100 Years of Illustration

William Glackens - 2

Here are more Glackens illustrations. They are all from Scribner's Monthly Magazine. Click on the images to enlarge them.

"Rabbi Eliezer's Christmas," by Abraham Cahan, ran in the December 1899 issue. The caption reads, "Why should you be afraid to tell us how much?" An immigrant from Lithuania, Cahan founded the Forward, a Yiddish language newspaper. He was also a well-respected novelist.

From the same story, "Fish, fish, living fish—buy fish, dear little housewives!"

This beautiful page appeared in the same issue of the magazine, illustrating a story by Arthur Colton, best known as a poet. These drawings were made after Glackens made a trip to Cuba in 1898 with his friend and fellow Ashcan School painter, George Luks.

These illustrations were on facing pages of a story by Sewell Ford, "Pluribus Jones and how he came into his own," from the June 1906 issue.

From "The Old Lamp," by the Venezuelan writer Catalina Paez, in the May 1909 issue. "Carmelina enthroned upon the stairs of her own vegetable cellar."

From the same story, "The joy of huddling bside Nonna on a potato sack."

Glackens knew his subjects well. The work appears to have been done in charcoal and a watercolor wash.

William Glackens and his illustrations of the theatre

I first heard about Bill Glackens from my mentor, Harold Irving Smith, who had studied with Robert Henri and George Luks years later. Harold was another generation, a World War I generation, whereas Glackens goes back to the days of Renoir and Honoré Daumier, a great influence on Glackens' early illustrations. The following links will tell you far more about Glackens than I can, with any authority. I like him for how he drew, how he composed his art, and how his characters looked, so true to life.
So, to read about William James Glackens, click on these links.

Glackens bio

another Glackens bio

This is a beauty, which appeared in Scribner's Monthly Magazine for February 1905, click on image to enlarge it. The article was entitled "The Lights and the Stars of Broadway," by John Corbin. It looks to me like a combination of gouache or opaque watercolor with pastel colors picking up highlights, but that's just a guess.

"In Town it's Different," for "The Play's the Thing," by Albert White Vorse in Scribner's Monthly Magazine for August 1899. Click on image to enlarge it. It could have been done in litho pencil with watercolor washes, transparent and opaque on top.

Here's an example of nicely these illustrations were placed within the text of the above article. FromScribner's Monthly Magazine for August 1899. Click on this image and the image below to enlarge them.

From "The Vaudeville Theatre," by Edwin Milton Royle, in Scribner's Monthly Magazine for October 1899.

These are all from the same article. Click on images to enlarge them.

Howard Giles, 1914-1915

I don't understand this guy. He had the hands and the moves to be a really dynamic illustrator and even participated in an artistic movement called dynamic symmetry described as a "controversial but lasting thesis that design and great art can be created by application of easily followed mathematics." I think it's the mathematics part where they went wrong, but that's just a personal opinion.

Giles was born in Brooklyn. He studied at the Art Students League in New York City, and is known as a painter, illustrator, and teacher. The theory of Dynamic Symmetry belongs to a contemporary of his, Canadian illustrator and painter Jay Hambidge(1867-1924).

The examples shown here are what I think are the best of his work for Harper's Monthly Magazine when he was in his late thirties during the first years of World War I. Click on images to enlarge.

A lead article for a summer issue of Harper's Monthly Magazine "It is pleasant to enter the sea with such lovely creatures," is the caption for the color illustration. It's a contrived composite compared to the understated image of mother and child on the opposite page. You can imagine the individiual photos he worked from and dumped into the crowd scene. Apparent also is what seems to be his total disinterest in the background, whereas the smaller piece has much more feeling.

Click on this image to see more detail. It's what he left out that makes this so charming. But then I'm a big fan of Less is More.

I like this for the same reason. It's probably from a photo, too, but there's a feeling of movement enhanced by excellent compostion. It's a forerunner of what magazine illustration became in mid-century.

Alas, this is the best I have of his boring full color work of the period. All I see are four individual photos and some competent brushwork, an indifferent background and some leaves and branches that get in the way of perception.

Here's another one of his best. It's from June of 1915 and it looks as if it could be the work of a totally different illustrator if you compare this to the color piece above.

Click to enlarge for detail.

May Wilson Preston - 3

Was there anyone, male or female, who could draw both people and their cars this well?
Click on all the following images to enlarge them.

"Won't you let us give you a lift?" from Harper's Monthly Magazine for August 1911

The same automobile. "It Stood for Country in the Midst of Town" from Harper's Monthly Magazine for August 1911

"Now, Honey, you tell them what you told me." from Harper's Monthly Magazine for August 1911
These illustrations are from a series of stories by Margaret Cameron and her characters, the Dollivers. They were from "The Golden Rule Dollivers."

Another illustration for The Dollivers, circa 1912 in Harper's Monthly Magazine.

" 'Select a young lady, Master Ransom,' " chirped Monsieur Boncourt in passing." From "The Militant Moment of Lou Grey," by Madge Jenison, in Harper's Monthly Magazine for November 1915.

" 'Your Country Needs You,' said I," from "Simeon Small, Militarist," in Harper's Monthly Magazine for May 1918.

"The Battle Ebbed and Flowed." From the same story, author unknown to me.

"Even the Liberty rug went for three-fifty. It had been marked a thousand dollars." From "White Elephants," author unknown to me, in Harper's Monthly Magazine for July 1918.