The march of industry
”Samuel Slater Demonstrates the First Successful Textile Machinery,’’ in Pawtucket, R.I., circa 1793 (oil on board), by Adam Cl,ymer (1907-1989), from American Cyanamid corporate calendar 1968, at the National Museum of American Museum, Newport, R.I.
— Copyright National Museum of American Illustration
Certain kinds of intensity
Left, “Spring Commuter’’ (oil on canvas), by J.C. Leyendecker (1870-1951), for the May 6, 1916 cover of The Saturday Evening Post. Right, “Threading the Needle” (oil on canvas), by Norman Rockwell, for the April 8, 1922 cover of the same magazine. Both at the National Museum of American Illustration, Newport, R.I.
The western facade of the mansion Vernon Court, at 492 Bellevue Ave., Newport R.I., home of the National Museum of American Illustration. It was built in 1900.
A business transaction
“The Knave of Hearts - The King Samples the Tarts” (oil on paper on board), by Maxfield Parrish (1870-1966), at the National Museum of American Illustration, Newport, R.I.
— Copyright the National Museum of American Illustration
Parrish was an important member of the famous art colony in Cornish, N.H., where he had an estate called The Oaks, which is still standing. See the Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park, also in Cornish. The famously reclusive writer J.D. Salinger lived in Cornish.
War in Newport
The National Museum of American Illustration, in Newport, has many famous World War I posters. This is one of those it’s using in its battle against Salve Regina University’s plan to add dormitory space for more than 400 students, with accompanying parking, in the museum’s neighborhood.
An earlier pandemic New Year's
“New Year’s Baby 1919 (Dove Released from Cage)’’ (oil on canvas) by J. C. Leyendecker (1874-1951), for the Dec. 28, 1918 cover of The Saturday Evening Post. The picture ran only a few weeks after the end of World War I and during the horrific flu epidemic of that time.
(c) 2020 Image courtesy of the National Museum of American Illustration, Newport, RI, and the American Illustrators Gallery, New York, NY.
You can have her/him for free
“Love’s Lost Child at the Information Booth” (oil and pencil on board), by Thorton Utz (1914-1999), for the cover of the Dec. 20, 1958 Saturday Evening Post. It’s at The National Museum of American Illustration, Newport, R.I.
(c) 2020 Images Courtesy of the National Museum of American Illustration, Newport, RI, and the American Illustrators Gallery, New York, NY.
Police brutality
“Expired Meter’’ (oil on board) by George Hughes (1907-1990), at the National Museum of American Illustration, Newport
(c) 2020 National Museum of American Illustration, Newport, RI, and the American Illustrators Gallery, New York, NY
Mr. Hughes lived for the last part of his life in Arlington. Vt., between the Taconic Range and the southern Green Mountains, where one of his neighbors for some years was the far more famous illustrator Norman Rockwell, who eventually moved to Stockbridge, Mass., in the Berkshires.
Fog over the Battenkill River in West Arlington, Vt.
Global ambitions
“June Graduate” (1920, oil on canvas), by J.C. Leyendecker (1874-1951), Saturday Evening Post’s June 5, 1920 cover, at the National Museum of American Illustration, Newport, used with museum’s permission.
Break from the Great Depression
"Dad Blowing Up Green Turtle Tube" (1931, oil on canvas), by Leslie Thrasher, on the cover of the Sept. 5, 1931 Liberty Magazine. It can be seen at the National Museum of American Illustration, Newport.
c) 2018 National Museum of American Illustration, Newport, RI.
Images courtesy Archives of American Illustrators Gallery, New York, NY.
Cold-weather commute
"John Messner Clung With Mittened Hand'' (oil on canvas), by Frank Schoonover, at the National Museum of American Illustration, Newport, R.I.
-- Photo of painting copyrighted by the National Museum of American Illustration
Endless challenge
"Red Cross Serving the Children of the World'' (oil on canvas, 1942), by Frederick Sands Brunner, at the National Museum of American Illustration, Newport. Image courtesy, American Illustrator's Gallery Archives.
Land grab
"La Salle Christening the Country 'Louisiana' '' (oil on canvas, 1905), by Howard Pyle, in the current show "Howard Pyle, His Students & the Golden Age of American Illustration,'' at the National Museum of American Illustration, Newport, R.I.
Copyright 2017 National Museum of American Illustration, Newport, R.I. Photo courtesy American Illustrators Gallery, New York, N.Y.
A beautiful end
"The Doryman'' (Evening) (oil on canvas), by N.C. Wyeth (1882-1945), in the show "Howard Pyle, His Students & the Golden Age of American Illustration,'' opening May 26 at the National Museum of American Illustration, Newport.
Copyright National Museum of American Illustration, Newport, R.I.; Photo courtesy of the American Illustrators Gallery, New York. N.Y.
Merry Christmas from the King of Commerce
Norman Rockwell (1894–1978)
"Santa and Expense Book'' (oil on canvas), by Norman Rockwell, for the Saturday Evening Post cover of Dec. 4, 1920. This is in the collection of the National Museum of American Illustration, Newport, R.I. Image courtesy of American Illustrators Gallery, NYC.
Unrequited love
"Winter Sleigh Ride'' {would there be a summer one?} (oil on canvas), by John Clymer (1907-1989), Saturday Evening Post cover, Dec. 17, 1949, at the National Museum of American Illustration, Newport, RI. (© Image courtesy American Illustrators Gallery, NYC, 2016)
On the Snow
We're all supposed to love the Earth
And thrill to nature's bold displays.
We're all supposed to be entranced
When nature sends us snowy days.
But I just tumbled on the snow
And gave my knee a nasty whack.
If I'm supposed to love the Earth,
The Earth should try to love me back.
-- Felicia Nimue Ackerman
*
Fierce joy at the feast
"Ready for Thanksgiving Feast'' (oil on canvas), by J.C. Leyendecker (1874–1951), at the National Museum of American Illustration, Newport, R.I. This kid's family was presumably very happy that World War I had ended on Nov. 11, 1918. But in part because of ill-considered, revenge-seeking peace treaties signed in 1919, there would be another, even worse, world war in 20 years. Perhaps the boy who was the model for the one here would fight in it. Perhaps he'd look back longingly at the family feasts of his childhood as he ate his Army K-rations.
This turkey, raised before big-time agribusiness, would never pass muster now -- too skinny, not enough steroids and antibiotics.
Image courtesy of, and copyrighted by, American Illustrators Gallery, New York, N.Y., 2016.
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Bid on a Rockwell!
This just in from the National Museum of American Illustration, which sends New England Diary images from its astounding collection from time to time. The museum is on Bellevue Avenue in Newport, R.I.
"To allow all of our supporters and patrons to purchase their own original illustration artwork and contribute to our goal of establishing an Endowment Fund, the National Museum of American Illustration's 15th Anniversary Benefit Auction is now open for bidding online. To view the auction and bid, please visit http://www.32auctions.com/NMAIBenefitAuction . If you would like to place an absentee or phone bid to participate in the live auction on July 30, please see the attached bidder registration form.
"Among the many wonderful auction items, there is: Norman Rockwell’s historic Portrait of President John F. Kennedy (shown above) painted for the April 6, 1963 Saturday Evening Post cover; Maxfield Parrish's ethereal 1901 Scribner's illustration, Twilight Had Fallen; John Falter's unique perspective on an exciting baseball; two J.C.Leyendecker studies for Saturday Evening Post covers; illustrations of beautiful muses painted by Howard Chandler Christy, Philip Boilleau, Harrison Fisher, and F. Sands Brunner; a Bemelmans from Madeline’s Rescue; Mead Schaeffer’s South Seas pirates; and much more! The proceeds from the sale will benefit the NMAI’s Endowment Fund, to continue the Museum’s mission into perpetuity.
"The online bidding will continue until Thursday, July 30, at 10 a.m. and the auction will conclude at the 15th Anniversary Gala hosted at Vernon Court, the Museum's home, in Newport, Rhode Island. The Gala begins at 6 p.m., and items will be available for silent bidding. At approximately 9:30 p.m., the top lots will be sold by an auctioneer in a live event. Bidding on all other lots will conclude at Midnight on July 30th. To ensure winning of a lot, please see the attached absentee and phone bidding form to place a bid for the live event.
"We welcome and encourage all our supporters to bid online and to register for Absentee and Phone bids. For assistance and additional information, please call the NMAI at 401.851.8949, or visit our Website, http://americanillustration.org/''
Pre Columbia sportswear
N- "The Skating Race'' (1920, oil on canvas,) by NORMAN ROCKWELL, on the cover of the Feb. 28, 1920 "The Country Gentleman'' magazine.
(c) Copyright 2014 by The National Museum of American Illustration, Newport, R.I.
Photo courtesy Archives of American Illustrators Gallery, New York, N.Y.
Hoping for dinner in the Depression
"Thanksgiving Pie'' (print of oil painting), by William Meade Prince, who did magazine covers in the golden age of that medium -- from about 1900 to 1965. This one was done in 1930, as America slid deeper into the Great Depression. As Joseph Asch noted in Dartblog.com, Mr. Prince's work appeared on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post, Red Book, Cosmopolitan and Collier’s as well as The Country Gentleman.
Mr. Asch noted it ''seems quaint that magazines would commission oil paintings to appear as cover art.'' We recommend that readers visit the National Museum of American Illustration, in Newport, R.I., to see an astonishing collection of the originals of this great popular art form.
Post-war pride
"Community Tree'' (gouache on paper), by STEVAN DOHANOS, for the cover of the Dec. 4, 1948 Saturday Evening Post. Copyright 2013 National Museum of American Illustration, Newport, R.I. Photo courtesy Archives of the American Illustrators Gallery.