ARCHIVE OF SKETCHES, NOTES AND CORRESPONDENCE OF AMERICAN ILLUSTRATOR ORSON LOWELL

origiinal 0. No Binding. Very Good. Orson Byron Lowell (1871-1956) was an American artist and illustrator, best known for covers and interiors for magazines. Lowell studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and moved to New York City, settling in New Rochelle, NY, a fashionable artists community in the early 20thC. A contemporary of illustrator Charles Dana Gibson, Lowell illustrated for major magazines, including Cosmopolitan , Ladies' Home Journal, McCall's, The Saturday Evening Post, Scribner's, Redbook, Vogue, and Woman's Home Companion. Many of his illustrations were comical, with a good dose of social satire. The archive consists of 23 pieces, single sheets of various small size: 1 ALS and 1 ANS from Henry B. Quinn (1876-1948), art editor of Woman's Home Companion; one postcard with a reproduction of a Lowell sketch; one invitation card for an 1899 exhibition of Lowell's work at the Keppel Gallery in Manhattan : 4 sheets with miscellaneous notes (no drawings or sketches); 15 sketches with captions for various projects, one handsomely hand-colored, including four sketch portraits of five older men. All are done in lead pencil, some with ink overlay. Largest sheet is 6"x 9" In the ALS from Quinn to Lowell (undated, circa 1905-1915?) on Woman's Home Companion letterhead, 250 Park Avenue, New York Editorial Rooms, art editor Quinn, himself an artist, relates progress on the annual edition of the magazine's best work in which he intends to feature a Lowell piece. He offers Lowell editorial comment on that, alerts him that the expense of telephone calls back and forth about it are "a small fortune" and includes an opinion on the project's progress from "Miss Lane", who is Gertrude Battle Lane, Woman's Home Companion's most influential editor who ran the magazine from 1911 to the time of her death in 1941. The ANS from Quinn has an elaborate draft sketch by Quinn of a bookplate in pencil and ink to be included in the annual that he wants Lowell to undertake. On the back fold of the sketch, Quinn suggests to Lowell, with some false modesty, that the sketch is a" rough suggestion . only a. guide for size". The 15 Lowell pencil sketches include his rough sketch for the bookplate. The rest are portraits or vignettes for inclusion in magazines or illustrations for novels or serials. Most have titles, captions or notations all in Lowell's hand. Our three favorites are a rather risque Adam and Eve, a rather baffoonish Beau Brummel and, in color, a society matron in formal gown that morphs into a peacock. (We presume Lowell was making a sly point about vanity.) Fascinating archive not only of the early 20thC illustrator at work but also an inside look into the robust period of magazine publishing.