Study for 'Commerce,' Appellate Division Court House

Kenyon Cox's preparatory drawing for a monumental mural depicts allegorical figures representing Commerce through dynamic poses and flowing drapery. The gridded paper enabled Cox to scale his composition for transfer to the courthouse wall. This study demonstrates the classical academic tradition dominant in American public art at the turn of the twentieth century, when narrative murals adorned civic buildings to express national ideals. Cox's figure studies show careful attention to anatomical structure and the expressive potential of gesture—elements that would influence commercial illustration and the emerging visual language of sequential narrative art.