Attempted Bloggery: pencil rough

Showing posts with label pencil rough. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 13, 2024

Mary Gibson: Our Little Suburb

John Lindgren writes of his mother, the cartoonist Mary Gibson. She was born in Montclair, New Jersey, in 1914 and passed away in Palm Coast, Florida, in 2007 at the age of 93. Her married name was Lindgren, but she signed her work with her maiden name.

John has hundreds upon hundreds of her original cartoons. One, an unsigned rough, apparently, bears a typewritten caption. He dates it to circa the 1940s but it may have something to say to our own time as well.

"Our little suburb is so quaint and full of atmosphere—inhabited solely by Republicans."
Mary Gibson

Ever the editor, I have corrected the typo soley to solely.

Note: Was this rough by Mary Gibson ever worked into a finished cartoon and published? I'm lobbying for a bipartisan fact-finding commission to investigate.

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Friday, June 30, 2023

Peter Arno: Romancing the Natives

On June 15, Swann Galleries sold two preliminary drawings by The New Yorker's Peter Arno. Neither is signed, but both are unmistakably the master's work. Swann's listing states, "He probably submitted them to the editors as initial ideas for cartoons, but apparently never followed through on them." Except that he did follow through, at least on one of them.

Arno's first sketch in the listing has an oval border and depicts a fully dressed white man in the embrace of two young Polynesian women wearing only grass skirts and flowers in their hair. They are reclining very publicly in an elevated hut, his pith helmet resting on the floor in front of the young women. Their arms are wrapped around him affectionately. A group of native men observe the scene in consternation. One, mostly out of the frame, is pointing out the objectionable behavior.

This sketch has no caption but was apparently meant to find humor in the jealousy of the men. The idea evolved, perhaps with editorial assistance, and went in a somewhat different direction when it was published in 1938 in The New Yorker. The man is now addressed by one of his fellow explorers with, "But, Professor, remember the thousands of little school children who gave their pennies to send us on this expedition." Visually, Arno's instincts did not serve him well here. He abandoned the depiction of tenderness that made the preliminary sketch so memorable and further objectified the women, who are now African and fully naked except for their neck rings.

"But, Professor, remember the thousands of little school children
who gave their pennies to send us on this expedition."
Peter Arno
The New Yorker, October 8, 1938, p. 16

This sort of gag cartoon was a popular trope which today strikes us as sexist and racist, but was widely accepted in American print media in the 1930s. The drawing was collected in 1945 in The Peter Arno Pocket Book without an apparent second thought.

"But, Professor, remember the thousands of little school
children who gave their pennies to
send us on this expedition."
Peter Arno
The Peter Arno Pocket Book (1945)

https://flashbak.com/18-great-cartoons-peter-arno-pocket-book-1945-61156/

The second Arno rough shows three performers backstage at a vaudeville or variety show peeking through the curtains, probably with varying degrees of anxiety, at a laughing audience. It might have been a study for a New Yorker spot, or a cover, or perhaps a cartoon. It does not have, or seem to require, a caption. Arno may or may not have worked this idea up further.

Both drawings together had a presale estimate of $600 to $900. They sold for a hammer price of $500, or for $625 with the buyer's premium.

Peter Arno
Swann Galleries, June 15, 2023

https://catalogue.swanngalleries.com/Lots/auction-lot/ARNO-PETER-(1904-1968)-Two-cartoons?saleno=2641&lotNo=236&refNo=807209

Incidentally, on the page opposite Arno's cartoon in The New Yorker is an outstanding short piece, "The Letters of James Thurber." You can read it in its entirety right here and, no doubt, guess the identity of the author who here goes by Anon.

A cartoon by Peter Arno and "The Letters of James Thurber" by "Anon"

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1938-10-08/flipbook/016/

July 12, 2024 Update: Peter Arno's original art has come to light.

"But, Professor, remember the thousands of children who gave their pennies to send us on this expedition."
Peter Arno
Original art
The New Yorker, October 8, 1938, p. 16

The typed caption is affixed to the art.

Note: Unpublished work by Peter Arno isn't so easy to come by but for anyone who does, you're looking at a blog that can publicize it.

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Saturday, February 4, 2023

Charles Addams: In the Psychologist's Waiting Room

An original, unsigned, rough drawing executed in Conté crayon and pencil by Charles Addams (1912–1988) is available from Argosy Books of Manhattan. It is set in the waiting room of a psychologist's office. The cartoon is apparently from 1959 according to the listing and was almost certainly submitted to The New Yorker. Today, the drawing will cost you $1750, although a more appropriate price might be $1812.

In the lower right corner, Addams considered setting this gag inside the psychologist's office with the requisite couch:

Charles Addams
Argosy Books listing accessed February 3, 2023

https://www.argosybooks.com/pages/books/312163/charles-addams/untitled-napoleon

On his Ink Spill blog today, New Yorker cartoonist and historian Michael Maslin identified the finished drawing in the issue of April 20, 1981. Argosy's 1959 date for the rough is almost certainly erroneous. The seated man in the waiting room has been reworked into the seated psychologist. The framed diploma is much more at home in the office than the waiting room. The coat rack, and hence the Napoleon delusion, has become the doctor's own.

Charles Addams
Preliminary cartoon art
The New Yorker, April 20, 1981, page 41
Addams, Charles. Creature Comforts, 1981

Spot drawing by J. S. Nelson and a cartoon by Charles Addams

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1981-04-20/flipbook/040/

Spot drawing of a bucket of tennis balls
by J. S. Nelson

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Sunday, April 4, 2021

Seth's Clyde Fans: The Storefront

In a page of pencil roughs from the opening pages of Clyde Fans, Seth establishes the urban landscape in which the Clyde Fans Company is situated. We see the exteriors of city buildings before Seth zooms in on a single storefront window. Each panel is visibly held in place by tape. The finished art appeared in Palookaville #1 in 1997. The rough was inscribed "For Dan" in 2000, at which time it was signed by the artist. This piece was sold at Heritage Auctions in 2012 for $286.80. I first noted it on eBay in 2013 where it sold for $322. It took Seth many years to complete Clyde Fans and the full picture novel wasn't published until 2019.