In 1915, while studying at the Chicago Art Institute, he won the American Prix de Rome in painting, enabling him to study at the American Academy in Rome, where he received a bachelor of arts degree. Later he received bachelor (1924) and master of fine arts degrees from Yale, where he taught for twenty-eight years. While acting as a member of the Fine Arts committee of the American Academy in Rome, he ensured, though not a member of the jury, that a generation of winning artists were painting in the manner of Thomas Hart Benton or Savage himself. He became an Associate Member of the National Academy of Design, 1924 and National Academician, 1926.
Thomas Hart Benton
Savage