Dedicated to the Illustrators
Who Chose Westport as their Home and Workplace
September 16, 2006 – January 2, 2007
Illustration was a strong entertainment medium before the invention of television. Illustrations were as important as the magazine and advertising text they accompanied – and illustrators were held in high esteem.
Starting in 1902, when the first artists arrived here, and continuing into the 1940s, our records show that more than 160 illustrators worked and lived in Westport. The move here probably began because of the town’s scenic countryside, its river and beach – plus its closeness to New York, the source of most assignments from magazines and advertising agencies.
The town became the gathering place of kindred souls who understood and supported each other and spoke the same language. Westport was a small village in those early days. The local butcher, hardware and grocery clerks, school children and even our firemen, for example, modeled for Stevan Dohanos – later appearing in one of the 139 covers he painted for the Saturday Evening Post.
The 1940s brought an influx of artists from Disney Studios and later others left Chicago, Cleveland and Pittsburgh to settle in Westport and try their luck in New York. The Famous Artists Schools (FAS) founded by Albert Dorne in 1947 brought another wave of artists to our town. In addition to the twelve who formed the nucleus of FAS, dozens of talented illustrators and artists participated as members of the school’s faculty.
This exhibit showcases only a few of our illustrators and their work – but over 100 artworks from this era are part of the Westport Schools Permanent Art Collection (WSPAC). It includes works by George Hand Wright, who was ranked as one of the nation’s top illustrators in the 1920s; Harold von Schmidt, a authority on Indians in his depiction of the Old West; Hardie Gramatky, best known for his Little Toot series; and Bernie Fuchs who has an international reputation as a remarkable, innovative talent.
Additional illustrations are constantly being acquired for WSPAC by Howard Munce, artist and former art director, and by Walt Reed who heads Illustration House, Inc. in New York. Both men also have contributed valuable historical information about the lives and works of our local illustrators.
“Westport has long been known for its art colony. From the beginning, several noted easel painters came to live here and to work – but the town quickly became noted as the Mecca for magazine illustrators.
Howard Munce and Mollie Donovan work on the installation of the exhibit
George Wright and Ed Ashe were the first of their kind here and word spread quickly – not only was it a lovely, simple town with easy access to Manhattan where the leading magazines and ad agencies were headquartered – but it also offered the camaraderie of a score of other artists in the same pursuit.
Records show that at least 160 illustrators have lived and worked here. In the 1940s an influx of cartoonists from the Disney Studios migrated here, as did other illustrators from Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland. Later, the Famous Artists School brought a group of young artists to act as instructors.
Since illustrators depicted people in the stories they rendered, the need for models was apparent – so they all employed models – usually local people of all ages, sizes and shapes to fit their manuscripts. They were photographed in the situations called for and then rendered in the appropriate setting. Over the years, many Westporters have been stopped on the street and asked if they would consider posing.
These days, illustrators are having a bad time, since today’s magazines publish very little fiction. A few of our illustrators still are at it, but the glory days are past…so in tribute to the men and women who were once so busy with some form of illustration and to the models who were depicted:
We salute that form of art that once emanated from studios all around this town – and was regularly seen in American homes from coast to coast!”
(signed) Howard Munce
Exhibit Curator: Howard Munce
Assistance by Joyce Thompson, Elizabeth Strick, and Ellen Naftalin
Exhibit Co-chairmen: Mollie Donovan and Wally Woods
Bayberry Property Management & Leasing of CT, LLC
