American illustration

How did artists like Norman Rockwell, Austin Briggs, Jon Whitcomb, and others create the believable unique faces that can tell a whole story by themselves? In a magazine cover, like those by Rockwell and Stevan Dohanos, the image, with its setting and, most of all, its characters, must convey an anecdote without any help from words. So each face must be carefully crafted to do its part in creating the drama⸺or comedy.

These stunning images, from a Massachusetts exhibition, cast fresh light on the iconic illustrations of Norman Rockwell, revealing for the first time the study photographs the famed artist used as references for his work.

CHARLIE DYE (American, 1906-1972) The Big Game, American Weekly cover Oil on board 20 x 18 in. Signed lower right - Available at 2010 August Signature...

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The 1950s and ’60s were a time when most wanna-be illustrators wanted to be Bob Peak. It was also the moment when illustration was at a crossroads. Would it continue to merely serve or illuminate a text, or would it say something more? Since the emerging editorial themes (war, peace, race, etc.) were more socially and metaphorically charged, the substance and style of illustration could no longer be entirely realistic. Certain levels of abstraction were filtered into the Amer