Magazine Cover Art

Artists and illustrators in past decades competed fiercely for the honor and recognition that they received when they were picked to create the cover art for magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post, Collier’s, Ladies Home Journal, Country Gentleman, and many other periodicals. At the time they wanted the prestige and instant recognition of their talents. Unaware that in the future many of them would become valued as a collectible item.

Norman Rockwell became the most famous, as we all know. Did you know that many of the collectors items that you see today started out as a cover for The Saturday Evening Post? Rockwell did many covers for that particular magazine along with other publications. He also did quite a lot of artwork for advertising campaigns. As much as we love Rockwell and his nostalgic works, there were many other artists whose art is just as stunning and detailed as Mr. Rockwell’s pieces. Names you may or may not be familiar with are J. C. Leyendecker, Stevan Dohanos, John Clymer, John Falter, and George Hughes. These men also did many Covers for different magazines at a time when we didn’t have television to watch. Folks looked forward to the new magazine’s arrival to not only read the articles but to admire art of the cover. Today many people have come to recognize the talents of the Cover Artists and try to collect all of the covers that a particular artist did for a particular publishing company or sometimes for all of the companies that they worked for.

Collectors will pick an artist for their style or possibly because the artist hailed from their home state. Collections can be made with specific themes in mind such as sport related topics, pretty women, children at play, occupations, and many other topics with a variety of the cover artists. Cover art can also be given as gifts to commemorate a birthday or anniversary also.

Stevan Dohanos – Illustration Artist Extraodinaire

I have a real passion for the illustration artists who brought the printed pages to life with their incredible artwork. Whether it is an old magazine cover, an advertisement from a magazine, a calendar, ink blotter, or other form of advertising.

One of my all time favorites in this field is Stevan Dohanos. Born in 1907 in Lorain, Ohio he was an  artist and illustrator of the social realism school. The detail that he used in his art is just amazing.  Most of the work that I find done by Dohanos depicts life in America from small towns. He is whimsical and moving and really brings you on a nostaligic journey into our past.

He is probably best known for his many Saturday Evening Post covers with so many wonderful themes. An ice cream stand, a decked out motorcycle, a gas station attendant, or the pet store owner retrieving fish from an aquarium.  No matter what the theme, he gave us a slice of American life from Anytown, USA with magnificent attention to the most minute of details.