100 Years of Illustration

Introducing Walter King Stone - 1

There isn't very much known about this unique illustrator. Perhaps the search engines will add some links in the future. He was also a painter but for me, these are much more interesting than his easel paintings. Ask Art is a link to about eight paintings. Click on the following images to enlarge them.

I love this one. It's from the August 1909 issue of Scribner's Monthly Magazine, "Dips into all the happiest, friendliest valleys." illustrating "A Black Forest Pathway (from Pforzheim to Basel) by Frederick van Beuren, Jr., who wrote the article when he was 29. I Googled the only Frederick van Beuren, Jr. and found this link.

"Through all the greenest, most delicious mysteries of the Schwarzwald." from the same article.

Harper's Monthly Magazine on the other hand, chose to run Stone's work in two colors, or black-and-white, and assigned him a lot of night scenes with and without animal life. This is from an article in the issue of September 1910 entitled simply "Night." The caption for the illustration reads, "The Fields are bathed in Moonlight. " I do not have the name of the writer.

"The Night Gloom of the Waters," from the same article.

"There is plenty of testimony that foxes do eat wild grapes." This illustration and the one which follows are from "The Harvest of the Wild Places," by Walter Prichard Eaton in the November 1914 issue of Harper's Monthly Magazine.

"An Autumn Harvester."

Norman Rockwell's Pretty Women: 1960, an Appreciation

The following examples appeared in Norman Rockwell: 332 magazine covers and are copyright © 1979 by Cross River Press, Ltd., and Copyright © Curtis Publishing Co., where applicable.

Christopher Finch's compilation of 332 magazine covers by Norman Rockwell.

Did the introduction to magazine publishing of Playboy in 1953 and its imitators influence Norman Rockwell? Whatever it is was, he had already revealed himself as an illustrator with an appreciation of young women, but the previous examples were painterly and circumspect, in keeping with the Post's editorial policy of conservative correctness. Click on image to enlarge this illustration for a Post cover of 27 August 1960.

Exhibit 1. Pert and perky young woman. Rockwell had done pert and perky before, but she could be described as voluptuous.

Exhibit 2. This is the Old Master himself looking back at the young woman talking to the sailor or surreptitiously checking out the back of another attractive young woman. It's a great inside joke: the self-deprecating humor of a confessed ogler.

I've saved the best for last. Click on the above image to enlarge the sketch for a cover that ran on 17 September 1960.

I don't think anyone could have done better than this. Compared to the slick renderings of sexy women by his contemporaries, this young woman is real. I know, I married someone who could have been her sister.

Next: Howard Pyle (1853-1911) the great Master of American Illustration.

Norman Rockwell's Pretty Women: 1940-1943

The following examples appeared in Norman Rockwell: 332 magazine covers and are copyright © 1979 by Cross River Press, Ltd. , and Copyright © Curtis Publishing Co., where applicable.

Christopher Finch's compilation of 332 magazine covers by Norman Rockwell.

18 May 1940. In this illustration, Rockwell has gone a bit too cartoony for my taste. As a character she is not in keeping with her manicure customer. I've tried to find the cartoonist's work who this reminds me of, but to no avail. The style says Film Fun or one of the girly books of the period. It's not one of Rockwell's best but it shows that he could get off course or worse yet, be persuaded to do so by his editor. Compare the work to these of the following year.

1 March 1941. The technique is pure Norman Rockwell. Note the masterful way in which the saddle shoes are painted.

5 September 1941. The draft has taken young men off to train for the war that had been raging in Europe for two years. Two young women confront each other with snapshots of the same soldier. In real life, the models were the young daughters of Mead Schaeffer, another Post cover artist and illustrator and Rockwell's neighbor in Arlington, Vermont.

Rockwell's World War II young housewife doing her bit for the war effort in a 4 September 1943 cover. The meticulous pencil sketch appears above. The Japanese imperial flag and the swastika brickbats she dodges were eliminated for the final art, below. Click on the bottom image to enlarge it.

Next: Norman Rockwell's Pretty Women: 1960, an Appreciation.

Gib Darling update

I just received this very welcome email from Gib Darling's granddaughter, Sally:

Hello Paul
Here is a little information on Gib.
His full name was Henry Gilbert Darling
Born Feb. 5, 1901 in Wellington, New Zealand
Gib grew up in Redlands, Ca.
He died in Toms River New Jersey on July 2, 1990
Art Education: California School of Fine Arts, San Francisco, Ca.
Employed by Patterson & Sullivan( later named Patterson & Hall) in San Francisco until 1939, then free lanced in New York City
until the late 1950's. Gib ended his career at the Bates agency in New York City in 1984 at the age of 83.
He was Vice President of the Society of Illustrators in 1953 & 1954.
He was always known as Gib and never "Gil"

I've made the necessary revisions and add this link to his work which appeared a couple of months ago in April.

Norman Rockwell's Pretty Women: 1919-1936

The following examples appeared in Norman Rockwell: 332 magazine covers and are copyright © 1979 by Cross River Press, Ltd., and Copyright © Curtis Publishing Co.

Christopher Finch's compilation of 332 magazine covers by Norman Rockwell.

A Rockwell cover for 21 March 1919 when he was 25 years old. Christopher Finch writes that this painting was a milestone in Rockwell's career for its "crispness," and as a "harbinger of things to come." That's true. He certainly got a lot better at illustrating young women.

Though his covers were meticulously painted, the subject matter throughout the early years were hardly more than cartoon situations. It wasn't until he was in mid-career that we see one of our first provocative depictions of the female form as in this Rockwell cover for 8 April 1933. He's got his model up on her toes to accentuate the lovely curve of her gluteus maximus.

By 7 March 1936 Rockwell had "gone Hollywood" with this young woman, portraying her amidst his usual cast of characters but painting her in what I would call a conservative and controlled John La Gatta style.

Next: Norman Rockwell's Pretty Women: 1940-1943.

Edwin A. Abbey - 4

Some examples of Abbey's work in Harper's Monthly Magazine from the year 1909. Click on images to enlarge them.

Henry VIII and Anne Bullen (sic) from Henry VIII by William Shakespeare in the March 1909 issue of Harper's Monthly Magazine.

Detail of the above.

An illustration from Cymbeline by William Shakespeare in Harper's Monthly Magazine for April 1909. Act II. Scene II. Iachimo steals from the trunk.

Another illustration from Cymbeline by William Shakespeare in Harper's Monthly Magazine for April 1909. Act III. Scene VI. Imogen: "Ho! who's here? If anything that's civil, speak."

An illustration from Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare in Harper's Monthly Magazine for September 1909. Act V. Scene II. Charmian: "Your crown's awry; I'll mend it, and then play --"

Another illustration from Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare in Harper's Monthly Magazine for September 1909. Act IV. Scene IV. Cleopatra: "Sooth, la, I'll help; thus it must be."

An illustration from Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare in Harper's Monthly Magazine for October 1909. Aaron.

Norman Rockwell's Pretty Women: An Introduction

We remember Norman Rockwell as a gifted illustrator mostly for the hundreds of covers he did for The Saturday Evening Post, a weekly magazine not particularly known for its sophistication. I would not describe it as a publication so much for "white bread America" as "biscuits and gravy America." At the time I thought both Collier's and Life magazine more interesting.

Illustrators everywhere marvelled at Rockwell's ability. It's one thing to compose this scene and quite another to draw and paint in all the characters -- and get it right in the process. Overwhelming! Copyright © Curtis Publishing Co.

We didn't always like his corny approach such as in this calendar page, probably from Brown & Bigelow for whom he worked for decades, and for whose needs the art was nevertheless perfect. Copyright © Brown & Bigelow.

Copyright © Crest.

We also wondered why he would want to do work for advertising agencies when he had a hefty income from Post covers alone. My guess is that this little girl was a sketch he had done for a Post cover and subsequently rejected. The hand is either an afterthought or someone else did it in his style because there is no way that it's in the correct position.

Yet another approach, similar to the Four Freedom paintings for which he was famous, only this time for a bank. A big bank to be sure, one of the very biggest. I can almost hear the art director saying, "Norm, give us something like the Four Freedoms, only smaller." Sorry, I couldn't resist. Copyright © Chase Manhattan Bank.

So, it's obvious that Norman Rockwell appears to have been driven to knock out painting after painting. It's a humungous body of work for anyone to produce, and as he progressed he simply got better and better at what he did. However, I have never heard him praised for is his ability to paint beautiful young women, which I would like to show and tell.

The following examples appeared in Norman Rockwell: 332 magazine covers and are copyright © 1979 by Cross River Press, Ltd., and Copyright © Curtis Publishing Co. wherever applicable.

Christopher Finch's compilation of 332 magazine covers by Norman Rockwell.

This is a cover for 5 August 1939 and in my opinion one of his finest paintings of a young woman. It was published at the time of year that summer stock theater productions are in full swing and depicts a beautiful young college student in costume applying her makeup while being observed by a chicken whose home has been converted into an impromptu dressing room.

Click on image to enlarge.

Next: Norman Rockwell's Pretty Women: 1919-1936.

Edwin A. Abbey - 3

Some examples of Abbey's work in Harper's Monthly Magazine from 1904 to 1907. Click on images to enlarge them.

An illustration from Theodore_Watts-Dunton's critical comment of Shakespeare's "Hamlet" in Harper's Monthly Magazine for May 1904. Act IV. Scene V. Elsinore -- a room in the castle. Ophelia: "And of all Christian souls! I pray God. God be wi' you!"

An illustration from Swinburne's critical comment of Shakespeare's "Othello" in Harper's Monthly Magazine for October 1904. From Shakespeare's "Othello" in Harper's Monthly Magazine for October 1904. Act II. Scene I. A seaport town in Cyprus. Othello: "O my fair warrrior"

Detail of the large scene, above.

From Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" in Harper's Monthly Magazine for February 1906. Act III. Scene I. Caesar: "The ides of March are come." Soothsayer: "Aye, Caesar; but not gone."

Detail from an illustration from Shakespeare's "Macbeth" in Harper's Monthly Magazine for November 1906. Act IV. Scene I. First Apparition: "Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! beware McDuff!."

From Harper's Monthly Magazine for June 1907. Sir John Falstaff with his page -- King Henry IV. Act I. Scene II. No lines included on the original color plate, nor could I find other material for this play.

Color plate from Shakespeare's "Troilus and Cressida" in Harper's Monthly Magazine for October 1907. Cassandra.

From Arthur Symon's critical comment of "Troilus and Cressida." Cressida and her uncle. Look at those faces! Did illustration ever get any better than that?

Edwin A. Abbey - 2

More of Abbey's work from Harper's Monthly Magazine of 1902 and 1903. Click on images to enlarge them.

"Galahad's Departure," a mural painting of The Quest of the Holy Grail" at the Boston Public Library.

Black-and-white ink drawings from The Deserted Village which ran as a supplement on heavy unbleached paper stock in issues of Harper's Monthly Magazine for 1902.

An illustration from Swinburne's critical comment of Shakespeare's "King Richard II" in Harper's Monthly Magazine for March 1903.

Illustrations from Arthur Symon's critical comment of Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" in Harper's Monthly Magazine for July 1903. This, from Act I: Scene V. Romeo in a hall of Capulet's house.

From Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" in Harper's Monthly Magazine for July 1903. Act V. Scene III. A Churchyard, Juliet: "-- O happy dagger! This is my sheath. . . "

From Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" in Harper's Monthly Magazine for July 1903. Act II. Scene VI. Friar Laurence's Cell, Friar: "-- Romeo shall thank thee, daughter, for us both "