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Eugene Francis Savage was born in Covington, Indiana 1883. He underwent
various forms of art training in his youth. He studied at the Corcoran Gallery
and the Art Institute of Chicago, and was later awarded a fellowship to study in
Rome at The American Academy. While under the spell of that ancient city the
young artist began to render historic figures that were suitable for the classic
style needed for mural painting in the traditional manor. During this period he
was able to study and observe Roman and Greek sculpture, although much of the
academic training was accomplished by using plaster casts along with the
incorporation of live models. This method survived and was used efficiently
throughout Europe and the United States.
After leaving the Academy, Savage was commissioned to paint numerous
murals throughout the United States and Europe. This artist received acclaim for
the works he produced while under commissions from various sources. This young
master was a contemporary of Mexican muralists
David Alfaro
Siqueiros (1896-1974),
Jose Clemente
Orozco (1883-1949) and
Diego Rivera
(1886-1957). In this period he was to show the influence of his contemporaries
in formulating a modern style. Savage also played a vital role in the
WPA Federal Art program, and he was
a member of the Mural Art Guild.
After getting a B.F.A. from Yale University in 1924, later that same
year Savage was elected an associate member of The National Academy of Design
and two years alter in 1926 he was made a full
National
Academician. In 1935-1936, 1939, 1950, 1953 and 1954, the artist focused his
attention on a theme that dealt with the customs and tribal traditions of the
Seminole Indians of
Florida. Savage's depiction of the
Seminole attire
is considered extraordinarily accurate and it was based upon first hand obtained
clothing samples his descendants still have today. The bright clothing of the
Seminoles, particularly that of the women, is extraordinarily colorful,
consisting of small bright patches of colored cotton sewn together in a quilt
like fashion. It was thought by some that at the turn of the century almost all
of the Seminole homes had human powered Singer Sewing machines with which they
made these colorful garments.
Not all of the Seminole contact with modern America went so well or was
so pretty to look at. In the 1930's even the slow to action Federal government
started to pay attention to the depredations that the Florida land boom and
development had on the
Seminole nation,
particularly on the Everglades, as it flushed out a native population that had
been pretty much in hiding since the Seminole Wars of the 1840's. By then the
waterways and swamp foliage cover which had served them so well started to
disappear as lakes were drained and trees cut down. While there were supporters
of an Everglades National Park in the 1930's efforts to buy land and preserve
areas from development by Congress were stalled by critics who called the
proposed legislation the "alligator and snake swamp bill," and so
the full bill stalled during the Great Depression and World War II. It was in
that temporal context of 1935-1936 that Savage painted and widely exhibited:
Biscayne Holiday, 1935,
Draining
the Everglades, 1935, and
Destitution, 1935. It can be inferred that simultaneous efforts,
which included
Seminole
Siesta,
South
Miami and the
Orchid
Hunters, were meant to show the Seminoles in a more pristine "Garden
of Eden" like setting before the white man's intrusion and/or what life for them
might be like after an Everglades National Park finally got established. However
it wasn't until December 6, 1947, that President Harry S Truman dedicated the
Everglades National Park.
Eugene Savage would return to Florida, as sometime
around 1953 he was a visiting fellow at taught as a Professor at
Rollins College
in Winter Park, Florida. He would return to his Seminole theme from before but
the pictures were usually modest scale easel paintings, precise and carefully
delineated. Many of these pictures incorporate Surrealistic elements and show
some minor stylistic influences of the painters Kay Sage (1886-1957) and Yves
Tanguy (1900-1955). Many of Savages' artistic portrayals of Seminole culture
could be considered Dreamscapes with models and elements are often composed in a
stage-like setting. From 1927, he held a professorship at
Yale University
where he taught mural painting, and
some of his students went on to significant positions.
By mid twentieth century, the artist had painted
large-scale murals at Columbia, Yale University, Buffalo N.Y., Dallas, Texas,
Chicago, Indiana, along with other commissioned works. His largest work may be
the mosaic at the
Epinal American Memorial in Epinal, France, a massive work which is said
to be fully four times the size of
a recently rediscovered study for the mosaic
which measures 45 by 162 inches. He also achieved recognition for a series of
murals commissioned by the Matson Shipping Line and completed around 1940. For
this commission, Savage made many exacting studies of customs and folkways of
the Hawaiian natives. However, the award-winning murals were not installed as
planned but were put in storage during the war years when the ships were used
for troop transportation and were in danger of attack.
