Born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1866, Jules Guérin became internationally recognized for his detailed yet poetic illustrations of urban subjects, capturing architectural gems from New York to the Middle East. His training in the arts began in Chicago, where he worked as an assistant to a theater scenery painter before eventually traveling abroad and enrolling at the Académie Julian in Paris in 1895. He also explored Holland and one year later exhibited a collection of forty paintings of provincial Dutch life at the Art Institute of Chicago. By 1900, he had established himself in New York and found work as an illustrator for books and other publications, including The Century Magazine and Scribner’s, thanks to his friendship with Maxfield Parrish. Guérin’s designs reveal Parrish’s influence on him as a colorist, while his early experience as a scenic painter and affinity for exotic locales and allegorical subject matter eventually resulted in commissions for mural work. Today examples of these impressive undertakings can be found in buildings throughout the Unites States, including the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, the Louisiana State Capitol building in Baton Rouge, and the old Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.

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