Window mode follows your eyes with your camera, in this browser only: no picture or position leaves your device.
Study for mural, Union Trust Company Building, "The Sources of Wealth"
Kenyon Cox (born Warren, OH 1856-died New York City 1919)
ca. 1903
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Classification
- Paintings
- Dimensions
- 9 3/4 x 28 1/2 in. (24.8 x 72.4 cm.)
- Museum
- Smithsonian Institution, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Ambrose Lansing
- Rights
- CC0 (Smithsonian Open Access), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed
View at the Smithsonian Institution
About this work
Kenyon Cox spent a great deal of time planning his murals and often created multiple studies before he was satisfied with the design. This mural study shows how he worked out his color scheme. Before deciding on the facial expressions of his figures, Cox balanced the figural groups. Red accents connect all the figures with each other and unify the design. Cox’s attention to harmonizing colors reflects his idea of painting as a selection of colors and forms chosen to make the most unified image. (Morgan, Keepers of Culture, 1989)
