Edward Sorel's appearances in American Heritage have always been welcome. In December 1992 the editors made that clear with a spread of eight pages of drawings, each in pen & ink and watercolor with accompanying text, in addition to an eye-catching front cover, all with a New York City flavor for "Our Checkered Past."Described as "A fond ride through the bright high noon and on into the sad twilight of the American taxicab," it begins with motorized vehicles in 1896 designed to resemble horse-drawn carriages, and ends in 1982 with the title "Onward and Downward" when the Checker Motor Corporation made its last cab. The artwork for the opening page, however, immediately drops the reader into a maelstrom of taxi traffic.Perhaps with a photo in mind taken just before the May, 1937 unveiling of the Father Duffy statue in Times Square by Mayor LaGuardia, Sorel added taxis, rich color and a sense of humor. His well-lit vision of a Manhattan rush hour has it all: Mr. Peanut, Coca-Cola, Chevrolet, hotels, and best of all a swarm of taxicabs--circling in a frenzy of yellow, orange and red, around Father Duffy and several sidelined pedestrians.
A smaller version of this same scene was given the written title, "Duffy Square, 1937" by the artist, the drawing just as frenzied and colorful but looser in execution.Apparently unpublished, it was offered, matted and framed in 2014 at Swann Auction Galleries. I have no information on provenance, but any viewer examining the lot beforehand would have noted a label on the back from Jack's Art Gallery, a reliable walk-in still in business on Broadway in Harlem, and not so coincidentally just a short distance from the artist's apartment.
That said, anyone searching for this issue on eBay or elsewhere may wonder about the drawing on the front cover, which seems to exist in a dreamy world quite separate from the story inside. Titled by the magazine's editors, "Edward Sorel's Christmas Carol to the Lost American Cab," the artist added a sprig of holly to a woman with a haunting stare, which for some collectors may be faintly familiar.Fortunately American Heritage and Sorel, having a little holiday fun, provide the answer at the bottom of the contents' page inside. "Edward Sorel pays homage to a golden age of both taxis and fashion: those eyes first shown from a 1919 Vogue cover by Georges Lepape."Lepape, Parisian-born and credited with 114 Vogue covers, would not have minded sharing the spotlight with a gifted, taxi-loving artist from the Bronx.
You can see the rest of Sorel's fabulous illustrations for the American Heritage article here. Tipping is not required.
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| Edward Sorel Swann Galleries sale of January 23, 2014 |
Note: I am exceedingly grateful to David from Manhattan for once again writing of the outstanding work of Edward Sorel. Some might call him Superpen—Sorel, that is.
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| Superpen (1978) Edward Sorel |
If you can recognize Vice President Spiro Agnew patriiotically grasping the American flag in Sorel's 1973 drawing on the back cover, I salute you. I expect everyone can recognize the superhero referenced on the front cover.
Incidentally, for those keeping score, this is David's seventy-first contribution to this blog. For me, that's seventy-one days off!
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