'Study for a Mural' by Daniel Putnam Brinley, 1932, Maquette, Allegory, Chicago, Alfred Stieglitz, Armory Show, National Academy of Design

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Signed lower right, 'D. Putnam Brinley' for Daniel Putnam Brinley (American, 1879–1963) and dated 1932. Artist note, lower left, 'Scale … Read more Signed lower right, 'D. Putnam Brinley' for Daniel Putnam Brinley (American, 1879–1963) and dated 1932. Artist note, lower left, 'Scale 1'' - 1'. '

American muralist and painter Daniel Brinley first studied at the King's School (CT) and the Dwight School (NY) before attending the Art Students League with Bryson Burroughs, Benjamin West Clinedinst, and Henry Siddons Mowbray, and was most influenced by Kenyon Cox and John Henry Twachtman (1900-1902). In 1904, Brinley married his childhood friend, Kathrine Gordon Sanger, who would later achieve fame as an author of travel books. The couple spent nearly two years in Paris, where Daniel was influential in organizing the New Society of American Painters. While in Europe, Brinley studied art in both Paris and Florence.

Brinley had previously been an impressionist landscape painter under Twachtman's influence, but he studied art independently while abroad and began to gravitate toward the Modernist school. In 1908, the Brinleys returned to the U.S., and Daniel established a studio in New York City. Brinley had his first one-man show at Madison Avenue Galleries in 1910, exhibited at Alfred Stieglitz's gallery, and helped organize the 1913 Armory Show. He was a founding member of the Association of American Painters and Sculptors (1911) and the Grand Central Art Galleries. Brinley was also a member of the Silvermine Guild of Artists (president, 1923), National Academy of Design (associate, from 1930), the National Society of Mural Painters, National Arts Club, MacDowell Club and the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design (NYC).

The artist exhibited widely and with success including at the Paris Salon (1906), Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (1907-14), the Carnegie Institute (1916-17), Art Institute of Chicago (1911, 1923, 1935), the Society of Independent Artists (1917), National Academy of Design (1908-9, 1931, 1940, 1949), Corcoran Galleries (1923, 1926), among others. During the 1930s, Brinley earned considerable fame and profit from his murals which include the decorative maps for Liberty Memorial, in Kansas City, MO. These maps, painted in 1926, continue to be a permanent exhibit in Memory Hall of the National World War I Museum, which is now part of the Memorial site. Brinley also created a mural for the Brooklyn Savings Bank, for which he was awarded the Gold Medal of Honor of the Architectural League of New York. Finally, he created the Great Terrestrial Globe that sat in the lobby of the Daily News Building in New York City. He later illustrated travel books, including 100 watercolors and crayon sketches of Canadian scenes published in books by Gordon Brinley (1938).

Reference:
Who Was Who in American Art 1564-1975: 400 Years of Artists in America, Peter Hastings Falk, Sound View Press 1999, Vol. 1, page 444-445; E. Benezit, Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs, et Graveurs, Jacques Busse, 1999 Nouvelle Édition, Gründ 1911, Vol. 2, page 815; Mantle Fielding’s Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors and Engravers, Glen B. Opitz, Apollo Press 1983, page 107; Mallett’s Index of Artists, Daniel Trowbridge Mallett, Peter Smith: New York 1948 Edition, R.R. Bowker Company 1935, page 53; et al. See less