biography of Irving R. BACON (1875-1962)

Birth place: Fitchburg, MA

Death place: El Cajon, CA

Addresses: Grosse Pointe, MI; Miami, FL

Profession: Genre painter, illustrator, sculptor, writer

Studied: Gies Art School, Detroit; Chase School Art with F. Luis Mora; Royal Art Acad., Munich, with Heinrich von Zugel, Carl von Marr.

Exhibited: Royal Acad., Munich 1909 (med., award); NAD;1910-12; PAFA,1911, 1912; AIC,1911, 1912; Western Artists,1910-13; Detroit Inst. of Art. Awards: prizes, Paris Salon; NAD; PAFA; Western Artists.

Member: Scarab Club, Detroit

Work: Louisville Art Gal.; Buffalo Bill Cody Collection, Cody, WY; Royal Castle Mus., Sweden; Book Tower Club, Detroit; Edison Inst.; Ford Museum. Executed portraits of Henry Ford, Luther Burbank, Noah Webster, Mark Twain, Dr. George Washington Carver, Stephen Foster, John Burroughs and many others. Reproductions of early Ford inventions in the Ford Collection.

Comments: Moved to Detroit, MI, with his family in c. 1880. Illus., Detroit Tribune, Detroit Evening News, 1894-97; Detroit Free Press, 1897-1900; Harper's Weekly, McClure's, New York American, 1900-1902. Art dir., Business Men's Magazine, Detroit, 1902-1906. Designer: greyhound and quail radiator ornaments for Ford. He was associated with the Ford Motor Co. in different artistic capacities for 33 years, and the personal artist for Henry Ford.

Sources: WW59; WW47; Peggy and Harold Samuels, 17; Gibson, Artists of Early Michigan, 40.