Mead Schaeffer

"She Was in the Captain's Cabin" Original Magazine Story Illustration

1938

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...

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...

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...

Among the many accolades I would grant Dean Cornwell, the one that rises to the top would be that he is one of America's greatest portrait painters. With a few strokes, he captures h...