Monday, May 1, 2023

Walter Biggs' "Impressionist" Illustrations

Walter Biggs (1886-1968) was an important Amercan illustrator whose peak career years were from the late 1910s to well into the 1930s.  In 2012 I posted about him here.  A brief Wikipedia entry is here.  My earlier post has links concerning him.

Biggs' early work was more hard-edge conventional than later.  By the early 1920s his work became more painterly, in that edges were softened and brushwork moved to the fore.  The style was "impressionist" in the American Impressionism sense.

The images below are some of his best works in that style.

Gallery

Illustration for International Silver - 1924
This is a better version than the image I used in my previous Biggs post.  I like it very much.

Couple on the porch - no date
Biggs was from Virginia, and liked to paint Southern scenes.

"He Had His Wish. The Hands of Time Had Turned Back" - Harper's Magazine - August 1919
This was about the time Bigg's style was moving more strongly towards impressionism.

The Long Skirts -- A title found on the Internet, but perhaps not original.
This appeared in Ladies' Home Journal, April 1933.

Soldiers at the Door - Cosmopilitan Magazine, 1937
An American Civil War story scene.

Family picnic scene - c.1934
I don't now where or when this appeared.  Media are watercolor and gouache.

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