CHARLES DANA GIBSON (1867-1944) John Ames Mitchell who bought Gibson's first drawing when Gibson was 7 years old said that he "detected beneath the outer badness of these drawings peculiarities rarely discovered in the efforts of a beginner...his faults were good, able-bodied faults that held their heads up and looked you in the eye. No dodging of the difficult points, no tricks, no uncertainty, no slurring of outlines...there was always courage and honesty in whatever he undertook." He was the president of Society of Illustrators in the teens. During WWI he headed a government agency that produced war posters. He developed the beautiful ever popular Gibson girl and Gibson man.

C. COLES PHILLIPS (1880-1927) was famous for what was known as "The Fadeaway Girl". He used a unique technique of tying the figure into the background by texture, color or pattern. When color covers became popular his "Fadeaway Girl" made her appearance and was an instant success. He sold his first illustrations to "LIFE Magazine".

NORMAN ROCKWELL (1894-1978) is one of the best known of all American Illustrators. His paintings of human sympathy and emotion reflect the spirit of the country during the fifty years that he graced the covers of all major magazines. Even though he is best known for his paintings for the Saturday Evening Post his work is also seen several times on the cover "LIFE Magazine".

ALBERT D. BLASHFIELD (1860-1920) was a personal favorite of John Ames Mitchell. He joined the staff of LIFE in the early 1890's and remained an important illustrator until his death. His major contribution was LIFE's cupid which floats through the pages. His style was striking and handsome but never frilly. He decorated title pages as well as in-house advertisements. He also illustrated several of Mitchell's books.

MAXFIELD PARRISH (1870-1966) was a unique figure in American art, not belonging to any school, part traditionalist, part inventor, sometime illustrator of gnomes and dragons, other times finding inspiration in the oak trees of his New Hampshire environs. A meticulous craftsman, Parrish's idiosyncratic painting method involved applying numerous layers of thin, transparent oil, alternating with varnish over stretched paper, yielding a combination of great luminosity and extraordinary detail. In his hands, this method gives the effect of a glimpse through a window....except that the scene viewed is from the fairy tale world. In spite of the long time it took to perfect a painting, Parrish was prolific over the course of his productive years, from his children's books of the turn of the century, to his famous prints of androgynous, lounging nudes during the 1920s, to his calendar landscapes of the 1930s through the 1960s.

William Balfour Ker (1877 - 1918)

F.X. LEYENDECKER(1877-1924) was always known as the younger brother of J.C. Leyendecker. For most of his life he worked with his brother in their studio, first in Chicago and later in New York. He was born in Germany and studied for a time at the Academie Julian in France. He was known for his stained glass work as well as his illustrations for posters, magazines and advertisements. He fell victim to drugs and died in 1924.

JOSEPH CHRISTIAN LEYENDECKER (1874-1951) was the oldest of the Leyendecker brothers. Both men were famous artists. J.C. illustrated over 300 covers for the Saturday Evening Post. He also created the Arrow Collar Man. His pencil or charcoal sketches were mostly about 2x3 inches and his oils only slightly larger. He then transferred his sketches to a larger canvas by the "squaring up" method.

JAMES MONTGOMERY FLAGG (1877-1960) sold his first illustration to LIFE at the age of 7. He continued to work for LIFE for twenty years. His humor and satire were his forte. He worked rapidly and created many portraits and caricatures. He greatly admired women which led him to create the Flagg Girls. They were tall, wide shouldered beauties with a face as "symmetrical as a Greek vase. After an active productive life he died in virtual obscurity.

ANGUS MACDONNELL (1876-1927) worked for many years with LIFE Magazine as a cartoonist and illustrator. His contributions were not only color covers but double spread illustrations for the centerfold. He was first a penman in the Gibson style. Later his own distinctive style developed, characterized by two things: the beautiful use of pencil shading and the consistent nostalgic, sentimental theme. His world was that of human interest memories, wistful love and shared dreams. MacDonnell was also popular with fellow illustrators because his three daughters were popular as models.

MCCLELLAND BARCLAY (1893-1943) was best known for the Fisher Body Girl. He worked for 10 years on this advertising campaign for General Motors. He is best known for his ability to paint strikingly beautiful women. The McClelland Barclay Fund for Art was developed after his death to aid American artists "who have never had a fair opportunity."

ORSON BYRON LOWELL (1871-1956) was the son of Milton Lowell the landscape painter. He was encouraged by his father to "draw something every day". In 1907 he became a contributor to LIFE Magazine. His social cartoons were his greatest contribution during his lengthy association with the magazine. He also illustrated many posters and books.

OTHO CUSHING (1871-1942) attended the Boston School of Arts and the Academic Julian in Paris. He joined LIFE in 1906 when the first cartoons he submitted received approval. His style is distinctively classical. Most of his figures use Greek Gods and Goddesses as characters. Many of his subjects are satirical comments in a political or social vein. His society women often wore togas rather than gowns. He often mixed up historical and socio-classical subjects.

Wladyslaw T. Benda (1873-1948) is most well known for his theatrical masks. He also invented the very successful "Benda Girl". Her success as a beautifully illustrated figure kept him working as an illustrated for most major magazines. His Polish background also made his flair for Eastern European scenes an important contribution to his illustration career. His illustrations were often a combination of pencil, ink, charcoal and watercolor or pastel.

ANTON OTTO FISHER (1882-1962) was a German orphan. As a young man he spent several years as a seaman on different vessels. Later he spent time studying in Paris at the Academic Julian in Paris. He is best known for his marine paintings. He illustrated for many of the major weekly magazines in New York. He was given the rank of "Artist Laureate" by the U.S. Coast Guard.

Thomas King Hanna (1872-1952) was a midwestern boy from Kansas City, Missouri. He attended Yale University and the Art Students League in NYC. T.K. Hanna as he signed his illustrations, worked for many of the major weekly magazines. His illustrations were skillful, strong, and "straightforward". He rendered historic costume subjects as well as contemporary scenes.

Walter Granville-Smith (1870-? ) was from New York and studied at the Art Students League in New York City and also in Europe. He won many awards and has art work in many of the prominent New York City art clubs ie. Salmagundi Club, National Art Club and others.

John Held Jr. (1889-1958) was best known for his stylized flapper girls of the 20's & 30's. He began his career as a sports cartoonist in Salt Lake City, Utah. He taught sculpture and ceramics in his later years as an artist-in-residence at Harvard University and University of Georgia.

Edward Windsor Kemble (1861 -1933) is best known for his illustrations of southern rural life. E.W. Kemble had nor formal art training. His career began in 1881 as a cartoonist for the New York Daily Graphic. He was particularly empathetic to Black characters and "drew them with understanding". He is known for his illustrations in books such as Uncle Remus, Huckleberry Finn and Uncle Tom's Cabin.

B. Cory Kilvert (1881-1946) was devoted to watercolor seascape painting. A graduate of the Art Students League, he began as an illustrator of children's books. For LIFE Magazine his illustrations were often on a golf theme. He was a graduate of the Art Students League.

John La Gatta (1894-1977) earned an early reputation for drawing beautiful women. He illustrated many magazine covers during the 19201s and 301s. In his later years he moved to Los Angeles and taught at the Art Center Collegeof Design. Herbert Andrew Paus (1880-1946) is described as full of the spirit of glorious legend. He had a strong sense of ornament with bold masterful color. He designed books, posters, cartoons and even a stage set for The Betrothal by Maeterlinck. He illustrated many children's books and also created posters supporting the efforts of the troops during WWI. Albert Edward Sterner (1863-1946) was an English gentleman who began his career as a draughtsman and lithographer. He provided many editorial illustrations for LIFE and other popular weeklies. He taught in several NY schools and served as president of the Society of Illustrators in 1907 and 1908.

Will Crawford (1869-1944) was a self taught artist. He began his career in his teens illustrating for newspapers and magazines. His cartoons often poked fun at what really happened in an actual historic event. He was a free lance artist for LIFE, Puck and other weeklies. Later he moved to Hollywood and became an expert on Indian costumes.

F.G. Cooper ( ) is one of the worlds foremost poster artists. He is the creator of the little Edison figure and calendars. He also was a pioneer of lower case letters. During WWI he drew posters for the war and the theatre entirely in lower case letters. He used lower case letters as borders and designs in many of his covers for LIFE Magazine.

Henry Hutt (1875-1950) sold his first picture to LIFE at the age of 16. His illustrations were very influential in setting fashion for the up-to-date female of the time. He studied at the Chicago Art Institute. His Henry Hutt Picture Book was a popular gift book in 1908.

Victor C. Anderson (1882-1937) was born into the home of Frank Anderson, a well known Hudson River School painter. From an early age he drew and painted, entering the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. His subjects such as homespun rural life and landscapes graced the covers and center folds of LIFE for many years.

T.S. Sullivant (1854-1926) was a master draftsman who chose to distort the facts in his illustrations. His animal drawings are often a calculated exaggeration based on an intimate knowledge of anatomy.

W.A. Fogers (1854-1931) was born in Ohio and by the age of 7 was drawing cartoons for a Midwestern newspaper. He moved East and took over the political cartoons from Thomas Nast for Harper's Weekly. He would take on any kind of illustration assignment earning him the title of "special artists".

Biography of C. Allan Gilbert

Charles Allan Gilbert was born September 9, 1873, in Hartford, Connecticut.
He died April 20, 1929 in New York City of pneumonia after a brief illness.
He was 55 years of age.
In his youth, Mr. Gilbert took to art through being an invalid. Laid up for
years, he found recreation limited, and he took to making sketches. He
became so fond of drawing and sketching that he began taking art lessons at
the age of 16 from Charles Noel Flagg. Mr. Flagg was the founder of the
Connecticut League of Art Students, and was known as Connecticut's official
portrait painter. The nature of Mr. Gilbert's invalidism is not known. It is
as much a mystery as Mr. Gilbert himself. No official photographs or
drawings have been discovered to give us a good glimpse of what he really
looked like.
At the age of 19, Mr. Gilbert enrolled at the Art Students' League of New
York. He attended there from October 1892 through May 1893, and again from
October 1893 through May 1894. After these two years he went to Paris and
spent a year at Julien's under Laurens and Benjamin Constant. A year later
he returned to New York and opened a studio. Finding that the
commercialization of art was profitable to a young man just starting to make
his way, he began to draw and paint advertising pictures. These made him a
living and pretty soon he began to contribute to Life magazine, occasionally
writing the jokes for his drawings himself.
His first really remunerative work was the illustration of a set of books
about theatrical celebrities. He tried his hand at landscapes, but these,
while accepted at the Academy in New York, were not displayed because of the
"lack of space." In Philadelphia his art had better luck.
Mr. Gilbert's studio was one of the most attractive in New York, decorations
and associations considered. It was at the top of the house that Frank
Millet owned and lived in at 26 West Eighth Street. Mr. Millet was one of
the many passengers who perished when the Titanic sank. The woodwork of the
sitting room that adjoined Mr. Gilbert's studio was brought entirely from
England; and in his rooms the late Edwin A. Abbey painted some of his famous
Shakespeare characters.
Mr. Gilbert enjoyed spending his summers on Monegan Island in Maine. His
work was done at irregular intervals--when the humor struck him. Mr. Gilbert
was a bachelor.
Among the books of his drawings are Overheard in the Whittington Family,
Women of Fiction, All is Vanity, The Honeymoon, A Portfolio of Heads, Cameo
Heads, Collection of Heads in Color, Separate Drawings in Color, A Message
from Mars, and In Beauty's Realm.
During the war, Mr. Gilbert performed valuable work in camouflaging ships
for the Navy in 1917 and 1918, and in making Liberty Loan posters during
World War I.
At the time of his death, he resided at 39 West Sixty-seventh Street. His
funeral was held on Monday, April 22, 1929, at Campbell's Funeral Church,
Broadway and Sixty-sixth Street. He was buried in Hartford, Connecticut, his
birthplace.
He was the son of Charles Edwin Gilbert and Virginia Ewing Crane Gilbert,
and he had two brothers, Albert Waldron Gilbert and Edwin Randolph Gilbert.
Charles Allan was the youngest.
Charles Allan Gilbert left an estate of $75,000 and no will. The only heirs
to his estate were his brothers: Albert, Hartford, Connecticut, and Edwin,
Los Angeles, California. According to the appraisals filed in court, Mr.
Gilbert left $76,251 gross and $68,689 net. The bulk of the estate consisted
of $49,401 inherited from his mother. He had $203 in cash, $858 in personal
effects, including oil paintings and drawings, and securities valued at
$19,051.
During his career Mr. Gilbert tried to achieve success in promoting the
"Gilbert Girl," but his competition and contemporary, Charles Dana Gibson,
succeeded in winning the notoriety for his "Gibson Girl."
Mr. Gilbert was a member of the Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts and the
Society of Illustrators in New York City.
Charles Allan Gilbert was an exceptionally talented artist and illustrator.
For reasons unknown, his work never achieved the fame that it so richly
deserved.
Copyright (C) 2006 Ray Thigpen. All Rights Reserved.

We credit these resources for the artist info.

Pitz, Henry C. 200 Years of American Illustration,
Published in association with the American Society of Illustrators,
Random House: New York, 1977.

Reed, Walter and Roger. The Illustrator in America 1880 -1980,
The Society of Illustrators, Madison Square Press: New York City 1984.

Reed, Walt. The Illustrator in America 1900-19601s,
Reinhold: New York 1966

The Book of American Illustrators, 1927