Eugene Francis Savage
(American, 1883-1978)
Feast on Mount Olympus, 1926 (study for the Grand Reception Hall mural of the Elks Veterans Memorial and Headquarters, Chicago)
watercolor, gouache, and pencil
signed Eugene Savage (lower right)
42 x 29 1/2 inches.

A late proponent of the allegorical school of painting, Eugene Savage is best known for the murals executed for the Works Progress Administration. With a prolific career spanning nearly a half-a-century, Savage's Art Deco masterpieces don the walls of major institutions and memorials throughout the United States, including the Great Hall at Fair Park in Dallas, Texas, and the Elks National Veterans Memorial in Chicago.

The present work is a study for the mural of the ceiling of the Grand Reception Hall of the Elks National Veterans Memorial. The mural, in its completion, shows a feast on Mount Olympus, which, in-situ, is situated above a series of vignettes depicting virtues, such as Brotherly Love, Fidelity, and Justice.

Built in 1926 to honor the veterans of the fraternity of the Elks, the monument sits prominently at the edge of Chicago's Lincoln Park and is one of the most dominant features of the city's near north side. Savage executed not only the Classical murals of the Reception Hall, but also the memorial's expansive rotunda, which features the figures of service men and women, depictions of war by air, land and sea, and representations of the Beatitudes.