Marvin Cone
Born in Cedar Rapids in 1891; graduated in 1914 Coe College, Cedar Rapids, receiving Bachelor of Science degree. Moved to Chicago and entered the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 1914-1917. Studied under Atelier-concurs system with Antonin Sterba and Karl A. Buehr. Traveled with Grant Wood during summer of 1920. Enlisted in Army April 1917. Cone taught at Coe College from 1919-1960 where he organized the college art department. Cone made important, thought less publicized contributions to the Regionalist tradition in American art. Throughout his career he sustained participation in regional and national exhibitions. His painting style progressed from powerful rural landscapes through the series on carnivals and haunted room to abstracted compositions.
He was married to Winnifred Cone, following their meeting on a ship crossing the Atlantic Ocean.
"Marvin Cone was a lifelong resident of Cedar Rapids and beloved friend of Grant Wood. Cone was a leader in regionalist art and the Linn County art community. Cone attended Adams Elementary School and Washington High School from 1906-1910. He completed his undergraduate education at Coe College (1914) and then enrolled at the Art Institute of Chicago. World War I interrupted his studies; Cone was drafted and stationed in New Mexico, then set on to France in 1917, where he worked as an interpreter. While overseas, he studied at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, Montpellier (1919).
Marvin returned to Cedar Rapids in 1919 to a French teaching position at Coe College for the 1919-1920 academic year. He immediately renewed his past friendship with Grant Wood. The two artists went to France in the summer of 1920, producing a series of impressionistic works while living in Paris. From 19191-1929, Cone returned to France each summer for art studies and enrichment.
Together, Cone and Wood developed and launched the Stone City Art Colony in the summer of 1932. After enduring a financial struggle in 1933, the colony closed, mainly due to Depression-era conditions. Immediately upon the colony's closing, Cone accepted a painting professor position at Coe College.
He continued to each at Coe until 1960. Within those forty years, he taught French from 1920-1934, and in 1934, founded the college's art department. Cone maintained an extensive teaching load, including studio classes and art history courses. The campus art gallery is named in his honor and houses the largest permanent collection of Cone art work in the state of Iowa. He was a member of the Iowa Artists Club and the Cedar Rapids Art Association. A main gallery of the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art is dedicated to this vibrant artist. Marvin Cone died in Cedar Rapids in 1965."
Copied from The Stone City Art Colony: 1932-33, Anamosa, Iowa. A Collection of Biographical Profiles of Students and Faculty. Kristy Nelson Raine, Busse Library, Mount Mercy College, Cedar Rapids, Iowa; copyright October, 2003.
