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American
Illustration is an art form created to be reproduced, sometimes with accompanying text.
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American
Illustration manifests how Americans view themselves, it is both social and cultural history pictured.
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American
Illustration
is a visual record which evokes responses from the audience of its
day, from audiences of today, and from future audiences. It becomes increasingly valuable as a reservoir of cultural images
and a chronicle of change.
Illustration
art is a more difficult task to create than paintings purely inspired
by wine, a nude model and a blank canvas. It is a specific assignment,
defined by deadlines and it comprises a message dictated to the artist
by the client. Artists such as Michelangelo, Gilbert Stuart, and others
suffered too, during their artistic endeavors with similar parameters.
Yet, the American illustrators differ from all other artists and illustrators
in that they created purely American icons-they are The American Imagists.
It is
their images which first portrayed our icons; ‘Uncle Sam’ (James Montgomery
Flagg’s noted self portrait, ‘I Want You!’); the baby ringing in the New Year (JC Leyendecker’s putti on the January covers
of Saturday Evening Post for dozens of years); that most exquisite example
of an American beauty, ‘The Gibson Girl’ by Charles Dana Gibson;
Mother’s Day celebrated with flowers; ‘Miss Liberty’ (the symbol of American females taking
up men’s jobs to ‘pitch in’ during WWII, by Norman Rockwell);
and so many others. These are the images of our lives, our history, our lifestyles
and dreams, our icons, all of our images, real and imagined!
Since the late 1960s, we have undertaken to lend art works from
our Collection to exhibitions in the major art capitals of the world: New York, Paris,
Rome, and Tokyo. We have loaned works to The National Portrait Gallery,
Smithsonian Institution, World Financial Center,
The National Academy of Design, Louvre, Palazzo delle Esposizione, The
Guggenheim Museum, The National Arts Club, Society of Illustrators,
The Brandywine River Museum, Farnsworth Art Museum, Portland Museum of
Art, Delaware Art Museum, The National Museum of American Art, Daimaru
Museum, Isetan Museum, Nagoya Museum, Fukishima Prefectory Museum, Virginia
Art Museum, High Museum in Atlanta, Odakyu Museum, Ogunquit Art Museum, and the Norman Rockwell
Museum; such exhibits recognize the importance of this significant
Collection, this national treasure.
American Imagist Collection
The Collection has been assembled over a thirty-year period and is comprised
of the finest American illustration art works extant; including
the largest collection of originals by Maxfield Parrish, the largest private
collection of Norman Rockwell, the largest JC Leyendecker collection,
Howard Pyle ("Father of American Illustration"), NC Wyeth, Charles
Dana Gibson, James Montgomery Flagg, Jessie Willcox Smith, Howard Chandler Christy,
Violet Oakley, John Falter, Alton Tobey, and many others. In its entirety, the Collection comprises original
art works, prints (open and limited editions), significant
memorabilia, vintage materials, artifacts (such as Rockwell’s first
paint box and Parrish’s stippling paint brushes) and a plethora of photographic
materials. We exhibit over 135 works at a time much like The Frick Collection, the
Borgehese Gallery in Rome, and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in
Boston. An on-going rotation of art will complement the permanent portion of the
Collection on perpetual display. Our five new galleries on the Courtyard Level now offer us the opportunity to exhibit illustrations from other periods.
We also exhibit decorative arts, such as authentic period furnishings,
in order to enhance the experience of viewing the art works. To this end,
we have acquired furniture by Zwiener and Allard and sculpture, most notably: Hiram Power’s (1805-1873) idealization
of ‘America’ (1859) and 'Eve Disconsulate' (1862), and Joseph Mozier’s (1812-1870) marble
figure ‘Jephthah’s Daughter,’ (1864) cited,
‘The History of American Sculpture.’
American Illustration is coveted by collectors and museums alike, has
something which everybody believes is special at a time when the public,
both art-appreciating and Wall Street/high tech newcomers to the world
of culture wishes to have: realism, historical content
and meretricious works.
The fine arts establishment and academicians alike now accept illustration as "the most American of American art."
The images of the world’s greatest nation are sought after globally
and are appreciated in new light at this propitious beginning of the second millennium.
You are cordially invited to join us in appreciating this rich slice of
American history as witnessed and recorded by the most significant artist/illustrators
- the greatest American illustrators.
Welcome to The National Museum
of American Illustration at Vernon Court. |
