Not much biographical information is available on Paul Cross Chapman on the Web sites of various art galleries and museums. But it's possible to piece together some information on Chapman's life from online genealogical sources and from archived newspaper items. Chapman was born in Chicago in 1898, the child of Arms Spafford Chapman and Minnie Estelle Chapman (neé Cross). He served in the U.S. Army in World War I. Living in Chicago after the war, he married Myra Mahan Kimball, with whom he had two surviving children, Peter Paul and Deborah Mahan. While studying at the Art Institute of Chicago, Chapman entered a juried contest to design murals for the press room of the Chicago Tribune, which was in the process of erecting their new headquarters building. Despite having little training and less exposure, he won the contest with its lucrative $5,000 prize. Chapman worked as an illustrator in the 1930s and received commissions for murals at Post Offices in Huntington, New York (1939) and Nutley, New Jersey (1941).Barefoot Days
Critical Analysis
With few examples of Chapman's work available online, it's difficult to make an assessment of his art. What one can easily see are his two Post Office murals. The harbor scene in Huntington is a pleasantly straight-forward composition, with an interesting circular array of sailboats lending sweep to the nautical scene. The Nutley mural gives an amusing portrayal of Annie Oakley seated on horseback before a painted backdrop. In this way Chapman is able to convey the circus atmosphere of Oakley's performances. The other surviving work of Chapman's is in the form of illustrations -- for a book "Barefoot Days", for the November 28, 1925 issue of Collier's Magazine and for several issues of Blue Book Magazine in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Like Chapman's mural of Huntington Harbor, these have a pleasant, inviting feel.
