Persephone

Thomas Hart Benton — Persephone — 1939

Thomas Hart Benton is a grand old fixture of the history of 20th century art. Yet Robert Hughes, venerable art critic for Time magazine, cited Benton as "a dreadful artist most of the time . . . flat-out, lapel-grabbing vulgar, incapable of touching a pictorial sensation without pumping and tarting it up to the point where the eye wants to cry uncle." Don't hold back Mr. Hughes. Benton was painting 'fine art' for museums, not 'cover art' for pulps.

One of Benton's more controversial paintings was that of Persephone, a modern allegory of Pluto, in the guise of a Missouri farmer, gazing at the sleeping goddess.

Benton's painting process was not simple, but fell into line with the practice of many painters, making thorough use of preliminary procedures:

Above, before painting, Benton produced many graphite sketches of every element that he envisioned in the image.

Above, he took various sketches and combined them into numerous compositional studies, gridding them for transfer to painting surfaces.

During the whole process, (above and below) inspired by the practice of Tintoretto, the 16th century painter, Benton worked out the spatial relationships of the figures and light and shadow by creating clay-sculpture models, that he used for further preliminary studies and the final painting.

Above, he also created black and white oil sketches to work out the rendering of tonal values.

And, above, a detail of a master drawing that he gridded for transfer to a linen canvas adhered to a panel, a whopping size of 4.5 X 6 feet, combining egg tempera and oil for the final painting, shown at the top of this post.

Epic

Speaking of Howard Pyle's epic representations, isn't it amazing how an epic painting, below, begins with a rough pencil sketch, further below—typical of the way he determined definite compositions.

Howard Pyle — The Coming of Lancaster

Illustration for Harper's Monthly — May 1908

Howard Pyle — rough sketch for The Coming of Lancaster

Anthropomorphism

When you think of Howard Pyle's illustrations, you probably tend to think of King Arthur's knights, Robin Hood, pirates and other epic representations. But his early Wonder Clock tales slipped into some different kind of shoes — anthropomorphic characterizations, very nicely done.

Howard Pyle — from The Wonder Clock — 1888

In his distinctive way, this is what Wallace Tripp had to say about the subject, some 90 years later:

Wallace Tripp

Faerie Gliders

This is a sweet scene of faeries, here reprinted in a book, originally from a vintage Ladies Home Journal.

Oliver Herford —Faerie Gliders — November 1927

The Blue Bird

Here is a lovely study of birds for a playbill design at the Haymarket Theatre in London. At a time it would have been hard to find good photographic reference, these were probably drawn from observation and the imagination.

Frederick Cayley Robinson — The Blue Bird — 1909

Watercolor - pen and ink - pencil

What If?

I couldn't help myself. I used my break-time to envision a what-if. What if magazines of the early 20th century used the sensibilities of the early 21st century (assuming that we still get to use the cool art of the period)?

Class, look at previous post—compare and contrast.

Buchanan — mock-up

I probably would clip and save the cover, for the art, but maybe not.

Apologies to Vanity Fair, current management. I'm not picking on you, per se. Don't sue me. You're a big enough entity that I'm beneath your notice. These are not the droids you're looking for . . .

Character and Voice

Still, all in all, I think illustrative graphics give character and voice to a magazine, and I'm just surprised that some magazine editors wouldn't want to give it a shot again. The New Yorker certainly benefits from quality artistic covers. When are we going to see more periodicals go for the gold?

In the meantime, let's look backward again to the World War I era. Doesn't this cover have a similar mystique to some of Moebius' work?

Vanity Fair — November 1917

La plus belle femme du monde

There are times, I must admit, that a photo

is most appropriate for a magazine cover.

Photo (French edition) — December, 1998

(The Most Beautiful Woman in the World)

Those Eyes!

Reese Witherspoon — 1998 — sorry, I don't have record of photographer

Always an Adventure

I love photographs that show the old days and the old ways. Travel is always an adventure, but it seemed more exotic in the pre-1960s.

Moonlight Mermaids

Gertrude Alice Kay — Moonlight Mermaids — 1916

Reindeer People

© Susan Seddon Boulet — Reindeer People

Woodland Faerie

M. T. Ross — Woodland Faerie — 1914

Dancer Study

I used to collect every Robert Heindel illustration I could find back in the 70s—80s era, though I've lost a lot of them over the years. Besides general illustration assignments, he rendered a lot of dancer studies, always sensitive and usually with a lighter value of prussian blue as an undercoat, contrasting warms and cools.

© Robert Heindell — Dancer study — mid 80s

Myth Conceptions

Out of scores of beautiful watercolor conceptions by Sir William Russell Flint, this is maybe my favorite of his. The image feels so . . . mythological. Oh that Flint could have illustrated an entire encyclopedia of mythology.

Sir William Russell Flint — Selene

Inside the Trap Door

For those of you who don't always make it over to Whirled of Kelly to see Walt Kelly's magnificent art and stories, be aware that some exceedingly rare material is unfolding, right now.

Self Promotional

There are literally hundreds more kids' books I want to share, and given enough time I probably will, but I think it's time to change channels.

But before we do, I wanted you to see this intriguing self promotional piece by H.B. 'Buck' Lewis, a wonderful illustrator for children's books and other media, along with a lot of inspirational and character development art for animated movies.

Artwork and design © HB Lewis

Adventurous Voyages

These are a few illustrations from Sindbad's Secret, the third book of Ludmila Zeman's retold tales of the adventures of Sindbad the Sailor, continuing to weave details of the lure of travel.

Map of many lands

City of Baghdad

Port of a new land

Manlike Creature

Text and illustrations ©2003 by Ludmila Zeman

Tundra Books

Tapestry of Enchantment

The book Sinbad, lovingly retold and illustrated by Ludmila Zeman, is a tapestry of enchantment.

Above, "It was Shahrazad's knowledge and wit that softened King Shahriyar's cruelty and eventually defeated him."

Above, magical landscapes and dogs that have no respect for the displaced. On the other hand, what has he been eating, anyway?

Below, as I first skimmed through the book, this illustration forced me to stop and read the text to see why blood erupted from 'wooden fruit'. Ah, an illustration doing its job!

Text and artwork ©1999 Ludmila Zeman

Tundra Books

Alluring & Intriguing

Just when you thought you didn't want to go back in the water with The Little Mermaid, Charles Santore freshens up the old story by Hans Christian Andersen with alluring design and illustrations, making it an intriguing book for all ages.

Images & text © Charles Santore/JellyBean Press