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About Paul Cornoyer
BORN: St. Louis, Missouri 15 August 1864
DIED: East Gloucester, Massachusetts 17 June 1923
In 1908, a writer for the St. Louis Daily Globe-Democrat suggested that “perhaps the best known painter who is a native of St. Louis is Paul Cornoyer. He has won an enviable reputation among the greatest artists, and the opinion prevails...that [America] will eventually recognize Cornoyer as one of its master painters.”1 James Huneker called Cornoyer an impressionist “. . . though sometimes with an approach to sentimentalism.”2 But because Cornoyer’s impressionism has since been eclipsed by more modern trends, such a prophecy has yet to be proven. It should be understood, however, that he was an accomplished and highly regarded painter throughout the era of American impressionism. From Parisian precedents, Cornoyer eventually developed a sophisticated cosmopolitanism, which he readily adapted to subjects taken from the New York environment. Despite his limitations in concept, he was a superb technician and one who was capable of a subjective description of an urban scene, a specific talent seldom demonstrated by other American impressionists.
Born in 1864, the son of Marie Barada and Charles Cornoyer, of Spanish and French ancestry, Paul received his education in the St. Louis public schools. He demonstrated youthful talent in drawing and eventually became a student at the *St. Louis School of Fine Arts. Here, as a teenager, he came to know *Halsey C. Ives, an instructor and the director, whose guidance was an inspiration to the young man.3 The aspiring artist progressed with determination in an academic art program. After about three years at the school, Cornoyer augmented his income by working as a newspaper artist-reporter for the St. Louis Republic.4 Approximately a decade later, a younger St. Louis painter, *Richard E. Miller, would pursue his career in an identical course.
An unusually energetic artist, Cornoyer’s talents impressed several residents of St. Louis, who assisted with funds for his continued study in Europe. Extant works from the period reveal a surprisingly broad and spontaneous handling of pigment, indicating even at this early date the artist’s awareness of modern painting techniques. Accordingly, in 1889, twenty-five-year-old Paul Cornoyer left the Midwest to sail for Paris, where he enrolled in the *Académie Julian. Here, he joined the ranks of countless other Americans who followed the well-known method of drawing from the nude model and completing weekly theme assignments. Cornoyer received criticism from *Jules-Joseph Lefebvre and *Benjamin Constant. It also appears that he, like most of his colleagues, pursued a routine of independent study by visiting museums and art galleries, where he was able to compare and contrast old masters’ techniques with those of the moderns.
When Cornoyer arrived in Paris, impressionism had already become an international movement, and he was not immune to its magnetic influence. He rapidly assimilated its basic tenets, modified the north light of the studio, and took *plein-air sketching trips. In addition to visits to Gr z, Montigny, and Barbizon, his sojourn also led him through much of the rest of Europe, including Venice and London. His first attempts at the impressionist manner resulted in a well-executed but eclectic style amalgamating effects of *Monet and *Sisley. Shortly, however, Cornoyer seems to have settled upon a more personal manner less dependent upon the use of *broken color and fat pigment. He was particularly concerned with atmospheric effects and occasionally selected street scenes to demonstrate his ability with the complexities of compositional design. He varied his technique to suit the *subject matter and its relative climatic conditions. Cornoyer submitted L’avenue du Maine to the Salon in 1892 in an effort to establish himself in the dynamic art community of Paris and his first award came that year from the *American Art Association in Paris, which presented him with a first prize.
In 1894, the artist sailed to New York and subsequently returned to his native city, where he took a studio to begin his career in America. This was only a year after the successful exhibition of French and other impressionist painting at Chicago’s *World’s Columbian Exposition, where Cornoyer did not exhibit. But since his former art teacher Halsey Ives had been director of the Fine Arts Department there, the artist must have hoped for a reasonable acceptance of his own imported style in St. Louis. In an attempt to eliminate a reputation of provincialism, Cornoyer sent his work to various national exhibitions in the east. He was also active locally and won a gold medal from the St. Louis Association of Painters and Sculptors.
An inspiration to the young artist Richard E. Miller, Cornoyer traveled to various favorite local spots, and his results were decidedly impressionistic in technique. In some of his smaller works, the artist used a curious blending of heavily textured ground along with a systematic juxtaposition of mosaic-like strokes of *broken color. Cornoyer won a competition award of $1,000 to execute a mural, The Birth of St. Louis, for the city’s Planter’s Hotel. It is reported that about this time, former St. Louis resident *William Merritt Chase purchased one of Cornoyer’s street scenes, which was exhibited in Chicago and at the *Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.5 Ensuing correspondence resulted in Chase’s suggestion that Cornoyer move to New York for an improved artistic climate and better opportunities. After a long and serious deliberation, the artist abandoned his address at 1016 N. Cardinal Avenue to take up residence in New York City.
Fortified by encouragement from Chase, the younger Cornoyer was immediately successful, and, in 1899, he accepted a position as an instructor at the Mechanics Institute. From this point onward, he produced a relatively constant flow of New York street scenes, populating the sidewalks with small, faceless figures, carefully placed from the middle to the background of the composition. Owing to Cornoyer’s fondness for the picturesque effect of a rainy and misty day, he frequently used the *tonalist formula of deep tonal values with soft contrasts of various textural surfaces, the gleaming pavements, the shimmering vertical reflections of trees and lampposts, and a luminous enveloppe of atmosphere. A Rainy Day in the City (Westmoreland County Museum of Art) has all of these elements, which combine to produce the quiet romance of a misty day in fin de si cle New York, in which human activities are slowed by inclement weather.6 Cornoyer became well acquainted with *John H. Twachtman before the latter died in 1902; as a result of his good nature, he maintained a friendly relationship with numerous other painters in New York and the East Coast art colonies. *Frederick J. Mulhaupt spoke of his friend in glowing terms as a personality: “He was the greatest embodiment of Hope I ever saw. . . . He would drive away great clouds of discouragement that hung over others by putting himself in their same position.”7
In the first decade of the new century, Cornoyer was active as an exhibitor and a teacher; he won the *Salmagundi Club’s Inness Prize in 1906 and received a one-man show at the Albright Gallery two years later.8 Cornoyer was elected an Associate member of the *National Academy of Design in 1909. He continued his sketching trips into the countryside to paint landscapes to complement his subjects from the city. The artist also devoted numerous hours to color research, continuing his early interest in the chemical composition of pigment and in general color theory as professed by *Michel Eug ne Chevreul and *Ogden Rood. Cornoyer continued his successful teaching career in New York until shortly before World War I, when he opened a studio-residence in East *Gloucester, Massachusetts. There, he made the acquaintance of *Hugh Breckenridge, *John Sloan, and other artists of this loosely knit art colony.
Despite his success in the depiction of New York street scenes, Cornoyer eagerly took to the picturesque quaintness of Gloucester’s village atmosphere. Mulhaupt reminisced: “His ability to take an otherwise commonplace building on a commonplace street and make a charming picture of it by infusing his own personality into it was marvelous to us all.”9 Cornoyer lived and worked in Gloucester with the same positive enthusiasm that he demonstrated in New York. Concerned with the lack of local exhibition facilities, he worked diligently to found the North Shore Arts Association in Gloucester during the last years of his life. The project was well received and subsequently became a success in terms of his original goals.
Cornoyer produced a third body of work in Gloucester, consisting primarily of local New England scenes – most frequently small works handled with unusual spontaneity. In these later paintings, the artist demonstrated a more liberal handling of pigment, at times reminiscent of similar works by Breckenridge. New and radical art forms were replacing impressionism when Cornoyer died suddenly at the age of fifty-eight. A selective exhibition of his work was shown in the winter of 1973.
REF.
Huneker, 1907-E; “St. Louis Artists,” 1908; “Two Special Exhibitions,” 1908; Mulhaupt, 1923; L. Adms, 1973; O’Gorman, 1976, pp. 86, 93, 95; Zellman, 1987, p. 577; Gerdts, 1990, vol. 2, p. 53; Gerdts, 1994, pp. 77, 79-80; North Shore Arts Association, 1997, p. 20; Davies, 2001, pp. 70-71.
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Paintings by Paul Cornoyer
| Along the Seine, France |
| oil on canvas:15 x 22 inches |
| signed: lower left |
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Click Picture to Enlarge
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