Constantin Alajálov: The Graduate Looks to His Future

The idea that new college graduates might face limited employment prospects has been around for quite a while. We know that such concerns become especially prominent in times of economic uncertainty such as the current moment. Constantin Alajálov's New Yorker cover art for the issue of June 22, 1935, was published in the midst of the Great Depression.

Constantin Alajálov
Full original art
The New Yorker, June 22, 1935

The graduate, we see, faces a variety of job possibilities, the ones on the left being fantasies of prosperity while the ones on the right suggest a workaday hustle to which the college degree might not contribute very much.

Constantin Alajálov
Original art
The New Yorker, June 22, 1935

Alajálov's original was sold in the Illustration Art sale at Swann Auction Galleries in December.

Constantin Alajálov
Swann Auction Galleries Illustration Art sale of December 4, 2025

https://www.swanngalleries.com/auction-lot/new-yorker-constantin-alajalov-1900-1987-the-grad_067c029639

Constantin Alajálov
Swann Auction Galleries Illustration Art sale item description

A comparison of the art with the published cover leads to one very obvious observation: the original has no color.

Constantin Alajálov
Original art
The New Yorker, June 22, 1935

Constantin Alajálov
The New Yorker, June 22, 1935

This raises one of two possibilities: either all the color has faded over the past ninety years or Alajálov added the color during the magazine's color separation process.

Have we seen this before? Twelve years ago I posted another Alajálov cover, this one showing a dog's family tree from 1938, with what Bonhams described as its study. I followed the auction house's lead here, but the cover and its supposed preliminary art are close to identical except for the matter of color.

Constantin Alajálov
The New Yorker, February 12, 1938

Constantin Alajálov
Preliminary art [?]
The New Yorker, February 12, 1938

05261

Otto Soglow: On Strike at the Deli

Original Depression Era New Yorker art dating from 1937 by cartoonist Otto Soglow was sold last month on eBay. The sequential drawing takes us into the nitty gritty of a labor dispute at a delicatessen belonging to one E. Swartz. Will the protest be resolved?

Otto Soglow
Original art
The New Yorker, October 9, 1937, p. 27

Soglow has reoworked the last panel a little. There is some white-out in the area of the picketer's forward leg and some glue staining at the bottom of the hanging placard.

Verso

Otto Soglow
eBay listing ended July 23, 2024

https://www.ebay.com/itm/176486041197?_skw=signed+Yorker&itmmeta=01JA75GRHZ41G1ZVP8WQDWXXJC&hash=item291763466d:g:pBoAAOSwgWRmjrhF&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA8HoV3kP08IDx%2BKZ9MfhVJKnl3XP2vwNBdXK9mSCl48A9hYw29Qlqn6EXU2A1VSRfMEnzvcGhb%2F0RFJTi7GyecDSJOi39%2FC--MrlK%2BYo%2F4r6FuidDi%

2BC3nvj5%2F0GD2ipVeaGfw0N0YlpKt7Us1CQF%2F3384j1s5C3PAXQ%2Bm%2FFwHcWq6GHr9CxzFzpzlMGDeezLu2In0SbHVu5h0AZNgv40EWtNkigrnar33CmkdyoIkBj%2FmT7Hg9N%2FTwfAwJfDb4hFa8PMJj8ziO0e15GC%2FSfpctHqXHaNO%2BJsX4phqy%2FSZ81SZVDBQpw0DOSY0798gT2xjQ%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR4qJw-XRZA

Otto Soglow
eBay item description

[End of eBay listing]

In Soglow's final panel, the bottom of the sign that is worn reads Today's Big Special, which repeats the first words on the sign that is carried. The New Yorker's editors evidently had Soglow restore the bottom of that sign to read Local Union, as in the first panel, with a patch that is now lost. Some residual glue must have caused discoloration to that part of the paper.

Otto Soglow
The New Yorker, October 9, 1937, p. 27

Otto Soglow
Original art
The New Yorker, October 9, 1937, p. 27

With cartoons by George Price and Otto Soglow

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1937-10-09/flipbook/026/

* * *

On the other side of the page, cartoonist George Price uses shading and a more relaxed and freewheeling line to produce a very different sort of cartoon image. Here he shows a physician perched upon a laboratory table during an office visit, perhaps not such an unconventional seating choice when there is no examining table. Price, though, is making fun of a cigarette promotion which must have been very familiar at the time to the magazine's readers. Line thickness and empty white space assures that we don't miss the essential speech balloon.

"It suddenly appeared                                         

when I started working on that Old Gold contest."

George Price

The New Yorker, October 9, 1937, p. 26

The thing is, I haven't been able to find a print example of the Old Gold cigarette contest referenced in the Price cartoon. Still, I think I know a caption contest when I see one.

Note:  With the help of enterprising collectors, I would love to dedicate future posts on this blog to examples of original art by the likes of New Yorker cartoonists Otto Soglow and George Price. I would also like to add information about that elusive Old Gold contest right here.

05045

Peter Arno: Hard Times for One and All

A Depression-era cartoon original by Peter Arno from the pages of the New York Herald Tribune is listed on the website of Adam Baumgold Fine Art. The caption shows Arno's penchant for dialect and cutesy spelling when he isn't actively guided by The New Yorker's editors. But artistically Arno doesn't need any help at all. Look at the care he has taken to contrast the social status of these two men in wardrobe and grooming, lights and darks. How different, for example, are the two men's shoes, their ties, their postures! Arno uses two tones for shading the background, with the darker tone surrounding the men's faces to bring them out. Lines from both men's left arms and both left legs direct our eyes to the face  of the "Boss," as do the lines from the base of the window. The vanishing point, though, is way off to the right outside of the panel, leading us to sweep across the image from left to right.

"Honest, Boss, I couldn't lend y'a cent. I wuz almost cleaned out myself!"

Peter Arno

https://www.adambaumgoldfineart.com/peter-arno

November 14, 2020 Update:  A reader reports the price as $1,100.

Note: On what date was this cartoon published? Does anyone have an image of the published drawing? Are there other works by Peter Arno from the pages of the Herald Tribune besides the two listed on Adam Baumgold Fine Art's website? Help me, if you can, to create more Arno files for Arnophiles.
 

03440