Dean Cornwell
(1892-1960)

Nicknamed "The Dean of Illustrators" by his peers. A cartoonist at 18 for 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. Oils for Cosmopolitan, Redbook, True, American Weekly, Life, Good Housekeeping. Book art for Man from Galilee and others. Ad contracts for GM, Eastern, Pennsylvania Railroad, Paul Jones Whiskey, Aunt Jemima, Seagram's Gin, Woodbury Soap, Palmolive, Coke, Goodyear, New York Life, Squibb. 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. Other murals: Rockefeller Center, Bethlehem Steel, New York's General Motors Building, 1939 World's Fair.

In 1959, he was inducted into the Society of Illustrator's Hall of Fame. The monograph on Cornwell by Patricia Broder is back in print and well worth purchasing.

Special thanks to Mark Radcliffe for correcting an error on this page.


Study (19??) Cornwell - 001A



The Natchez / Lee Paddlewheel Race (1947) Cornwell - 002
NOTE: published in the same year in a Seagram's ad and in an article on Cornwell in True.




Cosmopolitan, "A Matter of Honor (1942) Cornwell - 003



Woodbury Soap (1924) Cornwell - 004




Woodbury Soap (1924) Cornwell - 005




Woodbury Soap (1925) Cornwell - 006



True Magazine (1953) Cornwell - 007



Goodyear, "Not For Glory Nor Yet For Gold" (1944) Cornwell - 008



Saturday Evening Post, "The Dark Fleece" (1918) Cornwell - 009




Pennsylvania Railroad, "Spirit of 1943!" (1943) Cornwell - 010



The Robe, "The Slave Market" (1942) Cornwell - 011



American Magazine, "Star Of The East" (1940) Cornwell - 012




Wyeth, "The Only Patient The Doctor Says 'No' To" (1944) Cornwell - 013




Ivory Soap (1924) Cornwell - 014




Timken Rollerbearing, "Admiral Nimitz Is Banking On You" (1944) Cornwell - 015




American Weekly, Mission Santa Ynez (1948) Cornwell - 016



Fisher, "Better than a rabbits foot!" (1943) Cornwell - 017




Heart's International, "The Little Missioner Painted by Dean Cornwell"
and, in the same issue, Cornwell drawn by James Montgomery Flagg,
"A Paintere Who Illustrates And An Illustrator Who Paints (1923) Cornwell - 018




Are You Playing Square? (1943) - 019






Iron Gate, "A Connoisseur" (1950) - 020






Cosmopolitan, "The Days of 49" (1926) - 021






Cosmopolitan, "Seven Men Came Back" (1933) - 022






Palmolive (1919) - 023