Leon Kroll

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American painter

title: "Leon Kroll" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1884-births", "1974-deaths", "20th-century-american-painters", "american-male-painters", "american-muralists", "art-students-league-of-new-york-alumni", "knights-of-the-legion-of-honour", "american-people-of-german-descent", "art-students-league-of-new-york-faculty", "members-of-the-american-academy-of-arts-and-letters", "section-of-painting-and-sculpture-artists", "20th-century-american-male-artists", "american-recipients-of-the-legion-of-honour"] description: "American painter" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Kroll" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American painter ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox artist"]

FieldValue
nameLeon Kroll
imageLeon Kroll.jpg
captionLeon Kroll, April 18, 1929
birth_date
birth_placeNew York City, New York, U.S.
death_date
death_placeGloucester, Massachusetts, U.S.
fieldPainting
electedNational Academy of Design (1927)
American Academy of Arts and Letters (1930)
::

| name =Leon Kroll | image =Leon Kroll.jpg | imagesize = | alt = | caption =Leon Kroll, April 18, 1929 | birth_name = | birth_date = | birth_place =New York City, New York, U.S. | death_date = | death_place =Gloucester, Massachusetts, U.S. | spouse = | field =Painting | training = | movement = | works = | patrons = | influenced by = | influenced = | awards = | elected =National Academy of Design (1927) American Academy of Arts and Letters (1930) | website = Leon Kroll (December 6, 1884 – October 25, 1974) was an American painter and lithographer. A figurative artist described by Life magazine as "the dean of U.S. nude painters", he was also a landscape painter and also produced an exceptional body of still life compositions. His public art includes murals for the Department of Justice Building in Washington, D.C. He created his only mosaic for the chapel ceiling at Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial.

Biography

Leon Kroll was born into a musical family on lower Second Avenue in New York City. His father was a violinist, and his cousin was composer William Kroll. He studied at the Art Students League of New York under John Henry Twachtman, and at the Académie Julian in Paris with Jean Paul Laurens in the late 1800s.

In 1911 and 1912, he showed in the group exhibition of The Independents initiated by Robert Henri at the MacDowell Club in New York. "It was a self chosen group: you had to be elected by the other ten. Hopper was in it and Speicher, John Sloan as well as Henri, Glackens and Luks - It was a very good group of the best artists" said Kroll.

In 1913 Kroll showed work at the Armory Show.

In addition to his own work, Kroll taught at the Art Students League of New York and the school of the National Academy of Design, where he had his first solo exhibition in 1910, was named as Associate in 1920 and as full Academician in 1927. Kroll also taught advertising and poster design at Cooper Union from 1926-1930. In 1911 he was elected to the Salmagundi Club New York as an Artist member. In 1930, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He was also named Chevalier of the Legion of Honor in 1950. Kroll died in Gloucester, Massachusetts aged 89.

Artist-writer Jerome Myers in his autobiography Artist In Manhattan said:

An academician and at the same time a humanitarian, Leon Kroll is a consummate craftsman, always sympathetic towards youthful talent, boldly standing up for the rights of others as well as for his own. His art activities have been prodigious, overlapping several generations. As a teacher and lecturer, he has been foremost in the van of the Woodstock tradition. He was an able president of the Painters, Sculptors and Engravers Society, and is an outstanding member of the National Academy. A fluent performer in many branches of art, his convictions have remained unshaken by the extremists; he has consistently carried his classic banner through the turmoil of modernism. Leon Kroll's success is to be respected. Personally, I have always found him a gallant adversary in argument, an artist who has captured many hearts as well as many prizes.}}

Work

Among Kroll's major public works are murals at these locations:

|title= |width= |align= |File:In the Country by Leon Kroll.jpg|alt1=A white family with a black woman are in a lightly forested area in front of a house. In the background is a mountain range.|In the Country (1916) |File:Leo Ornstein at the Piano (color) by Leon Kroll.jpg|alt2=A man sits at and plays a piano.|Leo Ornstein at the Piano (1918) |File:Worcester Memorial Auditorium mural.jpg|"Shrine of the Immortal," Worcester Memorial Auditorium, completed 1941 |File:NOAC-Plafond-Chapelle.jpg|Chapel ceiling mosaic at Normandy American Cemetery (1953)

References

  • Leeds, Valerie Ann. Leon Kroll Revisited. New York: Gerald Peters Gallery, 1998.

References

  1. "Leon Kroll". FamilySearch.org.
  2. Davis, Kenneth Morton. (1993). "The Life and Works of Leon Kroll with a Catalogue of His Works". UMI Dissertation Services.
  3. Kroll, Leon. (1983). "Leon Kroll: A Spoken Memoir". University Press for Virginia.
  4. "A Finding Aid to the Leon Kroll Papers, 1905-1974". [[Smithsonian Institution]].
  5. Levin, Gail. (1995). "Edward Hopper an intimiate biography". Knopf.
  6. Centennial roster of the Salmagundi Club since its inception in 1871 to 1972. (SCNY, New York, 1972, p. 72)
  7. "Deceased Members". American Academy of Arts and Letters.
  8. "Leon Kroll". Ancestry.com.
  9. Myers, Jerome (1940). ''Artist in Manhattan''. New York: American Artists Group, Inc. {{OCLC. 1969673
  10. "The First Hundred Years (Statehouse timeline)".
  11. McBride, Bunny. (June 5, 2019). "Of Bombs and Beaches: Leon Kroll's Mosaic Ceiling at Omaha Beach".

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1884-births1974-deaths20th-century-american-paintersamerican-male-paintersamerican-muralistsart-students-league-of-new-york-alumniknights-of-the-legion-of-honouramerican-people-of-german-descentart-students-league-of-new-york-facultymembers-of-the-american-academy-of-arts-and-letterssection-of-painting-and-sculpture-artists20th-century-american-male-artistsamerican-recipients-of-the-legion-of-honour