Cornelius Salisbury was born in Richfield, Utah in 1882. He was a Utah painter and educator married to the artist Rose Salisbury. He died in Salt Lake City in 1970.

Salisbury studied with J. F. Carlson in 1904 and at the University of Utah the following year. He was E. H. Eastmond's student at Brigham Young University from 1907 to 1908.

Curtain Time, Pioneer Theater, Salt Lake City (1947), part of the Springville Museum of Art's permanent collection,  is an example of his work.  Another example of his work is The Source of Our Daily Bread (1926).

Biography adapted from Artists of Utah.

This prominent Salt Lake City painter and teacher was born in Richfield, Utah. He studied with John F. Carlson (1904), at the University of Utah (1905), at B.Y.U. (1907-08) under E.H. Eastwood, at the Arts Students League under William Dufner and the Pratt Institute in New York (1908-10), at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C. (1916-18), and at the Broadmore Art Academy in Colorado Springs (1927). He taught at B.Y.U. (1907-08), at Lewis Junior High in Ogden (1920-24), at Jordan Junior High (1925-27), and at West High School (1928-43). More extensively and academically trained than his wife painter Rose Howard Salisbury, he was the winner of great many prizes at home, especially at State Fair and in Institute annuals. A Cornelius Salisbury “specialty“ was “the painting of winter and pioneer Utah homes“; he painted for the old Salt Lake Theatre and performed as an actor there as well. After the theatre was torn down in 1928, Salisbury's Curtain Time- Salt Lake Theatre, with its mixed expression of the place's warmth of life set against a cold winter night of long ago, best stated the memory of a lost and irreplaceable Utah landmark and visual arts institution. The painting was purchased by Springville Gallery in 1947, and another version is featured in Pioneer Memorial Theatre.

Biography courtesy Artists of Utah

Books

Dunbier, Lonnie Pierson, ed. The Artists Bluebook: 29,000 North American Artists. Scottsdale, AZ: AskART.com, 2003.

Davenport, Ray. Davenport's Art Reference. Ventura, CA: Davenport's Art Reference, 2001.

Dawdy, Doris. Artists of the American West: A Biographical Dictionary. Chicago, IL: Sage Books, 1990.

Falk, Peter Hastings. Who Was Who in American Art, 1564-1975: 400 Years of Artists in America. Madison, CT: Sound View Press, 1999.

Falk, Peter Hastings. Who Was Who in American Art: Compiled from the Original Thirty-four Volumes of American Art Annual--Who's Who in Art, Biographies of American Artists Active from 1898-1947. Madison, CT: Sound View Press, 1985.

Haseltine, James L. 100 Years of Utah Painting: Selected Works from the 1840s to the 1940s. Salt Lake City, UT: Salt Lake Arts Center, 1965.

Olpin, Robert S., William C. Seifrit, and Vern G. Swanson. Artists of Utah. Salt Lake City, UT: Gibbs Smith Publisher, 1999.

Samuels, Peggy and Harold Samuels. The Illustrated Biographical Encyclopedia of Artists of the American West. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1976.

Springville Museum of Art. Permanent Collection Catalog. Springville, UT: Springville Museum of Art, 1972.

Swanson, Vern G., Robert S. Olpin, Donna Poulton, and Janie Rogers. 150 Year Survey of Utah Art, Utah Artists. Layton, UT: Gibbs Smith Publisher, 2001.

Swanson, Vern G., Robert S. Olpin, and William C. Seifrit. Utah Art. Layton, UT: Peregrine Smith Books, 1992.

Swanson, Vern G., Robert S. Olpin, and William C. Seifrit. Utah Painting and Sculpture. Layton, UT: Gibbs Smith Publisher, 1991.

Newspaper Articles

"Art Canvass." The Deseret News, August 28, 1994.

"Art of the Depression: Colorful Works That Reflect Hope." The Deseret News, September 25, 1988.

"Exhibits Ban Winter Blues at Springville Museum." The Deseret News, January 24, 1993.

"The Palette of Artists." The Deseret New, September 25, 1988.