Thursday, August 3, 2023

Blog Post No. 4400: Admiring Nature—Saul Steinberg Preliminary New Yorker Cover Art

Art director and graphic designer Paul Rand (1914-1996) is remembered for creating memorable logos for prominent corporations. As a friend of New Yorker artist Saul Steinberg (1914-1999), he was the recipient in 1961 of a preliminary cover design for that magazine. The original drawing was sold at auction five years ago at a sale of pieces from the designer's estate by Wright Auctions.


Rand's Steinberg cover study for The New Yorker is clearly unfinished; the suited male figure with hat and cane leaning over to smell or admire the flowers at close range is only pencilled in. Some flowers are inked and colored. By his final published version, Steinberg was to reverse this figure, making him face left rather than right. He expanded the field of fantastical flowers and added fanciful flying insects above the figure for balance. All the color goes to nature, none to the observer. The preliminary art was estimated at $5,000 to $7,000. It sold for $5,313 with the premium.

Saul Steinberg
Preliminary art
The New Yorker,
 September 9, 1961

Saul Steinberg
Wright Auctions, September 13, 2018


Saul Steinberg
Preliminary art
The New Yorker,
 September 9, 1961


Saul Steinberg
The New Yorker, September 9, 1961



The Attempted Bloggery Centennial Posts 💯
Blog Post No. 100
Blog Post No. 200:  A Shaggy Dog Story




04400

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