Charles Cross

Charles Phillip Cross (Colorado, Maryland, 1916 - 2006). Artist Charles Phillip Cross, who died Sept. 1 at age 89 in Loveland, took a catholic approach to his subjects, who ranged from U.S. Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren to convicted murderer Arlo Looking Cloud.

The son of a Maryland couple who ran a chicken farm, Cross learned as a child to seek the distinguishing features that separated one chicken from another or one person from a crowd.

"Each is such an individual in his own right, and capturing the essence of my subject on canvas is an ongoing challenge," he told the Loveland Reporter-Herald in February.

At age 9, Cross began experimenting with caricatures that did not always sit well with the friends and neighbors interpreted on his sketch pad. He discovered that the advantage of cartoons - calling attention to foibles that many prefer to subdue - is also their drawback.

In high school, he attempted his first portrait, depicting himself in tones of black and white, against a green background. Cross found the result dismal but decided to pursue a career in art anyway.

As an undergraduate and graduate student, he studied at the Maryland Institute of Fine Art, interrupting his education to serve as a first lieutenant of a field artillery unit in the European theater of World War II. He returned to the Maryland Institute of Fine Art and taught there for 15 years. A commissioned portrait of a department head at nearby Johns Hopkins University launched his portraiture vocation.

SOURCE - https://www.invaluable.com/artist/cross-charles-phillip-40hwlohn13/?srsltid=AfmBOoq7wRAQY_L4VkZjlCtpmThKuzQdRc3bcgJFv538btMOX9MXY9JT#ARTIST_DETAIL_INFO (Sept, 2025)