King Cole Bar

The King Cole Bar is defined by a thirty-foot-wide oil painting that dominates the space from its position above the mahogany bar. This mural, titled Old King Cole, depicts a jovial monarch flanked by jesters and courtiers. It was commissioned in nineteen oh five by John Jacob Astor the Fourth, who required the artist, Maxfield Parrish, to model the king’s face after his own. The mural is composed of three large canvas panels, which allowed it to be moved from its original home in the Knickerbocker Hotel to the St. Regis Hotel during the nineteen thirties.