Two Murals by Dean Cornwell, The Raleigh Room of the Warwick Hotel, 68 West 54th Street, New York City, 1937
Dean Cornwell was an American illustrator and muralist. His oil paintings were frequently featured in popular magazines and books as literary illustrations, advertisements, and posters promoting the war effort. Throughout the first half of the 20th century he was a dominant presence in American illustration. At the peak of his popularity he was nicknamed the “Dean of Illustrators”.
In 1937 William Randolph Hearst commissioned Cornwell to create murals for The Raleigh Room, the restaurant inside his new residential hotel. Cornwell complied with a series of scenes of the life of Raleigh, depicting the explorer-courtier throwing down his cloak over a mud puddle for Queen Elizabeth, receiving a charter from her, and landing on Roanoke Island. After Cornwell had completed the murals, however, he and Hearst disagreed about compensation, and in revenge, the artist added obscene elements to the paintings, including an Indian with bare buttocks and men urinating on both Raleigh and Queen Elizabeth. Fortunately, he painted out these elements once the dispute was resolved. Over time the murals darkened, but they were brilliantly restored in a renovation in 2004.
The Warwick Hotel has an interesting historical connection to William Randolph Hearst and the actress Marion Davies. There are also two large murals commissioned by Hearst for the bar area and the restaurant. I have often had breakfast in the restaurant and found the detail of the murals a subject matter that you might find in a museum. Now I am looking forward to having a cocktail in bar area Randolph’s just so I can take time relax and enjoy the other mural of Dean Cromwell and study the history behind it. As a journalism student long ago I became very involved with Mr Hearst and anything connected to him. Fascinating!