Allyn Cox
Allyn Cox (1896-1982) was an American artist. Above, standing, he is teaching a class at the Art Students League in New York in 1940. The model is unfortunately not quite nude; he's wearing a posing strap.
Cox is best known for his murals, including historical murals in the U.S. Capitol building. Cox painted three of the panels in the Capitol rotunda, shown above, depicting incidents in American history: the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, and the Wright Brothers' first flight.
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He also painted murals in the hallways of the House wing of the Capitol that are now known as the Cox Corridors because of his artwork. Above, a depiction of native Hawaiians dancing. The butt of one of the dancers is barely visible, probably the only nudity in his Capitol artwork. (Update: a reader informs me that this painting was done after Cox' death by another artist, Jeff Greene.)
But male nudity is abundant in the rest of his work, although Cox was married and presumably not gay. This is a sketch labeled "Dante Rodrigues."
He drew dozens, possibly hundreds, of male nudes as preliminary sketches for his murals, even though the people in the murals are clothed. Above, Male Nude Study from the Rear.
The sketch above is called Male Nude Study Samuel Pierpont Langley. Note how his posture is identical to the clothed version below. Traditionally, artists draw nude studies in order to understand the shape of the body under the clothes, so they can then accurately portray the clothed person.
Above is part of the mural in the Capitol dome depicting the birth of aviation, with the Wright Brothers and their plane. It looks three-dimensional, but it's not; it's just paint. At left are earlier American aviation pioneers. The leftmost figure is Samuel Pierpont Langley, the subject of the previous nude sketch, holding a model airplane. Langley got his models to fly in the 1890s, but he never got a full-size piloted plane to fly.
Cox produced other male nudes besides the sketches for his murals. Above, Contemplation, done in the 1930s.
Young Male Nude, 1940s.
We end with Reclining Male Nude, 1960s.
7 comments:
what great artist
Interesting history here. Thanks for sharing.
Most art studies include sketching and painting nudes. As you point out, it informs how the clothing hangs on the body.
Cox obviously knew which of the genders is the most beautiful.
While Langley himself did not get his plane to fly because it crashed on takeoff in the Potomac River about three weeks before the successful Wright Brothers flight, Glenn Curtis restored Langley's 1903 airplane to exact specification, changing nothing, not even the engine. In 1913, the plane flew! So, indeed, Langley's plane could fly and his concept of wing use, not that of the Wright Brothers is what is used today for airplanes. Love the artwork.
The Hawaiian dancers painting is in the Cox Corridors of the U.S. Capitol, However, it is not by Allyn Cox. Cox died after completing the first two corridors, the Hall of Capitols, and the Great Experiment Hall. The third hall, Westward Expansion, was completed much later after Cox's death and that of his assistant, Cliff Young. The third hall was completed by Jeff Greene of Evergreen Studios many years later. The Hawaii dancer panel is the end of Western Expansion, and was done by Greene, not by Cox.
@Hotlips Harry - Thank you. I have updated the text for that painting.
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