Illustration for cover of True Magazine, Dean Cornwell
Dean Cornwell (1892-1960) was nicknamed "The Dean of Illustrators" by his peers. He was a cartoonist at 18 for the Louisville Herald. By 1911, he was in the Chicago Tribune's Art department while studying at the city's Art Institute. In 1915, a student of Harvey Dunn, he in turn taught artists and developed talents for a generation. He did oils for Cosmopolitan, Redbook, True, American Weekly, Life, Good Housekeeping. Book art for Man from Galilee and others. He also had ad contracts for GM, Eastern, Pennsylvania Railroad, Paul Jones Whiskey, Aunt Jemima, Seagram's Gin, Woodbury Soap, Palmolive, Coke, Goodyear, New York Life, Squibb. Cornwell was an excellent muralist after a stay in London with Frank Brangwyn and in 1927 began a five-year period of mural painting in California, including the Los Angeles Public Library and the Lincoln Memorial Shrine in Redlands. In 1959, he was inducted into the Society of Illustrator's Hall of Fame.