Covey - Arthur

Covey, Arthur Sinclair (1877-1960)

Arthur Sinclair Covey was born on June 13, 1877, in Leroy, Illinois. He studied at Southwestern College in Kansas and the Chicago Art Institute. In 1904 he studied in Munich, Germany. He went on to work as a staff artist for several publications then taught at the Chicago Art Institute and later at the London Art Institute. Upon returning from London, he married and had two children. In 1914 he assisted Robert Reid and Jules Guerin in the creation of a mural for the 1914-1915 Panama Pacific Exposition and received the Bronze Medal. His first wife died in 1917, and four years later he married the children’s book author and illustrator Lois Lenski. In 1929 they moved to a farm in Torrington, Connecticut. He served as President of the National Mural Painters Society from 1926-29. In 1936 Covey began work for the WPA Federal Arts Project. He painted the mural entitled Bridgeport Manufacturing in the Bridgeport Post Office. He also painted the mural depicting the life of John Brown in the Torrington Post Office. He went on to create murals for the 1939 World’s Fair and La Guardia Airport. In the 1950s he and his wife moved to Tarpon Springs, Florida where he died on February 5, 1960.

Sources: A Finding Aid to the Arthur Sinclair Covey Papers, 1882-1960in the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Archives Finding Aid at www.aaa.si.edu/collections/finding aids/covearth.htm; Obituary, New York Times, February 6, 1960; AskART; Mantle Fielding’s Dictionary of American Painters (1987) pg. 182; Who Was Who in American Art(1985) pg.134.

Works of Art Listed in CT Archives’ database from Arthur Covey:

Covey, Arthur