Illustration 2: Illustrator Research

Later this semester we have a research paper due on an illustrator of our choice from the following list:

Will H. Bradley
Sir Edward Burne-Jones
Dean Cornwell
Edmund Dulac
James Montgomery Flagg
Ludwig Holwein
Tamara de Lempicka
Joseph Leyendecker
Maxfield Parrish
Howard Pyle
Arthur Rackham
Frederick Remington
Norman Rockwell
Egon Schiele
Jesie Wilcox Smith
NC Wyeth

As part of our paper, we must research all of them (really, to see which one we want to pick). I chose Egon Schiele. And here’s my illustrator research…

Will H. Bradley

Will H. Bradley was an Art Nouveau illustrator and artist, born in 1868 and died in 1962. He started his career at the age of 12 working for a weekly newspaper as a printer. After he left Chicago, he worked as a wood engraver and a typographer until settling on becoming a freelance graphic designer. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, after leaving Chicago he returned to his home state. There, he set up Wayside Press where he produced a periodical named Bradley: His Book, where he worked as illustrator, typographer, designer, editor, and press manager. Before turning 30 he sold the press. In his lifetime he won the AIGA award. Bradley’s artwork draws heavily from the Arts and Crafts Movement and Japanese block printing. He worked mainly in poster form, and designed five type faces: Bradley Type (1894), Wayside Roman (1900), Missal Initials (1904), Bewick Roman (1905) Vanity Initials (c. 1927).

Sir Edward Burne-Jones

Sir Edward Burne-Jones was closely associated with the Pre-Raphaelite movement. Born in 1833 and passing in 1898, Burne-Jones worked with William Morris for Morris, Marshal, Faulkner, and Company and helped rejuvenate the traditional stained glass art in England. His work started out by being influenced by Dante Gabriel Rosetti, but eventually developed his own aesthetic. Speaking of Aesthetic, he was also in the late 1870s part of the new Aestheric Movement. He worked with painting, stained glass, and crafts like ceramic tile, jewelry, tapestries, mosaics, and book illustration (including Kelmscott Press’s Chaucer in 1896).

Dean Cornwell

Dean Cornwell worked as an illustrator and muralist, well known for his posters promoting the war effort. He was published in magazines, illustrated books, and advertisements. Born in 1892 and dying in 1960, his father was a civil engineer and his first job was as a cartoonist. He moved to Chicago to study at the Art Institute and then NYC and studied at the Arts Student League of New York. He also studied mural painting in London. His work was published in Cosmopolitan, Redbook, Good Housekeeping, and Harper’s Bazaar, along with illustrating books for authors like Ernest Hemingway. His mural work can be seen now in such places as the Los Angeles Public Library, the Eastern Airlines Building (in Rockefeller Center), and (close to my home) the Sevier State Office Building. He also was president of the Society of Illustrators for 4 years in the 20s.

Edmund Dulac

Edmund Dulac was a French illustrator born in Toulouse, France in 1882 (death: 1953). He primarily worked as a book illustrator. He attended the University of Toulouse for law, but also took classes at L’Ecole des Beaux Arts and eventually became a full time student there. He moved to London at the age of 22 and began illustrating works for the Bronte sisters. He also illustrated parts of The Arabian Nights (1907) which amounted to over 40 color images, Sleeping Beauty and Other Fairy Tales (1910), Stories from Hans Christian Andersen (1911), The Bells and Other Poems by Edgar Allan Poe (1912), and Princess Badoura (1913). He worked with relief books during WWI and did many other projects involving illustration within England (including stamp design).

James Montgomery Flagg

James Montgomery Flagg (1877-1960) started working early at the age of 14 for Life Magazine.  He attended the Art Students LEague of New York and also studied in London and Paris. He is best known for his posters created as contributions to the World War I effort. He, in fact, created the most famous Uncle Sam image pointing, stating “I want YOU for the U.S. Army.” He was, for a period of time, the most highest paid illustrator in America.

Ludwig Hohlwein

Born in 1874, Hohlwein was a German illustrator with formal training as an architect. He used graphic principles within his image to aid his photographic style rendering. His most famous work is from before World War II , after World War I. He uses distinctive shapes and bold colors to make his posters distinct. His work lends itself to the Art Deco period with clean, block forms.

Tamara de Lempicka (1898-1980)

Polish and an Art Deco painter, Tamara de Lempicka was one of the first women artists to actually be famous during her lifetime. (which may account for the fact that she was born Maria Gorska and her name changed completely) She married a man who was a lawyer with a bad reputation, and during the Russian Revolution in 1917 he was arrested by the Bolsheviks. After several week she found him and they escaped to Denmark, then London, and finally landed in Paris, where they met up with family. Her work has been described as “soft cubism”, and “epitomized the cool yet sensual side of the Art Deco movement.” She loved clean lines. She became quite famous and could charge extremely handsome sums for every piece commissioned. She worked really hard her entire life, but not without reward. Even throughout the Great Depression she was taking large-sum commissions.  Now she’s revered still, and collected by many famous stars today, like Madonna and Jack Nicholson.

Joseph Leyendecker (1874-1951)

Joseph Leyendecker worked as a famous American Illustrator during th early 20th century. He created poster, book, and advertisement illustration. He had many covers of the Saturday Evening Post and created the character known as The Arrow Collar Man. In the first half of the 20th century, Leyendecker painted over 400 magazine covers, with 322 alone for the Saturday Evening Post. He has been described as “virtually inventing the whole idea of modern magazine design.” He was born in Germany and moved to Chicago, attending the Chicago Art Institute. He was exposed to works by Alfons Mucha and Touluse-Latrec when he went to France. Some of his notable clients include the Boy Scouts of America, Kellogg Company, the U.S. Army, Marines, and Navy, and Amaco.

Maxfield Parrish (1870-1966)

Maxfield Parrish, an American illustrator and painter, worked in a neo-classical style and used distinctively saturated hues. He attended the Haverford College, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and the Drexel Institute of Art. He illustrated many books, including L. Frank Baum’s Mother Goose in Prose (1897) (Baum is also the author of the delightful seriers of books based in the Land of Oz), Arabian Nights, and others. He worked using colored plates for reproduction. He worked with magazines as well, including Hearsts, Colliers, and LIFE. He made his work so vibrant by using layers of glazed oil color seperated by varnish (applied alternately) over a base rendering of monochromatic blue or white. He photographically projected enlarged images onto his paintings to help create more photographic figures. He also collaged parts of his paintings, covering these cut outs with clear, thick layers of glaze, giving his pieces a three-dimensional quality which is hard to reproduce.

Howard Pyle (1852-1911)

Howard Pyle was an illustrator and writer of books primarily for younger audiences. He taught illustration at the Drexel Inistitute of Art, Science and Industry, and founded his own school of illustration called the Howard Pyle School of Illustration Art. The Brandywine School of artists were later attributed to his style of illustration and teaching. He taught N. C. Wyeth, who will be talked about at the end of all this research. He illustrated and adapted The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood and many other works involving a medieval setting. He illustrated stories for periodicals and magazines before traveling to Florence, Italy to study mural painting, where he died a year later.

Arthur Rackham (1867-1939)

Arthur Rackham illustrated books. He was born in England and went to Lambeth School of Art. His technique resembled photographic reproduction, where he sketched an outline of his drawing, then blocked in shapes and details. He then added lines in india ink (via pen), removing the pencil lines. He used multiple washes of color  until he had lots of transparent tints.

Frederic Remington (1861-1909)

First and foremost, Frederic Remington had a fantastic moustache and was an American illustrator, painter, sculptor, and writer. He primarily did works about the Old American West, painting many scenes of cowboys, Indians, and the Cavalry. He himself had experience with war, as his father was a Colonel during the Civil War, and therefore had military expectations put onto him–such as attending West Point. He did not, however, and ended up attending Yale University for Art. He loved action, not still life, which is shown in his artwork. He didn’t finish school to nurse his dying father. He lived off his inheritance mostly, and continued painting. He traveled west which inspired his paintings. His fame came through illustrations for Harper’s Weekly.

Norman Rockwell (1894-1978)

Norman Rockwell became quite famous due to his depictions of every day life on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post., which he worked for for over four decades. He attended Chase Art School at 14 and then went to the National Academy of Design, and ended at the Art Students League. He worked as a military artist for WWI, producing many works to help encourage people to get involved in the war effort. He also contributed artworks to the WWII effort. Over his lifetime he would produce 322 original covers for the Saturday Evening Post. His works have influenced many parts of pop culture today.

Egon Schiele (1890-1918)

Egon Schiele was a painter, not a traditional illustrator. He was a protege of Gustav Klimt. His work is intense and contorted. His work has early expressions of expressionism, but is still more strongly linked with Art Nouveau. He studied art in Germany, but inevitably sought out Gustav Klimt to be mentored. Klimt had a profound impact. He introduced him to Wiener Werkstatte, a workshop devoted to arts and crafts. Most of his work focuses on death, sex, and discovery. He does many self portraits and nudes. Some of his most beautiful work includes his landscapes.

Jessie Wilcox Smith (1863-1935)

Jessie Wilcox Smith was an American illustrator who is best known for her work in Ladies Home Journal and children’s book illustrations. She attended what is now the Moor College of Art and Design and later studied under Thomas Eakins at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. She also studied under Howard Pyle at Drexel and then at the Brandywine School.  She was the second woman into the Hall of Fame of the Society of Illustration.

NC Wyeth (1882-1945)

A pupil of Howard Pyle, N.C. Wyeth is now known as one of the great American illustrators. Quite prolific, he produced over 3,000 paintings and illustrated 112 books. He was a realist painter, and made a distinction between painting and illustrating. He worked commercially for companies like Lucky Strike, Cocoa-Cola, and Steinway & Sons, as well as illustrating books such as Treasure Island and Robinson Crusoe.