100 Years of Illustration

What happened to the talent?

The talent was there but some of the editors and art directors were influenced too much by the sales people. The emphasis seemed to be on illustrations as decoration to complement the kitchy ads and home improvement pages of the womens' books. Click on the preceding hot link to read how Professor Mendez describes the evolution of this genre.

Click on all the images to enlarge them.

This example is by Lynn Buckham (1918-1982) and one of the best. The guy is a well-known male model of the time, and I'm guessing that the young woman is based on a profile photo of Grace Kelly, attached to photos taken of live models. The background is 1960s chic.

Joe Bowler was born in 1928 and the youngest illustrator to make it big time in the studios which fed the publishing beast that devoured illustrations of beautiful people. The word on the street at the time was that he was a delivery boy who was mentored by illustrators at Cooper Studios in New York City to become a top-flight illustrator, which he was indeed, and only in his early twenties. We all envied him.

Coby Whitmore (1913-1988) was one of the stars in the business. M. Coburn Whitmore was born in Dayton, Ohio, attended the Dayton Art Institute, moved to Chicago and apprenticed with professional illustrators while studying nights at the Chicago Art Institute. He later moved to New York City where he joined the Charles E. Cooper Studio and became one of the VIPs in probably the leading illustration studio of the time. His work appeared in all the major womens' books.

Joe De Mers was another prolific illustrator. His illustrations of sexy women appeared often in Esquire magazine. This is certainly not one of them, and appears to be from photos of the actress Tippi Hedren, who starred in Alfred Hitchcock's film, The Birds.

René Robert Bouche appeared months ago in this blog. This is work he did for a Schweppes ad, which is not too impressive. My guess is that he rushed the job.

More, later . . .

Frank Benson at the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA

I discovered a couple of Bensons yesterday on a visit to the excellent Peabody Essex Museum in historic Salem, just north of Boston, on a beautiful September Sunday. This is a splendid portrait of Jane Shattuck, painted in 1904. Click on these images to enlarge them.

Twenty years later, after Benson had pretty much given up accepting commissions for portraits, he painted this portrait of his dear friend Richard Saltonstall who had died two years earlier.

These images are offered courtesy of the Peabody Essex Museum.

Edmund C. Tarbell

German Princess Brigitte, found at this web site -- http://worldroots.com/brigitte/royal/

Edmund C. Tarbell was considered the dean of the Boston School of Artists, as they were known in their heyday. "Ned" Tarbell may even have been thought of as the most eminent painter of his generation and there are museums and galleries all over the world with works of his on display. Personally, he's not one of my favorites and I include his portraits along with those of his good friend Frank Benson and the expatriate J.J. Shannon because of the often splendid way he painted women. I'll probably leave easel painters to return to the illustrators for whom this web log is named and dedicated. I'll keep this as brief as I can. The visuals are important, not my words and observations, and particularly not those written by their contemporaries hired out, so to speak, as art critics.

Since so many museums are uptight about using their images, I'm going to list links below so that I can't be accused of using images without their permission. Sorry,but you'll have to do the work.

Currier Gallery of Art -- http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/3aa/3aa31.htm

Worcester Art Museum website -- http://www.worcesterart.org/Exhibitions/Past/am_imp_tarbell.html

Newport Art website -- http://www.newportart.com/Edmund_Tarbell.html

Spanierman Gallery -- http://www.spanierman.com/displayimage.php?album=2962&pos=70&page=1

Metropolitan Museum of Art -- http://www.metmuseum.org/Works_of_Art/viewOne.asp?dep=2&viewMode=1&item=67.187.141