Illustrators Influenced U.S. Society 1910

Illustrators Influenced U.S. Society

1910 Art

The Red Rose Girls: Jessie Willcox Smith (1863-1935), Elizabeth Shippen Green (1871-

1954), and Violet Oakley (1874-1961)

Smith, Green and Oakley met at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in the late 1800s. The three then went on to study with Howard Pyle at Philadelphia's Drexel Institute. In 1900, the three women -- and one other female friend who served as a caretaker -- established a country home and studio called the Red Rose Inn. Pyle was the one who dubbed them "the Red Rose Girls" (NPR 2010). Over the course of the next eight years, the three artists lived and created beautiful art in their idyllic surroundings. They became very financially successful and they were able to captivate society with their rather uncommon lifestyle (2010).

Smith was born in Philadelphia in 1863. She came from a privileged upper-middle class home, but her family was not a part of Philadelphia society, "a closed circle that included only the descendants of the Colonial founders and the very wealthy" (Carter 2000). She originally studied to be a teacher and worked as a teacher before discovering her love for drawing. Smith was different from many artists, as she was around 20-years-old before she ever picked up a pencil to draw. She got a job in the production department of the Ladies' Home Journal in 1889 and was still working there when she met Howard Pyle. He accepted her into his class. She was 31-years-old now, just ten years younger than Pyle and the oldest student in the class. Green and Oakley joined the class later. Smith's first commission was through Pyle in 1897 for an edition of Evangeline (a Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem) that she illustrated with Oakley. However, it was Smith's covers for Good Housekeeping that were the means for most people to become familiar with her art; she painted the covers for over 15 years. From December of 1917 through March of 1933, a Smith image was on the newsstands every month.

Green was born in Philadelphia in 1871. Her father, Jasper Green, was also an artist and illustrator and he encouraged her love for drawing. At the age of 17 she started to submit her illustrations to local newspapers and magazines. At 18, she enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. By the age of 23, she was working as a professional illustrator for Ladies' Home Journal and, along with Smith and Oakley, she was one of just 40 applicants to be accepted into Howard Pyle's first illustration class. Green worked for some very well-known magazines like St. Nicholas, the Saturday Evening Post, and was featured in the 1901 publication of the Studio (modern pen drawings from both European and American artists), one of only 27 American illustrators to be accepted. When she was not yet 30, she signed an exclusive contract with Harper's Magazine and she worked for them for the next 23 years.

Oakley was born in Bergen Heights, New Jersey in 1874 to a family of artists. She studied at the Art Students League of New York as well as in both England and France. When she came back to the United States in 1896, she began her studies with Howard Pyle in his illustration class along with Smith and Green. She achieved success rather early on as an illustrator for the Century Magazine, Collier's Weekly, St. Nicholas, and Woman's Home Companion. She was quite influenced by the pre-Raphaelite artists and she used a lot of color in her works that were quite often based on her philosophical beliefs (Carter 2000). She was quite versatile as an artist; she was a portraitist, an illustrator, a stained-glass artisan, and a muralists. In fact, she is the first American female artist to succeed in the predominantly male architectural field of mural decoration (2000).

Featured in the Studio. Elizabeth Shippen Green. 1901.

Violet Oakley. 1902.

Good Housekeeping Cover. Jessie Willcox Smith. 1930.

1910-1920's Art

James Montgomery Flagg (1877-1960)

James Montgomery Flagg, most famous for his Uncle Sam I Want You poster, was born in Pelham, New York and grew up along with the reproduction of technology that allowed artists to select the pen as the illustrative tool of choice. Flagg sold his first illustration to the St. Nicholas Magazine at age 12 and by the age of 15 he was on the staff at both Life and Judge, the biggest humor magazines of the day. The illustration below came from an issue of Life magazine in 1894.

Illustration from Life magazine. James Montgomery Flagg. 1894.

Flagg studied at the prestigious Art Students League from 1894 until 1898, although his true education came from his working with St. Nicholas, Judge, and Life. The publishers at those magazines used Flagg's illustrations for their earliest covers from 1895 and 1896 (Seward 1996).

Between 1898 and 1900, Flagg studied painting in both France and England. The first book of his published was aptly called Yankee Girls Abroad (1900). That same year, one of his paintings was selected for the Paris Salon, however, he felt that painting was not what he was truly meant to do and he went back to illustration (Seward 1997).

I Want You for U.S. Army. James Montgomery Flagg.

1930 -- 1940's Art

Norman Rockwell (1894-1978)

Norman Rockwell was born in New York City and he always knew that he wanted to become an artist. At the age of 14, he enrolled in art classes at the New York School of Art and left two years later, in 1910, to study art at the National Academy of Design. Soon thereafter he transferred to the Art Students League, studying with Thomas Fogarty and George Bridgman. It was Fogarty's instruction in illustration that prepared Rockwell for his first commercial commissions. From Bridgman, Rockwell learned some of the more technical aspects of drawing and he would rely upon those skills for the rest of his illustrious career.

Rockwell painted his first commission of four Christmas cards at 15 and became the art director of Boys' Life (the official magazine of the Boy Scouts of America) while he was still a teenager. He also had already begun freelancing as an illustrator for various young people's publications.

The 1930s and the 1940s are usually considered Rockwell's most prolific decades. Perhaps this is because in 1930 he married and had three sons. The family moved to Arlington Vermont and his work started to reflect small-town American life.

In 1943, Rockwell painted the Four Freedoms, inspired by President FDR's address to Congress. They were reproduced in four consecutive issues of the Saturday Evening Post along with essays by some contemporary writers. Over the course of his career, Rockwell had over 320 paintings grace the cover of the magazine, which he called, "the greatest show window in America" (NRM.org 2010).

Freedom from Want (One of the Four Freedoms). Norman Rockwell. 1943.

Freedom of Speech (One of the Four Freedoms). Norman Rockwell. 1943.

Freedom of Worship (One of the Four Freedoms). Norman Rockwell. 1943.

Freedom from Fear (One of the Four Freedoms). Norman Rockwell. 1943.

1940 -- 1950's Art

Jon Whitcomb (1906-1988)

Whitcomb was an American illustrator born in Weatherford, Oklahoma, although he grew up in Wisconsin. He went to school at Ohio State University and majored in English, however, it was while he was at university that he started drawing illustrations for student publications. During the summers, he worked creating paintings for a theater in Cleveland. Although his ambition was initially to write, and he did major in English, Whitcomb began taking art classes and, upon graduation, he found work in several studies making travel and theatre posters as well as posters for advertising.

Whitcomb moved to New York in 1934 and combined studio work with freelance illustration. His very first illustrations were for Collier's as well as Good Housekeeping. He became best known for his illustrations of beautiful young woman and it was because of this that his illustrations became desired for many magazines.

Whitcomb's career was interrupted by World War II when he was commissioned to be a lieutenant in the Navy. He had several different jobs while in the Navy -- including mine-sweeping duty off the East coast and working in a public relations department in Washington, D.C. He also worked as a combat artist with the invasions of Tinian, Saipan, and Peleliu (Illustration House 2010). He was hospitalized for tropical infections and when he was finally discharged in 1945 he continued his art career.

Whitcomb's penchant for writing would become useful when he started doing a monthly series of sketches and articles about film stars for Cosmopolitan, called "On Location with Jon Whitcomb" (Illustration House 2010). He wrote several short stories, two children's books about poodles, and a book about female beauty and glamour, All About Girls (2010).

Redbook Magazine. "Edge of Farewell." Jon Whitcomb. 1956.

Ladies' Home Journal. "Angela Was Eighteen." Jon Whitcomb. 1947.

1950 -- 1960's Art

Ed Vebell (1921 - )

Vebell was born in Chicago in 1921 to hardworking Lithuanian parents. Vebell was interested in art from a very early age and he attended the Harrison Art School at the age of 14 where he excelled at life drawings. When he graduated from high school, Vebell won three art scholarships and he attended all three schools -- moving from each throughout the day. He launched his professional illustration career in a busy Chicago agency and then enlisted in World War II. It was not long after this that he was recruited to create images for the Stars and Stripes, a military publication that had also featured Norman Rockwell's drawings during World War I. In 1945, he participated in the Nuremberg War Crimes Trial as a courtroom artists, capturing the likenesses of Goering, Hess, Speer, and Ribbentrop (now in the collections of the Museum of the Holocaust in Washington, D.C.). He created paintings and drawings for mass circulation magazines like Readers Digest, Time, Sports Illustrated, and Sports Afield (Norman Rockwell Museum 2010).

Vebell has noted that working on the Stars and Stripes changed his life because of the fact he was able to document different cultures. Through his travels, he learned to speak French, Italian, and Arabic. He stayed in Europe until 1947. Everyone else was leaving, but Vebell wanted to stay (Westport News 2010).

Vebell managed to stay busy illustrating throughout the years. One of his most popular illustrations was for the Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Series. The covers of these have attained a sort of cult status among collectors from around the world. While Vebell has created for literally hundreds of different publications, he was transformed through his experience as a war artist (Westport News 2010).

The Secret of Phantom Lake. Ed Vebell. 1984.

1960 -- 1970's Art

Mort Kunstler (1931 - )

Kunstler is widely regarded as the leading history painter today. His works show a heightened reality that brings fidelity to his subjects and conveys the rich narrative of American history (Perrell 2006). Kunstler grew up during the Depression and World War II, a time when people had to remain positive no matter what. Kunstler was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1931, during this era where becoming an artist was not considered a very attract prospect (2006). However, Kunstler was considered a child prodigy and his parents could not help but see his talent. At the early age of two-and-a-half years, his father, an amateur artist himself, encouraged his son by setting up still lifes for him at home (2006). His mother enrolled him in Saturday classes at the Brooklyn Museum. Kunstler studied at Brooklyn College, then UCLA (on a basketball scholarship, and then at Pratt Institute where he got he first commission -- illustrating a book on football (2006).

In the early 1950s, Kunstler became an apprentice at an illustration studio; he did all sorts of menial tasks there, however, he was able to learn the ropes and he worked on his art at night, building up a pretty strong portfolio for his future. Kunstler sold many works during the next five years and worked as an illustrator for books covers and for magazines (Perrell 2006).

During the early 1960s, the field of illustration was changing significantly because photography was taking over drawn and painted images (Perrell 2006). However, Kunstler was still able to find work as an illustrator and, specifically, he forged a relationship with National Geographic, collaborating with experts who would guide him by giving him "the historic facts and visual samples needed to build an accurate image" (2006). By the time 1970 arrived, Kunstler was doing covers for Newsweek and other publications. However, most of his work came from advertising. "He became one of the star artists in what would be regarded as the 'golden age of movie poster'" (2006). Kunstler's greatest status came from his paintings of the Civil War.

"Candlelight and Roses." Mort Kunstler. 1998.

"General John Buford." Mort Kunstler. 1992.

1970 -- 1980's Art

Wilson McLean (1937 - )

McLean, born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1937, and raised in a working class neighborhood in London, arrived in New York City in 1966. He was already 28-years-old and was married with two children. His goal was to create illustrations for the many American magazines that he admired in England. This was almost a perfect time for McLean to arrive, as illustration was still in wide use and commercial images had a real social impact (Arisman 2010). There were an abundance of art directors at magazines who were looking for talented and skilled painters and draftsmen.

His drawing talent was apparent from a very young age. He didn't draw from life, but rather, he spent his time copying illustrated black and white drawings of cowboys and fighter pilots from the Boys Own Adventure annuals as well as from other illustrated books (Arisman 2010). He would draw the images over and over again. He was offered a scholarship at the age of 15 to attend a professional art school. However, after his father was seriously injured in a car crash, McLean was forced to drop out of school, as his father was not able to hold a fulltime job. His headmaster begged him to stay, but McLean knew the reality of the financial situation at home, and so he left school so that he could get a job and help the family. He began work in a factory, but kept drawing on the weekends (2010).

McLean had to do mandatory military service when he turned 18 and he was sent to Yemen. He was there for two years, drawing the entire time to keep sane -- not for pleasure (Arisman 2010). When he returned home, he went back to work as a messenger but started art classes at Chelsea St. Martins and the Central Art School. These were not illustration classes, but rather life drawings and paintings. His first job was with Woman's Own and he would go on to do several jobs for the magazine. A year after returning home from Yemen, McLean was making a living as a freelance artist (2010).

In New York, McLean's work took a rather surreal turn. He started creating illustrations with more ambiguity and less realism. His illustrations told two stories, one on top of the other. "The first story will feature an image or scene or heightened reality, while the second story, which lies beneath, is more vague, more mysterious" (Arisman 2010).