Kansas State CapitolSpirit of Kansas MuralGeorge Melville Stone was born December 5 1858, on a farm near Topeka. He studied art in Paris at Académie Julian under Lefebvre, Bonnât, and Boulanger, from 1887 to 1891 and in New York City with Henry Mosler. In the 1890s, he opened an art school with cartoonist-publisher Albert T. Reid in Topeka. This school marked the beginning of the Washburn University art department. Stone became an internationally known portraitist and landscape artist. He came to Riverside, California, in 1909 to paint the portrait of the daughter of Frank Miller, the proprietor of the Mission Inn. While there, he painted other pictures including Father Serra Raising Mission Bell featured in West Coast magazine, April 1911. A talented landscape painter, Stone was best known for his portraits. He pursued a successful career painting many prominent individuals in Topeka including Joab Mulvane, founder of the Mulvane Art Museum at Washburn University. Mulvane, a prominent Topeka banker and entrepreneur, pledged in 1922 a gift of $50,000 to then Washburn College to build the art museum that bears his name. Stone's paintings of Kansas landscapes and farmers, however, earned him the title of "The Millet of the Prairies." His style was thought to be very similar to that of the French artist Millet. The mural seen on the east wall of the Governor's conference room is featured in the February 2008 addition of Vogue magazine. It is an allegorical painting of Justice, called Spirit of Kansas. The corn and wheat typify Kansas agricultural aspects. The broken shackles of slavery lay at her feet, serving as a reminder that Kansas entered the Union as a free state. The empty beer bottle and fallen whiskey demijohn signify that Kansas has been associated with the temperance cause. Most sources note that the mural was painted in the early 1900s. The Legislature commissioned Stone in 1920 to create another painting for the governor's office. This painting, The Pioneers, hung for many years in the governor's working office. It can now be viewed hanging in committee room 123-South on the first floor of the Capitol. Stone died November 2, 1931, in Topeka. Source: |
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