Independent Artist

His father was the publisher of the Des Moines Register and Tribune, his younger brothers became the publishers of both papers as well as of Look magazine, but Russell Cowles '09 was a selfreliant person from the start. The desire to escape the family profession resulted in his assertion for independence and finally widespread acclaim for his expressive paintings.

The February 9 issue of Life magazine carried seven color reproductions of his work along with a short sketch of his life as an artist whose honest conservatism and poetic personal views of country scenes, animals, birds and people have made him one of the most popular of today's painters.

His mother, who had gone to the Chicago Art Institute, introduced him to painting and encouraged him in a career which led him, after graduation from Dartmouth, to New York, Rome, Paris, the East Indies, New Mexico, and New Milford, Conn. At his home in New Milford, Cowles works in a barnlike studio surrounded by Balinese souvenirs, heaps of unfinished canvases and a stuffed owl. His wide travels and studies have only served to convince him that the artist's fundamental job is to recreate beauty from nature.

As for his philosophy of art, he says, "When an artist sees something he wants to paint, his first step should be to look Some painters are too quick about imposing their will on nature." This explains why, although theories and fads have been sweeping modern art from one extreme to another during the past three or four decades, Mr. Cowles has gone on patiently painting the world as he sees it and becoming more and more popular as time goes by.