Italian Gardens, 1904
Maxfield Parrish (1870-1966)
La Palazzina (Villa Gori), Siena, 1903
Illustration for Italian Villas and Their Gardens by Edith Wharton (NY: The Century Co., 1904)
Oil on board
Society of Illustrators, Purchase Fund, 089.005
In 1902, Century magazine asked Edith Wharton (1862-1937) to write a series of articles about Italian villas and their gardens. To that end, Wharton visited some fifty villas traveling around Rome, Florence, Siena, Genoa, in Lombardy and the Veneto. Many were closed to the public. Maxfield Parrish was commissioned to create 26 color illustrations to accompany the articles; subsequently the publisher turned the work into a popular book that cost $6 in 1904. This was one of the first of Parrish’s illustrated books to be published in color. (more…)
Refugees from The Marne
J. C. Leyendecker (1874-1951)
Refugees from The Marne
Cover illustration for the Saturday Evening Post (October 26, 1918), in reference to a story by Edith Wharton
Owner unknown (If anyone has a better digital image, I hope you will share it with me.)
After 1906, the American writer Edith Wharton (1862-1937) spent most of her time living in Paris. During World War I, Wharton made visits to military hospitals and the front lines, writing reports of her experiences for American newspapers. After the war she created her 1918 novella The Marne, a story of a young American boy who witnessed the refugees fleeing from the first battle of the Marne, through his own unexpected participation in the second battle of the Marne. It details his frustration with America’s slowness to help France during the war. (more…)
Just Issued
Anna Whelan Betts (1873-1959)
Just Issued: The Ape The Idiot and Other People, n.d.
Promotion poster for The Ape The Idiot and Other People by W. C. Morrow (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1897)
Collection of the Delaware Art Museum
In 1897 poster art was all the rage. Developed in the 1880s by the French artist and lithographer Jules Chéret (1836-1933), posters were art created in the service of advertising.* By 1892 the Century Magazine published the first American article on the new poster phenomena and Harper and Brothers hired the young illustrator Edward Penfield to produce original posters announcing the arrival of each new issue of Harper’s Monthly Magazine. In addition to the myriad of posters created to advertise new issues of various magazines, book publishers also took to having posters designed to promote their newest publications. The rapid expansion of the book market reflected an 1891 change in the international copyright laws that caused new American manuscripts to be comparable in cost to reprinting books from abroad. In order to satisfy the growing American market, publishers consequently sought manuscripts from American authors to publish. (more…)
Statue of Liberty
Edward Vincent Brewer (1883-1971)
Lady Liberty at Night, c. 1907
Cover illustration for Life Magazine (January 23, 1908)
Mixed media
Thanks to Heritage Auction Galleries in Dallas for the use of the original painting’s image.
Edward Brewer was a Minneapolis born artist who trained first with his painter father, Nicholas Richard Brewer, and then in New York at the Art Students’ League taking the illustration class with Walter Appleton Clark.* In 1905, Brewer was in Minnesota to marry and returned to New York with his bride. While his commissions were slow in coming, he began to do illustrations for Abercrombie and Fitch and to receive commissions to do magazine covers for Life magazine. One of the earliest of these commissions was for the January 23, 1908 issue. Life was a humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 until 1936, when it was sold to Henry Luce, who transformed its focus. (more…)
Beginnings
Jessie Willcox Smith (1863-1935)
New Year’s Baby, 1910
Cover illustration for Good Housekeeping (January 1925)
watercolor, gouache, charcoal, and colored pencil on board
Thanks to American Illustrators Gallery, NYC
J. C. Leyendecker may be known for his yearly contributions to Saturday Evening Post covers of a baby heralding the new year, but others too have used the image of a baby for the same purpose.* One of the most charming is Jessie Willcox Smith’s cover illustration for the January 1925 Good Housekeeping magazine. According to the information on this painting currently held by the American Illustrators Gallery in New York, Smith painted this illustration in 1910, four years after Leyendecker created his first New Year baby. (more…)
Endings
Frank X. Leyendecker (1878-1924)
Perseus and Medusa
Cover illustration for McClure’s Magazine (April 1910)
Although not as well known as his older brother J. C. (Joe) Leyendecker, Frank X. Leyendecker was also an illustrator of great skill. [see also Exploring Illustration posting from September 17, 2009.] Their family immigrated to United States in 1882 from Germany. As a teen ager Frank was apprenticed to learn stained glass art work in Chicago and later attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. At 18 Frank accompanied Joe to Paris where they studied at Académie Julian and the Académie Colarossi. After their return to Chicago in 1898 they began to make names for themselves working in illustration. In the following year the brothers moved to New York City where the burgeoning publishing world was gathering. (more…)
Falls City, Nebraska at Christmas, 1946
John P. Falter (1910-1982)
Falls City, Nebraska at Christmas, 1946
Illustration for Cover of Saturday Evening Post (December 21, 1946)
Oil on canvas
Nebraska State Historical Museum, 10645-4562
What a difference there is looking at John P. Falter’s 1946 oil painting of Falls City. Nebraska at Christmas, versus The Saturday Evening Post cover it became. [Unfortunately I do not have an image of the Post cover to share, but you can get on the Curtis Publishing web site http://www.curtispublishing.com/ to see it.] It is hard to know if the visual difference is due to fading, or if the publisher brightened the colors so that the cover image would pop. In the painting, the holiday aspect of the image is visible in the details. In the magazine cover the heightened red tones that move through the picture help to keep the holiday-ness in the forefront of the image. Notice also that the Post’s editor cropped the right and lower edge of Falter’s painting so that we feel a bit closer to the action on the town’s street. (more…)
The Inland Printer
Frank B. Nuderscher (1880-1959)
Man and press
Cover for The Inland Printer (September 1903)
Throughout his life Frank B. Nuderscher primarily lived and worked in St. Louis and was best known regionally as a painter of landscapes and city views of his area. It is unexpected then, to find that in 1903 he also created the above cover illustration for the popular Chicago trade magazine, The Inland Printer.
In the 19th century American explosion of printed materials, trade magazines were formed focused on information for a specific industry, trade, or profession. The Inland Printer was created in October 1883 as a local trade magazine for the booming mid-western printing industry. That first issue was “twenty-four pages, thirteen of copy and eleven of advertisements.”* Eventually this little monthly periodical became the bible of the printing industry and is still viewed as a primary source of historical information on that trade with some issues running for as many as 200 pages. In 1894, The Inland Printer became the first American magazine to have a new cover designed for every issue. Some of the most influential of illustrators of the day created distinctive covers for the magazine, including Will Bradley and the brothers J. C. and Frank X. Leyendecker. (more…)
The Land of Story-Books
N. C. Wyeth (1882-1945)
Imagination, c. 1921
Cover illustration for Ladies’ Home Journal (March 1922)
Oil on canvas
Private collection, MA
Inside books are worlds to be found, battles to be fought, discoveries to be made, and life paths to be chosen. The joining of a wonderful story and a receptive mind provides possibilities untold. So, for those of us who love to read, one of the true rewards may be found in the illustrations that accompany or decorate the stories we love. (more…)
Impossible Interview
Miguel Covarrubias (1904-1957)
Impossible Interviews: Sally Rand vs. Martha Graham
Illustration for Vanity Fair (December 1934)
Gouache on paper
Dancer/choreographer Martha Graham (1894-1991) established her Center for Contemporary Dance in New York in 1926, and was, by 1934, internationally recognized as the cutting edge in the world of dance performance. By 1934, burlesque dancer Sally Rand (1904-1979) was best known for her infamous appearance at the Chicago World’s Fair, the year before, where she was arrested four times in a single day for indecent exposure. (more…)
Gathering Wood
Maginel Wright Enright Barney (1877 or 81-1966), attributed to
Gathering Wood, c. 1919
Cover illustration for Woman’s World (November 1919)
Pencil and watercolor on paper
Original art for cover illustration is from a private collection.
Maginel Wright Enright Barney, born Margaret Ellen Wright, was the younger sister of the architect Frank Lloyd Wright. The name Maginel was a contraction of Maggie Nell, the name her family called her. (more…)
The Weaker Sex
Charles Dana Gibson (1867-1944)
The Weaker Sex II, 1903
Illustration for Collier’s Weekly v. 31 (July 4, 1903): 12-13; also one of the illustrations for Gibson’s Eighty Drawings featuring The Weaker Sex: The Story of a Susceptible Bachelor (New York: Scribner’s, 1903)
Ink on paper
Cabinet of American Illustration (Library of Congress). Accession no. DLC/PP-1935:0140.
Gibson Girls were lots of things: healthy, charming, athletic, white Anglo-Saxon Americans, and most assuredly, beautiful. Charles Dana Gibson’s images of women inspired “. . . costumes and hairdos” and promoted “the image of the athletic girl who played tennis and golf, rode horseback, swam, and bicycled, [and] became the symbol of the Gay Nineties.”* (more…)
Blue Roadster
Mead Schaeffer (1898-1980)
The Blue Roadster, 1941; caption, “Joe,” she said, “I’ve got to talk to somebody. Can I talk to you?”
Illustration for “Blue Roadster” by Corey Ford in The American Magazine (May 1941): 48
Oil on canvas
Society of Illustrators, Permanent Collection, donated by the artist, accession number 047.007
The action in this illustration takes place at a gas station. Schaeffer positions the handsome man moving purposefully toward the blond-haired woman with his back to us. This device helps us to move into the painting’s space with him, and because his facial expression is not revealed, makes him appear slightly menacing. (more…)
Gramercy Park
![9440325[1]](http://www.rcavs.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/94403251-240x300.jpg "9440325[1]")
John P. Falter (1910-1982)
Gramercy Park, c. 1944
Cover for The Saturday Evening Post (March 25, 1944)
Oil on board
© 1944 SEPS: Licensed by Curtis Publishing, Indianapolis, IN
Gramercy Park is located on the east side of Manhattan between 20th and 21st Streets. It encompasses the square of townhouses surrounding the park in addition to a fenced central green space. (more…)
Trick-or-Treat
John P. Falter (1910-1982)
Trick-Or-Treating in the Burbs, 1958
Illustration for cover of The Saturday Evening Post (November 1, 1958)
© 1958 SEPS: Licensed by Curtis Publishing, Indianapolis, IN
The 1950s is when American familial goals transformed from home and apple pie to a home in the suburbs, two cars in the garage, and living the good life. John P. Falter’s illustration for the 1958 Halloween cover of The Saturday Evening Post delineates a look of that good life. (more…)
The Woman in Business
Alice Barber Stephens (1858-1932)
The Woman in Business 1897
Illustration for cover of The Ladies Home Journal (September 1897) for series on “The American Woman”
oil on canvas
Collection of Brandywine River Museum, Museum purchase, 1982. Acquisition made possible through Ray and Beverly Sacks. Accession number, 82.12.
A. T. Stewart’s 1846 “Marble Palace” department store in New York was the first to open in this country. By the 1890s most major American cities had department stores which provided access to a cornucopia of goods made at home and abroad. In addition to being emporia where every mercantile desire could be satisfied, department stores were places where respectable women could earn a living. (more…)
Planning the Home
Norman Rockwell (1894-1978)
Planning the Home, 1920 (also known as, Family Reading Blueprints)
Illustration for the cover of The Literary Digest v. 65, no. 6 (May 8, 1920)
Oil on canvas
Private Collection
The Literary Digest was a popular general interest weekly magazine that began in 1890. In 1917, Norman Rockwell’s illustrations were being used by advertisers in the pages of The Literary Digest and the following year its’ publisher, Funk & Wagnalls, commissioned Rockwell to create his first cover for them. (more…)
Telling Stories
Worth Brehm (1883-1928)
Telling Stories, n.d.
Illustration for “Nowhere In Particular” in American Magazine
Charcoal, pencil and whiting on paper
Norman Rockwell Museum, Gift of The Horvath Collection, NRM.2008.01
Worth Brehm’s Telling Stories illustrates what an illustration is. To illustrate is to illuminate, like a spelunker does a cave, as the literary historian J. Hillis Miller notes. (more…)
New Silver
C. Coles Phillips (1880-1927)
New Silver, c.1920
Illustration for advertisement for Oneida Community Silversmiths
Watercolor and gouache on board
The Society of Illustrators, Purchase Fund, accession number 097.007
Oneida Community, Ltd., specialized in producing silver plate and stainless steel flatware marketing “to the woman of modest means who dreamt of having ‘correct service’ with which to decorate her table.”* Instead of selling their product at high end shops, Oneida offered their silver plate at hardware stores, department stores, and through mail-order catalog chains. In 1901, Oneida had an arrangement with the Quaker Oats company so that cereal package coupons could be traded in for Oneida silver plate. (more…)
Frog in the Library
![9560225[1]](http://www.rcavs.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/95602251.jpg "9560225[1]")
Richard Sargent (1911-1978)
Frog in the Library 1956
Illustration for cover of The Saturday Evening Post (February 25, 1956)
© 1956 SEPS. All Rights Reserved
This morning I looked for a seasonal illustration focused on returning to school. I received an email from my brother reminiscing about the beginning of the school year and mentioning that the elementary school we attended had been demolished. After seeing the photos a classmate had taken before and during the demolition, I’ve been thinking about being a kid in school in the 1950s. (more…)
The Letter Home
Frank Xavier Leyendecker (1877-1924)
The Letter Home c.1918
Illustration for the cover of Country Gentleman (February 23, 1918)
oil on canvas
Delaware Art Museum, F. V. du Pont Acquisition Fund, 1983-128
Like any person gone off to war, in quiet moments their thoughts often turn to home. (more…)
The Nation Makers
Howard Pyle (1853-1911)
The Nation Makers, 1903
Illustration published in Collier’s Weekly (June 2, 1906)
Oil on canvas
Brandywine River Museum, purchased through a grant from the Mabel Pew Myrin Trust, 1984 (Photography copyright Brandywine River Museum, 2009)
Wander the web and you will find dozens of reproductions of Howard Pyle’s 1903 painting, The Nation Makers, being offered for sale as prints, giclées, and paintings copied in China. The image and title seem to inspire everything from thoughtful consideration to reverent devotion on various blogs and web sites. (more…)
Daughters of Desperation
![2a13157r[1]](http://www.rcavs.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/2a13157r1-300x157.jpg "2a13157r[1]")
Charlotte Harding (1873-1951)
The Daughters of Desperation, 1903
Headpiece and title illustration for “The Daughters of Desperation” by Hildegarde Brocke in Collier’s Weekly (1904)
charcoal and wash on paper
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Cabinet of American Illustration, cai 2a13157; Accession No. DLC/PP -1933:0205.1
Charlotte Harding was trained as an artist at the School of Design for Women (now Moore College of Art) in Philadelphia and then at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Between 1897 and 1899 Harding studied illustration with Howard Pyle at Drexel Insitutite. Under Pyle’s direction she prepared illustrations for two novels and by 1900 Charlotte Harding’s work was appearing regularly in a variety of popular periodicals.
In 1903 Charlotte Harding produced this headpiece and title illustration block for a Collier’s Weekly story, “The Daughters of Desperation,” published in 1904. (more…)
Life Was Made
Life was made for love and cheer, 1904
Illustration for “Inscriptions for a Friend’s House” by Henry Van Dyke Harper’s Magazine v. 109 (September 1904):501
Watercolor and charcoal on illustration board
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Cabinet of American Illustration, LC-DIG-ppmsc-04735.
In 1901, 30-year old Elizabeth Shippen Green was awarded an exclusive contract creating illustrations for Harper’s Monthly Magazine. (more…)