Sketch for Mosaic, Wisconsin State Capital, "Justice"
ca. 1912
Medium
Painting
Classification
Painting
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Ambrose Lansing
Accession Number
1983.114.2
Tags
Art Historical Context
Kenyon Cox, a leading figure in America's Beaux-Arts movement, created this preparatory painting around 1912 as a sketch for a grand mosaic in the Wisconsin State. Titled *Sketch for Mosaic, Wisconsin State Capital, "Justice*, it captures the allegorical figure of Justice in flowing classical drapery, standing full-length and poised with her iconic scales. Cox, known for his murals blending Renaissance idealism with American symbolism, designed this during a golden age of public architecture, when state capitols like Wisconsin's—rebuilt after a 1904 fire and dedicated in 1917—embraced monument...
About the Artist
Kenyon Cox · 1856–1919
Kenyon Cox (1856–1919) was born on October 27 in Warren, Ohio, to General Jacob Dolson Cox, a prominent politician and Civil War veteran, and Helen Finney Cox. Despite fragile health, young Cox pursued art at the Art Academy of Cincinnati before advancing to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. In 1877, he traveled to Paris, studying first under Carolus-Duran, then at the Éco...