An American Art Student in Paris,
1877-1881

ALLYN COX
 

The author, a successfid mural painter himself, writes of the stu¬
dent days in Paris (1811-82) of his father, Kenyon Cox, as revealed
in the collection of the latter's papers which was recently presented
to the Columbia Libraries. Allyn Cox was the donor.

After his return to the United States, Kenyon Cox (i8;6-ipi^)
produced portraits, murals, and other art works, of which some are
in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Library of Congress, and
the Minnesota State Capitol.                                      Editor's Note
 

IN October 1877, my father, Kenyon Cox, sailed from New
York to study painting in Paris. A very tall, thin youth, he
was twenty-one but he looked younger. His childish appear¬
ance may have betrayed how unevenly he was prepared for what
he intended to do there. It must at the same time have concealed
a strong will to see and to learn. He had badgered his parents,
written them, argued the matter over and over. Finally he had
persuaded them that the advantages they had been able to give
him at home in Ohio or even in the more cosmopolitan Phila¬
delphia were not enough for the training of an artist, as he under¬
stood it.

"An artist must see the world," he wrote to his father in
February, 1876. "His business is to paint what he loves most, and
how can he find it without seeing what there is to paint. Here in
Cincinnati one can at best see some Dutchman's head, never even
a nude figure, and how much of the world of beauty is in the
 

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