Dean Cornwall (New York/California, 1892-1960) pencil and charcoal on paper study for a medallion and for a mural panel for the Davidson County Courthouse in Nashville, Tennessee. Image depicts four hunters, one likely Kasper Mansker, all carrying rifles, and a pack-laden horse, climbing a bluff. Unsigned. Three labels on reverse plus former auction hang tag. Sight – 21 3/4" H x 21 1/2" W. Framed – 26" H x 26" W. American, first half of 20th century. History: Dean Cornwell was nicknamed "the Dean of Illustrators". He was born in Louisville, where he started his art career as cartoonist for the Louisville Herald. He soon moved to Chicago, where he studied at the Chicago Art Institute under Harvey Dunn, whom he later followed to New York. There, his career blossomed. Cornwall produced over 1,000 illustrations for Cosmopolitan, Harper's Bazaar, Redbook and Good Housekeeping. He also illustrated books written by Pearl S. Buck, Ernest Hemingway, and Somerset Maugham, and did advertisements for GM, Coca-Cola, Goodyear and several other major companies. Starting around 1927, however, he devoted himself to murals, after studying for three years with Frank Brangwyn. Brangwyn selected Cornwall to help him with a series of murals, including one at the House of Lords in England. Cornwall was also hired to create murals at the Los Angeles Public Library, the Eastern Airlines Building in New York (now Rockefeller Plaza) and at the 1939 World's Fair for GM. Cornwall's mural for the Davidson County Courthouse in Nashville featured heroic figures representing Industry, Agriculture, Commerce, and Statesmanship superimposed over maps of Nashville and Davidson County. Three years later, in 1941, he also painted a mural for The Sevier State Office Building, titled The Discovery of Tennessee and The Development of Tennessee, depicting important figures in Tennessee's history. Both Nashville murals were created under President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal cultural programs. Cornwall taught and lectured at the Art Students League in New York and served as president of the Society of Illustrators, a group from which he received a gold medal; he was also inducted into their Hall of of Fame. He also won a medal for mural painting from the Architectural League of New York. He was elected into the National Academy of Design and served as the President of the National Society of Mural Painters. (Source: The National Museum of American Illustration; The Tennessee Encyclopedia). CONDITION: One-half inch stain to image lower left edge and small foxing spot upper right edge. Loss to glass edge on lower left side.