Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 6

Mead Schaeffer
Head Tide, Good Housekeeping, Story Illustration

1932

$69,000
£51,539.70
€59,752.06
CA$95,804.78
A$107,384.82
CHF 55,912.12
MX$1,311,214.59
NOK 709,880.83
SEK 672,903.18
DKK 445,815.07
Shipping
Retrieving quote...
The 1stDibs Promise:
Authenticity Guarantee,
Money-Back Guarantee,
24-Hour Cancellation

About the Item

Medium: Oil on Canvas Signature: Signed Lower Right A close friend of Norman Rockwell, Mead Schaeffer focused his early career on illustrations for classic, historical, and adventure novels, including Moby Dick, The Count of Monte Christo, and King Arthur and His Knights. The featured lot, a masterpiece of political intrigue, was published as a story illustration for Joseph C. Lincoln's novel Head Tide, serialized in Good Housekeeping in 1932. Set in the fictional town of Wellmouth, Cape Cod, in the late 1870s, Head Tide centers on the efforts of the local newspaper owner to present in an unbiased fashion the platforms of the Republican candidates running for a seat in the Massachusetts Legislature. Primarily at stake are the interests of Wellmouth's elite -- the Four Cornersmen -- versus those of the town's shipping class -- the South Siders. This particular illustration for Head Tide depicts a critical moment in the Republican caucus, organized to nominate a candidate for the House of Representatives and to elect delegates to the state convention. Grouped in front of a monumental American flag are the key members of the Four Corners establishment: with his signature grey beard, powerful Joel "Judge" Dean, the town's leading attorney and the chairman of the Republican committee; earnestly leaning toward Dean, Cornelius Haven, the local bank cashier and committee secretary; and seated, venerable Manasseh Eldredge, the wealthy shop owner. Flanking these central figures are other members of the Four Corners Republican guard, whose distinction and influence Schaeffer emphasizes in their formal suits and upright stature. Nonetheless, the group expresses collective worry at this moment, as a caucus member from the working-class South Side challenges their proposed list of delegates and threatens to foil their political victory: "The tumult and disorder spread, and after a whispered consultation with Cornelius Haven, Judge Dean rose and pounded with his gavel. 'A moment,' he shouted. 'Mr. Haven has a word to say. Will you grant him the courtesy of silence?'" (M. Schaeffer, Head Tide, New York, 1932, p. 236).
  • Creator:
    Mead Schaeffer (1898 - 1980)
  • Creation Year:
    1932
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 38.25 in (97.16 cm)Width: 28 in (71.12 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Fort Washington, PA
  • Reference Number:
    Seller: 41351stDibs: LU38436748322

More From This Seller

View All
Two Men
By Mead Schaeffer
Located in Fort Washington, PA
Medium: Oil on Canvas Signature: Signed Upper Left Image of two men, one seated and one standing. From the book Head Tide by Joseph C. Lincoln
Category

1930s Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Peggy O'Neil, Redbook Magazine Interior Illustration, 1932
By Mead Schaeffer
Located in Fort Washington, PA
Illustration for “Women America Remembers: Peggy O’Neil” by Arthur D. Howden Smith for The Red Book Magazine, published March 1930, illustrated pages 20-21. This painting by Mead Schaeffer depicts a romantic encounter between Peggy O'Neil and her first husband, John Timberlake. The accompanying caption reads: "It was inevitable that Peggy should fall in love—and she did, with John Timberlake, who had little besides his face to recommend him." It was created in 1930 for the third installment of The Red Book Magazine’s “Women America Remembers” series, which features stories of women famous for “personality, beauty, wit or audacity, or because of the tragedy left in their train.” Margaret ("Peggy") O'Neil Eaton remains a figure of historical intrigue, primarily for her central role in the "Petticoat Affair," a significant political scandal during Andrew Jackson's presidency. The circumstances surrounding Peggy’s marriage to John Eaton, occurring shortly after the death of her first husband, John Timberlake, and her family’s background as tavern-keepers, coupled with her perceived impudent personality, subjected her to intense social scrutiny in Washington D.C. Upon John Eaton's appointment as Secretary of War, Peggy faced social ostracism led by Floride Calhoun, wife of Vice President John Calhoun...
Category

1930s Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"She Was in the Captain's Cabin" Original Magazine Story Illustration
By Mead Schaeffer
Located in Fort Washington, PA
She Was in the Captain's Cabin, magazine story illustration for "Captain's Boy," by Paul Deresco Augsburg, published in American Magazine, October 1938 The full caption reads: "She ...
Category

1930s Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Great-Aunt Lavinia, Original Magazine Story Illustration
By Mead Schaeffer
Located in Fort Washington, PA
Story illustration for “Great-Aunt Lavinia” by Joseph C. Lincoln for Good Housekeeping magazine, published July 1936, pages 26-27. The full caption reads: “The Judge read the lette...
Category

1930s Paintings

Materials

Oil

Colonial Tavern Scene
By Mead Schaeffer
Located in Fort Washington, PA
Medium: Oil on Board Signature: Signed Lower Right
Category

20th Century Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

'The Dead Ride Hard'
By Mead Schaeffer
Located in Fort Washington, PA
Date: 1926 Medium: Oil on Canvas Dimensions: 28.00" x 30.00" Framed Dimensions: 35⅛ x 39⅛ in. Signature: Signed Lower Left Magazine story illustration for "The Dead Ride Hard," for ...
Category

1930s Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

You May Also Like

Kindred of the Dust, Frontier Town Cosmopolitan Magazine
By Dean Cornwell
Located in Miami, FL
A somewhat similar Cornwell featuring a strong woman at the center of a the composition just sold at Christie's for $164,000. In this work we also see a strong woman at the center of the composition. Here she surrounded by men. More than 20 beautifully rendered post-impressionist portraits in character, define Dean Cornwell as one of America's great artists. In his time, he was a famous as Norman Rockwell and was Norman Rockwell's favorite illustrator. "One thing puzzled Dirty Dan extremely. That was the perfectly frank, friendly manner in which his employer and this outcast woman greeted each other, the earnestness with which they conversed, and the effect of the woman's low-spoken words upon the color of Hector McKaye's face." Morris Weiss collection...
Category

1920s Post-Impressionist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

Winners and Loosers
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled "Winners Loosers" is a color offset lithograph by renown western artist Arnold Friberg, 1913-2010. It is hand signed and inscribed/n...
Category

Late 20th Century American Realist Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Law Student 1976 Signed Limited Edition Lithograph
By Norman Rockwell
Located in Rochester Hills, MI
Artist: Norman Rockwell Title: Law Student Year created: 1976 Signed by the artist Medium: 10-Color Lithograph on papier d'Arches Edition: 9/200 Height (inches): 32½ Width (inches): 23¾ This piece is unframed Born in New York City in 1894, Norman Rockwell always wanted to be an artist. At age 14, Rockwell enrolled in art classes at The New York School...
Category

1970s Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

The Trail Ends at the Sea
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled "The Trail Ends at the Sea" c.1980 is a color offset lithograph by renown western artist Arnold Friberg, 1913-2010. It is hand signe...
Category

Late 20th Century American Realist Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Forging a Crankshaft
By Dean Cornwell
Located in Marco Island, FL
This dynamic image of two men forging a crankshaft was done for the GM Waldorf Exhibition sometime between 1949 to 1961. The General Motors exhibition at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel ...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Gold Leaf

Androscoggin River Falls, study for The Manufacturers National Bank of Lewiston-
By Dean Cornwell
Located in Miami, FL
If there ever were a perfect work in the canon of art history, this masterpiece study by Dean Cornwell would be it. Every line has meaning and not a line out of place, as Cornwell d...
Category

1950s American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Pastel