Female Illustrators of the Mid-20th Century

Sheilah Beckett: A Fairy Tale Career

2010-05-14T08:53:00.000-07:00

On a sunny day in early April, 2010 I spent a delightful hour on the phone with a remarkable lady named Sheilah Beckett. Sheilah is 97 years old. Born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada in 1913, Sheilah Beckett always loved to draw. She doesn't recall being inspired by the "Sunday Funnies" or any specific illustrators from her childhood but she does remember loving the artwork in her children's books and that those illustrations made a big impression on her.

Sheilah never attended art school... she is entirely self-taught. She began working immediately when she graduated from high school. Her first job was creating advertising artwork for a Portland area department store. From there she quickly moved on to Los Angeles and landed a contract to illustrate a series of Gilbert & Sullivan books.

"I went to England," Sheilah tells me, "to catch up with the Gilbert & Sullivan Players - the real ones - and followed them around during their summer season. I did three books... and then the war came."

"The war was just looming when I left, " explains Sheilah. "The Germans were already bombing England."

She chuckles as she remembers, "I came back on a ship called 'The American Farmer.' There were twenty-seven passengers on board and I didn't see a single soul until we arrived in Boston."

"We were hit by this terrible hurricane that went on for days and day. So the only man I saw on the the way across was the Captain who," she says with a tone of reverence, "was a great man."

Sheilah finally landed in New York where she managed to secure an artist representative. That rep found Sheilah some work illustrating children's books.

More importantly, it was during those early days in New York that Sheilah met the man who would become her husband - another illustrator - named J. Frederick Smith. She also connected with a friend from Portland who told her about an art studio where she should try to secure a position...

... an art studio owed by one Charles E. Cooper.

The Cooper Days

Sheilah Beckett recounts for me how she came to join the Charles E. Cooper studio during the early days of her illustration career. "I had a friend from Portland, Oregon who worked at the Cooper studio," she explains, "so I knew about it... and I went to see Chuck to ask what to do; should a get a representative or what - because I knew Cooper's was a men's studio - and he asked me to join."

"I was the first woman Chuck ever took on."

Sheilah began working as an illustrator immediately. "I had my own work doing children's books and I took on what ads Chuck could get me. The salesmen were great."

Describing her work space at Coopers she says, "I had a very small, very nice studio right next to Chuck. Every person there had his own room. It was just the most ideal situation for an artist. Just heaven!"

Sheilah seems to have had some steady accounts through Coopers - for Whitman's Chocolates and Necco Wafers at the very least - but she says she didn't get a lot of advertising assignments. The advertising art paid comparatively well, but, "I loved doing Christmas cards and I loved doing children's books... and I was busy with that."

When I ask her about her Necco Wafers ads she says with great emphasis, "Oh, they're awful! The drawing is so... so... I don't know... " she chuckles, "it isn't very great." I assure her that they're wonderful and much admired by those of us who enjoy seeing her work.

She remembers, "There was one ad that you don't have that was better than all of these others."

Today, while hunting through my files for anything I might have overlooked, I came up with one more Necco Wafer ad - the 'rocket ship' scenario reproduced larger below. I hadn't had a chance to check with Sheilah or her son, Sean, before preparing this post, but I'm hoping that when she sees it, it'll be the one she was referring to and that it will be a nice surprise for her to see it again after all these years.

I also took some time to check through some of my old New York Art Directors Annuals for Cooper Studio ads, and made a couple of interesting discoveries. I'm hoping that when Sheilah sees this post it will stir up some memories and that she'll be able to clarify some of the chronology of her career...

In the ad from 1942, below, you'll notice that Sheilah is not yet listed as a Cooper artist - but her husband, Frederick Smith, is. When we spoke on the phone Sheilah remembered them both being represented elsewhere for a short time before they moved up to Coopers. This ad seems to indicate that Smith moved there first.

The next volume I own is from 1946. This time, both Sheilah and Frederick are listed. But because of the gap in my collection, I can't say for sure what year Sheilah joined the studio. Also curious is that even in the '42 ad some women are listed. Edith Lawdham, Sally Quinn, Roberta Stephenson and Mary Tinker are names I've never come across before. If Sheilah remembers being the first female illustrator at the Cooper studio ( and she would certainly know, since she worked there in her studio room next to Chuck) then I wonder what the arrangement was with these other mystery women?

Below, a Sheilah Beckett DPS ad from a 1960 issue of the Saturday Evening Post. This would have been a relatively rare ad assignment at that point in time. "When television came in," explains Sheilah, "that really made things difficult... there wasn't as much illustration. Even in advertising there wasn't as much, so business at Cooper's petered out."

"I worked with Chuck Cooper until he died - after Cooper's was no more.

"But it was such a wonderful place with such wonderful people... very creative people!"

Coronet Magazine

Sheilah's husband, J Frederick Smith, was also an illustrator during the '40s and '50s (an example of JFS' artwork below).

Smith had a good client in Esquire magazine publisher, Dave Smart. Sheilah explains that this relationship resulted in her getting the opportunity to do a cover for Esquire. "And Esquire and Coronet were connected - they were from the same publisher - and the art director at Coronet saw my work and began giving me assignments."

Based on the date of the cover above (1948) this was during a time when Sheilah and Fred were both at Cooper's.

"We were living in the center of Manhattan and I would put the baby and the artwork in the buggy and walk it over to the studio," she recalls with a chuckle.

But around 1950 - '51 the couple decided to move out of town to the countryside.

They didn't move to the artist's mecca of Westport, where so many of that era's big name illustrators lived and would have been handy to socialize with, but even so, "[fellow Cooper studio artists] Joe Bowler was near, Joe DeMers was near, and Coby Whitmore and his family were here for years and we saw them constantly."

Sheilah says, "Oh, I always wished we could be in Westport, only because I had so many illustrator friends there. We didn't have many illustrator friends where we were... they were hard to find." She chuckles again.

If Sheilah's work up until this point in her career isn't already lovely enough, its clear that during the early-to-mid-'50s she really began to establish her style.

You can begin to see it formulating in these examples from the December 1953 issue of Coronet.

Sheilah says she always loved drawing children's books and fairy tales and its evident in these examples that she was meant to do work of that type.

Her clean, appealing style and sense of whimsy is perfectly suited for that sort of subject matter.

I asked if she was looking at the work of any other children's book illustrators of the time for inspiration - like the popular Golden Books artists of the '50s, Art Seiden, the Provensens, etc. - but Sheilah replies, "Not too much because I work so very differently." I think it shows in her work. Sheilah only recalls doing a couple of assignments for Golden Books... most of her projects came from other publishers.

"It wasn't dependable," she emphasizes, "but you know, I kept busy all the time."

Greetings Cards, Paperbacks and Other "Emerging Markets"

Sheilah Beckett recalls, "When television came along... that really made things difficult, you know. There wasn't as much illustration - even in advertising."

Like many other illustrators, Sheilah had to find clients outside the traditional magazine and advertising industries. We looked recently at the emerging market in paperback cover art during the 1950s...

... here are a few examples of paperbacks illustrated by Sheilah.

Paperback covers weren't exactly a rare thing for the artist but, like the album cover art below, they also weren't a major component of her various commissions.

By contrast, one of Sheilah's long-running clients was American Artist Group greeting cards.

"The change in magazines [around 1960, due to television and photography] didn't effect the market for children's books and it didn't affect greeting cards," Sheilah explains.

"Everything was freelance... but American Artists went on for years and years..."

"... until the price of stamps went up so much. That destroyed that business."

When I told Sheilah I had been completely unaware of that aspect of her career she replied with a chuckle, "I've done murals too! I've done five hospital murals, one community center, and a church."

"What I do is, my son sets up a four by eight foot panel, and then I paint the panels and then they put them together. One really huge one at a hospital I worked on for two years! (Only going once a week though) But that was on the wall... that was kind of fun!"

When I express my amazement at her accomplishment and say, "Wow! So you were like Michaelangelo!" Sheila has a good laugh and corrects me:

"On the wall - not on the ceiling," she says, with another chuckle.

A Fairy Tale Career

Last year there was a show at the Enoch Pratt Library in Baltimore, Maryland called "Golden Legacy, 65 Years of Golden Books". Some of Sheilah Beckett's originals were included in the show. As well, a title card provided a glimpse into the life and motivation of the artist. It read in part...

"Ms. Beckett ... vividly remembered a fairy tale book from [her childhood] with a beautiful illustration of a prince and princess. She wrote, "It would be lovely if some child remembered an illustration of mine as vividly and with as much love. I always think of small persons studying each detail of a picture as I work, so I try to put plenty in to be discovered."

I had really only been aware of Sheilah Beckett as one of the many talented advertising illustrators who worked at the Charle E. Cooper studio during the '40s and '50s... but advertising, paperbacks, record albums and all the rest had only been a sidebar for the artist. The one constant of Sheilah Beckett's varied career was her tremendous love for creating fairy tale pictures and children's stories.

Early on in our conversation Sheilah had talked about how when she first considered approaching Chuck Cooper about a job she knew "Coopers was a men's studio." I asked her if being a woman had carried any negative connotation for her professionally at the time - either for clients or among her peers. She assured me it did not. "I didn't have that feeling," she said.

Speaking specifically about her storybook work she said, "Publishers didn't care if [the artist] was a man or a woman." But she qualified her thought and added, "I don't think the prices for storybook work would keep a man very well though. I had to do an awful lot of books to make a living."

Sheilah explained, "When you do children's books, they'll give you a very small amount... but then they always say, "but you'll get royalties." But the thing is, a lot of these books will be displayed on a spinner rack. And they always need space on that rack for new books. Usually your books would get taken off the rack every two years, so the royalties never really got going."

If there is an up-side to this dilemma it is that we have had the benefit of enjoying Sheilah Beckett's tremendous output over the many years of her career. The blog Love for Books lists a few of the 70 books Sheilah has illustrated and shows several more examples of her artwork.

And she shows no signs of stopping any time soon! With the help of her son, Sean Smith, Sheilah has even ventured into the field of print-on-demand self publishing. Her book, The Six Wives of Henry the VIII is available in hard or softcover at Xlibris.com

Below, a real treat: pencil sketches and finished art from Archibald, a children's book in search of a publisher, written and illustrated by Sheilah Beckett.

Sean tells me, "Archibald has been around for awhile, she started it around 10 years ago. It went to some publishers and one of the comments was the story was too moral. I'm trying to get the right people to see this work as I think it would be a very good story for our times."

"The work was done traditionally, before my mother got into the computer."

Yes, believe it or not, for the last four or five years, Sheilah Beckett has been illustrating in Photoshop with a Wacom Tablet!

As we discuss illustrating with the aid of 21st century graphics technology, I have to pause and ask again, "Sheilah, how old are you... 96?" ... and she quickly corrects me with emphasis, "Ninety-seven!" I tell her, "Wow! I am just so incredibly impressed and inspired by you!"

"Well," says the remarkable Sheilah Beckett, matter-of-factly, "its my life and I love it."

"Its exciting all the time!"

* Sheilah's son Sean asked me to let readers know that he has limited edition prints by Sheilah Beckett available for sale. Anyone interested in purchasing prints can contact him through his website for further details.

* Sean has also set up a Facebook Fan Page, The Art of Sheilah Beckett where you'll be able to see many more examples of Sheilah's work. Become a fan!

* My Sheilah Beckett Flickr set.

Inspiring Female Designers Exhibition

2010-03-22T09:41:00.000-07:00

Jenny Swadosh, Assistant Archivist of the Kellen Archives at Parsons, The New School for Design sent a note the other day:

Jenny wrote, "I thought you and your readers would be interested to know that we are featuring work by the illustrators Lorraine Fox, Esta Nesbitt, and Andree Golbin in an upcoming exhibition at the New School in New York. All the items in the exhibition come from the collections of the Kellen Archives at Parsons The New School for Design."

"The exhibition is free. If your readers would like to conduct further research in our collections, they are welcome to contact us. Patrons do not have to be affiliated with Parsons or The New School or any other academic institution to conduct research at the Kellen Archives."

* The scan of the Lorraine Fox original above is courtesy of Heritage Auctions

Ruth Ruhman

2010-03-21T06:14:00.001-07:00

At this time I have no information on Ruth Ruhman.

* My Ruth Ruhman Flickr set

Mia Carpenter: "... what a wonderful thing drawing is."

2010-03-16T07:03:00.000-07:00

In September 2009, when I wrote very briefly about Mia Carpenter on my other blog, Today's Inspiration, someone commented how glad they were to see her work being showcased. Since then I've managed to actually locate Mia. Today, I'm thrilled to have Mia writing about her career, accompanied by more of her beautiful artwork :

Mia writes, "I studied at Art Center College of Design with Jack Potter, one of the greats of 1950s - '60s illustration. He taught fashion illustration and was a great influence. He so excited his students about his subject and made it possible for us to experience what a wonderful thing drawing is."

"The Impressionist painters were working their way into the public interest in the arts. My first art books were of their work and later the work of Bonnard, Vuillard, and Matisse."

"Graduated from Art Center College of Design 1956, married a month later to an ACCD design major. Moved to New York that August and continued to work and live there for the next 11 years. In NY there was an endless list of influences... Robert Weaver, Lorraine Fox, the fashion illustrators Eric (Carl Erikson), Sylvia Braverman, Evaline Ness, too many to list. As for illustrators that were personal friends... my closest friend was Miyo Endo who did a lot of work for Redbook. Robert Quackenbush was a buddy from AC who went on to be a noted children's book illustrator."

"My artist's representative was Joan Chasson who I could not have done without. Sarah Reader was my model for most years in Manhattan. I did a lot of work relating to kids. She could model for ages over 10 yrs. to the most sophisticated women with her slim agile body and ability to hold a pose. We did do photo reference but mainly did drawing from the live model for fashion as well as other kinds of illustration."

"Sometimes the drawings done directly from the model suficed as finished work. Sometimes, especially with story illustration, using tempera and acrylic painting and pastel work, I would start with drawings from the model sketches or from photos and always drew environments, perspectives, accessories etc. from reference. With the painted and pastel work I would incorporate the sketches and backgrounds and transfer them to board of some kind and then finish with the appropriate medium."

"Moved to Paris for 1 1/2 years where I cared for our daughter and John Hoernle, my ex husband, worked with a friend to start a small ad agency. We moved from Paris to Los Angeles and I have continued living and working in this city. I first worked in retail fashion illust. as I also had done in NY and when the bottom fell out of that field... started doing sketching for entertainment ad agencies."

"During the years of doing entertainment sketching it was often vital to draw from memory because of the deadlines. I grew to appreciate that approach having to constantly examine and trust what I thought I knew and could reproduce visually. "

"I have been very fortunate in my career to have worked steadily from the early NY days to retirement (around 2004), moving from LA to NY where illustration was flourishing in so many more areas than just story illustration. Every step in the almost 50 years of making a living that I loved involved really lucky timing. It goes without saying that being willing to work ceaselessly with difficult people and new challenges was a must while, in my case, being frightened of failure for more years than I'd like to admit."

* My Mia Carpenter Flickr set

Tina Cacciola

2010-03-13T20:21:00.001-08:00

Lord only knows what artist Tina Cacciola and the editors at Coronet were thinking back December 1956 when they chose this macabre black and red colour scheme for their story of the Littlest Snowman. Very festive... for Hallowe'en, perhaps!

Yet this odd little tale, which probably scared the dickens out of every little child whom it was read to, is strangely appealing to me. Probably my German heritage, where St. Nickalaus brings coals and a willow switch for bad little children, the better to whip them with. No jolly Sundblom santas there, St. Nickalaus cut an intimidating figure, always slightly stern-faced. Menacing even...

You can find the entire eight pages of pictures and story here.

And so another year of Today's Inspiration draws to a close. I'll be taking a hiatus 'til after the New Year - but check in regularly for updates of old TI scans on my Flickr account. I promise you'll find at least one new set each day between now and January 1st, 2006.

Many thanks to everyone who has taken the time to comment on the TI blog or emailed me in private - your words of encouragement mean so much to me... I truly appreciate it!

I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Mary Horton

2010-03-13T20:17:00.001-08:00

Mary Horton's work appears in many of the 1964 volumes of the Childcraft encyclopedia/textbook series.

At first glance, because it is such understated work, one might dismiss it as being that sort of bland textbook art not worth a second look. But take a moment to linger over the details - or lack of them - and you quickly realize that Horton completely understood how to reduce the elements in her work to the bare essentials and still retain a wonderful authenticity. The important information is all there. "Reduction" is the toughest skill for an illustrator to master. Too often we become bogged down in superfluous surface detail that actually detracts from the beautiful simplicity of the core of our work.

Ten years earlier, when Horton did the advertising piece below, she was not quite there. You can see the beginnings of the style she will mature into a decade later... but the cute factor is lacking, isn't it? Horton had not yet fully grasped the nature of the formula we've been looking at all week: how to draw a cute kid.

Bingo! Who couldn't fall in love with this poor little waif?

And when you see a piece as well composed and visually interesting as the one below, you know you're looking at the work of an inspiring illustrator.

Take a closer look at the full size versions of these illustrations in my Mary Horton Flickr set.

Meg Wohlberg

2010-03-13T20:13:00.001-08:00

At this time I have no information on Meg Wohlberg.

Martha Sawyers: (1902-1988)

2010-03-12T12:19:00.000-08:00

"As this is being written, Miss Sawyers has just donned the uniform of the Army Correspondent and is off for the Far East to make pictorial records of the war for Life magazine."

- From the book, Forty Illustrators and How They Work.

"Miss Sawyer had lived and painted in Peiping until the advancing tide of Japanese aggression had all but shut off her escape to Shanghai. Indeed, the war was raging at the Marco Polo bridge two weeks before her departure."

In the early days of the 20th century, in the tiny town in Cuero, Texas, a young girl read a book called "Religion of the Far East." That book, filled with pictures of exotic people and places and stories of peculiar ceremonies would so profoundly influence the young girl that she decided to one day go experience those fascinating lands for herself.

That young Texan girl was named Martha Sawyers and before she was done she had drawn and painted her way through "Paris, Bali, Penang, Singapore, Sumatra, Java, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Peiping," according to her article in Forty Illustrators and How They Work.

When she and illustrator husband, William Ruesswig, returned to America in 1937, Sawyers had a show of her artworks at the Marie Sterner Galleries. Collier's magazine art editor, Bill Chessman happened to see her exhibition and (as luck would have it) was in need of an illustrator with a solid understanding of Asian cultures.

And so, without planning, Martha Sawyers became "an illustrator of Asiatic lore" - called upon by major clients of all sorts who required an artist who could handle the depiction of other races and cultures with passion and sensitivity.

Martha Sawyers was a remarkable woman, described as follows in the catalogue that accompanied one long-ago show of her pastel drawings:

"Martha Sawyers came out of the heart of Texas... she brings us a bright picture of the other side of the earth, unbelievable peoples and places."

"Only a great love for these could have exacted the hundreds of paintings asiatic-oriental. Hard work that perfected a technique and color brilliant and authentic."

The other day I received the generous contribution of this portrait of Gilbert Bundy, courtesy of his nephew, Jeff Holloway. Bundy was a war artist with the U.S. Army in the Pacific theatre during WWII. He experienced horrific frontline combat first hand on many of the most infamous beaches while accompanying the advancing American troops.

This piece being dated 1944, one has to wonder if Bundy and Sawyers meet by chance while they were both stationed in those embattled regions of the Far East?

In the book, "Forty Illustrators and How They Work", we learn that Martha Sawyers studied with George Bridgman and George Luks at the Art Students League. Luks was a painter of "broad luscious brush-work" but Sawyers' approach was, we are told, more like that of a draftsman than a painter. It is suggested that she must therefore have "had greater sympathy for the teaching of Bridgman," the constructive anatomist.

Sawyers' first job after graduating was in a studio that made stained glass. There she learned a technique of painting with a needle, scratching into flat colour to derive tonal variations. The artist transposed this technique to her illustration work: laying down thin washes of oil paint heavily diluted with mineral spirits to facilitate fast drying. She would then build up form with "crayon-like" brush strokes of those same thin, rapidly drying oils.

Finally (returning to her earliest professional experience in the stained glass studio) Sawyers would scrape through the dried colour layers of paint with a knife, revealing the canvas base colour. The result is the familiar textural look - a look almost of a pastel or crayon drawing - so typical of a Martha Sawyers illustration.

In early 1958, Martha Sawyers and husband Bill Reusswig once more felt the urgent pull of the Far East calling to them. They purchased plane tickets ($1,800 each) which were "good for a year and interchangeable with a dozen different airlines," and set out another adventure.

Writing for an article in the April 1959 issue of American Artist (just a little over a year after their return) Bill Reusswig reported, "The course was roughly planned but without reservations beyond Tokyo."

And what a course it was! The couple left their home in Milford CT, flew to San Francisco; then on to Honolulu, Wake Island, Tokyo, Hong Kong...

... Bangkok, Chiengmai, Rangoon, Calcutta, Patna, Katmandu...

... New Delhi, Agra, Jaipur, Bombay, Karachi...

... Istanbul, Athens, Rome, Paris, Madrid, Lisbon - and finally, after many long months and with bulging portfolios, by klipper ship back home to New York.

Reusswig said, "As we had covered a lot of this territory before, we wanted to feel free to 'follow the bend in the river'."

The couple often stayed in the humble homes of those who were the subjects of their drawings and paintings. Reusswig recounted, "Even though we did not speak their native tongue, a quick sketch was better than sign language. And even if you got lost, more often than not you could draw your way home."

These pieces are, I think, some of the best of Martha Sawyers work that I've seen. Even so, they barely begin to reflect the stories Reusswig describes in the article of the couple's year-long adventure!

He concludes, "The whole trip was a wonderful experience, and in addition to the memories it will always excite, we brought back enough authentic pictures and sketches to feed on for many months to come."

Below, a couple of very cool examples of Martha Sawyer's earliest illustrations for Collier's, courtesy of TI list member David Apatoff.

David wrote a terrific post about Martha Sawyers on his excellent blog, Illustration Art.

Fast forward three decades... here's the most current work I was able to find by Martha Sawyers, from Readers Digest Condensed Books, 1964.

The editors must have felt Martha Sawyers was a natural choice for this version of the famous bible story of Mary, Joseph and the birth of Jesus.

Having travelled extensively in these regions, and being considered a specialist in illustrating the people of Asia, Sawyers was no doubt completely comfortable with the assignment.

To research the people, places and costuming she would have had to look no further than those bulging portfolios of paintings and sketches mentioned by her husband in the American Artist article from April '59 - the accumulated wealth of that trip through all those many Eastern countries a year earlier.

Its interesting to see where one ends up when one "follows the bend of the river"...

In the early days of the 20th century, a young girl in Cuero, Texas, fascinated by a book called "Religion of the Far East" began a life-long journey of artistic and cultural discovery...

... a journey that lead, six decades later, to an assignment illustrating the story that is the centerpiece of Western religion.

Martha Sawyers, born in 1902, died in 1988.

* My Martha Sawyers Flickr set.

Marion Larson

2010-03-08T09:21:00.000-08:00

At this time I have no information on Marion Larson.

Nell Wilson (1901 - 1985)

2010-03-08T09:08:00.001-08:00

I found this illustration by an artist named Nell Wilson in an early '50s issue of Maclean's - Canada's weekly news magazine. But Wilson wasn't a Canadian... Maclean's often picked up second rights to illustrations originally published in the U.S. and in this case, it appears that they also purchased artwork from as far away as Australia!

My research on the Internet turned up a listing for Nell Wilson at this site. There are no examples of her work, but the site provides this brief summary of her career:

"Many of Nell Wilson's illustrations accompanied advertisements published in the Australian Womens Weekly during the 1940s."

For now, that's all I have to share with you on Nell Wilson.

Lorraine Fox (1922 - 1976)

2010-03-06T05:55:00.000-08:00

I can't imagine any artist more appropriate to feature than Lorraine Fox to cap off this week of launching a new blog about Female Illustrators of the Mid-20th Century. Fox was a true original. Her distinctly personal style of art would alone have set her miles ahead of her contemporaries...

...but even more impressive is that she achieved such success (being regularly published in all the major magazines of the day) while in the company of some of the undisputed giants of 1950s "idealized literal realism" at the Charles E. Cooper studio.

Along with Al Parker and a few others, this 'boys club', comprised of Coby Whitmore, Joe DeMers, Jon Whitcomb and Joe Bowler (not to mention Fox's own husband, Bernie D'Andrea) virtually owned all the visual real estate in "The Seven Sisters" from one month to the next during the 1950s.

Any illustrator - but especially a female illustrator - would have needed tremendous self confidence to not take a back seat to this elite group.

At a time when American beauty was being defined for women by men, Lorraine Fox managed to convince the art directors of some of the country's most prominent publications that her unique voice should also be heard.

Murray Tinkelman, Director of the MFA program in Illustration at the University of Hartford, said of his friend and mentor, "Lorraine lived in... that world of decorative illustration. It wasn't quite cartooning, it wasn't quite narrative illustration, it was a kind of symbolic illustration that depended on folk art as a root source."

"[In spite of having no formal illustration education] I knew enough that what Lorraine was doing was brilliant."

"Anybody could tell what Al Parker did and what Norman Rockwell did was brilliant..."

"... but Lorraine was doing brilliant stuff that didn't depend on the academic foundation of Parker or Rockwell."

When I interviewed Murray for Today's Inspiration I suggested he guest author a week of posts on Lorraine Fox. He sounded very enthusiastic about collaborating with me on something like that. With his help, I hope to bring you a comprehensive look at the life and work of this truely remarkable artist some time soon.

* The scan at top of a Lorraine Fox original is courtesy of Heritage Auctions.

* My Lorraine Fox Flickr set.

Mary Mayo

2010-03-05T11:15:00.000-08:00

If Barbara Bradley was Charles E. Cooper's reigning "Queen of the Perkies and Cutes", then Mary Mayo must surely be recognized as her opposite number at rival art studio Fredman-Chaite. Despite having some of the hottest talents in New York on their roster (The young Bob Peak, for example) it was Mary Mayo who was chosen to represent F-C on the cover of the first issue of their promotional magazine, Portfolio.

Mayo's painting style suggests she might have trained under the tutelage of Haddon Sundblom, the great Chicago advertising art master responsible for launching the careers of so many other recognized mid-century illustrators.

That's pure speculation on my part, however. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be any biographical information available on Mary Mayo, aside from her birth and death dates (1924-1985) at askart.com and the tiny tidbit of background info in the F-C Portfolio that Mayo began drawing at age 3.

What's clear is that she was a very accomplished mainstream illustrator who's abilities landed many advertising assignments for the Fredman-Chaite studios.

Whether these projects kept her too busy to pursue editorial work or if it was a conscious decision on her part to focus on advertising is unknown. I can tell you only that she is absent from the story pages of all the hundreds of 1940's and 50's magazines in my collection -- with this one exception below: a 1957 issue of Woman's Day credited to "Mary Mayot" (which has to be a typo).

What quickly becomes evident is that just as Barbara Schwinn's abilities lead to her becoming a specialist in portraiture, clients especially valued Mary Mayo's abilities in illustrating children. "This billboard child epitomizes Miss Mayo's gift for empathy... her ability not merely to express her subject, but to become her subject," says one blurb in the F-C Portfolio, "a quality especially forceful when Miss Mayo is working with children."

And another lists her many high profile clients who praise "the warm, humane understanding of people, their needs and dreams that come to life on the Mary Mayo drawing board."

My Mary Mayo Flickr set.

Arpi Ermoyan

2010-03-05T10:58:00.000-08:00

Arpie Ermoyan was one of two female artists working at Rahl Studios during the 1950s (the other being Dorothy Monet). Her husband, Souren Ermoyan, was the art director of Good Housekeeping magazine.

Here are a few more examples of Arpie Ermoyan's work, along with a picture of the stylish young artist herself. Thanks to this short article in the September '53 issue of Cosmopolitan magazine we now also know that the Ermoyans were part of that same Westport, Connecticut community of high profile illustrators that included Al Parker and Austin Briggs.

The article mentions that she also modelled for some of those same artists. That's not surprising, considering what an attractive lady Arpie Ermoyan was. Over the course of the past few years, who knows how often we may have looked at some lovely lady in a painting by one of the Westport artists... and not realized we were actually looking at Arpie Ermoyan?

The article suggests that this assignment from Cosmo was a sort of "debut" for Ermoyan . She had apparently been studying illustration for the previous five years. If that's the case, then she arrived on the scene fully formed! Her work on this assignment is top notch. So why is there so little of it to be found in the various mainstream magazines of the mid-1950's?

That, for now, remains unknown.

* If you'd like to read the article on Arpie Ermoyan without straining your eyes - or just want to admire her illustrations at full size - you'll find all of today's scans in my Arpie Ermoyan Flickr set.

Marilyn Conover (1926 - )

2010-03-04T10:45:00.000-08:00

Wow. I just got off the phone with Marilyn Conover and I'm still picking my jaw up off the floor. Some time soon I'm going to have to write a long, indepth transcription of the conversation we just had... but for now, here are a few facts and highlights:

Marilyn had just moved from Boston to New York when she illustrated this story for Readers Digest Condensed Books. She didn't even have furniture at that point, so these pieces were propped up on packing crates while she painted them.

She was originally from Chicago and she and her husband worked as apprentices to Gil Elvgren. She also knew Joyce Ballentyne and knew of Lucia Lerner. She says that even during her early years in the business she was never disrespected of mistreated by any man. "And that was long before all that Women's Liberation crap!" she said with emphasis.

Yes, even at age 84, Marilyn Conover is a real firecracker!

But that's not to say life was a walk in the park...

"Just thinking about those old days is making me physically ill," is how she described it to me.

She talked about the stress of being a professional illustrator and a mother - how her husband brought her a layout she had to work on in her hospital bed after delivering her baby girl - about the female art director at JWT in Chicago who refused to let her go home to look after her daughter until late in the evening because she wanted to meet then and there. "Oh, I wouldn't wish that kind of life on any woman," said Marilyn. She adds, "And my husband was no help at all." In the '50s, taking care of children was women's work.

Both Marilyn and her husband were artists, but when they moved to New York she continued illustrating while he became an art rep... at the Charles E. Cooper studio!

Marilyn says she never wanted for work. Despite any shortcomings some other illustrators might have suffered, she was always busy with assignments.

She credits her New York art rep, Joe Mendola, with her success. "From the minute he saw my portfolio he wanted me in his group," she says matter of factly. "Joe was great. He was the best."

There's so much more... but I'll save it for another day. I was amused when Marilyn asked me what I was going to do with all this info. "I'm going to write about you on my blog," I said.

"Really," she replied with a note of incredulity, "who would care?"

* My Marilyn Conover Flickr set.

Lucia Larner

2010-03-03T08:15:00.000-08:00

Back when I first became interested in illustration from the mid-20th century, I found this piece below, signed "Lucia". I thought it was so great, I immediately sent it out to the Today's Inspiration group. I didn't know much about illustrators from the '50s back then, but I knew enough to catagorize this Lucia with the likes of Coby Whitmore, Joe Bowler, and Joe De Mers.

Lucia was clearly adept at painting georgous women in romantic settings. His work had a lively roughness, a sketchiness - that textural quality - that was emerging during the mid-fifties among the top boy/girl illustrators, especially those at the Cooper studio in New York.

I say "his" because at that time I presumed only male illustrators could have done work in this sort of style. Shows you how very little I knew at the time!

But with no listing in "Illustrator in America" and with my most knowledgeable contacts unable to shed any light on who "he" was, Lucia remained just a signature on the occassional magazine ad I came across. Lucia's accounts included Gibson greeting cards, Orlon textiles, and the Santa Fe rail line. For the longest time I thought Lucia was strictly an advertising illustrator... then I discovered pieces like this one below, proving that the artist had also done editorial work.

I found pieces in Collier's, American, and Better Living, always signed ( or even just credited ) with that single name: Lucia.

Then, in 2006, an email arrived out of the blue: "I have info about Lucia for you..."

Those seven words sent an electric thrill through me. An illustrator named Will Nelson had stumbled upon my post and decided to contact me.

Will began relating to me his recollections of working as a young up-and-coming illustrator in the 1950's at the Chicago powerhouse art studio, Stephens, Biondi, DeCicco:

"When I came on board," wrote Will, "there were about ninety people in the organization. When I started right out of Art Center the head of the Los Angeles studio was Howie Forsberg, an illustrator, along with a staff which included Fritz Willis and Morgan"Joe"Henninger. It was in Chicago that I met Lucia (last name Larner)."

Hearing all this from Will absolutely blew my mind! Up to this point I had not even realized that Lucia was a woman. Since commercial art was, relatively speaking, a "boys club" in the 50's, I had presumed that "Lucia" was a male artist's last name. But Will set me straight:

"Right...I said "she". Lucia... was a very classy lady in addition to being a talented illustrator. At a time when the profession was dominated by men Lucia more than held her own in the studio ranks."

"Lucia was the only female artist around that I know of. Maybe other cities? But in the SBD family she was queen and treated accordingly."

So began a long and rewarding correspondence with Will, who related not only his recollections about the mysterious Lucia, but also a wealth of invaluable first-hand information about one of Chicago's premier art studios of the day - Stephens, Biondi, DeCicco.

Lucia (pronounced "Loo-Shah") Lerner was "a shapely brunette, attractive, around 5'5'. I never saw her in anything but a conservative dark dress," wrote Will. "I don't remember her wearing anything else to work in. Her medium and style was a combination of india ink line and gouache washes. Much like others of the time who were using line and washes in inks."

The November 1952 issue of Art Director & Studio News (the "Special Chicago Issue") contains a couple of interesting pages relevent to Lucia and SBD: first is this ad announcing the formation of the studio.
"I do remember that starting SBD required getting some top talent to come in...one of those was Lucia," wrote Will.

Second is this page highlighting a tradition of fashion illustration in the Chicago commercial art scene. Will wrote, "Lucia was a unique individual. We often played chess on lunch breaks...I seldom won a match...and she would talk about her art and how she grew into illustration from a newspaper, fashion artist, background. I think her style evolved from the desire to be different from the several other figure artists in the studio."

"You have to remember that Chicago was the "product" center of the U.S. We were heavy into foods, electronics, fashion related areas like cosmetics, etc. So...Lucia was always in demand in the ad agencies. The sales people were always trying to get her for their respective accounts."

"We were always competing with Cooper for editorial assignments. Barry Stephens constantly sought new samples from all of us to show in New York."

"I think [Lucia] enjoyed the work out of New York more for the change from agency assignments than for the work itself. She was very confident in her career and had her own idea about what her work was worth."

"She seemed rather indifferent to other illustrators and rarely commented on changing styles or other artists."

Like another female illustrator from 1950's Chicago, Joyce Ballentyne, who can claim a long-standing American icon as her own (she created the Coppertone girl), Lucia is responsible for the 1950's redesign of the Morton Salt girl as she would appear on millions of packages throughout that decade.

I found two ads from the 50's of the Morton Salt girl - but this one, from 1952, looks like it came out of the Sundblom studio (or perhaps it is also by Ballentyne).

I thought I had hit the jackpot with this 1957 ad... but Will wrote, "[This] Morton Salt girl looks like a version done after Lucia's ...hers was more of an outline technique. This one could have been done by any number of illustrators around Chicago in the fifties."

Nonetheless, all these pieces are great examples of the type of work top illustrators in Chicago like Lucia Larner might have been expected to do.

Some time ago I spoke with another Chicago artist, Carl Kock, who began his career at Stephens, Biondi, DeCicco in the late 50's. As Carl put it, he did not fit the mold of the typical commercial artist who could draw "good-looking people standing next to a refrigerator". His work was too avante garde, too stylized. But this was the type of work Lucia excelled at. It was the sort of high paying, high profile work SBD wanted its artist to do, and that made Lucia a valuable commodity for SBD's salesmen.

Will Nelson wrote, "Hotpoint was one of the accounts we had for quite some time. Lucia was always in demand in the ad agencies. The sales people were always trying to get her for their respective accounts."

"Her studio was the only one with a private counter and sink....the rest of us shared individual two man studios. You knew you had "arrived" when you were placed on the north side of the building."

For those of us working in commercial art today its a point of interest to hear how similar - or different - the circumstances of payment were half a century ago. We learned in previous posts on Today's Inspiration that at the Cooper studio in New York the artists were free to keep all the money earned from editorial assignments -- the studio took no commission at all. And at Rahl studios, where Andy Virgil worked, in-house artists received 60% of commissions while the studio took 40%.

Will explained the circumstances at SBD in those days:

"All of the staff artists were on commission...no salaries, but very comfortable "draws". From my stand point....my monthly draw was like a salary, which was brought up to par with quarterly updates...referred to as extra draws which picked up the additional amounts credited to my account from billing activity. I was fortunate in that I was always ahead of the amount of my draw."

"The sales rep [at SBD] was Vince Salerno and he was always crossing swords with Lucia over fees quoted. She had her own idea about what her work was worth...and held her ground until she got it."

"Like I said earlier, she was a class act."

Ken Krull, who was a salesman at Stephens, Biondi, DiCicco, when Lucia worked there during the 50's, confirms Will's description with the following anecdote:

Bringing up Lucia's name reminded me of our first job to together," wrote Ken. "I had just started in sales at SBD in the late 50's. An art director from FCB wanted to use Lucia on an ad featuring two women's heads. His budget was $200 (this was the 50's). I approached Lucia with the layout. Her question was "What will this bill for?" [When I told her the budget] she said, "That's really not very good - plus I'm very busy." Her way of turning down work."

Disappointed, I left, forgetting to take the layout. Next morning when I arrived the finished art of the heads was on my desk with a note... "Ken; Don't tell anyone what these billed for." "L"

"We went on to do much work together...She was the Queen."

"It's only these last few years that I have come to appreciate just how young I was when I was on staff with the Stephens, Biondi and DeCicco Studios," wrote Will Nelson in his first long letter to me. "Through an extraordinary sequence of events I went from Art Center College, Los Angeles, to the SBD studio headquarters, Chicago, in less than six months. I was on staff with a group of artists fifteen to twenty years older than me."

"Being single, I was on my own in Chicago. My time spent in the studio with the staff ended after 5:00. Lucia was an exception...she invited me to some of her friends' poker games."

"She had a male friend at the time whom I only met a couple of times (he was a reporter with the Chicago Tribune)."

"Lucia had a daughter she was raising on her own. She was very private about her so I can't add much more. I think she was about 12 years old at that time... around 1956 or '57... but I can't be sure."

Reading this last part of Will's correspondence felt like a bomb going off.

Having read up to this point, I'm sure you must have felt (as I do) that Lucia Larner was not only an exceptionally talented and successful illustrator, but a strong-willed and confident woman, determined to succeed despite the hurdles of prejudice and chauvinism that she must surely have encountered in the "man's world" of commercial art.

To discover that she was dealing with the additional challenges of being a single mother in 1950's America is truly stunning -- and only makes me admire and respect her all the more.

Younger people may find my emphasis of this point a little odd... but anyone who grew up even as late as the 1970's, as I did, will probably recall how rare it was to know a kid who came from a single-parent household - and the stigma attached to that situation.

Go back another 20 years and try to imagine how daunting it would be to step out the door each morning and face the societal attitudes of America in the 1950's. I think you'll begin to appreciate what I'm getting at.

Knowing now that Lucia Larner was a single mother, I can't help but look back over her body of work and take note of how often she created scenes of mother and daughter - with no man present.

And perhaps assignments such as these seen here today were all the more meaningful to her considering her unique (and challenging) personal circumstances.

Will added, "Did I mention your site came up somewhere along the line after I put Lucia's name on Google in hopes of finding out if she was still around? And this was probably the first I had thought of her in several years. All of this brings back vivid memories of the studio and the wonderful experience it was."

"We occupied the top 7th floor on Ohio St. Just a block off Michigan Ave. Next door to the studio was a upstart publishing group with a new magazine called Playboy."

"Barry Stephens constantly sought new samples from all of us to show in New York. I was sent to New York for a couple of months to work on large toy project requiring extra hands. Getting work out of New York was considered a major accomplishment...and Lucia did do well."

"I think Lucia may have come from the same previous studio base as Reno (Biondi) and Frank (DeCicco). They had worked together prior to starting SBD."

"Lucia moved to the L.A. studio (of SBD) when she left Chicago. Dan Toigo (he was featured a few years later in the American Artist magazine for his watercolors) went at the same time. I saw both of them a year or two later at SBD in L.A. while on a vacation trip. As I recall, Lucia was immediately in demand in the high end fashion market...I. Magnin, Bullocks, etc. I assume she fell back on her considerable fashion skills."

"I lost track of her after about 1960. I just don't know if she is still with us or not."

After Lucia moved to SBD's L.A. office, she did the piece below for Petersen Publishing's Teen magazine.

Long-time TI list member, Armando Mendez, who was kind enough to send me the scan, added this bit of chronology to the Lucia story:

The month before [March 1965] had another very stylish Lucia DPS illustration with a dark-haired girl (who could be based on the same model) reading through old magazines but without the heavy containment line and flat blacks of this month; a very open, sketchy, continous line Briggs/Fawcett (lithographic crayon) type drawing. I don't have a complete run but I can tell you a year later and what little story illustration remains would be 180 degees different in approach.

Around that same time, wrote Armando, "The large department stores ran incredible full page fashion drawings in the two main [L.A.] newspapers (even as a young boy, the drawings amazed me) but weren't signed. I certainly think Lucia had the chops for these."

That jibes well with Will Nelson's thoughts on what became of Lucia: "As I recall, Lucia was immediately in demand in the high end fashion market... I.Magnin, Bullocks, etc."

Perhaps someone out there will have saved some of those 1960's newspaper fashion ads and will read this post. With a little luck, we may yet get to see Lucia Lerner's work from that later part of her career.

In February 2009, the following comment was added to one of my early Lucia posts:

"Hi, I ran across your blogs about Lucia Larner while researching an art piece that has been passed down through the family. She was my grandmother's sister. She was a wonderful woman who used to visited us randomly throughout the years. She has finally passed away several years ago from what my mother told me. She was always fun to visit with. She had a very vibrant and fun personality. She would always share stories about the art she was involved in." - Adam

* My Lucia Larner Flickr set

Margaret Erath (1930 - )

2010-03-02T15:17:00.000-08:00

A few years ago I found this lovely record jacket at my local Goodwill signed by "M Erath."

Some searching on the Internet turned up an Arizona artist named Margaret Erath and after connecting with her I was thrilled to discover that she was in fact the illustrator of that record jacket.

Mrs. Erath generously agreed to write to me with some background information about her career: She graduated from Washington Irving High School and Parsons School of Design.

She was a textile designer for 32 years in New York City at the Gloria Bucé Studio.

Thoughout the 70's and into the 80's, Margaret Erath created fine art - for gallery exhibitions - she did produce artwork and posters for the BAFFA News and, as a member of the National League of American Pen Women, designed covers for the Penwomens NLAPW shows at CHPS in the early 80's. She also illustrated "Spanish Lesson" for Eyegate Film Strips and record jackets for Wide World Children's Records...

... but I suspect those assignments came much earlier, based on the date of the first album cover I found.

Mrs. Erath kindly sent along several slides of her more recent work. Unfortunately, not having the means to scan them, I was unable to show them here. I managed to find some wonderful examples of her paintings online, as you can see.

"My main goal in painting is to take JOY in the gift God has given me - This comes about in taking what the Living God has created in life and in a designed way to recapture the beauty I see to give to others - for His Glory" - Margaret Erath

My Margaret Erath Flickr set.

Margaret Fleming

2010-03-02T15:12:00.001-08:00

At this time I have no information on Margaret Fleming.

Mary Suzuki

2010-03-02T14:53:00.000-08:00

"Mary Suzuki was working in NY when I got there in 1956. She was particularly noted for the work she did for Seventeen Magazine... fashion spreads and some beauty spots. Her figures were distinguished by the absence of eyes...""... somehow because, I think, the figures were so highly designed they did not look strange." ~ Mia CarpenterMary Suzuki's son, Taro, contacted me last year and shared some interesting additional information. Taro wrote, "She did a lot of work in the 50's and 60's for Harpers Bazaar and Seventeen magazine. When Andy Warhol first came to N.Y. he showed her his book and she told him to do shoes and got him some work."Suzuki must have known what she was talking about... she illustrated the ad below, which received a NY Art Directors medal.Suzuki and Warhol co-illustrated "Amy Vanderbilt's Book of Etiquette" and, wrote Taro, "she also gave him his first cat "Hester".Some more details about his mom's career from Taro:"She grew up on a farm in Imperial Valley Ca. I know she was very ambitious and went to Art Center in L.A. where she met my father. I don't know what her first job was, but she had a lot of success before I was born. I don't think family interfered with her career.""I was her only child and was often given to the care of an aunt or nanny. I can't give you a dollar figure on what jobs paidthen, but I think she was well paid. You're right about the 60's -- Pop graphics changed the style. She tried to adjust and was great friends with Milton Glaser and Pushpin Studios, but she was of a slightly older generation -- She cited Ben Shahn and the Ashcan School as inspirations." "She worked on a host of different projects: a children's book (never published). "Twiggy " paper dolls (couldn't get rights) , and fine art(oil painting)- she showed in the first feminist art show at The Huntington Hartford Museum "Women Choose Women". Toward the end she derived most of her income from illustrating clothing patterns for Butterick and the like, and she also designed clothes. She designed a promotional scarf for Pepsi Cola and showed it to Bill Blass who stole it."Taro also wrote, "I vaguely remember some illustrator friend's names: Cliff Condack, Bernard Simpson and Bill Charmatz." and he sent this fabulous picture of Mary Suzuki in the 1950s - which almost looks as though it was taken at that moment when she advised the young Andy Warhol to "draw shoes."Mary Suzuki was quite active until the 70's. She died in 1974 of cancer.

Nell Reddy

2010-03-02T14:52:00.000-08:00

At this time I have no information on Nell Reddy.

Rita Bernard

2010-03-02T14:49:00.000-08:00

At this time I have no information on Rita Bernard.

Margaret Nielsen

2010-03-02T14:39:00.000-08:00

At this time I have no information on Margaret Nielsen.

Ginnie Hofmann

2010-03-02T14:29:00.000-08:00

At this time I have no information on Ginnie Hofmann

More Ginnie Hofmann artwork at Goofbutton.com here and here

Jane Miller

2010-03-02T14:27:00.000-08:00

At this time I have no information on Jane Miller.

Gwen Fremlin

2010-03-02T14:25:00.000-08:00

At this time I have no information on Gwen Fremlin.

Jane Oliver (1921 - )

2010-03-02T14:16:00.000-08:00

Jane Oliver was born in West Haven, Connecticut in 1921. She studied at the Franklin School of Professional Arts on a scholarship for three years. For her work Oliver received the Klein and Grumbacher awards, the Stroud prize, was honoured by the Audubon Artists, the American Watercolor Society, was awarded the medal of Honor from the National Association of Women Artists.

I previously located two pieces by Oliver for Collier's magazine (here's one of them).

The piece below and the the photo of Jane Oliver presented above appeared in the January 1957 issue of American Artist magazine. In the article on her watercolor technique, Oliver describes herself as a "regularly employed artist working in the commercial field." No other details are given.

* My Jane Oliver Flickr set.

Barbara Bradley (1927 - 2008)

2010-03-02T09:12:00.000-08:00

Barbara Bradley was always of invaluable assistance when she offered her insight on my other mid-century illustration blog, Today's Inspiration. In February 2008 I asked Barbara to share with us the details of her career, but with a nuanced focus on what it was like for her, as a woman, to compete in a male dominated profession.

I am grateful for her revealing commentary, which will help all of us better appreciate the nature of the commercial art business - and really, of society - as it was half a century ago... and how things may (or may not) have changed since those days. - LP

Like many illustrators (but not ALL!), I began by drawing early and often. My first drawings that were kept were drawn when I was about three. The subject was Mae West, a pattern that, interesting enough, remains true to this day: the love of drawing people in storytelling clothing, full of expressions in face and body. I'm still grateful to a long forgotten kindergarten teacher who called my parents to school to discuss my drawing ability. She warned them never to allow a teacher to try to change my left-handedness or the direction of my paper. Neither parent was artistic so they didn't understand where it came from. But they were all for it. They were proud and also supportive but they were nervous because “artist” meant “fine artist”. Commercial art was OK to them. Fortunately for me, almost all of the artists whose work I admired were illustrators. Though I didn’t know even know the term “illustrator”, I knew I wanted be one of them.

My favorite comic strip artists as a child were Hal Foster (Prince Valiant) and Milton Caniff (Terry and the Pirates). Even thought the subjects were men, my most influential artist was probably Lyle Justis, whose illustrated “Treasure island” (below) I repeatedly read (and subconsciously studied). These artists all drew great legs, something I’ve loved to draw for years. Thank you, Hal, Milton, and Lyle. It wasn’t until college years that I saw the work of such illustrator giants as NC Wyeth and Arthur Rackham.

Movies were a constant source of inspiration for me. Using my favorite Mongol colored pencils, I filled drawing tablets with Maid Marions, Marie Antoinettes, and contemporary ultra-fashionable ladies. I never drew from life but somehow from observation or figuring gestures out. (Drawing from one’s imagination usually really means drawing from what has been observed and mentally recorded.)

Colored pencils were a great medium for this kid. Once I discovered the trick of “shading” one side of a shape cooler and one warmer, I could win any coloring contest in sight. I then tried the same with watercolors. It was one of these contests that won me a short-term Saturday class scholarship at a San Francisco Art School, run by a clever female Commercial Artist. I learned a great deal about technique there; about illustration board, transferring pencil drawings, watercolors, rubber cement, and the wonderfulness of a Winsor-Newton series 7 sable brush. We worked from photographs only... no drawing from live models. (That had to wait ‘til Art Center) I stayed on there during my high school years; I was exposed to very few magazines at home so it was there that I learned of Jon Whitcomb. He, with his starry-eyed glittery shiny haired women, immediately became my God. However, in a short while, his place on the pedestal was taken over by Al Parker, who has held it ever since.

I learned so much from that little place but my memories are marred by realizing how unethical were some of her practices. Still in high school, I not only taught Saturday classes for younger kids but also ghost-illustrated work for her. The parents whose kids were taught by another kid were cheated. I did one storewide Santa Claus Christmas campaign for her for a chain shoe store. She gave me an $18.75 War Bond, I got a thrill from seeing my work in print, but, in retrospect, it was still exploitation.

The person from those days to whom I am still most grateful was my high school yearbook advisor, physics teacher Robert Barry. He took his personal time to seek advice for me, the clueless yearbook art editor, on where to get appropriate training for illustration. These pieces above and below were done for a circus-themed high school yearbook. I was about 16. What a commentary on the times, as well as how much I had to learn.

From the engraver who did the yearbook plates, Mr. Barry learned of Patterson and Hall, the best professional art studio in San Francisco. He arranged for me to have a review of my work by Mr. Patterson and even took me to the appointment himself. There, I learned of Art Center in Pasadena, the place from which I eventually did go on for my art education. Thank you, wherever you are, Mr. Barry.

However, three years of study at UC Berkeley preceded Art Center. One class in the Art Department, during which the idea of illustration was so scorned, was enough. From then on I took other courses, so many of which provided valuable background for an illustrator: Art History; History of Architecture, of Interiors, of Costume; History, Lit, Ancient Civilizations. I met my first husband at Cal where we worked on providing posters for Cal Clubs. He did the lettering and layout and I did the cute sexy gals.

We married, moved to LA to Art Center. I planned to attend only one summer, and then finish at UCLA. One semester of Art got me hooked and I stayed. In fact, though a few years ago The Academy awarded me an honorary doctorate, I never did receive a BA. Seven years of college and no BA. Hah! Though Art Center didn’t award degrees in those days, it was just what I needed. It was full of WW II vets, all of whom were serious about making up time. The competition was fierce. It was there that we heard Norman Rockwell speak, also speaking so admiringly of Al Parker.

I seldom felt any prejudice at Art Center about being a woman. Again, in retrospect, one or two of the teachers may not have taken me as seriously as they did the men, but that may have been because they related more to male-oriented subjects than to the subjects I leaned toward. One tended to get more respect by drawing well. Good drawing is often more impressive than good layout, ideas, etc, even to fellow art students, who should have known better. I laugh remembering one of my favorite perches for drawing, sitting atop two drawing benches, on piled over the other. I loved a high eye level. Now I couldn’t even climb to board them.

(The Band piece below was an AC portfolio piece.)

When it came time to leave, there was no doubt in our minds that we had to go to New York. Some grads thought about going to Chicago. I now realize what great work was coming out of Chicago. However, at the time, working in Chicago seemed comparable to becoming a nurse instead of a doctor.

About portfolios… I think too many young graduates expect that their portfolios should consist of the best work they have done at Art College. I believe that it should represent the best that they can do by they time that they graduate. Often, a piece done earlier that has good ideas, research, etc, and is short on execution or whatever, can be redone in a comparatively short amount of time. In addition, one should take a hard look at a portfolio, looking for weaknesses or areas that do not represented what one can do. We spent about two solid months reworking our portfolios. It was worth it. We got the jobs we wanted, where we wanted them. Our portfolios got us to the places where we could keep on learning.

A Young Lady Among the Good Ol' Boys

About my days at Coopers. A background. My first husband, Herbert Briggs, and I met at UC, Berkeley, married and went to Art Center together.

After graduation, we polished our portfolios, took them on a train, and went to the Big Apple. He got a job at Young & Rubicam and I at Cooper’s. We’d postponed starting a family because I thought it would be easier to learn to be an illustrator before learning to be a mother than the reverse. A decision I never regretted.

Because you asked before, I’ll start by discussing being a woman artist.

There were two women artists at Cooper's during my years there. Both were quite established when I arrived and both were married to Cooper artists, Lorraine Fox to Bernie d'Andrea and Sheila Beckett to J. Frederick Smith who HAD been at Coopers.

Sheila seldom came to the studio but I knew Lorraine fairly well. I had a regular account at that time, Calling All Girls (formerly Polly Pigtails, a magazine for teenage girls) which featured the same girl and her dog on each month's cover.

Bernie and Lorraine's dachsund, Heidi, was one of my best models. Though Lorraine's style was very different from mine, I learned a great deal from her about texture and color. I followed the work of other women artists, but did not know any. They were either freelance or at other studios and had been established for quite awhile.

I'd been at Cooper's for a while when I started Polly so it wasn't any more thrilling than many other jobs. Except that it was my account. For several years, I'd been doing crossword puzzle covers. They were silly, but always featured a pretty girl and crossword pattern somewhere. I had a free hand in the ideas and jobs. Though technically editorial, a salesman got that account for me and it was lumped into my job, which, for the first few years, was salary.

Had I been less shy, had I not been married with an outside life of my own, and had I known how to drink, I might have socialized more and known more artists outside of Cooper’s. I knew nothing about [other art studios]. Many of us were in a lovely cocoon at Cooper's, especially those of us who weren't one of the 'good ol' boys', who went out on long lunches. I never went to the Society of Illustrators, where there must have been more communication with outside artists. As it was, both in New York, and even the early days in San Francisco, I did not socialize with any artists outside of Bob Jones.

At first, I got a lot of "perky women" jobs, aprons and hair flying, faces beaming with joy at the wonderfulness of their stoves and laundry soap. Children gradually became a specialty, probably because not too many artists did them very well.

I think my biggest thrill came from my first full page color ad, and that was shortly after I began. It was for Woolworth's. They were a client for quite a while. They were very fussy and had tight layouts that required a lot of finagling to fit the figures in. Woolworth work always went back for changes. I thought that was the norm. When I did a Life Saver's ad and there were no changes, I was not only shocked, I learned a lesson. I was the same artist, doing the same quality of work and they loved the work and wanted no change. Art Directors at small accounts have to prove their worth and let us know who's boss. Art Directors on major accounts didn't need that.

After a few years at Cooper’s, our first daughter Lauchlin was born, right at the New York Hospital. We moved to Westchester County, rented, bought 9 acres of land in Pound ridge, had plans made for a beautiful house, and were in the process of choosing a contractor. When we began talking about 2nd mortgages before we’d even broken ground, we stopped and thought. Did we really want to spend the rest of our lives on the East Coast? NO.

So Herb got a transfer, and back to the Bay Area we came. We found an almost completed house in the Berkeley Hills, overlooking a regional Park, and moved in. A second daughter, Glennis, was born. My marriage broke up but I eventually remarried. I added the name Bradley to mine and we added a son, Andrew, to our family. Just like his sisters, he often modelled for me, especially for the Hawaiian Kids. My children are grown with their own families, and I’m still here!

"Queen of the Perkies and Cutes"

"Some of my early freelance work was for the Merrill Publishing Company (coloring book covers, paper doll books, etc.)" wrote Barbara in a recent email message. A cache of Barbara's original art for the publisher recently came to light, so I asked her if she would elaborate on the specifics of working for this client. Since the Merrill work occurred around the time when Barbara was still at the Cooper studio in New York - and continued for a period after her move to the West Coast - consider today's post a sort of "sidebar" to Barbara's narrative of her career. I think you'll agree that its a fascinating opportunity to better understand the nuts and bolts of one illustrator's life at that time and place.

As I remember, these covers paid $300. I may have received more for the Heavenly Blue Wedding. It was the year's major project and had many more figures. I was either offered more or bargained for more.

I wouldn't have done those for $300.

Remember that $300 went a lot further in the early 50's. My starting salary at Cooper's was $50 a week. Cooper raised that to $100 within a month. Starting salary for an Art Director at Y & R in 1951 was $65 a week. You could get a lunch at Schraft's for 50 cents so $65 seemed like a fortune to someone just out of Art School. Oh yes, I did the clothes for a few of my paper doll They were pure fun. No models to book..just fantasy. They paid $150 a page. (Remind me to send you a page from the only one I have.)

As for time... I'm guessing that I was given several weeks but that that involved about three to four total days of work. However, Marion Merrill wanted to see pencils so the work was always staggered with Cooper work at the same time. When I was salaried, I did freelance projects before and after regular hours and weekends. When I changed to commissioned work, I could fit them in as needed. Each usually took part of a day for preliminary sketches for myself, part of another for a model shoot and another to work them together in a composition, get any needed reference, and do the pencil. The painting usually took no more than a day. I also remember that the first deadline I ever missed was for one of the Merrill jobs. Lauchlin, my first child, arrived ten days before expected. Marion Merrill was quite understanding.

I didn't usually receive a layout but I vaguely recall that Marion indicated how many figures she wanted. She also always wanted to see pencils before proceeding with the finish. (In the Merrill Pub Archives are decades worth of pencil drawings). She probably suggested the content scene such as cake cutting. I might have had some kind of layout for "Pals to paint and Color", with the close-up of the little boy. I'd completely forgotten that one but recognized it when I saw it again. I painted the brush under the palettes so that must have been in a layout. I came up with most of the ideas, and definitely the gestures,compositions, and little businesses. The titles and samples of the book contents were usually enough to set the scene. I remember being pleased with incorporating the title of "Read, Write, and Count" in little slates and having the doll hold one.

Your statement that these fascinate you is amazing to me. Perhaps it's because the world of ideal childhood they represent almost seems like something from the 19th century rather than the 20th. No pants on girls. Bows everywhere. Every dress starched. I was queen of the perkies and the cutes. And note that every child was Caucasian.

Illustrators took that for granted then. Incidentally, the first time I was asked by an Art Director to show ethnic diversity was in the 70's. That was for a poster for Shasta soft drinks.

"No Girls Allowed"

Because I want for us to understand as much as possible about the dynamics of the illustration business back in those days, and how it has changed (and how perhaps it has not), I felt it would be a missed opportunity if I didn't ask Barbara how she got along as a woman in a male dominated profession. I am grateful for her candid response, so matter-of-fact in tone, revealing some uncomfortable realities for those who did not "fit the mold" of the times: - LP

All of the Cooper artists were pleasant, many were helpful, but none ever asked me to join them for lunch. An interesting aside…a few years ago Jim Bama and I were talking about a similar thing. (Though we’d been completely out of touch, I had written him to congratulate him on being elected to the Illustrator’s hall of Fame and we got to talking.) Jim had not been one of the boys because he was Jewish. I, because I was a woman. He accepted this then and so did I. It wasn’t until twenty years later that I got a little angry about it…in retrospect.

In San Francisco, it was the same. As there was not yet a Society of Illustrators here, I joined the local Advertisers Club, to which most illustrators belonged. I was well known in my field but I felt so out of it at my first meeting, that I didn’t attend another. Even when the SF Society of Illustrators was formed and I knew everyone by reputation, I didn’t become a charter member when asked. Years later I did. By that time, some of my students had become members and I’d hired many members to become teachers for me, I still hadn’t joined. It was silly of me. By the time I joined, out of embarrassment, there were many women in the Society and there no longer seemed to be a 'Good Ol’Boys' atmosphere.

As for prejudice about work..I never felt any. When it came to my portfolio, it spoke for itself. I had a great rep who looked out for me. I had read about women in the 1920’s who were not paid as well as men but I’d never had that problem.

The 70's, the 80's... and the Academy

The continuing drop off in illustration in the 60’s, 70, and 80’s certainly affected me, along with most illustrators. On returning to the Bay Area, I had a great rep, Dick Danner, who kept me busy into the early 60’s, when he, seeing the handwriting on the wall, quit the business entirely. I continued to get some work through long-term clients and their recommendations. However, it really slipped in the mid 60’s. That was OK as I was getting more involved at the Academy. In the late 60’s, I began doing a lot of Point-of-purchase work, mostly for Dole, C & H, Del Monte. (The Hawaiian Kids live on, still bringing me welcome royalties.) As so much of this work featured children, it was a natural for me. It continued through the 70’s.

As food companies began cutting back on POP and I on neat jobs, the proportions between illustration and the Academy also changed. Developing the Department took a greater proportion than free-lance. Though I did take on a lot of profitable, enjoyable, but unglamourous work during the 80’s, much of it illustrating food and animals for packaging, I no longer sought work.

After retiring as director of Illustration in 1992, though continuing as advisor and teaching one class, there was time to do what I wanted to do. My problem was that, after having assignments and deadlines for so many years, I had a difficult time working on my own. I did a few paintings that are acceptable and playing with watercolors brought me the Amish plate job. I spent several years doing designs for Willitts Designs Native American Children. These combined my love of drawing with that of research. My greatest pleasure from art was in sketching on location, many sketches of which are in my book.

Teaching post-retirement drawing workshops,(at Disney, Pixar, and one in England), made me realize that even some professional artists wanted to know more about what I had been teaching for years. That decided me to begin my book about drawing illustrative figures. For over three years, that book was my baby, I thought of it as a legacy. I did over 900 drawings and a worked out copy and drawings for every page. Only 600 were used which was OK but copy changes and the book design were less fortunate. I was not happy. Just about then, my son’s daughter was born. The book became a book and I was content for it to merely have value.

About women in art

I’ve been wanting to say more about women with careers. Women are now respected as income earners. A married woman can buy a car without her husband countersigning a loan application. Years ago she couldn’t, even if her income were greater. She can buy disability insurance without a limitation of 10 years for permanent disability, determined on the premise that women are more inclined to malinger.

The worst enemy to a woman’s career is her nature. We women want it all, the career and the family. it is so difficult to rise to the very top and hands-on raise a family. We are so often torn between our female instincts and our professional work. We want to do it all for and with our families, and as well as possible. I liked to cook, sewed curtains and clothes for my daughters, and had to make every birthday cake special (volcano, banjo, merry-go-round, nightgown for a pajama party, Darth Vader, whatever). Time off should be in doing samples but I’d too often find another project.

Still, in my day, illustration, being a stay-at-home career, was a great field for a woman. Most women are great jugglers. I would put a wash on the board, then a wash in the machine. Today, because most illustration jobs are full time in the entertainment industry, not free lance traditional. Illustrating children’s books is an exception, but they are seldom as lucrative as advertising was.

I once read a comment by a celebrated British physician that she likened herself to a three–legged milking stool. She needed all three legs to keep in balance. Added to my family and illustration, teaching became my third leg. In my case, however, the length of the legs changes as outside circumstances changed. When I illustrated more than I taught that was fine. But, when I began teaching as much as I illustrated, I was frustrated. As directing the Illustration Department took more time, the proportions reversed and that was fine, too. In later years, I often felt guilty and sometimes regretful, thinking that I had owed it to my ability to do more productive with my art than I had been. But, when I saw how many Academy illustrator alumni (so many of whom are now my friends and many co-teachers), became successful, making their livings doing what they loved to do, I came to believe that teaching was perhaps what I was really born to do. The humbling comments on the surprise Blog begun last year (see link below), took care of any remaining doubts or regrets.

Barbara Bradley received the 2007 Outstanding Educator in the Arts Award from the Society of Illustrators. She was the retired Director of Illustration at the Academy of Art University at the time of writing this account of her career. The Academy has created a blog, thankyoubarbarabradley.com in her honor. She was also the subject of an in-depth interview and related article by Neil Shapiro in the 21st issue of Illustration magazine. Barbara Bradley died on May 2, 2008

My Barbara Bradley Flickr set.