Early American Streamlined Locomotives, Part 2

The streamlined trains featured in Part 1 of this series were diesel powered. At the time -- the mid-1930s -- most American locomotives were steam-powered, so the easiest, cheapest means of hopping on the streamlining bandwagon was to give existing locomotives streamlined cladding. And that's what some major railroads did while waiting to convert to diesel power, a process that moved into high gear in the 1940s.

Two of America's richest and most famous railroads were the New York Central and the Pennsylvania Railroad. The key passenger run for each was New York - Chicago, linking the nation's largest and next-largest cities.

The Central ran up the Hudson Rive to Albany and then west to Buffalo along the route of the old Erie Canal -- a passage with few hill or mountain obstacles. From Buffalo, trains went near the south shore of Lake Erie through Cleveland and Toledo in Ohio before cutting across northern Indiana to Chicago.

The Pennsy's route from New York went through Philadelphia and Pittsburgh before angling northwest to the Windy City. Unlike the New York Central's route, Pennsy trains had to cut through the Alleghany mountains -- a series of sharp ridge-lines and intervening valleys -- making use of tunnels to minimize the amount of grade to surmount. Western Pennsylvania is also hilly with winding rivers, so those obstacles also had to be cleared.

Thus the Central had an easier route topographically, but the Pennsy had a shorter one -- no dog-leg up to Albany before striking west. This made the railroads competitive when hauling the rich and famous on their premier passenger trains, Central's 20th Century Limited and Pennsy's Broadway Limited.

Let's look at some photos:
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Standard New York Central J2 Hudson-type locomotive
More information regarding that line's locomotives can be found here.

New York Central "Commodore Vanderbilt" - 1935
NYC's first steam streamliner was designed by Carl Kantola (with wind tunnel testing at Cleveland's Case Institute) and fabricated as a converted Hudson in the railroad's shops near Albany. The Commodore Vanderbilt was the second-string New York - Chicago run to the premier 20th Century Limited.

New York Central "Mercury" - 1936
This Hudson was given a streamlined cover by industrial designer Henry Dreyfuss. It served on NYC's Cleveland-Detroit run.

New York Central "20th Century Limited"
Ten J2s were given streamlined skins designed by Henry Dreyfuss and ran on the New York - Chicago run starting in 1938.

Pennsylvania Railroad S1
The Raymond Loewy-designed S1 was an experimental streamlined locomotive that appeared in the late 1930s. The center photo shows Loewy posing on his creation. The lower photo compares the S1 to one of the Pennsy's regular steam locomotives.

Pennsylvania Railroad T1
The T1 was another Loewy creation, but one that saw service starting in 1942. It was a cleaned-up version of a normal steam locomotive with an aggressive "face" that looks like it was not an optimal case of streamlining, though the rounded "splitter" form in front of the boiler must have had less air resistance than a regular flat boiler section did. The T1 was the last major steam-powered streamlined locomotive type built in America.

Rene Bouche: Fashion Illustration and Beyond

Fashion illustration master René Bouché (Robert August Buchstein) was born in Prague 20 September 1905 and died in England 3 July 1963, though his career was in Paris in the mid-late 1930s and the United States thereafter. The most detailed biographical information I could find is here.

Fashion illustration is pretty much an artistic ghetto, given that it's a sub-field of illustration, itself a second-class citizen in the art world. But being a fashion artist has its advantages. Vogue and other publications could bring you a lot of money provided they accepted a lot of your work and would even put it on the cover from time to time. Also, given the well-heeled nature of its readership, a reputation as a famous fashion illustrator might lead to portrait commissions and other paid jobs.

Bouché did exactly that, as can be seen below. He even did abstract painting and rubbed elbows with New York's Abstract Expressionism grandees. I find his abstractions lightweight, but you are welcome to judge for yourself if you click on this link.

As for his portrait work, he tended to follow his fashion illustration style with pleasing results. This link to "100 Years of Illustration" has out-takes from a Life magazine feature showing Bouché painting actress Tammy Grimes; two pictures from that set are below.

What couldn't Bouché do? No one really knows because he chose to limit his subject matter. But, somehow, I wonder how well he would have done as a Pulp cover artist, portraying combat, or drawing football players for Sports Illustrated.

Here is a sampling of Bouché's work.

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Fashion illustrations

Another fashion illustration, this of Givenchy outfits - 1957

Illustration for a Schweppes advertisement

Edward R. Murrow

Jack Benny
The CBS television network commissioned Bouché to make portraits of some of its leading performers to use in advertising. At the time (the 1950s) CBS was regarded by itself and much of the general public as being the "classy" network, so it used a classy artist for these portrayals. Younger readers: Edward R. Murrow was a famous newsman and commentator, Jack Benny was one of America's top comedians.

Actress Audrey Hepburn

John F. Kennedy - Time Magazine cover, 9 June 1961
Since Bouché did Vogue covers, Time must have figured that he was good enough to do a little work for them.

Painting actress Tammy Grimes - Life Magazine, 19 May 1961
Note that the final result (below) is not the same as the initial version (above).

Self-Portrait
This was probably done in the later part of his life.

Early American Streamlined Locomotives, Part 1

Perhaps it was aviation in the form of Schneider Cup racing airplanes that became progressively more streamlined during the 1920s (along with other high-speed aircraft) that made designer-engineers in other fields sensitive to the benefits streamlining offered in terms of increasing potential top speed and decreasing the amount of energy required to cruise at a given velocity.

As this Wikipedia entry indicates, operational streamliner trains began appearing both in Europe and in the United States by the mid-1930s. Though attempts were made to "clean up" the shapes of steam locomotives in the late 1920s, the early round of streamliners did not have steam locomotives; diesel was the engine of choice.

America's first streamlined trains that reached commercial use were the Union Pacific M-10000 and the Burlington Zephyr, both appearing in 1934 to great publicity.

The Zephyr had the engineer's cab at the very front of the locomotive unit, which placed the operators in grave danger in the event of a collision; the M-10000 had them placed higher and slightly more to the rear, a configuration found in most streamlined diesel locomotives of 1938-1960.

Another feature, shared by both designs, that didn't pan out was that the coaches were articulated, sharing a truck at each end rather than being coupled in the normal manner. This proved inflexible, so later streamlined trains returned to the proven system of joining coaches.

I find these early streamliners deliciously 1930s, and hope you enjoy the photos below and might even be inspited to do some Web exploring of the subject on your own. You can try clicking on most of the photos to enlarge.

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Pre-streamliner passenger train
This was photographed somewhere in Alabama in 1948. Steam locomotives were well on their way out by then, but I included this scene-setting photo because it could just as easily have been taken in 1930, before streamliners appeared.

Locomotive No. 1, a Norman Bel Geddes design - 1931
Although Geddes' design was never actualized, it might have helped inspire streamliners that hit the tracks a few years later.

Union Pacific M-10000 (left) and Burlington Pioneer Zephyr
America's first two diesel-powered streamliners pose side-by-side at Kansas City's Union Station.

The M-10000 is open for inspection in Denver - 1934
This shows the rounded tail of the train. The Zephyr had windows at the rear of its final coach making for a popular observation area.

M-10000 and Chrysler Airflow - 1934
Streamlining was an idea whose time had come by the early 1930s. Chrysler introduced its at-the-time radically streamlined Airflow about the same time as the M-10000 hit the tracks. This publicity photo was intended to call attention to the similarity of the otherwise disparate vehicles' front ends.

Full-length photo of the Zephyr - 1935

Art Establishment's View: Modigliani Book Reviewed

The February 26-27 2011 weekend edition of the Wall Street Journal had this review of a biography of Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920). The reviewer is Lance Esplund, the articled titled "The Bad Boy of Montparnasse: In Modigliani, the anxiety and triumph of Modernism is reduced to a conventional sentimentality" and the book is "Modigliani: A Life" by Meryle Secrest (Knopf).

I'm calling this to your attention because Esplund strikes me as being comfortably camped in the Art Establishment compound, so it might be fun to pass along some things he writes in the piece. Here goes:

Just as much of a problem is her attempt to raise his stature as an artist. While Modigliani garnered popularity and income toward the end of his life, and his early death gave him a certain cultish luster, he was a second-tier Modernist. He was competent, never innovative; a follower, not a leader. Rejecting Cubism, Fauvism, Futurism and abstraction—all of which were blossoming around him—he instead moved backward through Cézanne, hiding in the past. Modigliani embraced the "look" of Modernism but not the liberation and synthesis of past and present that the movement encouraged.

Modigliani's art is a timid amalgamation of primitivism, African masks, Cycladic idols, the machine aesthetic, Art Nouveau and Old Master paintings. His famous figures—with their swan necks, almond eyes and old-world varnishes—are generalized, mannered and interchangeable. They appeal because they signify Modernist reduction yet stop short of abstraction; they simplify and distort without abandoning the comforts of 19th-century realism. They are an art in which style overwhelms specificity and substance and the anxiety and triumph of Modernism are reduced to a conventional sentimentality. The individual becomes a type, and a sitter's personality—even a nude's eroticism—is neutered. ...

When it comes to discussing and analyzing art, however, Ms. Secrest is often strident and off the mark. Chaim Soutine painted "hideous writhing canvases," and his "still lifes throb with the music of the universe." Cézanne's bathers are dismissed as "awkward, bulging figures"; Matisse made "pseudo abstractions"; and Mondrian is reduced to a painter of "blocks and diagrams." ...

Just as revealing is her positioning of Modigliani "at the end of a long line of masterful portraitists from Whistler and John Singer Sargent to Mary Cassatt and Cecilia Beaux," which, seemingly unbeknownst to the author, situates her subject squarely among second-tier artists.

I really hate to spoil Mr. Esplund's day, but Yr. Faithful Blogger also thinks that Cézanne was a lousy draftsman, that Matisse was not an Abstract Expressionist and that Mondrian's later paintings indeed incorporate a whiff of the geometric. And on what basis does he establish his artistic league tables? -- why, the Modernist Narrative of Art History, of course. That is, since Sargent and Beaux -- skilled portraitists both -- were not on the same path as Picasso, Pollock and De Kooning, their work must by definition be second-rate. And I'm a little puzzled by his inclusion of Cassatt because she normally holds the status of Honorary Impressionist.

As for Modigliani, although his work doesn't much appeal to me, I can't quite see why Esplund is so eager to break is sword, pull off his buttons and drum him out of True Modernism. Esplund must be either (a) a True Believer or (2) afraid to think and see for himself.

Tullio Crali: The Forever Futurist

Tullio Crali (1910-2000) was a pilot and self-taught painter who took up Futurism at a late date for it (1929) but at a comparatively young age for himself. Given his enthusiasm for aviation, he was part of the Aeropittua sub-field of Futurism.

Even though Futurism in general faded before its founder Marinetti died, Crali carried on with the project till the end of his very long life.

I suppose most critics nowadays would recoil at the bellicosity of some of Crali's paintings, but when they were painted they fit well with the temperament of Mussolini's Fascist Italy.

Being late to Futurism, Crali didn't get very hung up on the fussy, Cubist-like finely-chopped subjects depicted by earlier practitioners. Instead, his paintings tended to be simpler, more poster-like.

I wouldn't call Crali's paintings great, but I do find them oddly likable thanks to their bold design and sense of action.

For better quality and enlargements, try clicking on the images.

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Self-portrait

Le forze della curva (Forces of a Curve) - 1930
This early work features a race car, not aircraft.

Bombardamento notturno (Night Bombardment) - 1931
More a pretty poster than a terrifying image.

Ali tricolari (refers to tricolor Italian insignia roundels) - 1932

Ballelica - 1932
Not every subject was a machine.

In decollo (Takeoff) - 1932

Bombardamento di una fabrica (Bombing a Factory) - 1938
This bombardment seems more sinister and businesslike than in the 1931 painting above.

Prima che s'apra il paracadute - 1939
To me, this painting produces the greatest sense of motion.

Architectura (also known as Cityscape) - 1939

Incuneandosi nell' abitato (Diving on a City) - 1939
Probably Crali's best-known work.

Kamikaze - 1980
Painted when he was about 80.

Monoplano jonathan - 1988
Done near the end of his life -- and still Futurist!

Molti Ritratti: Misia Sert

A favorite muse for painters in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was pianist and arts facilitator Misia Sert (1872-1950). She was born Maria Zofia Olga Zenajda Godebska and also known as Misia Natanson, Misia Edwards and Misia Sert -- depending upon who her current husband was.

The rather brief Wikipedia entry for Misia is here and a link dealing with music and the ballet is here. But the most detailed background information I could locate on a fairly brief Google search was in this book review.

Her husbands were Thadée Natanson (Wikipedia entry is in French) who founded and ran the arts publication Revue Blanche, newspaper tycoon Alfred Edwards and painter Jose Maria Sert, best known in America for his Rockefeller Center RCA Building lobby murals. Oddly, given how much she was painted by others, I can find no portrait of Misia by Sert.

Here is a sampling. If your computer and browser allow, click on images for larger views.

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Photos of Misia
Even though she was touted as a beauty and attracted portrait painters like the proverbial flies to honey, Misia didn't seem to be camera-friendly. According to the third link above, she had good legs and an impressive bosom. Probably had an attractive personality as well.

By Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1895, 1897, c.1897)

By Pierre Bonnard (both 1908)

By Pierre-August Renoir (1904, c.1906)

By Félix Vallotton - 1898

By Édouard Vuillard (1899, 1897)
The upper painting shows Misia with Vallotton.

Covering the Famous: Ernest Hamlin Baker

Once upon a time there was an important weekly news magazine named Time. It was the leading magazine in its category from the beginning (it being the first of its kind in the U.S.), and for years its cover would feature an illustration-portrait of a newsmaker. Artwork prevailed (though not exclusively) through the 1960s and beyond, though photography slowly began taking over as the 1970s wore on.

A prolific cover artist during the 1940s and 50s was Ernest Hamlin Baker (1889-1975). He attended Colgate, where he was a track and field athlete and was active in student publications. As an artist, he was largely self-taught, but had the ability to work his way into the illustration field. This website has some biographical information and examples of his work.

Baker's mature style was strongly realistic. No modernist simplification for him: Baker seemed to glory in depicting every wrinkle and blemish on the faces assigned to him by Harry Luce and the editors who selected cover subjects.

Baker's art is probably unfashionable in many art-elitist circles. However, I tend to think that his covers represent valuable documentation of his times and Time's heyday.

Below are examples of Baker's work.

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American Legion poster - ca. 1920

Cover of January, 1934 Fortune magazine

The Activities of the Narragansett Planters - Wakefield, Rhode Island Post Office mural - 1939
This was a New Deal (but not a WPA) project, as this link attests.

Time magazine Man of the Year cover, Jan. 6, 1942
Features President Franklin Roosevelt; his new wartime allies Stalin and Churchill are in the background. Baker seems to have Winston eying Uncle Joe warily, a reflection of his true view of the Communist dictator.

Time magazine cover for Nov. 23, 1942
The subject is James Doolittle, leader of the famous Tokyo raid earlier that year and now commander of Twelfth Air Force in the newly-opened North Africa front. The olive drab color and white-on blue star represent the paint-job found on U.S. Army aircraft at that time.

Time magazine Man of the Year cover, Jan. 1, 1945
He is Dwight Eisenhower, commander of Allied forces that invaded France in June and at year's end were on a front near the German border.

Via this website, a spread from Ernest W. Watson's 1946 book "40 Illustrators and How They Work." Discussed is a mid-1930s portrait illustration of CIO labor leader John L. Lewis, a powerful figure in those days. Try clicking on the image for a much larger view. If your computer screen is large, you might be able to make out the text. To me the key item of interest is that Baker used thinned oil paints rather than watercolor, tempera or some other medium to get the effects seen in works such as the Time covers shown above.