William Cotton
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William Cotton, Christmas Cover, The New Yorker, n.d., photo courtesy James A. Michener Art Museum archives
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FICTION WRITER, PAINTER
BORN: July 22, 1880, Newport, Rhode Island
DIED: January 5, 1958, Sergeantville, New Jersey
William Cotton painted portraits, wrote two Broadway plays, and in his day was one of the best known caricaturists in the country. He studied at the Cowles Art School in Boston and at the Académie Julian in Paris. A portrait painter, he founded the National Association of Portrait Painters. He exhibited at the National Academy of Design in New York, the Corcoran Art Gallery in Washington, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the St. Louis Art Museum and The Carnegie Institute. Cotton was among a number of American artists invited by the French Government to exhibit at the Luxembourg Museum. He worked for Vanity Fair from 1931 to 1936 as an illustrator. Eleanor Roosevelt called his drawing of her for Vanity Fair," her favorite character picture," From 1932 on, he was one of the illustrators of the "Profile" department of the New Yorker. His covers and illustrations, especially for early years at the New Yorker, contributed to the definition of that era. He also painted mural decorations for New York City theaters such as the Capitol, Apollo, Times Square, and Selwyn theaters. As a playwright he wrote Andrew Takes A Wife and in 1931 The Bride the Sun Shines On which starred Henry Hull and Dorothy Gish on Broadway.
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