Paul Cornoyer is world famous for his paintings of New York City and its suburbs. This painter-teacher was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1864 and died in East Gloucester, Massachusetts in 1923 (where he moved in1917).
Cornoyer first studied at the St. Louis School of Fine Art (1881) and first exhibited in 1887. He went to Paris in 1889 and lived there until 1894, while studying painting at the Académie Julian in Paris with Lefebvre and Constant and with Louis Blanc. In 1899, friend and collector of Cornoyer's work William Merritt Chase encourage Cornoyer to come to New York City. By that time he was somewhat famous in St. Louis for having painted a mural for Planter's Hotel of the city (1894) and large canvas A View of St. Louis that showed Eads Bridge.
In 1899 Cornoyer was mesmerized by New York City. As an academically oriented impressionist-tonalist, he began to paint tonal urban scenes and they sold almost immediately. He became an Associate of the National Academy of Design in 1909 (NYC) an was a member of that institution, the National Arts Club (NY), Salmagundi Club (1902, NY), Allied Artists of America (NY), Gallery on the Moors, National Society of Arts and Letters (NY), Newark Art Association and the society of Western Artists. He exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia; Paris Art Salon, Paris, France (prize 1892); St. Louis Association of Painters (gold medal 1895); Art Institute of Chicago, Salmagundi Club (prize 1905 and 1906 and 1908); Boston Art Club (1907, 1909), Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D.C., National Academy of Design and Philadelphia Art Club (1917).
His work is in the permanent collections of the Brooklyn Institute Museum, NY; Dallas AA; Smithsonian Institute; Seattle Art Museum, Washington; Newark AA; St. Louis Art Museum; Kansas City Museum of Fine Art; Yale University Art Gallery; Smith College; High Museum of Fine Art; Hickory Museum of At (NC), Newark Museum and the Butler Institute of American Art..
By 1900, Cornoyer received widespread acclaim for his view of New York City and he was applauded as one of America's finest painting instructors. He taught at the Mechanic's Institution in Manhattan and taught painting in Gloucester, MA and in Connecticut (summers).
References
Art Across America and Impressionist New York by William Gerdts (1990, 1994); American Paintings at the High Museum (1994); American Art Colonies, 1850-1930 by Steve Shipp; Davenport's Art Reference ; American Art at the Paris Salons by Lois Marie (1990); D.M. Zulman, Three Hundred Years of American Painting (1986); Who Was Who in American Art, volume I, p. 738.
