Tradition (1916): Art, History and Details

Tradition (1916) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Kenyon Cox (American, 1856–1919).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This painting demonstrates Cox's ideas about the importance in art of tradition and the classical spirit. Two figures in Grecian costumes, representing the arts of the past, pass on the eternal flame of tradition to two figures in Renaissance dress. Literature wears the laurel crown, and Painting holds the palette. Born in Warren, Ohio, Cox studied art in Cincinnati and at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia. In 1877, he moved to Paris to study under Carolus Duran (1838-1917) and Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904). Five years later, Cox returned to New York where he established himself as a leader in the academic and conservative movement known as the American Renaissance. The artist achieved particular fame as a muralist; however by 1916, his health deteriorating, he turned his attention to paintings on canvas.

Object facts

• Title: Tradition
• Date: 1916
• Creator attribution: Kenyon Cox (American, 1856–1919)
• Culture: America
• Type: Painting
• Technique: oil on canvas
• Dimensions: Unframed: 106 x 165.5 cm (41 3/4 x 65 3/16 in.)
• Collection: American - Painting
• Department: American Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1917.9

Collection credit

Gift of J. D. Cox

Further reading listed by the museum

• "Accessions." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 4, no. 2 (1917): 26-37.
• Cleveland Museum of Art. Catalogue of an Exhibition of American Painting from 1860 Until Today at the Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland]: [Printed by the Artcraft Printing Co.], 1937.
• Serie, Pierre. "New York troisieme Rome : pourquoi l'Amerique resista si longtemps a l'idee d'art moderne." Revue de l'art 191, (2016): 71-79.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.