100 Years of Illustration

Enjoy Your Summer (while you can). Labor Day 2008

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John Falter 1910-1982

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How silly can advertising be? Even in the midst of huge bloodletting and maiming that took place throughout World War II, the pointy heads of ad managers and account executives prevailed at the expense of our uniformed military. Not to mention commandeering the skills of our most talented illustrators. This is a prime example: the client is major tobacco placing its ads on Madison Avenue to promote a cigarette that is promoted to be "one millimeter longer," if I can recall the pitch. The illustrator is the famous John Falter.

Can you imagine that this young officer about to be shipped out to invade a Pacific island would be comparing the length of cigarettes with his drop-dead gorgeous date? Illustrator John Falter, whom Norman Rockwell called America's most gifted illustrator, did any number of great covers for the old Saturday Evening Post and ended his days as an easel painter of distinction. I think his female model here was none other than Lisa Fonssagrives (1911-1982) who may have been the first supermodel in this country. 

For more about John Philip Falter click on these links: Illustration House and Nebraska Studies.

From the sublime to the ridiculous in illustration. The slide begins

We've seen the great characterization work of Florence Scovel Shinn and others uploaded into this blog, and while such realistic portrayals of our fellow man by equally competent illustrators continued -- and I'll get to them for certain later on -- I want to document what happened at the beginning of the slide to the simpering smiling faces we've been subjected to in all forms of advertising and sales promotion. This is an ad produced for the Pontiac division of General Motors which appeared in print in 1944. 

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G.I. Joe, from Central Casting. For an image of what dogfaces really looked like in their battle gear, see the work of Bill Mauldin.

His identical twin in the U.S. Marine Corps

Another handsome devil of a male model posing as a merchant mariner. I have never in my life seen a tassel on a navy watch cap worn by an American.

Of course all the members of the Women's Army Corps (WACs) were as fetching as this female model.

And Lord knows how much we love nurses, this lovely creature an angel indeed.

Florence Scovel Shinn, early work - 4

In Childhood's Happy Hour

From the Editor's Drawer of Harper's Monthly Magazine for August 1903. 

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Detail of the above illustration. Look at those faces and poses. They are a wonderful mix of cartoon and illustration, somewhat wasted it seems to be found among the end pages of the magazine.

Lovey Mary was a piece written by Alice Caldwell Hegan [Rice] for the March 1903 issue of The Century Magazine in a number of installments. Hegan (later, Rice) had already gained fame as the author of Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch. 

The Unitarians have such nice children's parties? Isn't that a line that Edward Gorey could have used?

The Levitation of Miss Weeks by Josephine Daskam Bacon appeared in the August 1904 issue of Scribner's Monthly Magazine. This is a very fine page layout showing off Shinn's fine drawing style. 

Notice her restrained use of linework in keeping the faces clear and crisp.

I ran this image, below, among my posts relating to the much more famous Charles Dana Gibson.

Another of my favorites is Florence Scovel Shinn, 1871-1940. She obviously didn't feel compelled to scratch away with her pen in homage to Gibson. She, too, will reappear in these postings at a later date. She became famous in a later career as a motivational writer and speaker.

She was one of four wives of the notorious Ashcan School painter Everett Shinn 1876-1953.

I've added color tint blocks to the illustrations.

Barbara Bradley, R.I.P.

Barbara Bradley

Drawing courtesy of Leif Peng and Today's Inspiration. In this link he pays tribute to the life of Barbara Bradley, whom I met when a member of the San Francisco Society of Illustrators during our nine years in Sonoma County. Barbara had paid her dues working at the Charles E. Cooper Studios in New York City in the Golden Age of American magazine illustration, working alongside the heavy hitters of that glorious time.

This remarkable woman also had been director of the School of Illustration at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco for 25 years before her fabulous life and that of her husband were cut short in an automobile accident.on 2 May of this year.

Photo courtesy of the Academy of Art University. There is a link above to a eulogy entitled Thank You, Barbara Bradley that was published as a keepsake for her family by those who knew and loved her.

Leif Peng's web logs

Today's Inspiration

I am so remiss in not posting about Leif Peng, a Toronto-based illustrator who has done so much to introduce thousands of viewers to the best of mid-19th century illustration that I have to interrupt here and now to do what I should have done long ago. He has more visuals and information about these talented souls than I could ever hope to post for you.

Check out his introductory blog here at this link. 

Then find your way to his Today's Inspiration.

Florence Scovel Shinn, early work - 3

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" 'Rich young squirts o' college fellers' "

From Overhauling the Politcianers by George S. Wasson in the August 1903 issue of The Century Magazine.

Detail of the above illustration. Not only is her pen line wonderful, but so are her portrait sketches.

" 'Show!' Repeated the sheriff" is another terrific characterization that is perfect for a George Savary Wasson story. Wasson was famous for his books about the Maine coast. His novel Cap'n Simeon's Store was very popular at the time this piece was published. Yellow tint block is my doing.

Florence Scovel Shinn, early work - 2

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In Childhood's Happy Hour, from the February 1902 issue of Harper's Monthly Magazine. There may be a certain sameness to the children but they are extremely well drawn. I've added the blue tint block. 

She studied art at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts from 1889 to 1897. There that she met her future, but younger, husband, the soon-to-be famous painter of the "Ashcan School*" Everett Shinn. Although Florence received a first-class education at the Academy, her pen and ink drawings are all her own and what she did for a livelihood until she began to write and publish inspirational literature.

Everett Shinn, 1876-1953

Shinn began his career as an illustrator. This is from a piece in Scribner's Monthly Magazine for April 1902

 entitled How Easter Comes to the City. The link, above, connects to his more celebrated work. 

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*On a personal note, I had the good fortune to study with Harold Irving Smith, a portrait painter and illustrator who had himself studied with Robert Henri and George Luks, two members of the "famous eight" of the Ashcan School.

Florence Scovel Shinn, early work

Let's try a different tack while TypePad sorts things out. I'll upload individual pieces instead of a whole string of images, so that I can put text where it ought to be. Stay tuned and look for new material about this incredible woman with more frequency than I have been posting before. 

This illustration appeared in Harper's Monthly Magazine for August 1902 for fiction by Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews (1860?-1936) entitled The Fox's Understudy.

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Charlotte Harding's New Social Realism

I have no idea what's going on with this server except that it has been torture to upload text and images since May. So please be patient. 

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This lad is from a piece of fiction in Harper's Monthly Magazine for August 1903 entitled An Exchange of Confidences. I don't have the opening page so I can't tell you who wrote it. 

  

A full page showing how well the individual drawings complemented the text. 

 

 "We used to go to school together." Note the curious footgear for walking through snow and slush. 

"Her name is Molly -- Molly Brown." These were drawings of cute kids, pretty much in vogue at the time.

However, it's only one side of the talented Charlotte Harding.

"The policeman's treatment was convincing." From Temptations to be Good by Alice Katharine Fallows from the Century Magazine for December 1903. Fallows and Harding were on the same page when it came to social comment. Not a cute kid here at the mercy of the cop on the block.

"Evening play-centers." This has the same feeling of the photos of reformer Jacob Riis.

"A mob of boys . . . began to unload the wagon in double-quick time." Slum kids trying to survive.

"At the noon hour," from A New Occupation (The Welfare Manager) by Lillie Hamilton French in the Century Magazine for November 1904.

"The village above the towering chimneys." This is as good a drawing as any done in that period, in my opinion. It's social realism all right. Factory work wasn't a walk in the park for families in those days of callous indifference to the plight of the poor.