Kenyon Cox (1856 – 1919)
Posted by M.R.N. on March 1, 2013
An Eclogue
Tradition
Plenty
Louise Howland King (Mrs. Kenyon Cox)
A Blonde
Augustus Saint-Gaudens
Book Of Pictures
Echo
Indian Summer
A Lady In Black
Maxfield Parrish
The Silver Hand Glass
Bird Song
Mr. Wiley
Approach Of Love
Fall And Expulsion
William James Morton
The Harvest
Cass Gilbert
Portrait Of A Young Girl
Christ
Study for Evening
Reclining Nude On The Beach
The First Passage Of The Steamer Clermont On The Hudson River (detail)
The Sword Is Drawn
Lilith
The Blessed Damozel
The Blessed Damozel – We Two Will Lie In The Shadow
The Blessed Damozel
Columbia And Cuba – Nude Study
Romance – Nude Study
5 Responses to “Kenyon Cox (1856 – 1919)”
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Denis said
An Eclogue – what a magnificent painting – assured technique, and the ability to conjure up an idyllic imagined, and maybe longed-for pastoral scene – you can feel the heat off that setting sun!
One of the all time great American Paintings!
keep up the good work with your ever-expanding blog – amazing collection!
vincenzo said
It is a good painter. The classical genre, when done well, as in this case, it’s always nice to see. It’s obvious that, in the classical academic painting, the nudes abound, but generally they are never vulgar.
Christine said
Not vulgar in your opinion. I’m sure these nudes shook many a feather in their day.
Vincenzo said
Obviously, my opinion is subjective, but in keeping with my studies at the Academy of Fine Arts, where for four years I have drawn and painted female nudes of various models. To me, in the female nudes, is always interested to highlight harmony and kindness of forms. And this can not be considered vulgarity. Perhaps, as you said, to the time when Kenyon Cox has worked, someone may have been shocked in seeing some integral nudes, and I think that society of the time was very puritanical. In those days, women were forced to wear long skirts until covering even their ankles. Therefore also the female nudes, that were appearing in the works of art, were considered scandalous by the dominant culture.
Vincenzo said
I would like to do another consideration, namely whether Cox has designed many female nudes, means that even at that time there were many admirers and buyers. Therefore, all that puritanical moralism was drenched in so much hypocrisy.
In my opinion the naked female body (and I’m referring obviously to the woman in the flower, that is, in its moment of greatest splendor), is one of the most beautiful things that exist in nature. Obviously, there are beautiful women and others less so. Which is also true for men, but, in my opinion, the most perfect among them, do not exceed the beauty of the female nude.
And when I read that in some parts of the world, there are people who practice female genital mutilation, frankly, I am horrified. That human barbarity!
But can you imagine a little girl in her puberty, in which the clitoris is cut and sewn also the vulva? Maybe she can, with difficulty, only to pee. I think they are less terrifying designs “scandalous” Cox. Forgive me for the comparison, appears to be a paradox, but it seems very relevant to the intimacy of women: the juxtaposition of the beauty of their naked bodies and intact, and the horror of the mutilation.