Ezra Augustus Winter (March 10, 1886 – April 6, 1949)^[1] was a prominent American muralist.

Winter was born inTraverse City, Michigan, trained at theChicago Academy of Fine Arts in 1908, and theAmerican Academy in Rome in 1914. Winter became extremely successful and commanded high prices for his work. In 1924 he taught at theGrand Central School of Art.

Winter studied art at theChicago Academy of Fine Arts and was a fellow in visual arts at theAmerican Academy in Rome in 1914. Among his best-known works areThe Canterbury Tales in theLibrary of Congress andFountain of Youth in the foyer ofRadio City Music Hall. He also completed murals for theU.S. Supreme Court, theU.S. Chamber of Commerce, the University of Rochester and Eastman School of Music, and a six-story work for the Guardian Building in Detroit. During World War I Winter was a camouflage designer for theU.S. Shipping Board. He later taught at theGrand Central School of Art and kept a studio in Falls Village, Connecticut. Winter was associated with theNational Society of Mural Painters and theArchitectural League of New York. He served on the Connecticut State Commission of Sculpture and theU.S. Commission of Fine Arts, from 1928 to 1933, and was a member of theNational Institute of Arts and Letters. His papers are in theArchives of American Art at theSmithsonian Institution.^[2]

While painting one of his murals, Ezra Winter took a step back, forgetting the extreme height at which he was at, and fell. He suffered from a broken and compacted tailbone. After this he was unable to paint because of an unsteady hand and pain because of the accident. Winter killed himself in 1949 with a shotgun near his Connecticut studio at the age of 63.^[3]

His work includes:

• Fountain of Youth mural at theRadio City Music Hall inRockefeller Center
• theGeorge Rogers Clark National Historical Park inVincennes, Indiana
• theRochester Savings Bank inRochester, New York
• wall muralsJames Monroe High School inRochester, New York
• trading floor murals for the New York Cotton Exchange, New York City, for architectDonn Barber, 1923^[4]
• a spectacular six-story banking hall mural for theGuardian Building, and work for theBuhl Building, both in Detroit and both for architectWirt C. Rowland
• numerous murals at theBirmingham Public Library inBirmingham, Alabama
• Thomas Jefferson andCanterbury Tales murals,Library of CongressJohn Adams Building, Washington, D.C.
• Murals inWillard Straight Hall lobby,Cornell University, 1926. The murals depict representations of virtues including chivalry, adventure, diplomacy, creativity, and optimism.^[5]

Ezra Winter'sCanterbury Tales mural (1939),Library of CongressJohn Adams Building, Washington, D.C.

Winter did seven murals at theGeorge Rogers Clark National Historical Park.

• 
  Murals to the left
• 
  Statue and murals in the center
• 
  Murals to the right

• 1886 births
• 1949 deaths
• 20th-century American painters
• American male painters
• American muralists
• People from Traverse City, Michigan
• Suicides by firearm in Connecticut
• Artists who died by suicide
• Artists from Michigan
• National Academy of Design members
• University of Olivet alumni
• 1949 suicides
• 20th-century American male artists

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