About the Artist

The Artist

Allyn Cox beside another mural

“When I was very young, my parents brought me here and showed me an empty space in the frieze under the Rotunda dome. After that I used to dream and dream of painting it one day.” – Allyn Cox, quoted in The Washington Post, 28 Sept 1982

Allyn Cox (1896-1982), a native of New York City, was the son of artists Kenyon and Louise Howland King Cox. He began his art training under his father and later studied at the National Academy of Art, the Art Students League and at the American Academy in Rome. In 1953, he realized his childhood dream when he was commissioned to complete the Brumidi friezes.

This was just the beginning of his work in the Capitol; he returned in 1969 to clean and restore one of the Brumidi murals and later painted the Henry Clay portrait in the Senate Reception Room and the 1969 moon landing in the Senate wing’s Brumidi Corridor. Cox began working on the House wing murals in 1969, completing The Hall of Capitols in 1974 and the second phase, the Great Experiment Hall, in 1982. He retired in March 1982 at the age of 86 and died the following September.

Some of Cox’s major projects include murals at the following institutions:

Dumbarton Oaks, Georgetown, Washington, DC
General U.S. Grant National Memorial (“Grant’s Tomb”), New York City
Royal Arch Room & Memorial Hall
George Washington Masonic Memorial, Washington, DC

For more information about the US Capitol and its art, including the Allyn Cox murals: US Capitol Historical Society’s History and Exhibits site

Sources
— The American Story in Art: The Murals of Allyn Cox in the U.S. Capitol. Washington, DC: National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution and United States Capitol Historical Society, 1986.
— Anderson, Ward. “Capitol Muralist Steps Down from Lifelong Scaffold”. The Washington Post, 20 Mar 1982.
— The Capitol: A Pictorial History of the Capitol and of the Congress. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1981.
— Horan, James D. Mathew Brady: Historian with a Camera. New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1955.
— Smith, J.Y. “Allyn Cox Dies; Works Included Capitol Murals”. The Washington Post, 28 Sept 1982.
— Websites included above

Photo Credits
— Cartoon photo by Tim Barcus, Truman State University Campus Photographer
— Mural photo courtesy of US Capitol Architect & US Capitol Historical Society
— Conservation photos by Heugh-Edmondson