In the Beginning: John La Gatta

John La Gatta (1894-1977) was a very successful illustrator whose career peaked in the 1930s. I devoted this post to his Golden Years work.

There was more to his career than that, of course. So this post deals with some of his illustrations made before the late 1920s when his fame was taking hold.

La Gatta loved to depict women. Many of his illustrations included men, but they almost always played a supporting role to gorgeous females. However, when he was getting started in illustration, men were usually his subject matter, and it took much effort on his part to persuade art directors that his interest and talent were focused elsewhere.

Gallery

Life magazine cover - 5 August 1915
La Gatta did do some illustrations featuring women from the start. This poster-style art was painted when he was about 21 years old.

Soap advertisement - 1917
A conventional illustration here, no sign of La Gatta's characteristic style yet.

Soap advertisement - c. 1918
Many artists, La Gatta included, had trouble correctly drawing British-type "tin hat" helmets that Empire and American forces used.

Varnish advertisement - c. 1918
Another Great War related advertisement. La Gatta is using his "masculine" style necessary for industrial clients such as Pratt & Lambert.

Streetcar scene - about 1920 or before

Ivory Soap advertisement - 1920
Again, pre-classical La Gatta style.

Fashion art - 1922
By 1922 he was able to focus more on female subjects. La Gatta did a good deal of fashion-related illustration during the 1920s and early 30s.

Illustration from 1924
This is close to La Gatta's style with line work supplemented with washes. The subject's feet aren't quite positioned correctly, being a bit far to the left of her head for proper balance; in real life, she might fall down.

Photoplay magazine illustration - January 1925
Ten years after the Life cover shown above, La Gatta is hitting his stride.

Swimsuit ad art for A.G. Spalding & Bros. - 1926
He usually worked with models, but I have to suppose he managed this illustration using photographs or a lot of good imagination.

Stirling Silversmiths advertisement - 1926
He is still in a transition zone in 1926: these women aren't quite as La Gatta -like as the girl in the bathing suit a couple of images above.

Ottomar Anton: Poster Artist for Travel ... and the SS

Ottomar Carl Joseph Anton (1895-1976) was a poster artist whose work was mostly in the clean, simplified, moderne style that was especially popular during the 1930s. His Wikipedia entry is here, but was only in German when this post was drafted. The translator on my computer did a fairly good English rendition, but a few details were given misleading meanings.

The bulk of Anton's production had to do with travel -- usually for steamship lines, but also for air travel by dirigible.

However, there was another side to Anton. He joined the National Socialist German Workers Party in 1933, about the time Hitler became Chancellor. Then in 1936 Anton joined the Schutzstaffel -- the SS -- and created many posters for that organization from then through World War 2. He was jailed after the war and released in March 1946. He was able to revive his career following that.

Below are examples of his work.

Gallery

Advertising special fares to London and Scotland.

Probably from autumn 1928, publicizing travel to the Mediterranean early the next year, getting away from winter in the north. The scene is on the African coast.

Again, the Mediterranean, but here are mentioned Portugal, Spain, Morocco, Mallorca, the Riviera and Egypt.

Under the image of a ship's captain the headline stresses cheap travel.

A poster with space at the bottom for placement of local contact information. In this case, two locations in or near downtown Vienna.

"To South America in 3 Days!" this proclaims. The Graf Zeppelin only takes one as far as Rio, so to reach Buenos Aires, you'd have to catch an airplane.

The claim here is crossing the ocean in two days.

A sailing week near Kiel, showplace of the 1936 Olympics sailing regatta.

Now to the SS. The caption says "Your Future," the German word for "your" being the familiar, not the formal, term.

The illustration here is used for multiple message variations. In this instance, it is in Dutch for a Flemish audience asserting that "like blooded" Germans, Flemings, Dutch, Danes and Norwegians can stride together in the Waffen-SS. A major appeal, which got some response, was to join the Germans in the fight against Communism.

Again using the familiar "you," an appeal to Frenchmen to join the SS military to fight Communism.

Now it's 1958, the war is over and Anton is back to travel poster work, this one featuring a Norwegian fjord.

The Gray Steampunk World of Vadim Voitekhovitch

Vadim Voitekhovitch, painter of gray, gloomy-atmosphere, northern European Steampunk scenes was born and raised in Belarus and has been working in Germany since 2004. And that's about all I know about personal details from a short Google search.

I find most of his images fascinating because he creates an almost-believable world of circa-1900 European cities and towns where airships and other never-quite-happened contraptions abound. Besides his attention to detail, Voitekhovitch gives his scenes believable atmospherics. Northern Europe is gloomy a good part of the year, after all.

Gallery

Fleet at Sea
The coal-fired warships are similar to 1890s French cuirassés designs such as the Masséna, featuring extreme tumble-home sides and ram bows. The airships also seem to have coal-fired steam engines: note the dark smoke from their stacks.

In a Distant Country
Harbor scene.  I like the rust on the battleship -- it makes the scene more believable.

No One Will Come Back
Setting off to war, though the people seem indifferent aside from the woman near the cannon and another with her young son near the stairway.

Old Harbour
Details include what might be a steam-powered omnibus and an airship "carrier."

Postal Dragon
Loading mail aboard from the rickety tower.

Stolen Sky

The Road to Babylon
Two scenes with airships, while the rest of the technology is pre-automobile.

Tide
The nearest airship is attached to a loading platform.

Gloomy Morning
Again, no cars.

Closeup of a Voitekhovitch airship.  Note the rust on the sides and what looks to be a royal or national crest on the rudder.  Clearly, his airships are impossible from an engineering standpoint.  The rust implies steel cladding -- very heavy.  They are powered by steam, often from coal-fired boilers.  Steam engines, boilers and filled coal bins are very heavy too.  Finally the size of the steel-clad "air bag" is much too small to house enough hydrogen to lift all that weight.  But I can easily ignore such matters because the world he has created is so enchanting for a history and design buff such as me.

René Vincent: Illustrating the Belle Époque Through the Années folles

René Vincent (1879-1936) was trained as an architect, but had a successful career as an illustrator during the first third of the 20th century in France. He contributed editorial art to the likes of La Vie parisienne and L'Illustration and did a considerable amount of advertising illustration, especially for automobile companies.

The best source of information regarding Vincent that I found on the Web is here. It's in French, but perhaps your browser will allow translation.

Vencent's style was clean and usually poster-like, even for much of his editorial work. It also could be witty. I find his work enjoyable.

Gallery

Berliet automobile illustration - 1906

Le retour de l"Ambrusqué - 1915

In La Vie parisienne - ca. 1916

A series in La Vie parisienne - 1917, 1918
Click to enlarge, though the text is still hard to read.

Cover art for Automobilia - July 1922
The car is a Peugeot 15 HP.

In La Vie parisienne - 1922

Peugeot 18 HP advertising - 1924

Golf, in L'Illustration - October 1927

"Bathing Time" in L'Illustration - October 1927
The car is an Hispano-Suiza.

Changing Tires - 1930

Skaters - ca. 1933

Unfinished Renault advertising illustration - ca. 1929

Towards the End: J.C. Leyendecker

Joseph Christian Leyendecker (1874-1951) was a leading American illustrator for much of his long career. He produced more than 300 covers for the Saturday Evening Post, America's leading general-interest magazine during the first half of the 20th century. He also was famed for his advertisement illustrations for Kuppenheimer, a man's clothing maker and for Arrow collars and shirts. More background on Leyendecker can be found here and here.

His distinctive style featured strong, crisp lines and form definition along with hatched and sometimes crosshatched color overlays. A sense of his stylistic evolution can be glimpsed via this chronological gallery of Post covers.

Illustration fashions change, so Leyendecker's highly distinctive style became increasingly passé as the 1930s rolled along. Apparently his personality was changing during this time, which might have been a further career hinderance. A major blow was changes in the Post's editorial staff during the years around 1940. New editors and art directors eventually cast Leyendecker aside.

Gallery

Detail from art in the Kelly Collection
I photographed this at an exhibit of Kelly items at Pepperdine University a few years ago. Note Leyendecker's distinctive brush style where there are regular brushstroke-related gaps between overpainting and an underlying color. Also, the background is created using a broad brush that blocks in the color while leaving visible strokes and gaps in coverage -- another of his stylistic characteristics.

Saturday Evening Post cover art - 24 November 1928
Another example of his style during his time of peak fame. Contrasted are a Pilgrim Father from the 1600s with a 1928 college football player.

Illustration for Arrow collars - 1932
The models are Phyllis Frederic and actor Brian Donlevy. Here the brush hatching is less prevalent. Leyendecker would use it or downplay it according to his feeling for the subject matter. Apparently, he opted for sleekness in this illustration.

Saturday Evening Post cover - 15 September 1934
Hatching returns for this Post cover. For some younger or overseas readers I need to mention that the overburdened fellow is a railroad porter doing his duty for the fancy lady.

Saturday Evening Post cover - 21 December 1940
Exhausted mailman during Christmas rush: the last Post cover not dealing with New Year babies.

Saturday Evening Post cover - 2 January 1943
This was his final Post cover, a continuation of his New Year's baby series. Leyendecker hatching is almost gone.

American Weekly cover art for 25 May 1947 issue
Crisp lines and fabric fold definition are still in the Leyendecker spirit. But I cannot be sure if the simplified style was an attempt to adjust to changing illustration fashion or else that he was simply dashing this work off to meet a deadline.

American Weekly cover - 19 December 1948
If it weren't for the signature, there is little here to indicate Leyendecker did this.

American Weekly cover - 20 November 1949
A very late illustration, again somewhat distant from his signature style. The orange circle is an echo of a Post cover theme from the 1920s and 30s.