Magazine Covers Collection

The art used to illustrate magazines is as much a reflection on the attitudes and popular culture of a people as television is today. Beginning with the first illustrated magazines such as Harper's Weekly and Frank Leslie's Illustrated, publishers delighted subscribers with engravings and etchings of illustrations of the week's news or interesting fiction. But what really made these publications attractive was that some publishers commissioned great artists of that period— from Winslow Homer to Thomas Nast—to provide the visuals for the accompanying text. Though art historians of the time may not have deemed magazine illustration a fine art, some truly fine artists did improve their skills in the commercial art world or were encouraged to do so by their fine art instructors.(1)

As the home periodical industry grew and as printing became more accessible and color printing cheaper, publishers began creating notable, multi-color or full-color works for the covers of their magazines even if the remainder of the publication was in black and white. Enormous effort was put forth for the cover, which included not only color, but— just as the illustrated weeklies before them—work from major artists as well as ambitious newcomers. Illustrators such as Maxfield Parrish, Charles Dana Gibson, J.C. Leyendecker, Jessie Wilcox Smith and certainly Norman Rockwell— who is arguably America's most famous magazine cover artist—all had the similar goal of drawing in potential readers and subscribers with their originality, interesting subjects and artistic talent. Ultimately it was the advent of photography that spelled the demise of the illustrated magazine cover and though Life employed photographic covers starting in the 1930s (and other even before them), it really took until the 1960s for the genre to completely end, save for a few publications such as the New Yorker and Esquire.(2)

Artists who could land commissions to provide magazine cover art were lucky and only a few drew high salaries. Many artists became synonymous with the magazines for which they did multiple illustrations: Rockwell at the Saturday Evening Post, Gibson at Collier's and Coles Phillips at Good Housekeeping. Cover artists were often not given much leeway with the work produced, acting often "like court painters than expressive bohemians."(3) Because of this, the art of magazine illustrators and artists was perceived as a lesser body of work compared to the fine arts on display in museums and galleries through the early to mid twentieth century. However, by the century's end and the overwhelming popularity of some of these illustrators, many became more respected as artists, had exhibited work in group and solo shows and some even now have their own museums.

The true importance for these images is that given the high quality of some of the work employed, it provided a foray into art for an audience much wider than the local museum or gallery. As with television in later decades, weekly and monthly magazines provided art and literature to the masses, many of whom did not or could not afford to see art in other venues. For many people the cover art of a magazine might be the only art with which the person would ever come in contact.(4) The covers in this collection showcase the themes that were common during the height of magazine illustration: love, everyday activities, fun, holidays but also war and social issues. As is still the case with modern-day publications, magazines highlighted certain trends and made bold political statements, women's magazines often showcased the latest fashions, while men's magazines often showcased beautiful women. Regardless of the content, the cover was the coveted space not only for the magazine to sell subscriptions, but also for artist to shine on a national stage.

(1) Heller, Steven and Louise Fili. Cover Story: The Art of American Magazine Covers, 1900-1950, San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1996, 11. (2) Heller, 17. (3) Heller, 9. (4) Heller, 10.