John White Alexander: Muralist

From "The Crowning of Labor" by John White Alexander

"In the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., are six lunettes setting forth 'The Evolution of the Book,' and in Pittsburgh's Carnegie Institute are forty-eight panels, the 'Crowning of Labor,' which represent John White Alexander's achievement in the field of mural decoration. 

The 'Crowning of Labor' was one of the largest commissions, covering almost 4,000 square feet,  both to extent and remuneration that have ever gone to a mural painter. He was chosen to decorate the entire grand staircase of the Carnegie Institute Building, and he selected for his subject 'The Crowning of Labor' as an apotheosis of Pittsburgh.

The principle group is at the second floor of what the French aptly call the cage d'escalier. A man in steel armor, typical enough of the city in foundries, stands poised against clouds with his drawn sword in his hand and is apparently the focal hero of the apotheosis. In a sort of semi-circle before him are young women symbolizing Peace, Prosperity, Luxuries, and Education, making graceful obeisance to him. A line of women blow long slender trumpets in his honor. 

Below, around and above these figures, smoke and steam curl and mount with the stories of the staircase, not only offering a presence appropriate to Pittsburgh, but also affording a medium of the utmost value to the creator of the decoration since it enabled him to dissemble the figures wherever he pleases and concentrate them in groups at the points of real vantage. 

In the twelve panels of one of the walls to the staircases there are said to be 400 figures of men, women and children, the people from the streets of Pittsburgh. Since everything was painted by the hand of Alexander himself, one feels rather appalled at the strain put upon such a fragile physique as his and feels that the result was quite as much the crowning of the painter's devotion as it was 'The Crowning of Labor.'

John White Alexander completed the first elements of the mural in 1907 and the remainder in 1908. He died before finishing the panels for the third floor. These last panels would have portrayed Andrew Carnegie's cultural pillars of art, science, music, and literature, but sadly remained unfinished."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "John White Alexander: A Biographical Sketch" by H.M. B. for "The American Magazine of Art," an online essay on the "Grand Staircase": https://carnegieart.org/art/art-around-you/grand-staircase/ and biographical notes from the Smithsonian Archives of American Art: https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/john-white-alexander-papers-8637/series-1/box-1-folder-1)