Month: January 2019

Neysa Moran McMein was an American Illustrator and portrait painter who studied at The School of The Art Institute of Chicago and Art Students League of New York. She started her career as an illustrator, during World War I, she travelled across France entertaining military troops and made posters to support the war effort. Through McMein entire career she was a successful illustrator, she would work for great publication such as McCall’s, The Saturday Evening Post, and Collier’s. Moreover, she was also a successful portrait painter, she would often take commission from famous celebrities and writers.

McMein was born in Quincy, Illinois on January 24, 1888. She was the daughter of Harry Moran and Isabelle Parker McMein. McMein had many talents, she knew how to sing, to act and to draw. After graduating from Quincy High School, she attended The School of the Art Institute in Chicago. In 1913 she went to New York City and attended the Art Students League for a few months. After one year she sold her first artwork to the Boston Star and she also did the cover for the Saturday Evening Post.

Her warm pastel drawing for strong American female was highly popular and brought her many commissions. During World War I she drew posters for the U.S and French governments, McMein spent six months in France as a lecturer and entertainer. From 1923 through 1937 she provided all the artwork for McCall’s covers. She also supplied work to McClure’s, Liberty, Woman’s Home Companion, Collier’s, Photoplay, and other magazines and she also produced advertising graphics for products such as Palmolive soap and Lucky Strike cigarette. General Mills commissioned her to create the image of Betty Crocker.

In addition to her highly successful career as an illustrator and designer McMein also had a great social life, she was a regular member of the Algonquin Round Table set. In 1923 she married John C.Baragwanath and they had a satisfy open relationship. Unfortunately, the popularity of her style decided during the late 1930s so McMein started to focusing more on portraiture using pastel and oil paint.

More of McMain works:

My personal thought about the illustrator:

McMain was a strong independent woman since she was so talented she got the chance to have way more interesting experiences than other women during that period. She had a successful career, producing numerous illustration for popular magazines and she was able to stand out among other male illustrators. Artistic wise I think she had an excellent set of skill but she is limited to portraiture only since I can not find any full body scale illustration from McMein.

Source:

 http://www.americanartarchives.com/mcmein.htm

Virginia Frances Sterrett was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1900. She is known to be an introverted child which means she would rather be in her own world of imagination and drawing than interaction with other children in school. When her father passed away, she and her family moved to Missouri where their relatives were. Later on, when she was 13, she won several awards at Kansas State Fair that event had encouraged Virginia to focus even more on Drawing. Two years later, her family moved back to Chicago where she went to high school with the goal to study art but she soon attended the Art Institute of Chicago and she also received a full scholarship. Unfortunately, Virginia mom became ill one year later which forced her to quit studying to get a job and support her family.

It was not long before her own health began to fail; she was diagnosed with tuberculosis. Her first commission came in 1919. She was commissioned by Penn Publishing Company to illustrate the Comptesse de Ségur’s Old French Fairy Tales. She was 19 and received $500 for the eight watercolors and 16 pen and ink drawings, with a supplemental $250 for a colored drawing for the cover and ink drawings for the end papers and boards. This was quickly followed by another commission for Tanglewood Tales from the same publisher, Penn Publishing Company.

In 1923, the family moved to the warmer climate of southern California, making their home in Altadena, nestled at the foot of the San Gabriel mountains just north of Pasadena. There was a slight improvement in her health, but it didn’t last, and she entered Compton Sanitorium. Her health was now curtailing her work, and she could only draw for a short time each day. She started a new series of illustrations for Arabian Nights but the declining state of her health, it took three years to complete. The Arabian Nights, her last published works, are considered her masterpiece. 

In 1930, Virginia began work on her last commission, a series of illustration for Myths and Legends. This commission was never completed; her health took a turn for the worse and she died on June 8, 1931. She was 31 years old. 

  My personal opinion:

I can see that Virginia artworks somewhat reflect her personality, the mood in her artwork is always calm and mystery. Everything she drew is style like from human figure to natural elements such as the ocean wave, trees. She has a unique way of seeing a world and to see that in her art is incredible. I love the way she used cool tone for the background warm tone in her illustration series for the Old French Fairy Tales. Moreover, most details in the background often rendered with one specific curve which made the figure stand out more. In addition, I admired the fact that Virginia has gone through so may hardship but she still able to produce such amazing work until the end of her life.

Source: http://artpassions.net/sterrett/virginia_sterrett.html

  Alphonse Maria Mucha was born in the town of Ivancice, Moravia. During his early age, Mucha developed his passion for art which leaded him to pursue illustration later on. At first, he worked as a decorative painter in Moravia, mostly painting theatrical scenery and then he became the leader in a Viennese theatrical design company while continuing to perfect his art skills.

In 1881, Mucha came back to Moravia and he got hired by Count Karl Khuen of Mikulov to finish several murals for the Hrusovany Emmahof Castle. Noticing how talented Mucha was Count Karl Khen offer to sponsor Mucha’s training at the Munchin Academy of Fine Arts. After that, he moved to Paris in 1887 and continued his studies at Julian Academy and Colarossi Academy while also producing magazines and illustrations. Mucha volunteer to produce a lithographed for the play Gismonda by Victorien Sardou and it happen to turn into an overnight sensation which formed the new artistic style and its creator to the public. The actor for the play was so satisfied with the success of Mucha’s poster that she signed a six years contrast with Mucha.

Mucha was known for his flurry painting, poster, advertisement, and book illustrations. Moreover, his designs for jewellery, carpets, wallpaper, and theatre were also quite popular. He produced works focusing in illustrate beautiful woman wear flowing Neoclassical outfit, these girls often surrounded by flowers and delicate decorations. His use of pastel colours helps him stand out from others illustrators who produce contemporary posters. Even though Mucha was famous for his commercial art, he aims to produce art with the purpose of communicating spiritual messages. Mucha wanted to concentrate on projects what would honour art and his birthplace.

 More example of Mucha’s works:

My opinion about Mucha:

I love Mucha art styles, he did many woman illustration, but each of them has different personalities, and all the poses just fit perfectly in every piece. Moreover, he did a fantastic job of texture rendering. His four weathers piece the flowers and the flowy dress look incredibly natural.

He was a successful commercial artist but I think he also struggled a lot with that title since he wants to focus more on bigger and more meaningful projects. I am really interested in his life story because it is what I expected from an illustrator life, you might love to draw certain topics but since it is your job, you possibly work a lot with projects you not really fond of.

Source:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphonse_Mucha