In the dim light of dawn on October 1, 331 BC, as the rosy fingers of Eos graced the horizon, I, Alexander of Macedon, stood perched atop a gentle rise. There laid before me the vast plain of Gaugamela, a chessboard set for a battle that would seal the fate of empires. This is my

Cornwell nació en Louisville, Kentucky. Su padre, Charles L. Cornwell, era un ingeniero civil cuyos dibujos de temas industriales fascinaron a Cornwell cuando era un niño. Comenzó su carrera profesional como dibujante del Louisville Herald. Poco después se mudó a Chicago, donde estudió en el Art Institute y trabajó para el Chicago Tribune. En 1915 se trasladó a New Rochelle, Nueva York, una colonia bien conocida del artista, y estudió en New York City con Harvey Dunn en la Liga de los Estudiantes de Arte de Nueva York. Eventualmente viajó a Londres para estudiar pintura mural como aprendiz de Frank Brangwyn. Las pinturas de Cornwell se publicaban en las revistas Cosmopolitan, Harper's Bazaar, Redbook y Good Housekeeping, ilustrando el trabajo de autores como Pearl S. Buck, Lloyd Douglas, Edna Ferber, Ernest Hemingway, W. Somerset Maugham y Owen Wister. Pintó murales para la biblioteca pública de Los Ángeles, el monumento conmemorativo de Lincoln en Redlands, California, el edificio de Eastern Airlines (ahora 10 Rockefeller Plaza), ejecutado murales del proyecto federal del arte en dos oficinas de correos, Chapel Hill, Carolina del Norte y Morganton, Carolina del Norte , Con otros murales en el Hotel Warwick New York en la ciudad de Nueva York, el edificio de la sede de New England Telephone en Boston, el palacio de justicia del condado de Davidson y el edificio de la oficina estatal Sevier en Tennessee y el Centro William Rappard en Ginebra, Suiza. Su mural para la Biblioteca Pública de Los Ángeles fue una representación de la historia de California. Cornwell enseñó y dio clases en la Art Students League de Nueva York. Fue presidente de la Sociedad de Ilustradores de 1922 a 1926, y fue incorporado a su Salón de la Fama en 1959. En 1934, fue elegido para la Academia Nacional de Diseño como académico asociado, y se convirtió en académico de pleno derecho en 1940. Fue presidente de la Sociedad Nacional de Pintores Mural de 1953 a 1957. Murió en la ciudad de Nueva York. Fuentes: http://www.americanartarchives.com/cornwell.htm https://americangallery20th.wordpress.com/2015/11/07/dean-cornwell-1892-1960-4/ https://es.pinterest.com/numanblue/art-dean-cornwell/ http://www.illustratedgallery.com/artwork/for-sale/artist/dean-cornwell/opt;orderdate http://www.childsgallery.com/artist/1398 http://www.the-athenaeum.org/art/list.php?m=a&s=tu&aid=3567 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_Cornwell Nota: La propiedad intelectual de las imágenes que aparecen en este blog corresponde a sus autores y a quienes éstos las hayan cedido. El único objetivo de este sitio es divulgar el conocimiento de estos pintores, a los que admiro, y que otras personas disfruten contemplando sus obras.

Thomas Eakins painted portraits and sporting scenes with resolute Realism that renounced idealized and romantic depictions.

George Caleb Bingham (1811-1879) was an American artist who depicted frontier life. Although not technically as skilled as many other American painters, Bingham's work remains a valuable documentation of American history as well as being perfectly suited to its subjects. His was a truly American (as opposed to Euro-American) art. The question remains as to whether Bingham's paintings were true-to-life reportage of the American frontier, or whether they were mythologized depictions. More internet resources on Bingham are here, here, and here. Captured by Indians (1848) Daniel Boone Escorting Settlers through Cumberland Gap (1851-52) [more about this painting] [still more (scroll down to "Figure 9")] Family Life on the Frontier (1845) Fishing on the Mississippi (1851-52) Jolly Flatboatmen in Port (1857) Martial Law (or General Order No. 11) (1868) [what was General Order No. 11? find out here] [more about this painting] Raftsmen Playing Cards (1847) Stump Speaking (1853-54) [article about this painting] The County Election (1852) [article about this painting] The Dull Story (1843) The Squatters (1850) The Verdict of the People (1854-55) Washington Crossing the Delaware (1856-71) It's interesting to compare Bingham's depiction of Washingon crossing the Delaware with Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze's more famous (and dramatic) version.

The pool of Bethesda, located in Jerusalem, is the name of a cistern that was also said to have healing powers.

DEAN CORNWELL (illustration jedi 1892-1960) was a master draftsman & painter. If I had only one word to describe him it would be "Volume" -- volume in the amount of work he produced in his prolific career, volume in the amount of paint he applied, but mostly volume in the way he rendered his subject; he gave everything mass and solidity. You know there's integrity underneath his paintings, built not just upon the understanding of space and three dimensional structure, but the implementation of it.... Having an awesome facility for drawing and then studying under Harvey Dunn (another gusto illustrator of the "Golden Age") he knew how to build character into his figures from the ground up. Take a look at these Captain Blood scenes above; Where there's a hand clinched into a fist, he doesn't always delineate all five digits -- doesn't have to, he just lays in the planes of the fist and leaves it at that. It reads as a manly fist with a sculptural quality (which certainly serves as a better use of brush strokes, portraying a rough and gnarly pirate!) He was also hugely adept at composition (sampled here by his association with British illustrator, painter & muralist, Frank Brangwyn) who adapted an organic oriental-influenced approach to all facets of design, including textiles and furniture. Cornwell obviously picked up the torch and ran with it, but to more of a precise end... He often would take a mundane area of information (such as the captain's shirt sleeves pictured above) and apply much more design to it than the average artist ever would. Where most would either simplify or literally "follow the camera", Cornwell would boil down the folds into their base geometric patterns, then create more depth, volume and interest by rendering the planes of each individual fold (but without excessive detailing). He capitalized on these areas based upon a simple 3-value scale; dark accents, high-light & half-tone shadows with a very effective use of reflective light to increase the depth -- I just don't know how he ever found the time to do it all... Examining his creases and folds, you can often find the resemblance of letters of the alphabet (as stated in Jack Hamm's book on Drawing the Head & Figure) Y, X, S, U, V, and even P & R where one fold passes underneath another, are woven into an orderly context. I know I may be getting a little anal here for some of you, but the attention to each of the individual components of his pictures are what makes his works so superior. When considering his output over a 40+ year career, it's clear Dean Cornwell was an indefatigable craftsman. Biographies describe him working 7 days a week, even sketching to relax in his spare time, often at the end of a busy day at the easel. This of course was not without price to his family life, but whatever the price he paid, many an artist are indebted to him for the influence of his high standard of quality. Anyway, I usually blog about my own work here as a supplement to my web site, but today I just had to share a little about one of my biggest heroes, the "Dean of illustrators" Dean Cornwell.