of illustrators, lecturing at the Art Students League and at
art museums and societies throughout the United States during the
“Golden Age of Illustration”. His paintings were exhibited at the
Whitney Museum of American Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art,
the Chicago Art Institute, the Pratt Institute, the Art Center of New
York City, and the National Academy of Design. Between 1914 and the
late 1950’s he produced over 1000 illustrations for poems, stories, and
novels. Between 1920 and the mid-1950’s, his illustrations appeared in
magazines and posters as advertising for hundreds of products, such as
Palmolive Soap, Coca-Cola, Goodyear tired, and Seagrams Whiskey. In
addition to his career as an illustrator, between 1930 and 1960,
Cornwell was one of America’s most popular muralists. His historic
murals decorate over 20 public buildings across the United States.
Cornwell was an illustrator who tried to find a meaningful role in a
world constantly changing with technology. His greatest inspirations
were Howard Pyle, N.C. Wyeth, Edwin A. Abbey, and Harvey Dunn. Despite
Cornwell’s prolific and well-regarded work, today he is much less well
known than during his lifetime.