Architectural Presentation Painting
Title/Subject: Presentation painting for the Cass Gilbert architectural firm
Artist: Chesley Bonestell (American, 1888-1986)
Date: ca. 1920
Type: painting
Medium: oil on fabric-covered Masonite board
Dimensions: 39" high x 29" wide
Collection: Paintings, Prints, Drawings and other Framed Items (RG 40)
Chesley Bonestell's painting, over three feet high, for the Cass Gilbert architectural firm served as a presentation of concept for a proposed building for the administrators of Oberlin College. Gilbert had designed four Oberlin campus buildings: Finney Memorial Chapel (1908), the Cox Administration Building (1915), the Allen Memorial Art Museum, right (1917) and the Allen Memorial Hospital, now Mercy Allen Hospital (1925). The proposed building with a prominent memorial bell tower was to replace Peters Hall and create, in Gilbert's view, a more unified architectural plan for the campus. He later designed the Graduate School of Theology Quadrangle (Bosworth Hall, Asia House, Fairchild Chapel) in 1931. Bonestell's work includes architectural paintings such as this one, scientific illustrations, and special effects matte paintings for films such as Destination Moon (1950), When Worlds Collide (1951), and War of the Worlds (1953). He was an American pioneer of space art who helped popularize manned space travel. He is well known for his cover art for science fiction magazines, including Astounding Science Fiction and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction as well as many books such as The Conquest of Space, The Exploration of Mars, and Beyond the Solar System in collaboration with several authors. A crater on Mars and asteroid 3129 Bonestell are named after him.
The story in which this painting plays a part is that of Oberlin's building program as it relates to the College's heritage and philosophy, as well as changing building styles and aesthetics. Gilbert was the College's architect for over twenty years, and his design for this unrealized building forced the College to engage in discussions about Oberlin's identity as presented through its architecture. That Gilbert commissioned this large painting, rather than relying on his own considerable drawing skills for presentation of design as he had for other campus buildings, suggests his passion for the project and the level of his desire to persuade the College to approve it. The College deliberated for some time over the proposal, and ultimately turned it down.
The sticking point was the height of the bell tower, 300 feet. The College considered itself to be of humble and idealistic beginnings, and while the mediterranean style was in keeping with Gilbert's other buildings on campus, the proposed tower was, in their view, too ostentatious. Gilbert had developed plans for the campus, and to him this building was critical to the achievement of an approach based on an axial scheme and a unified style. The proposed building was to be the entrance to and the terminus of the Memorial Arch, itself a grand walkway through Tappan Square to and from the East campus. The Victorian Peters Hall (1887) was a hindrance to Gilbert's vision for the College.
The College Archives holds extensive correspondence between Cass Gilbert and presidents Henry Churchill King and Ernest Hatch Wilkins, and other administrators of the College regarding Oberlin's building program and Gilbert's vision. Former history professor Geoffrey Blodgett published essays and a book on Cass Gilbert and his architecture at Oberlin College and elsewhere. Blodgett's papers hold his research notes and manuscripts, and point the way to the sources he consulted in the College Archives. One can also find material in a small collection for Cass Gilbert in the Archives.
Sources
Chesley Bonestell website (accessed 8/16/2020).
Geoffrey Blodgett, "President King and Cass Gilbert: The Grand Collaboration," in Oberlin
History, Essays and Impressions (Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 2006).
Related Collections
Cass Gilbert Collection (RG 30/124)
Geoffrey T. Blodgett Papers (RG 30/253)
Architectural Records (RG 53)