Historical Trends
in Illustration
(Condensed)
(part II)
Early 20C
• Color halftone printing emerges
• Magazines now tops
• George Bellows, Maxfield Parrish, N.C.
Wyeth, J.C. Leyendecker, C. Coles Phillips,
Franklin Booth, Howard Chandler Christy
• Jessie Wilcox Smith, Elizabeth Shippen
Green, May Wilson Preston
• Many were students of Howard Pyle
– The “father of modern illustration”
• Process color (CMYK) developed here
The Most Important
Magazines
• Late 19th & early 20th centuries:
– Harpers, Scribner’s, Century
– Less important: McClure’s, the American, Red Book, The
Cosmopolitan, Leslie’s
– All were about 7x9 inches, 100+ pages
– Issued monthly
– All ads were at the front and the back
• After WWII:
– The Ladies Home Journal, The Saturday Evening Post,
Colliers, The Women’s Home Companion
– 11x14 inches, some published weekly, <100 pages
– Ads scattered throughout (allowed for more color
throughout)
Offset Lithography Diagram
Howard Pyle & the Howard Pyle School of Art
George Bellows (1882-1925)
Stag at Sharkey’s 1909
Ashcan School in NYC
George Bellows (1882-1925)
Dempsey & Firpo 1924
Athlete, artist, and family man
George Bellows (1882-1925)
Cliff Dwellers 1913
Continued tradition of Homer and Eakins
George Bellows (1882-1925)
This man subjected himself
to imprisonment and
probably to being shot or
hanged.
The prisoner used language
tending to discourage men
from enlisting in the United
States Army.
It is proven and indeed
admitted that among his
incendiary statements were
- Thou shalt not kill and
Blessed are the
peacemakers.
Litho and caption
Dead by 1925 - appendicitis
Newell Convers (N.C.) Wyeth (1882-1945)
The Magic Pool 1906
Hundreds of covers and book illustrations!
N.C. Wyeth (1882-1945)
Duel on the Beach 1931
(Ladies’ Home Journal)
Stagecoach
Many schools, incl. Howard Pyle’s school 1902-04
N.C. Wyeth (1882-1945)
Winter 1909
In the Crystal Depth 1907
From series: The Indian in His Solitude for Outing magazine
N.C. Wyeth (1882-1945)
Illustrations from Robinson Crusoe
Died in 1945 - car accident with train
Maxfield Parrish (1870-1966)
Responds to the advent of CMYK
Blue underpainting on white paper
Alternating layers of oil glazes and
varnish (“in a very warm room”)
Opaque paint used only for accents
Sleeping Beauty 1913
Maxfield Parrish (1870-1966)
Daydream
Egypt - 1922
Maxfield Parrish (1870-1966)
“sappy,” but hugely popular!
Pyle told him there was nothing he could teach him.
Daybreak 1922
Franklin Booth
(1874-1948)
Woman Found
Weeping in the Attic
1910
C. Coles Phillips (1880-1927) & The “Fadeaway Girl”
Siege of the Seven Suitors 1910
C. Coles Phillips
Ad for Overland
Auto
“The
Phillips
Girl”
Girl 1922
& The “Fadeaway Girl”
Only 2 Life cover - Survival
colors! of the Fittest - 1911
J.C. Leyendecker (1874-1951)
Howard Chandler Christy (1873-1952)
& the “Christy Girl”
Signing of the Declaration of
Independence 1930s
Howard Chandler Christy
Woman in White
1906
Lady of the Lake
Jessie Wilcox Smith (1863-1952)
Good Housekeeping Cover
1930
Five O’clock Tea
Jessie Wilcox Smith
Illustrations From The Waterbabies 1917
Jessie Wilcox Smith
Illustrations From The Waterbabies 1917
Elizabeth Shippen Green (1871-1954)
Aletha’s Not Afraid of the
Graveyard 1909
Also a student of Pyle
A Little Rose Bush 1908
Elizabeth Shippen Green
Charcoal on board!
Gisele 1908
Haunted at Moonlight 1902
May Wilson Preston (1873-1949)
Woman Voter 1915
Madame’s Mexican Mixup 1914
1920-30
• The “roaring twenties”
– John Held Jr.(flappers)
– Saul Tepper
– Dean Cornwell
– Norman Rockwell
John Held Jr. (1889-1958)
Norman Rockwell (1894-1978)
For Valspar Varnish - 1923
Saul Tepper (1899-1987)
Woman at a Tailor’s Shop 1929
Saul Tepper
Ad for Chesterfield’s
cigarettes
Lawyer Meeting with Three People
Dean Cornwell (1892-1960)
Forward 1944
Doughboy 1918
War Bonds Ad
Dean Cornwell (1892-1960)
The Good Samaritan
Christ Before Pilate
1930-40
• After stock market crash, many publications
went under and budgets dried up.
• Advent of pulp fiction
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E. Simms Campbell
Rockwell Kent
John LaGatta
Mead Schaeffer
Boris Artzybasheff
Benton and Matt Clark
Carl Oscar August Erickson (fashion)
Francis Tipton Hunter
Theodor Suess Geisel!
E. Simms Campbell (1908-1971)
the first notable African-American Illustrator
Navy recruitment poster 1939
The Blues 1939
John LaGatta (1894-1977)
Multimedia chalk and wash drawings
John LaGatta
(1894-1977)
Honeymoon 1939
The Chess Game 1935
Mead Schaeffer (1898-1980)
Captain Blood 1936
Mead Schaeffer (1898-1980)
“The Little Wife Stayed There” 1938
Prints now on sale for thousands of $
Rockwell Kent (1882-1971)
Shipwreck 1928
Rockwell Kent (1882-1971)
This is Where Your Mother Was Born 1930
Very popular in the Soviet Union - 1965 Lenin Peace Prize
Theodor Suess Geisel
(1904-1991)
More than just a Children’s book author!
Theodor Suess Geisel (1904-1991)
1940-50
• After the war, economy, publications,
illustration all took off
– Al Parker
– Robert Fawcett
– Chesley Bonestell
– Stevan Dohanos
– Albert Dorne
– Ben Shahn
– John Gannam
–Tom Lovell
–René Bouché
–Noel Sickles
–Harold Von Schmidt
–Coles Phillips
Al Parker (1906-1985)
&
His Mother-Daughter images
Once single-handedly
illustrated an entire issue of
Cosmopolitan magazine,
using a different psuedonym
and style for each image
Ben Shahn (1898-1969)
Our Friend - 1944
Ben Shahn (1898-1969)
Worked for the government creating antiNazi posters. His later work became
more “fine” art and he moved towards
abstraction in the ‘60s.
René Bouché (1905-1963)
The last great fashion illustrator - replaced by
high-gloss photography
The “master of
social portraiture”
Tom Lovell (1909-1998)
Berdan’s Sharpshooters
Tom Lovell (1909-1998)
The cyclical nature of trends
The Handwarmer
North Country Rider
1950-60
• Lots of big studios and free lancers
• Dominance of TV
• Innovation - the rise of conceptual illustration
- exploration of abstraction, metaphor and
symbolism
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M.Coburn Whitmore
Joe Bowler
Austin Briggs
Al Hirshfeld (caricatures)
David Stone Martin
David Stone Martin (1913-1992)
No formal art training past high school
David Stone Martin (1913-1992)
The Jazz Artist
Illustrated over 400
album covers
Al Hirschfeld (1903-2003)
Politico-Erotica
1933
Al Hirschfeld (1903-2003)
Gin Game (Nina)
Austin Briggs (1908-1973) - from MN
Flash Gordon 1957
M. Coburn Whitmore
1961
1950
Joe Bowler (1928- )
Portraitist/Illustrator
1960-80
• Magazines replaced by book covers, CD/record jackets, movie
posters, comic books, (Kirby, Steranko, Neal Adams, Joe
Kubert)
• Graphic Artist’s Guild - begins to fight for copyright, and other
legal issues
• Push Pin Studio
– Milton Glaser
– Seymour Chwast
• Bernard Fuchs, Bart Forbes, Brad Holland, Mark English
• Peter Max, Bob Ziering, Murray Tinkelman, Edward Gorey,
David Levine
• Saul Steinberg (New Yorker covers), Patrick NAGEL, Maurice
Sendak
• Gilbert Stone, James McMullan, Alan Cober, John Collier, Mark
English, Jerry Pinkney, Paul Giovanopoulos
Milton Glaser (1929- ) and Push Pin Studios
Milton Glaser (1929- ) and Push Pin Studios
San Diego Jazz Festival
Poster 1983
The Rights of Man 1989
Seymour Chwast (1931- )
Peter Max
Mirrored Heads
($15K)
Peter Max - “groovy!”
Bernard Fuchs
Army Navy Game
Augusta
Bernard Fuchs
The
“Yalie”
“Tiny” Archibald ($4K)
Woody Guthrie
Brad Holland
Saul Steinberg
“Communication”
Jack Kirby (1917-1994)
Joe Kubert
&The Joe Kubert School of Comic Book Art
Maurice Sendak
(1928- )
1980s-90s
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Richard Amsel
Drew Struzan
Gary Kelley
Gregory Manchess
C.F. Payne
Yvonne Buchanan
Kinuko Craft
Anita Kuntz
Barbara Nessim
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Nancy Stahl
Mark Summers
Guy Billout
Etienne Delessert
Henrik Drescher
Brian Ajhar
Simms Taback, etc.
Right Now
• The industry is very sensitive to economic
fluctuations
• Massive purchasing by stock houses
– Corbis (owned by Microsoft!)
– Getty Images (owned by Paul Getty)
• Stock houses buy a great deal of work
– Work-for-Hire contracts that give corp. all
ownership rights
The End