Giving Thanks 2020

Charles E. Martin
The New Yorker, November 26, 1966

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1966-11-26/flipbook/CV1/

I want to use today to thank those generous individuals who have contributed to this blog over the past year. It's been a difficult year for all of us, but this blogging pursuit has been blessed with more support than ever in 2020. Frankly, the number and quality of the submissions has quite often taken my breath away. Friends, I thank each and every one of you:

Tom Bloom

Dick Buchanan

Scott Burns

John Colquhoun

David from Manhattan

Frank Ferrante

A Friend of the Blog

Sarah Getz

Claude Haber

Joel Jacobus

Stephen Kroninger

Joe Petro III

Steve Stoliar

Jerome Wrinkle

Labels linking to posts made possible by each of these contributors may be found below, with the exception of A Friend of the Blog, who causes me to exceed my 200-character limit on labels. A link instead is provided here.

My thanks also to those family members and friends who have helped me out in a great variety of ways, usually anonymously. You know who you are. I also wish to thank my family for putting up with this whole outlandish pursuit of mine.

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Hirohito's Harakiri: Rea Irvin Killed New Yorker Cover Art Printing Plate

Decades ago, The New Yorker magazine's office basement was the repository of neglected or forgotten art, including unclaimed or unused spot drawings, which then as now went largely underappreciated. When this basement area flooded, cover artist Arthur Getz went down into it to check on the state of his spot drawings which had been held in storage. What he unexpectedly came away with was an otherwise unwanted copper printing plate of an unpublished cover by Rea Irvin, the magazine's very first cover artist and its initial art supervisor, later art director. It dates sometime from the Second World War—there is no issue date on the plate—and it depicts Japan's emperor Hirohito confronted with his country's looming defeat about to commit harakiri, or seppuku.

Rea Irvin
Copper printing plate
"Killed" World War II-era New Yorker cover

Photo by Sarah Getz

This plate must be one of four color separations used in the four-color printing process. Below the score lines the black or key plate is indicated. The other three plates apparently do not survive. The fact that Irvin's art went through the color separation process but was "abandoned," in Getz's words—or not published—indicate that this cover was considered and "killed" by the editorial staff. It is an unusual political cover concept for The New Yorker, although such covers did occasionally appear under Irvin's by-line during the war.

Rea Irvin
Copper printing plate showing score lines
"Killed" World War II-era New Yorker cover

Photo by Sarah Getz

Harakiri, or hara-kiri as it was usually hyphenated then, was a form of Japanese ritual suicide that many Americans learned about at the onset of the war. Less than a month after Pearl Harbor, a New Yorker cartoon by Alain (Daniel Brustlein) depicts a journalist struggling with the spelling of the unfamiliar term.

Alain (Daniel Brustlein)
The New Yorker, January 3, 1942, page 19

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1942-01-03/flipbook/018/

Getz's handwritten description of the plate uses quotation marks, indicating that he may have copied some of his information, perhaps from a water-damaged source. He too trips over the spelling of harakiri.

Arthur Getz's handwritten documentation of the Rea Irvin plate

Photo by Sarah Getz

Allied fantasies of having the war end abruptly aided by ritual suicide of the Axis leaders must have been commonplace. Here there are some five other figures poised to kill themselves below Hirohito. It's hard to discern their features on the plate, but they could be Mussolini (on the left side of the plate wearing a fez), Tojo (below him), and Hitler (on the right of the plate). Kneeling behind the ostensible Hitler is a European figure in a top hat and there is a smaller figure grasping a knife hilt in the corner below him.

Rea Irvin
Copper printing plate
"Killed" World War II-era New Yorker cover

Photo by Sarah Getz

With the hindsight of history, we know Irvin's vision was somewhat off the mark. Mussolini was executed by elements of the Italian resistance in 1945 while he was trying to flee the country. Hitler killed himself in Berlin by taking cyanide two days thereafter. Emperor Hirohito did not commit harakiri. He remained emperor of Japan after the war and died in 1989.

The Axis leaders could never have congregated, let alone coordinated a global military campaign, but it was not unusual for them to be depicted together in Allied propaganda to emphasize the commonality of the threat they posed. In the pages of The New Yorker just weeks after Pearl Harbor, Irvin depicted Hitler, Tojo, and Mussolini as a single three-headed sea serpent jointly attacking an American island military base.

Tell It to the Marines
Rea Irvin
The New Yorker, December 27, 1941, page 21

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1941-12-27/flipbook/020/

Finally, flipping the plate image horizontally gives some idea of what the published cover image might have looked like.

Rea Irvin

Reverse image copper printing plate 

"Killed" World War II-era New Yorker cover

Photo by Sarah Getz, flipped

Note:  My sincere thanks to Sarah Getz for sharing her father's unique copper printing plate and its history. I would appreciate hearing from anyone who can add further details to the story of this killed cover. I would especially like to see the original art, if anyone happens to know its whereabouts.

There must also be more to the story of the flood in The New Yorker's basement. When was it? What else may have been lost? Or recovered? If you know, do tell.

Michael Maslin writes about founding editor Harold Ross's policy of not putting "specific people" on the covers of The New Yorker here. It is interesting that it was always Rea Irvin who seemed to have persuaded Ross to make an exception to this rule and that world leaders during World War II were always the subject of these covers. Fascinating stuff, and a must for those who might think The New Yorker's covers were always driven by headlines the way they frequently are today.

I haven't shown all that much original Irvin art here these nine years, but more would certainly make a welcome subject for a post or two. So please send images of whatever you may have. Also, I'm always looking to put more examples of "killed" New Yorker art on the blog, that is, artwork including cartoons and covers that were purchased by the magazine but never published. There's usually a story there, though not always anyone to tell it.

This is the fifth New Yorker copper printing plate to appear here on the blog, the only one featuring a cover image and a killed one at that. I see no reason to stop here, except that I don't know of any further examples. Please help me out by sending along images of vintage New Yorker printing plates and by all means tell me what you know about them.

Okay, people, you have your assignments. Now get to work...


Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

Rea Irvin

Copper Printing Plates

Arthur Getz

Killed New Yorker Art

World War II

Attempted Bloggery's Waterlogged Index

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Country Cottage by Arthur Getz

Country Cottage is a small oil painting on board by New Yorker cover artist Arthur Getz. It depicts a cottage and its yard in the summer months, as seen from above. Apparently an example of art for art's sake, it was not intended for publication. I asked the artist's daughter Sarah Getz whether she could identify the location of this cottage.

She writes, "As for the cottage, that’s probably from Arthur’s Truro days, or some other summer visit situation. I don’t believe the scene is of Sharon / Cornwall; I think the piece is older than that. No special significance … I’m actually concerned about the integrity of that roof!"

Truro? Why, that's the Cape Cod town where New Yorker writer E. J. Kahn, Jr., kept his own summer place, complete with tennis court! Did the artist and the writer spend time together there? I had to ask.

Ms. Getz writes back, "So as for your question … I’m not positive about Kahn, but they must have hobnobbed. I think there were quite a few NYKR parties in Truro that Arthur begrudgingly attended, not being a party person himself. But I’ve no record of Arthur mentioning him, though I’m sure Arthur read his pieces on WW II, in which they both served."

So, there you have it. And it all started with an eBay listing:

Arthur Getz

Country Cottage

Arthur Getz
Country Cottage

Detail

Detail

Detail

Artist's notation

Artist's notation

Arthur Getz
Country Cottage

Arthur Getz
eBay Listing Ended April 23, 2018

https://www.ebay.com/itm/ARTHUR-GETZ-listed-original-small-painting-art-illustrator-for-The-New-Yorker-/112890471703?hash=item1a48cbe517%3Ag%3A-H8AAOSwaB5Xn9oB&nma=true&si=YQGb25QThn5Fxe78BW8tTy6VzZY%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Arthur Getz
eBay Item Description

Note:  Extended! “The Art of Arthur Getz: City & Country” is currently on view at the Hotchkiss Library in Sharon, CT. It was to close today, but has been extended to mid-August. 
www.hotchkisslibrary.org

There's even more to see at “Covering New York: New Yorker Magazine Covers by Arthur Getz” now being exhibited at the Moviehouse Studio Gallery located in the Moviehouse, Millerton, NY, through August 28.

www.themoviehouse.net

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Fishing from a Bridge: Arthur Getz Preliminary New Yorker Cover Art

It's always exciting to see a preliminary version of a familiar New Yorker cover image turn up unexpectedly. Arthur Getz's cover of May 24, 1976 is such a deft evocation of a serene moment that it seems impossible to imagine it any other way. But a glimpse at one of the many roughs he created of this scene shows how hard he worked at getting it right, playing subtly with proportion and distance, working out just how much space to leave at the bottom of the page. The challenge for the artist was how best to place an essentially horizontal image on an upright magazine cover. I asked Sarah Getz, the artist's daughter, for some background information on this drawing, which was given to one of her schoolteachers. I also asked if she knew where the bridge might be located.

She writes, "The fishing-from-bridge rough was an end-of-the-school-year gift to one of my favorite grade school teachers. Arthur painted many versions of that particular cover, putting the concept through its paces, trying to get it just right. Always generous, he frequently gave such versions away as gifts to friends and acquaintances. I rather think that the bridge scene was a mix of images from his memory, not a depiction of one specific spot."

Arthur Getz
The New Yorker, May 24, 1976

Arthur Getz
Preliminary art
The New Yorker, May 24, 1976

Arthur Getz
eBay Listing Ended September 10, 2017

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Original-New-Yorker-Cartoon-Cover-Illustration-Signed-Arthur-Getz-Bridge-/282632810297?ul_noapp=true&autorefresh=true&nma=true&si=YQGb25QThn5Fxe78BW8tTy6VzZY%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Arthur Getz
eBay Item Description

Arthur Getz
eBay Bid History
One bid

Arthur Getz
The New Yorker, May 24, 1976

Arthur Getz
Preliminary art
The New Yorker, May 24, 1976

Note:  “The Art of Arthur Getz: City & Country” is currently on view at the Hotchkiss Library in Sharon, CT, but only through tomorrow, June 30. 
www.hotchkisslibrary.org

There's a bit more time left to see “Covering New York: New Yorker Magazine Covers by Arthur Getz” now being exhibited at the Moviehouse Studio Gallery located in the Moviehouse, Millerton, NY, through August 28.

www.themoviehouse.net

I know little about the art of paper restoration. Can the degree of foxing seen in this original be remedied? What would be the approximate cost?

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"Tennis, Anyone?"—Arthur Getz "Killed" New Yorker Cover Art

"Killed" New Yorker cover art refers specifically to any cover purchased by the magazine but never published. Typically it is paid for, stored, and eventually returned to the artist unused.

A fine seasonal example by Arthur Getz is currently being exhibited at the Hotchkiss Library in Sharon, Connecticut. It takes a confident artist to place the foreground in shade. On a bright summer morning a young man sits outdoors reading on a chaise longue. He has brought with him two books, the Sunday paper, and an inviting pitcher of lemonade. He may think he has found the ideal way to enjoy a summer's day, but his friends show up with a different idea.

The cover, given the title "Tennis, Anyone?" by the artist, was purchased by the New Yorker's founding editor Harold Ross in 1950 or 1951, the year of his passing. For whatever reason, his successor William Shawn never ran it and the original illustration was returned to the artist in 1964. By this date, the car depicted was no longer a current model.

The artist describes the history of the piece in a notation on the back. Sarah Getz, Arthur's daughter, offers a personal perspective on the illustration. She writes, "Of course my dad loathed/never played/made fun of tennis, and much preferred reading peacefully in the shade. So I smile every time I look at this picture!"

Me too, Sarah, but for my own reasons. Happy summer!

Arthur Getz
"Tennis, Anyone?"
Killed New Yorker cover art, c. 1950-1951

Back of frame with the artist's notations

Note:  Thanks to Sarah Getz for providing these images.

This original killed New Yorker cover is currently on display in “The Art of Arthur Getz: City & Country” at the Hotchkiss Library in Sharon, CT, through June 30. www.hotchkisslibrary.org

A second show of original work by Arthur Getz is “Covering New York: New Yorker Magazine Covers by Arthur Getz” at the Moviehouse Studio Gallery located in the Moviehouse, Millerton, NY, through August 28.

www.themoviehouse.net

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