Alain [Daniel Brustlein]: Self-Portrait

Daniel Brustlein (1904-1996) was known to readers of The New Yorker as the cartoonist Alain. His signature collection is Alain's Steeplechase (1957). A self-portrait of his executed in oil on paper and sold on eBay early in 2020 is signed simply Brustlein.

The self-portrait shows the aritist surrounded by his paintings. The studio floor has tiles in a checkerboard pattern. The painter leaves the forms in an unresolved blur, and we are not sure whether we have quite seen him or not.

Daniel Brustlein's signature

The work is framed.

Alain [Daniel Brustlein]
eBay listing ended February 15, 2020

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Daniel-Brustlein-Alain-Autoportrait-Original-Oil-on-Paper-Painting-New-Yorker-/392362590977?hash=item5b5aa20301%3Ag%3Ajx8AAOSwyqhdQQip&nma=true&si=WEtIFz5%252FkfY9UxP8WWeB%252FCaqeVQ%253D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Alain [Daniel Brustlein]
eBay item descritpion

The work sold for a best offer somewhere less than $799.99.

[End of eBay listing]

Here, for comparison, is a photographic image of the artist. He definitely captured somthing of himself.

https://www.danielbrustlein.com/biography

This is his Wikipedia portrait:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Brustlein

Curiously, on the back dust cover to The New Yorker Album of Drawings 1925-1975, he is referred to as "Daniel Alain," but nowhere else does this combination of name and pseudonym appear in print. 

The New Yorker Album of Drawings 1925-1975
Detail of rear dust jacket

https://www.ebay.com/itm/266426501507?/

You may wonder why I sometimes archive and hold on to eBay listings for years before proceeding to post them. I wonder as well.

05249

Peter Arno: Former Femme Fatale

The life of Mata Hari informs our views of the alluring secret agent as seductress to this day. In 1917, the exotic dancer was convicted as a German spy and killed by firing squad in France.

Come 1940 and a second World War, cartoonist Peter Arno revisited the idea of the femme fatale as spy, giving her a new code name and her story a decidedly different ending.

"That's Q37, in her day one of the most effective secret agents this country ever had."
Peter Arno
Original art
The New Yorker, August 24, 1940, p. 17

The original art came to light at Halls in early 2016.

Halls, 16th March 2016

https://issuu.com/jammdesign/docs/h107-085_listing/44

Given a presale estimate of 600-800 GBP, it sold for a healthy 2,100 GBP.

https://www.lotsearch.net/artist/peter-arno/archive?orderBy=dollarBasedPrice-startPrice&order=ASC&perPage=50&page=1

The buyer, in all probability, was London illustration dealer Chris Beetles. The work was included in the catalogue for Beetles's annual The Illustrators sale for 2016:

Chris Beetles The Illustrators 2016 Catalogue

https://issuu.com/chrisbeetles/docs/the_illustrators_2016_cover_text_co

Michael Maslin's biography Peter Arno: The Mad, Mad World of The New Yorker's Greatest Cartoonist had just been published, and it was cited by Beetles under Further Reading.

A scanned image shows some of the details. Arno's plaza seems German or Prussian. The two paired men, military and civilian, walk in lock step. That uniform of the man in front is impressive right down to the spurs. As we read left to right, the men lead our eyes to Q37 herself, in widow's garb, looking after her six children. The big joke is not merely the number of progeny but that they represent so many different races. Such racial caricatures were deemed acceptable in the pages of The New Yorker of 1940 by the editorial staff, the readership, and the advertisers. 

"That's Q37, in her day one of the most effective secret agents
this country ever had."
Peter Arno
The New Yorker, August 24, 1940, p. 17

https://www.ebay.com/itm/166922564572?mkpid=0&emsid=e11021.m43.l1120&ch=osgood&euid=d2fd7229aaae45b9

163679d70c0ff7d&bu=43186000575&ut=RU&osub=-1%7E1&crd=20240817013610&segname=11021

Here then is how the cartoon appeared in the magazine:

A spot drawing and a cartoon by Peter Arno

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1940-08-24/flipbook/016/

* * *

Horse in a blanket
Spot drawing
Artist Unidentified
The New Yorker, August 24, 1940, p. 1

Note:  I would appreciate hearing from anyone who retains a price list from the Chris Beetles 2016 catalogue for The Illustrators show. The item in question is no. 119. 

Also, the spot artist's initials may be recognizable to someone in the know.

Do I need to keep asking for original art by Peter Arno to display in these pages? Yes, I think I do.

05219

Jerry Marcus: An Early Rite of Passage

A vintage cartoon by Jerry Marcus sold for less than $30 last year on eBay. It is undated but must be fairly old, as the social ritual it mocks has become so commonplace today it can be taken for granted. Also, addressing one's client as "lady" sounds as dated as a Jerry Lewis act.

"Tell me[,] lady, is this the usual procedure these days when they go from [k]indergarten to first grade?"
Jerry Marcus
Original carton art

Jerry Marcus
eBay listing ended July 19, 2024

https://www.ebay.com/itm/394194318832?_skw=Yorker+signed&itmmeta=01JA1XWDR11T5FX7AAXMEW91K7&hash=item5bc7cff5f0:g:Ix0AAOSwCXFi8ZXn&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA0HoV3kP08IDx%2BKZ9MfhVJKkQAyzUvfiWEafPAlc3smOB0Vu9fHsN4Hz5EjzbEjwwW4yzRIz5IZ4yqQM3pPoj3tr%2B9s8j2%2B

n%2FKtMsdbYtv4VbyWZ4DcwqbwHqQnOV3189i6lbcJVGNXBtSWrhZEqZIlSkeK3bAnc840UIDExnqnbT75hs8SD58V88qGwN2Dfn2fv0FWld7tNWTRv%2Flx5BikGXCh9niEkBPE813CX3%2BpXctmymUnvLoQzHC%2F9JzMYaMBNlFo46pdRdktVuthjfW6U%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR47c8b3QZA

Jerry Marcus
eBay item description

Note:  Hey, lady! I'd still like to know whether this cartoon by Jerry Marcus ever saw print and, if so, where?

04969

Thomas Eastwood: The View From the Pier

Thomas Eastwood's scratchboard illustration of a pier was published as a New Yorker spot drawing some time between 1930 and 1945, according to the eBay seller of the original art. The composition is simple and all the elements appear instantly recognizable.

Thomas Eastwood
eBay listing ended March 4, 2023

https://www.ebay.com/itm/304816928051?hash=item46f8813533:g:ENIAAOSwsHRj7p-P&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAAwJBXZjU8wsw1lkav%2Bndo6cUKJNOCUD9hAGUaYlhgal4%2BH7N3rIkZoPBUXyLQSOeTW%2BLE2AMCwhuLCzjn5rbJuFHedd7AHyy%2FGBTk7oKzvUcnbeN%2BhNJZ4rcDjHxPUElfYwbX

x2a3m%2BklDWytbBHhB2YlCWLRUIZMWmF7DnQco7XUYMwA9BcRPNtWwha72S%2BPQD0WSCT8RdY5348VUDkOipxzhQ2%2FA31wZJQI2n1zgSO%2FsW49vmoziB8g9s1nF2icqQ%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR7yOnrSSYg

Thomas Eastwood
eBay item description

Note:  Locating spot drawings in the vast archives of The New Yorker is one of those challenges that, frankly, defeat me. Google Image Search isn't much help. Can AI do the job? Potentially, I'd guess yes, if it were familiar with the visual elements in the magazine's data base. But until technology solves these problems, I'm going to continue to ask readers to inform me if they know when this spot was published.

04641

Garth Williams: Happy New Year?

A drawing by illustrator Garth Williams that failed to make it into The New Yorker in the mid-1940s was sold a year ago on eBay for an undisclosed best offer. Let the revels begin.

Garth Williams
eBay listing ended December 28, 2022

https://www.ebay.com/itm/295151153290?hash=item44b861308a%3Ag%3Arw0AAOSwSc9i9Fnk&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAA4AH6Hhpxrp2zC1b%2FWsv3Yz3c9tQrhZwUdI1v2km5OkjMLo9zJljCWTiQQrJ1kwOkWblIq2L%2F63eyx99W8YK54

x7QCzhJDtNRFjl%2FUd363u4NnX3TflAbR4DCSpoeJUBMvA%2BrAhuO0y%2FnG3ZZ0lDdm5kxSryVhiQ%2BoS%2FbFK%2FfQxcA56aX%2F0UXj5WYUSyq3QnjjjAnxlujiKmXNXsyXwkxSbcrUfB4lXM1qxgl539IocdVzJwE06ChUXjI5j67evSCBPNZ

gj1EX71%2FnseCnSmJGmuZnZLS%2BlIcsb%2B2RmsVu9Ck%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR5ziovfcYQ&nma=true&si=WEtIFz5%252FkfY9UxP8WWeB%252FCaqeVQ%253D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

04543

Ronald Searle's 1971 Christmas Card

Miss Linda King of Swansea was mailed a Christmas card in late 1971 from Ronald and Monica Searle. It was sold on eBay in March of this year with the original mailing envelope for what I recall was a substantial sum. I seem to have neglected to record the actual sale amount, but I believe it was in the range of the starting bid. The eBay seller reported that the card is a "Ronald Searle original hand drawn pen/watercolour sketch/drawing hand made Christmas Card," then confused the matter by calling it "Possibly one of a kind." Possibly? Well, is it a hand drawn original or not?

After taking a close look at all the photos in the listing, I conclude that the card is printed, not hand drawn. The initials RS are printed too, but the French and British flags are colored by hand.

The trifold card

The trifold card

M and R, for Mô and Ronald

The cover shows a postmark of December 27.

My belief is that out-of-focus pictures add nothing to eBay listings. Or to blog posts.

Signatures of Mô and Ronald

The red braces are drawn by hand and annotated.

Mô writes in blue ink, Ronald in black.

Ronald Searle
eBay listing accessed March 12, 2023

https://www.ebay.com/itm/394508195030?hash=item5bda8554d6:g:iJ0AAOSwhq1kDJhm&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAwKGk48BxWXqpq%2Fyc4CXxj%2FkA66grX%2FQdXKVDvViKsrGz2wsd3IdXEeYpU5tX9f%2FGHAmfNVVSRTVLTwqMxMXmR%2FIKALH0vD9wlY5mcjF8N

ooDVJYO8niuYgvfxmZaqJbDo4TmdGplhnWTOVFqf9KqvJlKKQnVG4qz%2Bqt9SZ6D%2BLTgyyt09UGfOeeSxvMlsaxXnXv2eDmHM2y6EQZB4S50AwzXKNXbjXwh6Fn%2FAut0%2F%2FV3kAR8Zljt%2Bq027Pk9XFSnRA%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR8Li3o7bYQ

Note:  To correct the eBay listing, Searle's wife Mô was the former Monica Koenig. Sorry, Maureen.

For more on Ronald Searle's extraordinary Christmas cards, see Matt Jones's 2010 post here. As of this writing, the 1971 card is not included there.

Cartoonist's personal Christmas cards would make happy additions to this blog, especially if they are not already available online. Scans are welcome. Tricolor and Union Jack optional.

04522