George Hughes

Future President, Saturday Evening Post Cover

1948

Signature: Signed Lower Left Original cover illustration for The Saturday Evening Post, December 2, 1950 The Post described, “One night Art Editor Stuart was having a party. His three boys came downstairs four times and were conducted back up by their mother. The next time they came down, Papa Stuart waxed excited, firmly conveyed them aloft himself, and they did not show up again. Stuart was warmly congratulated on his success as a father. When the party broke up, the youngest lad was found asleep on the stairs. Stuart claims that the older ones never did come down again, but this was probably because they merely went to sleep in their beds from natural causes. George Hugehes has painted some other people’s offspring, to get over the idea that children all over America are eager to improve their minds by listening to sophisticated conversation.” (The Saturday Evening Post, December 2, 1950, p. 3) Exhibited: Norman Rockwell Museum...

Cover of Saturday Evening Post magazine, February 19, 1949 The parents and grandmother are taking a picture of the baby while trying to make him smile. Jack Welch was a tall Texan from Cleburne. He went through public school in Temple, Texas, took the W. L. Evans correspondence course in cartooning, and did a short turn at Southern Methodist University illustrating yearbooks. This was enough to launch him as a newspaper artist; he worked for papers in Texas, California, Chicago, Philadelphia, and New York. The next logical step was an advertising agency sketch man...

Medium: Oil on Masonite Signature: Signed 'Hughes-' Lower Left This work was published as the cover of the June 17, 1950 edition of The Saturday Evening Post. Literature: J. Cohn, ...

Medium: Oil on Board Signature: Signed Lower Left Original cover illustration for The Saturday Evening Post, July 28, 1956. The Post described, “The cows don't realize it is rude t...

An illustrator for Time, Life, Look, True, True West, Saturday Evening Post, Good Housekeeping, Readers Digest, and others, he also painted for adverti...

This artwork titled "America! America" is a color lithograph after noted American artist James Fetherolf, 1925-1994. It is hand signed at the lower rig...

The People, 1938, oil on canvas, signed lower right, 36 x 48 inches, label verso reads “348 / 89 / Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, PA, USA / _____ The People / _______ Arnold Blanch ...

“Graduation Day” is emblematic of mid-century American Illustration. But the real story of this storytelling work is that it embodies the lost art of portrait painting and graphic design. Alex Ross borrows on the classical tradition and flaunts his skills as a narrative painter. In “Graduation Day”, he paints a complex composition involving at least thirteen portraits. The subjects are beautifully rendered and lit. They are set against a dark grey background and jump off the surface at the viewer. The composition is complexly designed. The future graduate in the red jacket engaging with a girl photographer is a compositional device that leads the viewer's eye to the main subject - a father congratulating his son on graduating from medical school. Creating art that relies on facial expressions and body gestures is a talent absent in contemporary art. Why? It’s very hard to do and takes years and training and practice to get it right. Despite Alex Ross's folksy subject matter, this work is a high example of naturalism and representation by an important member of the Golden Age of American Illustration. Signed lower right Born in the town of Dunfermline, Scotland, Alexander Sharpe Ross (1908-1990) moved with his family to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1911. After attending Carnegie Tech (now Carnegie Mellon University), Ross moved to New York and joined the Charles E. Cooper Studio, where he worked among such notable illustrators as Ward Brackett, Stevan Dohanos, J. Frederick Smith...