Posted in Maritime history, Paintings, Transportation, Traveling, tagged 1876-77, Sailing ships, Stephens Shipbuilders of Glasgow, The Piako on February 28, 2015| Leave a Comment »
The ‚Piako‘ was built by Stephens, of Glasgow, in 1876-7 for the New Zealand Shipping Company and was one of the last three of 1,000 ton sister ships built for that firm. Launched in December 1876, she sailed on her first voyage under Captain Fox on February 5th, 1877 leaving the Thames for Lyttelton, New Zealand.
Painting by Jack Spurling (British, 1871-1933) – Found on Adventure of the Blackgang – Text from Wikimedia Commons
Posted in Art, Article, Illustration, Paintings, tagged French Orientalist painters, Jean-Jules-Antoine Lecomte du Nouÿ on February 17, 2015| 4 Comments »
Jean-Jules-Antoine Lecomte du Nouÿ (Paris 10 June 1842 – 19 February 1923 Paris) was an Orientalist French painter and sculptor. He was strongly influenced by the works and teachings of Charles Gleyre and Jean-Léon Gérôme. Lecomte du Nouÿ found inspiration for his art through extensive travels to Greece, Turkey, Egypt and Italy. The thematic content of Lecomte du Nouÿ’s work was mainly figural, but also spanned over a vast range of imagery throughout his career, including classical, historical and religious.
Lecomte du Nouÿ is known for remaining faithful to his detailed, realistic style throughout the extent of his career, despite the onset of the Impressionist, Fauvist and Constructivist artistic movements during his lifetime. His work is said to have contributed significantly to the establishment of an iconic repertoire representing the Orient in the nineteenth century. A Parisian street was named after him in 1932.
In 1865, Jean-Jules-Antoine accompanied fellow artist, Félix-Auguste Clément (fr), on his travels to Cairo, Egypt. It was after this voyage that the young Lecompte du Nouy sought to portray the opulence of the Orient. In later years, Jean continued his travels, visiting countries like Italy and Greece. Lecompte du Nouy found inspiration in all social, historical and literary facets of foreign culture.
The Orientalist style is largely characterized by its content, but also by its subdued realism and precision allotted towards depicting the human form. The latter is a prominent characteristic of the 19th century methods upheld by the Académie des Beaux-Arts. Jean-Jules-Antoine was a prominent figure within the sphere of academic art and thereby would adhere to a rule-based artistic style of well-developed skill and formal composition. The artistic composition of Lecomte du Nouy’s paintings was often complemented by the use of half-light, which added certain dramatic and melancholic qualities to his work. To this day some, like Professor Alan Braddock, consider Jean-Jules-Antoine to have been decidedly modern for his time, because his work directly and indirectly broached some of the key issues of his day, albeit from a decidedly conservative perspective: colonialism, international trade, gender, religion, and history.
Text from Wikipedia
Posted in Art, Article, Paintings, tagged American painters, Karl Albert Buehr on February 7, 2015| 2 Comments »
Karl Albert Buehr (1866–1952) was a painter born in Germany.
Buehr was born in Feuerbach – near Stuttgart. He was the son of Frederick Buehr and Henrietta Doh (Dohna?). He moved to Chicago with his parents and siblings in the 1880s. In Chicago, young Karl worked at various jobs until he was employed by a lithograph company near the Art Institute of Chicago. Introduced to art at work, Karl paid regular visits to the Art Institute, where he found part-time employment, enabling him to enroll in night classes. Later, working at the Institute as a night watchman, he had a unique opportunity to study the masters and actually posted sketchings that blended in favorably with student’s work. Having studied under John H. Vanderpoel, Buehr graduated with honors, while his work aroused such admiration that he was offered a teaching post there, which he maintained for many years thereafter. He graduated from the Art Inst. of Chicago and served in the IL Cav in the Spanish–American War. Mary Hess became Karl’s wife—she was a student of his and an accomplished artist in her own right. In 1922, he was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate member.
In 1904, Buehr received a bronze medal at the St. Louis Universal Exposition, then, in 1905, Buehr and his family moved to France, thanks to a wealthy Chicago patron, and they spent the following year in Taormina, Sicily, where the artist painted local subjects, executing both genre subjects and landscapes as well as time in Venice. Buehr spent at least some time in Paris, where he worked with Raphaël Collin at the Académie Julian.
Prior to this time, Buehr had developed a quasi-impressionistic style, but after 1909, when he began spending summers near Monet in Giverny, his work became decidedly characteristic of that plein-air style but he began focusing on female subjects posed out-of-doors. He remained for some time in Giverny, and here he became well-acquainted with other well known expatriate America impressionists such as Richard Miller, Theodore Earl Butler, Frederick Frieseke, and Lawton Parker. It seems likely that Buehr met Monet, since his own daughter Kathleen and Monet’s granddaughter, Lili Butler, were playmates, according to George Buehr, the painter’s son. His other daughter Lydia died before adulthood due to diabetes. He returned to Chicago at the onset of World War I and taught at The Art Inst for many years. One of his noted pupils at the Art Institute was Archibald Motley, Jr. the famous African American “Harlem” Renaissance painters. Motley credits Buehr with being one of his finest teachers and one who encouraged his style.
Text from Wikipedia
Posted in Art, Article, Illustration, Paintings, tagged Alexander Rothaug, Austrian Illustrators, Austrian Painters on February 5, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Alexander Rothaug (* 13 March 1870 in Vienna ; † 5 March 1946 ibid; Complete name: Alexander Theodor Rothaug) was an Austrian painter and illustrator.
Rothaug Alexander was born in 1870 as the son of Theodor Rothaug and Karoline Rothaug (born bird). The maternal ancestors were also painters and sculptors. With the older brother Leopold Rothaug Alexander received his first painting lessons from his father Theodore.
In 1884 he began an apprenticeship as a sculptor at Johann Schindler (1822-1893), however, changed in 1885 at the Vienna Academy of Arts to assist in August Eisenmenger , Christian Griepenkerl and Franz Rumpler to study painting. Important influence as a teacher was also the Orient painter Leopold Carl Müller , in which Alexander Rothaug studied until his death in 1892.
In 1892 he moved to Munich, where he as an illustrator for the humorous magazine Fliegende Blätter worked. In 1896 he married Ottilie Lauterkorn. He undertook study trips to Dalmatia , Italy and complaints . In May 1910 he became a member of the Association of Visual Artists Vienna. 1911 appears in the magazine Art Review,an extensive article about Alexander Rothaug. In 1912 he holds at the invitation of the Archduke Ludwig Salvator on Mallorca on. Rothaug published on this stay the publication "Sketches from Miramar".
1933 Alexander Rothaug published under the title "statics and dynamics of the human body" in the form of a loose-leaf collection of 10 sheets a systematization of the human body in terms of a theory of proportion . He has also written a 38-page treatise entitled "The knowledge in painting" with the tripartite Appendix "thoughts about the art and the artist."
His honorary dedicated grave is located on the Grinzinger Cemetery (Group 15, number 1, number 2) in Vienna.
Text from Wikipedia
Posted in Art, Article, Illustration, Paintings, People, tagged American artists, American illustrators, Joe Bowler on December 20, 2014| 3 Comments »
Born in Forest Hills, New York in 1928, Joe began to draw when he was three. His first illustration for a national magazine was published by Cosmopolitan when he was nineteen. While working as an apprentice at the prestigious Charles E. Cooper Studios, Inc. he had the opportunity to learn the craft from some of the finest artists in the profession.
At Cooper Studio, Joe was inspired by the illustrations he saw being done by the top artists in the field. During the day Joe’s time was spent cleaning palettes and brushes, matting paintings and running errands. He did his own work in the evenings, sometimes working all night. After being there about six months, Coby Whitmore brought Joe an illustration for matting. Coby saw a sample illustration Joe had been working on the night before and asked if he could take it with him to Cosmo to show the Art Director. Upon Coby’s return, he told Joe, Cosmo had bought the sample and to bill them for $1,000. Earning $35 a week at that time, it seemed like a fortune. Within six months, Joe’s illustrations were appearing in three major magazines. Coby became a mentor and friend to Joe, a friendship that lasted a life time.
Bowler contracted polio in 1958, while on vacation in Europe. The polio initially effected all of his muscles and he spent 7 years working with a physical therapist, Henry Stano. Though the recovery was long and painful, about three months in, Joe regained the use of his hands and arms and got back to the job of being an illustrator, that is painting. It was a turning point in Joe’s life, not only in his physical capacity but his attitude and approach to painting.
Joe was elected to the Society of Illustrators in 1952. In 1967 The Artists’ Guild of New York named Joe their Artist of the Year. By this time, magazines were commissioning him to do portraits of well known people. These included a 1968 McCall’s fashion article portraying eight presidential candidates’ wives; the August 1971 issue of Ladies’ Home Journal cover portrait of Rose Kennedy; The Saturday Evening Post cover of Julie and David Eisenhower. In 1992 Joe was inducted into the Illustrators Hall of Fame.
Text from joebowlerchronicles.com
Posted in Art, Paintings, tagged Hiroshi Yoshida, Japanese painters, Japanese print makers on December 5, 2014| 2 Comments »
Hiroshi Yoshida (吉田 博 Yoshida Hiroshi?, September 19, 1876 – April 5, 1950) (‘Hiroshi’ – generous, ‘Yoshida’ – ‘lucky rice field’) was a 20th-century Japanese painter and woodblock print maker. He is regarded as one of the greatest artists of the shin-hanga style, and is noted especially for his excellent landscape prints. Yoshida travelled widely, and was particularly known for his images of non-Japanese subjects done in traditional Japanese woodblock style, including the Taj Mahal, the Swiss Alps, theGrand Canyon, and other National Parks in the USA.
Hiroshi Yoshida (born Hiroshi Ueda) was born in the city of Kurume, Fukuoka, in Kyushu, on September 19, 1876. He showed an early aptitude for art fostered by his adoptive father, a teacher of painting in the public schools. At age 19 he was sent to Kyoto to study under Tamura Shoryu, a well known teacher of western style painting. He then studied under Koyama Shotaro, in Tokyo, for another three years.
In 1899, Yoshida had his first American exhibition at Detroit Museum of Art (now Detroit Institute of Art). He then traveled toBoston, Washington, D.C., Providence and Europe. In 1920, Yoshida presented his first woodcut at the Watanabe Print Workshop, organized by Watanabe Shōzaburō (1885-1962), publisher and advocate of the shin-hanga movement. However, Yoshida’s collaboration with Watanabe was short partly due to the Great Kanto earthquake on September 1, 1923.
In 1925, he hired a group of professional carvers and printers, and established his own studio. Prints were made under his close supervision. Yoshida combined the ukiyo-e collaborative system with the sōsaku-hanga principle of “artist’s prints”, and formed the third school, separating himself from the shin-hanga and sōsaku-hanga movement.
Text from Wikipedia
Posted in Art, Illustration, Paintings, Scandinavian, tagged Brynolf (Bruno) Wennerberg, Swedish artists on October 19, 2014| 2 Comments »
Brynolf (Bruno) Wennerberg was born in Otterstad (Sweden) in 1866. He was a painter, commercial artist, graphic designer and illustrator.
From 1885 to 1886 he was a student at the School of Applied Arts in Stockholm, from 1887 to 1888 at P.S. Kroyer’s school in Copenhagen and the at the Academies in Munich and Paris.
In 1898 he settled in Munich. He worked on the magazines Lustige Blätter, Meggendorfer Blätter andSimplicissimus (1915).
In 1915 he designed several military propaganda postcards in the series for Simplicissimus.
Brynolf Wennerberg died in Bad Aibling (Bavaria) in 1950.
Posted in Art, Paintings, The thirties, tagged Amelia Earhart, Howard Chandler Christy on October 16, 2014| 5 Comments »
Amelia Earhart painted by Howard Chandler Christy in 1933
Image found on one of James Vaughan’s Flickr albums
Posted in Art, Paintings, tagged François Martin-Kavel, French painters on September 23, 2014| 2 Comments »
François Martin-Kavel (Paris 1861 – 1931) French School. Painter of figures, nudes, landscapes, still lives and flowers. He was a regular exhibitor at the Salon des Artistes Français, of which he was a Member and was awarded a medal for his work in 1881.
Posted in Art, Paintings, tagged e Blue Room, Overpainted canvasses, Painting of a Mystery Man, Picasso on June 22, 2014| 4 Comments »
Curators have been studying Picasso’s "The Blue Room"—one of the highlights of the artist’s early 20th-century "blue period" —since 2008, and they’ve discovered it was painted over another work: a portrait of an unidentified man.
"The Blue Room" depicts a woman posing in Picasso’s Paris studio, but underneath is a study of a mustachioed man in a bowtie. Researchers at Washington D.C.’s Phillips Collection revealed the hidden image with a combination of X-ray and infrared analysis.
"It’s really one of those moments that really makes what you do special," Phillips conservator Patricia Favero told the AP. "The second reaction was, ‘Well, who is it?’ We’re still working on answering that question."
Picasso reused many canvases early in his career, when he didn’t always have the means to afford fresh ones. His paintings "La Vie" and "Woman Ironing" were both previously discovered to have been painted over other pieces.
Posted in Art, Article, Illustration, Paintings, tagged American illustrators, American painters, American photographers, Herold Rodney Eaton "Hal" Phyfe on April 12, 2014| 3 Comments »
Great-grandson of Duncan Phyfe, the iconic furniture designer of the early republic, Herold Rodney Eaton "Hal" Phyfe was born in Nice, France, to a New York society family. Trained as a sculptor in France and a painter in Italy, Hal Phyfe began pursuing photography an an enlistee in World War I documenting an aviation unit of the U.S. Army in Europe. He made a specialty of aerial photography. After the war he supported himself as an illustrator supplying magazines with covers rendered in pastels. He opened his photography studio in 1926.
During the 1920s he built a reputation for his theatrical portraiture (sketches and photographs) shot on commission for various magazines. He became the principal photographer for Florenz Ziegfeld during 1930-31. He became famous for his dictum that no smiles were allowed during sittings. During the late 1920s he owned a dog who became something of a Broadway celebrity. Legend holds that he turned down a remunerative long-term contract with a magazine in the wake of his dog’s death, which disabled him from talking business. During the early 1930s he habitually wore a black tie in mourning. His melancholy was somewhat tempered when bootlegger Owney Madden entrusted his red tabby cat to Phyfe’s keeping when he was put away in Sing Sing. Phyfe’s notorious eccentricity of dress extended to wearing moccasins instead of shoes and dressing down in denim at debutante balls during that period when he was official photographer to High Society.
He was one of the best amateur cooks in Manhattan, with recipes appearing in papers as far away as Los Angeles. In 1931 he was hired on a three month contract by Fox. He went to Hollywood and was besieged for portrait sittings. He preferred the social life of New York, so he returned to New York and resumed a career as one of the central society and theater photographers in the city. A sociable man, he was invariably on the committees for the beaux arts balls in the 1930s, or serving as judge in various charity photo contests. In June 1950 he leased a penthouse in the Parke-Bernet Galleries at 980-990 Madison Avenue for his studio.
Specialty
As adept at portraying men as women, Phyfe produced some of the most dynamic male portraits of the late 1920s. He preferred not to portray performers in costume. A master of middle grays, his exhibition and portfolio prints of the late 1920s display exquisitely refined shading. During the late 1920s he indulged in the penchant among New York portraitists to vignette heads. There would be strong graphic intervention at the perimeters of the image, suggesting a drawing. In the 1930s he opted for a straighter style of portraiture, full body, often with the subject seated. His Society portraits of the 1930s are well posed and understated, suggesting refinement rather than ostentation. His popularity among Hollywood performers derives from his disinclination to overstate elegance. He signed original prints in red crayon in distinctive squared letters. His Hollywood portraits are signed on the negative in white.
Text from Broadway Photographers
Posted in Art, Article, Nudes, Paintings, tagged French post-impressionist painters, Henri Lebasque on April 8, 2014| 2 Comments »
Henri Lebasque (25 September 1865 – 7 August 1937) was a French post-impressionist painter. He was born at Champigné(Maine-et-Loire). His work is represented in French museums, notably Angers, Geneva (Petit Palais), Lille (Musée des Beaux-Arts), Nantes, and Paris (Musée d’Orsay). Lebasque died at Cannet, Alpes Maritimes in 1937.
He started his education at the École régionale des beaux-arts d’Angers, and moved to Paris in 1886. There, Lebasque started studying under Léon Bonnat, and assisted Ferdinand Humbert with the decorative murals at the Panthéon. Around this time, Lebasque met Camille Pissarro andAuguste Renoir, who later would have a large impact on his work.
Lebasque’s vision was coloured by his contact with younger painters, especially Édouard Vuillard and Pierre Bonnard, founders of the The Nabis’ Group, who were the Intimists that first favoured the calm and quietude of domestic subject matter. From his first acquaintance with Georges Seurat and Paul Signac, Lebasque learnt the significance of a colour theory which stressed the use of complementary colours in shading.
Lebasque was a founding member of the Salon d’Automne in 1903 with his friend Henri Matisse. Two years later, a group of artists exhibited there including Georges Rouault, André Derain, Édouard Vuillard, and Matisse. Lebasque also became friends with artists such as Gustave Rouault, Raoul Dufy, Louis Valtat, and Henri Manguin, the last of whom introduced Lebasque to theSouth of France.
His time in South of France would lead to a radical transformation in Lebasque’s paintings, changing his colour palette forever. Other travels included the Vendée, Normandy, and Brittany.
Lebasque had some commercial success during his lifetime. He worked on the decorations at the theatre of the Champs-Elyséesand of the Transatlantique sealiner.
Text from Wikipedia
Posted in Advertising, Art, Article, Paintings, Posters, tagged Italian artists, Italian commercial artists, Mario Borgoni on April 3, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Mario Borgoni was one of the early Italian artists who successfully made the transition from fine art to commercial art.
His ornate illustrations used dramatic lighting and strong framing to enhance romantic compositions. Borgoni designed numerous hotel luggage labels which are now considered some of the finest visual representations of the golden age of travel.
In 1905, he began a long relationship with the printing company Richter & C. In Naples Italy and eventually became its artistic director. Throughout his long career, he produced hundreds of posters, brochures and promotional materials for ENIT, the official Italian tourism agency.
Posted in Art, Paintings, Portraits, tagged Jesús Helguera, Mexican painters on March 25, 2014| 4 Comments »
Jesús Helguera (May 28, 1910 – December 5, 1971) was a Mexican painter. Among his most famous works are La Leyenda de los Volcanes, La Leyenda, Popocapetl & Ixtaccihuatl, Hidalgo, "Rompiendo las Cadenas", El Aguila y la Serpiente, and Juan Diego y la Virgen de Guadalupe.
Early life
Jesús Enrique Emilio de la Helguera Espinoza was born to Spanish economist Alvaro Garcia Helguera and Maria Espinoza Escarzarga on May 28, 1910 in Chihuahua, Mexico. He lived his childhood in Mexico City and later moved to Córdoba in the state of Veracruz. His family fled from the Mexican Revolution to Ciudad Real, Castilla la Nueva, Spain and thereafter moved to Madrid. Jesús first gained interest in the arts during primary school and would often be found wandering the halls of the Del Prado Museum. At the age of 14, he was admitted to the Escuela Superior de Bellas Artes and later studied at the Academia de San Fernando. Helguera later married Julia Gonzalez Llanos, a native of Madrid, who modeled for many of his later paintings and with whom he raised two children.
Career
Jesús first worked as an illustrator at the Editorial Araluce working on books, magazines and comics with many of his published works done in gouache. He became a professor of visual arts at a Bilboa Art Institute at the age of 18 and worked for magazines such as Estampa. Helguera was forced to move back to the Mexican state of Veracruz due to the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War and following economic crisis. Upon his arrival, mural making was en vogue and he was hired by Cigarrera la Moderna, a tobacco company, to produce calendar artwork printed by Imprenta Galas de Mexico. Much of his work reflected his own fascination with Aztec Mythology, Catholicism, and the diverse Mexican landscape. His paintings showed an idealized Mexico and it was his romantic approach that gave his paintings the heroic impact that eventually made him famous. In 1940, he created what is arguably the most famous amongst his paintings, La Leyenda de los Volcanes, which was inspired by the legend of Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl. It was later purchased by Ensenanza Objectiva, a producer of didactic images for schools. Many of his paintings would later be reproduced in a variety of different calendars and cigar boxes reaching households and businesses throughout Mexico.
Text from Wikipedia
Posted in Art, Article, Illustration, Nudes, Paintings, tagged French illustrators, French painters, Gaston Bussière on February 23, 2014| 2 Comments »
Gaston Bussière was a French Symbolist painter and illustrator, born in Cuisery on April 24, 1862 and died at Saulieu on October 29, 1928.
Biography
Bussière studied at l’Académie des Beaux-Arts in Lyon before entering the école des beaux-arts de Paris where he studied under Alexandre Cabanel and Pierre Puvis de Chavannes. In 1884, he won the Marie Bashkirtseff prize.
He was close to Gustave Moreau. He found inspiration in the theatre works of Berlioz (La Damnation de Faust) as well as William Shakespeare and Wagner. He became in demand as an illustrator, creating works for major authors. He illustrated Honoré de Balzac’s Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes published in 1897, Émaux et camées, written by Théophile Gautier, as well as Oscar Wilde’s Salomé. He also illustrated several works by Flaubert.
An associate of Joséphin Péladan, the founder of the Rose-Croix esthétique, Bussière exhibited his works at Salon de la Rose-Croix over two years.
Many of his works are on exhibit at the Musée des Ursulines in Mâcon.
Text from Wikipedia
Posted in Art, Article, Nudes, Paintings, tagged Bernat Fortuny, Marià Josep Maria Bernat Fortuny i Marsal, Spanish painters on February 16, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Marià Fortuny i Marsal (complete name Marià Josep Maria Bernat Fortuny i Marsal, in Spanish: Mariano José María Bernardo Fortuny y Marsal; June 11, 1838 – November 21, 1874), known more simply as Marià Fortuny or Mariano Fortuny, was the leading Catalan painter of his day, with an international reputation. His brief career encompassed works on a variety of subjects common in the art of the period, including the Romantic fascination with Orientalist themes, historicist genre painting, military painting of Spanish colonial expansion, as well as a prescient loosening of brush-stroke and color.
Biography
He was born in Reus, a town near Tarragona, in Catalonia, Spain. His father died when Marià was an infant, and his mother by the time he was 12. Thus, Marià was raised by his grandfather, a cabinet-maker who taught him to make wax figurines. At the age of 9, at a public competition in his town, a local painter, teacher and patron, Domènec Soberano i Mestres, encouraged further study. At the age of 14 he moved to Barcelona with his grandfather. The sculptor Domènec Talarn secured him a pension allowing him to attend the Academy of Barcelona (La Llotja school of art). There he studied for four years under Claudio Lorenzale (es) and Pau Milà i Fontanals (es), and in March 1857 he gained a scholarship that entitled him to two years of studies in Rome starting in 1858. There he studied drawing and grand manner styles, together with Josep Armet i Portanell, at the Academia Giggi.
In 1859, he was called by the Government of the Province of Barcelona (Diputació de Barcelona) to depict the campaigns of the Spanish-Moroccan War. He went to Morocco from February to April of that year, making sketches of landscapes and battles, which he showed in Madrid and Barcelona when he returned. These would later serve him as preliminary sketches for his monumental piece, The Battle of Tetuan
Since the days of Velázquez, there had been a tradition in Spain (and throughout Europe) of memorializing battles and victories in paint. On the basis of his experiences, Fortuny was commissioned by the Council of the Province of Barcelona (Diputació de Barcelona) to paint a large canvas diorama of the capture of the camps of Muley-el-Abbas and Muley-el-Hamed by the Spanish army. He began his composition of The battle of Tetuan on a canvas 15 metres long; but, though he worked on and off on it during the next decade, he never finished it.
The greater influence of this travel on Fortuny was his subsequent fascination with the exotic themes of the world of Morocco, painting both individuals and imagined court scenes. He visited Paris in 1868 and shortly afterwards married Cecilia de Madrazo, the daughter of Federico de Madrazo, who would become curator of the Prado Museum in Madrid. Together, they had a son, Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo, who became a well-known fashion and tapestry designer. Another visit to Paris in 1870 was followed by a two years’ stay at Granada, but then he returned to Rome, where he died somewhat suddenly on November 21, 1874 from an attack of tertian ague, or malaria, contracted while painting in the open air at Naples and Portici in the summer of 1874. One of his pupils was Attilio Simonetti.
Text from Wikipedia
Posted in Art, Article, Illustration, Models & starlets, Nudes, Paintings, Pin-ups, tagged Al Parker, American artists, American illustrators on February 15, 2014| 1 Comment »
Al Parker (1906–1985) was an American artist and illustrator, who was known as the "Dean of Illustrators".
Parker’s display of talent as a teenager led his grandfather, a Mississippi River Pilot, to pay for Al’s first year in Washington University’s School of Fine Arts in St. Louis, Missouri in 1922. He also played in a jazz band to earn money for tuition. He married a fellow student, Evelyn, and later joined with several former classmates to open an advertising agency in St. Louis. The business did not do well during the Great Depression, and Parker moved to New York City in 1935.
Parker got a break when a cover illustration he did for House Beautiful won a national competition. He soon was producing illustrations for Chatelaine, Collier’s, Ladies’ Home Journal and Woman’s Home Companion. Starting in 1938, he produced a total of 50 covers over a 13-year period for the Ladies’ Home Journal. He also sold illustrations to Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, McCall’s, The Saturday Evening Post, Sports Illustrated, Town and Country and Vogue.
Parker is credited with creating a new school of illustration and was much imitated. In an effort to distinguish himself from his imitators, he worked in a variety of styles, themes and media. In cooperation with the magazine’s art director, he secretly provided every illustration in an issue of Cosmopolitan, using different pseudonyms, styles and mediums for each story.
Parker was one of the founding faculty members for the Famous Artists School. He was elected to the Society of Illustrators’ Hall of Fame in 1965. A stamp commemorating his art was issued by the United States Postal Service on February 1, 2001 as part of the American Illustrators Issue series.
His son, Kit Parker, founded the film company, Kit Parker Films.
Posted in Art, Illustration, Paintings, Posters, tagged Kitch art, SAS, Scandinavian Airline System on February 8, 2014| 2 Comments »
The standard expression for kitsch art in Norway is “Elg i solnedgang” which translated would be “Moose in sunset” and you’ll find a painting of just that over the sofa in many a Norwegian home – Ted
Image found at martinklasch
Posted in Art, Article, Illustration, Paintings, tagged Illustrators, Louis J. Marchetti on February 4, 2014| 4 Comments »
Louis J. Marchetti (Lou Marchetti) (1920–1992) was a free-lance illustrator and fine artists. He was born in Fondi, Italy and immigrated to the United States at an early age. He attended Bryant High School on Long Island, New York and later studied for five years at the Art Students League of New York with two scholarships.
As an editorial illustrator, he created numerous book covers and illustrations, primarily for Dell Books, Pocket Books, Lancer Books, Paperback Library, and Popular Library. His creative work extended into posters for the motion picture industry, promotional illustrations for television (I Spy NBC), magazine illustration True (magazine), Galaxy, and Reader’s Digest, as well as a series of religious collector’s plates offered by the Danbury Mint. His fine art appeared in several galleries across the United States, including the Grand Central Art Galleries (New York). Marchetti’s fine art often reflected the Lazio provincial Italian countryside near his place of birth. He was a member of the Society of Illustrators (New York).
Text from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Posted in Art, Facts, Paintings, tagged American painters, Robert LaDuke on December 17, 2013| 6 Comments »
Robert LaDuke’s narrative paintings are a combination of memories, dreams and everyday life. Based on America in the 1930-40s, his art usually includes some form of transportation and features the toys which were popular during that era.
Retrorambling 