‘That’s America!’: a collector’s guide to American illustrators

The Golden Age of American illustration began in the early 1900s and culminated 50 years later in the cheerful escapism of Norman Rockwell, with many well-loved names — Joseph Christian Leyendecker, Newell Convers Wyeth, Joseph Kernan — in between.

These artists rose to prominence through illustrated magazines such as Scribner’s, Harper’s and Collier’s, creating a warm-hearted narrative of American life through their masterful craftsmanship and visual storytelling.

According to Christie’s American Art specialist Paige Kestenman, cheaper printing costs and developments in photomechanical reproduction techniques allowed these magazines to invest in eye-catching imagery. ‘The readership of The Saturday Evening Post  grew from 1,600 in 1898 to 1 million in 1903 and 6 million in 1960,’ she adds.

For the artists, the job was deceptively simple — to command attention at the newsstand with a single, compelling image. ‘Norman Rockwell once said that The Saturday Evening Post was the greatest shop window in America,’ says Kestenman.

The illustrators depicted humorous scenes from everyday life, investing them with nuance, comic timing, an instinct for character and a keen sense of social observation. At the same time, these pictures ‘reflected a certain kind of American morality’, notes Kestenman, ‘one that was based on freedom, tolerance, democracy and common decency.’

Today, their work is one of the fastest growing markets in American art, she says, with collectors and curators valuing both the technical skill and creative storytelling of the artists, and the historical importance of their work as a record of social change.

As Kestenman puts it: ‘These artists have become part of our collective memory.’

Norman Rockwell (1894-1978)

A master at mass communication, Norman Rockwell helped to forge a sense of national identity, becoming America’s foremost illustrator.

Born in New York, the artist had his own studio by the time he was 18, from where he created works for Condé Nast and Boy’s Life magazine. In 1916, he produced his first painting for The Saturday Evening Post, going on to illustrate hundreds of covers.

Rockwell’s subjects were average Americans, painted with an affection that captured the public’s imagination, and his illustrations became a familiar presence in the nation’s homes.

Kurt Ard (b. 1925)

Kurt Ard is globally recognized for his narrative and figurative illustrations and paintings published in popular magazines in the 1950s-1970s including The Saturday Evening Post, Readers Digest and the Family Journal.

Born in Copenhagen, Denmark, Ard began apprenticing to a Danish painter at a young age. He saw Norman Rockwell, American illustrator and painter, as an inspiration. Hence, he looked to smaller newspapers to begin his career. However, due to World War II, commissions were sparse.

After the war, Ard’s work became a household name. His illustrations and paintings were found in popular magazines throughout Europe and America.

He reached a new artist record for his artwork, Cowboy Asleep in Beauty Salon during the Modern American Art Sale in April 2023 at Christie’s in New York. This illustration was used as the cover of The Saturday Evening Post’s May 6, 1961 issue.

Newell Convers Wyeth (1882-1945)

The patriarch of the Wyeth dynasty, Newell Convers (N.C.) Wyeth is known for his illustrations for boys-own adventure stories.

Born in Massachusetts in 1882, he grew up with a big-hearted confidence in frontier living and the Founding Fathers, portraying the wide-open spaces of the American West in biblical terms and the nation’s wartime heroes as noble pioneers.

Jessie Willcox Smith (1863-1935)

Jessie Willcox Smith is celebrated for her paintings of innocent, cherub-like children and her atmospheric illustrations for popular novels The Water Babies and Little Women.

Born in Pennsylvania in 1863, she trained under the American realist painter Thomas Eakins at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, before embarking on a career in illustration.

By 1920, she was working almost exclusively for Good Housekeeping, encapsulating the magazine’s ideals in tender scenes of motherly love.

She once said that to give the world splendid men and women was the noblest thing a woman could do.

Maxfield Parrish (1870-1966)

Known for his vibrant and fantastical illustrations, Maxfield Parrish is embedded in the Golden Age of illustration in America. He not only produced commercial work for Harper’s Bazaar, Life, General Electric, he also illustrated children’s books.

Throughout these illustrations, he showcases a deep affinity for using a colour similar to colbalt blue. This blue would glow through the page through his use of layering and underpainting. Parrish’s admirers coined this colour as ‘Parrish Blue.’

Parrish was exposed to the arts at young age. His father, Stephen Parrish, was a painter and often took him along his travels throughout Europe to marvel at the architectural and painterly masterpieces. Later, he graduated from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, where he was born.

Since 1999, he reached a new artist record for his artwork, Daybreak, during the Important American Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture sale in May 2006 at Christie’s in New York.

Parrish’s works are featured in many notable museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the High Museum in Atlanta, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Joseph Christian Leyendecker (1874-1951)

The German-born American Joseph Christian Leyendecker honed his drawing skills at the Académie Julian in Paris, later designing covers for The Saturday Evening Post and advertisements for leading manufacturers such as American Oil. His feel-good, witty illustrations helped to inspire optimism during the Great Depression.

Leyendecker’s style was strong and angular — the men he drew were square-jawed, clear-eyed and authoritarian, reflecting the new, confident nation.

He was capable of shifts in tone: his covers could be serious or romantic, satirical or comical. This versatility influenced many later artists, notably Norman Rockwell, who had a studio close to Leyendecker’s in New Rochelle.

Victor Clyde Forsythe (1885-1962)

The artist and cartoonist Victor Clyde Forsythe worked as an illustrator for the New York World. He is perhaps best remembered for his comic everyman Joe Jinks, a balding, henpecked husband with a passion for cars.

Forsythe was a close friend of Norman Rockwell, with whom he shared a studio building in New Rochelle, and it was he who first persuaded the younger artist to submit his work to The Saturday Evening Post, saying, ‘Do what you’re best at. You’re a terrible Gibson, but a pretty good Rockwell.’

In 1920, Forsythe abandoned his career as an illustrator to become a landscape painter, moving back to his native California to paint the bleached, wind-racked expanse of the Southwestern desert.

George Hughes (1907-1990)

George Hughes was a member of the Arlington artists’ colony, the tight-knit group of Vermont-based illustrators, including Norman Rockwell, who worked on The Saturday Evening Post.

Hughes began his career in the late 1920s, leaving the National Academy of Design in New York to contribute fashion drawings and editorial illustrations to Vanity Fair and House and Garden.

Stevan Dohanos (1907-1994)

Born in Ohio in 1907, Stevan Dohanos was one of America’s most popular illustrators in the 1940s and ’50s. Between 1959 and 1994, he designed more than 40 postage stamps, commemorating such historic moments as the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and the statehoods of Alaska and Hawaii. He did also did 123 covers for the Saturday Evening Post.