David McCosh (1903 – 1980)

18. Ponte Neuf (The Old Bridge), c. 1928

Oil on panel, 14 ½ x 18 inches (unframed), 22 x 25 ½ inches (framed), inscribed “painted by David McCosh Property of Edward b. Rowan” and numbered “8” verso

$3,750

Exhibited

The First Exhibit of the Iowa Artist’s Club at the Yonkers’ Tearoom, Des Moines, Iowa, in November, 1929, and other Iowa locations in the following months, including in Ames, Cedar Rapids (at the Little Gallery), Davenport (at the Municipal Art Gallery), Dubuque (at the Public Library) and Iowa City (see The First Exhibit of the Iowa Artists’ Club, The Des Moines Register (Des Moines, Iowa) November 17, 1929 (this work is illustrated together with nine other paintings from the exhibition of fifty-six works); perhaps exhibited at McCosh’s solo exhibition at the Little Gallery, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, March, 1929 (see Rowan, Edward, Art News of the Little Gallery, The Gazette (Cedar Rapids, Iowa), March 7, 1929 – indicating that the exhibit consisted of fifteen paintings, most of which were completed in Europe and illustrating Pont Marie, Paris, a related composition which is in the collection of the Cedar Rapids Chamber of Commerce)

About the Artist

David McCosh was born in 1903 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He was an important painter, muralist, and teacher. McCosh studied at Coe College, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Art Students League. He won the Institute’s prestigious John Quincy Adams scholarship and painted in France in 1928. He returned to his native Iowa where he began close associations with Edward Rowan, the Little Gallery, and the Stone City Art Colony. In 1934, McCosh joined the Public Works of Art Program. After exhibiting his pieces and working throughout the Midwest and New York, McCosh accepted a teaching position at the University of Oregon in 1934, where he taught art for the next 36 years. McCosh received three mural commissions from the Treasury Department’s Section of Fine Arts. Many of McCosh’s works from the 1930s and early 1940s draw on American Scene traditions. His later art engaged more with the natural world, most often through an abstract lens. McCosh is listed in Who Was Who in American Art and all other standard references.