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Discover Mid-America - July 2004

Original illustration art has wide collector appeal

Prices for the May 15th Illustration Art Auction held at the New York-based Illustration House gallery, were all over the map with some surprises.

Walt Reed, founder of Illustration House, has watched interest grow from the 1970s with a small group of collectors to a worldwide interest that includes a younger group of buyers.

“Each generation tends to buy the art they are familiar with,” Reed said. “For example, buyers in the seventies and eighties were drawn to the work of early 20th century illustrators like Dean Cornwell and Howard Pyle. Even from the beginning Norman Rockwell and Maxfield Parrish were expensive and popular.”

This 18th century English lng case japanned clock sold for $4,484 at Leslie Hindman Galleries, Chicago. (Photo courtesy of Leslie Hindman Galleries.)

Reed noted that the marine illustrations by Anton Otto Fischer done during the 1950s and the romantic subjects done during the same period by Jon Whit-comb and Coby Whitmore, once very popular, are lower in price. At the auction, Whitcomb and Whitmore didn’t make their low estimates of $2,000-$4000. A Fischer Saturday Evening Post marine scene sold for a mere $2,900.

“Peoples tastes change over the generations,” added Reed. “These days they are attracted to colorful illustrations. The general public still hasn’t caught up with the quality of the early illustrators who worked in limited color, pen and ink and on a small scale.”

He also noted that original illustrations are probably one of the best potential art investments left, still affordable.

Top prices went to Jessie Willcox Smith with an $80,000 hammer price and the ever-popular Maxfield Parrish fetched $60,000 for a pen and ink book illustration.

A surprise was a magazine cover, oil on canvas by Francis Lee Jaques that was estimated at $2,000-$4,000 but sold for $15,000. Not generally well known, Jaques had previously made one auction appearance at Illustration House. Another lesser-known Czech illustrator, Zdenek Burian (1905-1981), sold in the science fiction category for $7,500.

Pin-up art from the ‘50s and ‘60s has steadily risen in price. This is especially true for illustrator Gilette Elvgren (1914-1980), due in part to the publication several years ago of The Great American Pin-Up by Charles Martingnette and Louis Meisel. An Elvgren calendar illustration fetched $70,000.

Howard Pyle is considered the father of American illustration. Pyle founded the so-called “Brandywine School” of art in Delaware. Among his students were Newell Convers Wyeth, Harvey Dunn and Frank Schoonover. These days their work sells for thousands of dollars.

Did you know that Paul Revere and Amos Doolittle are among our first American Illustrators? Revere’s famous engraving depicting the Boston Massacre goes for top dollar when examples come to auction.

Before his death, Norman Rockwell noted, “There have been disadvantages to being an illustrator. Many who consider themselves serious painters look down their noses at us. We paint for money, against deadlines, our subject matter often prescribed by an editor.”

It would seem that with prices sometimes reaching a million dollars, illustrators are having the last laugh.

CLUES

Reed advises would-be collectors to realize that illustrator art can turn up anywhere. A good way to become familiar with artists names and techniques is the book The Illustrator In America written by Walt and his son, Roger Reed. To keep track of prices, a subscription to his auction catalogue ($30) is a good idea.

Illustration House is located at 110 West 25 Street, New York, NY 10001. Some popular subjects are women illustrators, ethnic and black subjects.

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