Charles Addams: Ski Bump

Among those New Yorker artists whose work is prized by collectors, few generate the consistent excitement that Charles Addams does. His 1949 cartoon of a skier unexpectedly coming upon a mound in the snow demonstrates Addams's mastery of technique. His linework and his brushwork are superb. You can almost feel the spray of the snow and the stitching on the sweater. It's an extraordinary piece. And it's funny too, highlighting Addams's delightfully macabre sense of humor.

Charles Addams
Original art
The New Yorker, January 15, 1949, p. 32

The original cartoon went on the auction block yesterday at Heritage Auctions. The action in the salesroom was probably not as frenzied as it would be for one of his Addams Family drawings—or for his more famous ski cartoon—but the bidding certainly did not disappoint. A hammer price of $19,000 is more than respectable for a seventy-five year old New Yorker cartoon.

Charles Addams
Framed original art
The New Yorker, January 15, 1949, p. 32

An undated invoice from Graphics International, Ltd.

Charles Addams
Heritage Auctions sale of April 23, 2024

https://fineart.ha.com/itm/paintings/charles-addams-american-1912-1988-skier-the-new-yorker-magazine-cartoon-january-15-1949ink-wash-on/a/8161-71083.s?ic2=mytracked-lotspage-lotlinks-12202013&tab=MyTrackedLots-101116#

Charles Addams
Heritage Auctions item description

The drawing merited a full page in The New Yorker, something you really don't see there anymore. I think we can all agree that it was worth the space.

Charles Addams
The New Yorker, January 15, 1949, p. 32

Charles Addams
Original art
The New Yorker, January 15, 1949, p. 32

A cartoon by Charles Addams and a Profiles illustration by Lorenz [?]

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1949-01-15/flipbook/032/

Frank Emerson Denison

Lorenz [?]

The New Yorker, January 15, 1949, p. 33

Note:  It occurs to me that some of you youngsters may not know what I mean when I write of Charles Addams's "more famous ski cartoon." Well, it's a classic from The New Yorker's issue of January 13, 1940 and you can find it in the archives here.

The obituary of previous art owner Kevin P. Connell (1941-2017) may be examined here. When the cartoon was first published, he wasn't quite eight. The death notice states he was a "Key advance man for the 1968 Presidential campaign of Robert F. Kennedy & organizer for George McGovern's [Senate] reelection." My guess is that Connell purchased the Addams art in the 1960s. In the 1950s he was simply too young, and by the 1970s I think the art might have cost more than $500.

Is the profile illustration signed Lorenz? Lucaz? Waz? Who is this artist?

04627

Jack Markow: On the Construction Site

Construction was always a part of New York City life. A century ago, in the Roaring Twenties, this was especially true. Jack Markow's 1928 cartoon celebrates the city's ongoing reinvention of itself. Was it possible, in that permissive era, for a wiseacre and a police officer to engage in conversation right in the middle of a construction site? It seems doubtful. Whatever the case, the interaction of the two figures is wonderfully staged by the artist. The charcoal drawing was reproduced on page 29 of The Art in Cartooning (1975). The word but handwritten on the matte does not appear in the published caption.

"Pardon me, officer, [but] can you tell me where they moved Hudson Street?"
Jack Markow
Original art
The New Yorker, March 17, 1928, p. 30

"Pardon me, officer, [but] can you tell me where they moved Hudson Street?"
Jack Markow
Original art
The New Yorker, March 17, 1928, p. 30

Jack Markow's signature

Caption on matte with a superfluous but

Jack Markow
Auctions at Showplace:  New York City Estate Auction held March 3, 2024

https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/jack-markow-pardon-me-officer-charcoal-on-paper-241-c-069480a807?objectID=186172998&algIndex=archive_prod&queryID=dbd42784902e423c9124f6cc84faf963

"Pardon me, officer, can you tell me where they moved Hudson Street?"
Jack Markow
The New Yorker, March 17, 1928, p. 30

"Pardon me, officer, [but] can you tell me where they moved Hudson Street?"
Jack Markow
Original art
The New Yorker, March 17, 1928, p. 30

A cartoon by Jack Markow and an illustration by V. E.

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1928-03-17/flipbook/030/

Illustration by V. E. 

The New Yorker, March 17, 1928, p. 31

Note:  Who then is V.E? Anybody?

04626

May Smith's Copy of The Complete Cartoons of The New Yorker

The Friends of Poughkeepsie Library is offering another copy of The Complete Cartoons of The New Yorker, this one signed by Michael Crawford, Danny Shanahan, and Peter Steiner. The recipient, May Smith must have said she fancied cats, as Shanahan and Steiner both drew felines on the half title. Crawford, though, was having none of it.

The Complete Cartoons of The New Yorker
AbeBooks listing accessed April 21, 2024

https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=30890619438&searchurl=isbn%3D9781579123222%26sgnd%3Don%26sortby%3D17&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp1-_-image8

The Complete Cartoons of The New Yorker
AbeBooks bibliographic details

04625

Original Book Cover Art: Don Martin Carries On

The original 1973 book cover art for Don Martin Carries On was sold on April 17 at Heritage Auctions. The illustration speaks for itself.

Don Martin
Heritage Auctions listing ended April 17, 2024

https://comics.ha.com/itm/original-comic-art/covers/don-martin-mad-s-don-martin-carries-on-paperback-cover-illustration-original-art-warner-books-/a/322416-48163.s?ic2=mytracked-lotspage-lotlinks-12202013&tab=MyTrackedLots-101116#

Apparently, memories of Mad magazine inspired Heritage's copy writer to produce some truly awful prose:

Don Martin
Heritage Auctions item description
"This lampshaded lunatic is attempting to Lambada, but instead starts 'Poppin' and Lockin'.'" What?

 

I also have a few eBay images of the paperback for the scholars among you:

04624

Peter Arno: Skating in Rockefeller Center

On April 17, Peter Arno's original 1944 New Yorker cartoon set at the skating rink of Rockefeller Center went on the auction block at Heritage. The Texas auction house, it should be noted, did not identify the drawing's date or its publication in The New Yorker. But the caption was right there. The drawing is unsigned but unmistakably Arno.

"Why, it's Mrs. Courtney Richardson, Senior—she's heading this way!"

Peter Arno

Original art

The New Yorker, February 12, 1944, p. 20

The rink at Rockefeller Center first opened on Christmas of 1936, roughly seven years before this drawing appeared. Its placement below street level makes it immediately recognizable then and now. Arno gives us the static observers above with a well-defined horizontal plane set apart from the strong verticals of Manhattan's buildings and the plaza. The stairs create a flow down to the area of action—no one is going up. The skaters have a flow of their own too as we see three of them making the turn and following the grooves on the ice.

The couple in the foreground on the left direct our attention to the right, their sharp noses—and skates—pointing to Mrs. Courtney Richardson, Senior. Her name and her figure are outsized and attract our attention. So do her dark clothes and her exaggerated angulation; her skates move perpendicular to the gentle curves on the ice that Arno has so carefully established. The sense of movement is achieved without the use of speed lines. The matter-of-fact caption does not prepare us for the madcap scene Arno creates.

"Why, it's Mrs. Courtney Richardson, Senior—she's heading this way!"
Peter Arno
Original art
The New Yorker, February 12, 1944, p. 20

Peter Arno
Heritage Auctions listing ended April 17, 2024

https://comics.ha.com/itm/original-comic-art/illustrations/peter-arno-single-panel-gag-cartoon-illustration-original-art-undated-/a/322416-48016.s?ic2=mytracked-lotspage-lotlinks-12202013&tab=MyTrackedLots-101116#

Peter Arno
Heritage Auctions item description

Some sleight-of-hand took place before publication. The New Yorker published the drawing with a linear border that looks for all the world like a part of Arno's original. His signature was added as well. Possibly the signature and border together were part of a single overlay. It's a small detail, but the back lining of Mrs. Richardson's coat, which Arno left white, has been shaded.

"Why, it's Mrs. Courtney Richardson, Senior—she's heading this way!"

Peter Arno

The New Yorker, February 12, 1944, p. 20

"Why, it's Mrs. Courtney Richardson, Senior—she's heading this way!"

Peter Arno

Original art

The New Yorker, February 12, 1944, p. 20

Cartoons by Peter Arno and Garrett Price

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1944-02-12/flipbook/020/

Arno even took the time to paint the grain of the wood on the floorboards. Such details are largely or completely lost in publication.

Detail

By the way, is Garrett Price's 1944 Valentine's Day drawing of a woodpecker a spot or a cartoon? I'd call it a cartoon. But it is not listed in The Complete Cartoons of The New Yorker (2004), so the powers that be have a differing opinion. I might have to file an appeal.

Garrett Price
The New Yorker, February 12, 1944, p. 21

Note: I suspect Arno may have used photo references for some of the skaters—no, not for Mrs. Richardson—as well as for the women on the stairs and perhaps the rink's architectural elements, but I have no way of proving this.

04623