Eugene Francis Savage (painter)

Eugene Francis Savage (Covington, Indiana, 1883 — Waterbury, Connecticut, 1978 [Dates and places are as given in David Bernard Dearinger, "Paintings and Sculpture in the Collection of the National Academy of Design:Vol. 1 : 1826-1926" (2004), "s.v." "Eugene Francis Savage" (pp 492f).] ) was an American painter known for his murals in the manner made official under the Works Projects Administration.

He was born in Covington, Indiana. In 1915, [ [http://www.sof-aarome.org/sof_dir_1911_1920.html American Academy in Rome, Society of Fellows, under 1915] ; the date is often given as 1912.] while studying at the Chicago Art Institute, he won the American Prix de Rome in painting, enabling him to study at the American Academy in Rome, where he received a bachelor of arts degree. Later he received bachelor (1924) and master of fine arts degrees from Yale, where he taught for twenty-eight years. While acting as a member of the Fine Arts committee of the American Academy in Rome, he ensured, though not a member of the jury, that a generation of winning artists were painting in the manner of Thomas Hart Benton or Savage himself. [Thus the students were known as "little Savages", according to [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,743765,00.html?promoid=googlep "Time Magazine", "Prix de Rome", 23 May 1932] ] . He became an Associate Member of the National Academy of Design, 1924 and National Academician, 1926 [ [http://hukihuki.com/vintage.html "Eugene Savage: festival of the Sea"] ; [http://hamiltonauctiongalleries.com/natlacademy-savage.jpgEugene Savage: Self-portrait] ] . Other contemporary influences on his public art were his Latin American contemporaries Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco. Savage also served on the National Commission of Fine Arts and was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, to which he was elected in 1936. [ [http://www.artsandletters.org/academicians_deceased.php Deceased members] ]

Murals by Savage are on the campuses of Columbia and Yale Universities [In the [http://www.yale.edu/publicart/almamater.html Sterling Memorial Library] , where he was in charge of the painted decorations.] and in public buildings in Connecticut, the Elks National Memorial in Chicago, the new Post Office Building (now Ariel Rios Federal Building) in Washington, in Indiana and the renovated Court of Appeals Hall, Albany, New York (1959).

In other media, he provided illustrations for Coningsby Dawson's "Christmas Outside of Eden". In 1938 the Matson Lines commissioned him to paint murals depicting native Hawaiian life, which were later adapted for menus and other memorabilia. [Lynn Blocker Krantz, Nick Krantz, Mary Thiele Fobian, "To Honolulu in Five Days: Cruising Aboard Matson's S.S. Lurline" 2001.]

In 1935 and 1953 Savage visited Florida, where he painted the experience of the Seminole Indians in their Everglades habitat especially taking note of the intrusion of modern civilization into what seemed to be a Garden of Eden pastoral existence. These paintngs were done at the same time the effort was under way to create the Everglades National Park [ [http://www.askart.com/AskART/artists/bulletin.aspx?searchtype=DISCUSS&artist=25663 AskArt] .] According to family records and photo documentation, this artist is the same person as the American sculptor Eugene Francis Savage, although the Art Inventories Catalog of the Smithsonian American Art Museum [ [http://siris-artinventories.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=121C8274FU405.26968&menu=search&aspect=Browse&npp=50&ipp=20&spp=20&profile=ariall&ri=&term=Savage&index=AUTHOR&aspect=Browse&term=&index=ALTIT&term=&index=SUBJX&term=&index=OBJEC&term=&index=OWNER&x=0&y=0#focus Art Inventories Catalog of the Smithsonian American Art Museum] ] and "Jacobsen's Biographical Index of American Artists" [Jacobsen, Anita, "Jacobsen's Biographical Index of American Artists", Dallas, Texas, A.J. Publications, 2002, vol. 4, p 2835] have separate listings with different dates of death.

Notes

External links

* [http://www.wicf-inc.org/ Covington Community Foundation]
* [http://www.lib.purdue.edu/hsse/infopages/news/spiritlandgrant.html Purdue University, "The Spirit of the Land Grant College"] mural, 1961.