American painter and graphic designer Stanley Hess taught at Drake University. Following his experience assisting Jean Charlot on his mural at the Des Moines Art Center, Hess received many commissions to design murals for the exteriors and interiors of buildings in Des Moines. Many of Hess' designs utilize Cubist breakup of form, and others involve trompe l'oeil. Hess' tempera on board painting is a design for a proposed mural on the history of insurance commissioned by a Des Moines insurance company around 1960. The mural was never executed, and this painting is the only evidence of how it might have appeared.

Source: News, Jan Feb Mar 2016