Original Illustrations Still Affordable, Available

By Anne Gilbert 

Compared to other categories of art, original illustrator art is still under priced, but going up in value. Prices for the masters, such as Norman Rockwell and Joseph Leyendecker, are exceptions and can cost from the high thousands to over a million dollars. However, there are illustrators whose names are less familiar, but who are being discovered by a new generation of collectors.

Aside from price, what makes original illustrations so attractive to a growing group of collectors? Walt Reed, illustrator, historian and founder of Illustration House where original illustrations are sold in the gallery or at their auctions, believes much of the appeal is that "There is something for every taste, from sci-fi and automobile designs to comic strips and calendar girls. Since illustrators work in a variety of mediums, there are oil paintings, watercolors and pen and ink, to name a few."

The many charming illustrations of children and infants would be perfect nursery art. For the car aficionado, there are auto designs. In the catalogue for the Illustration House Porch Auction, values ranged from the low hundreds to $9,000, offering good opportunities for beginning collectors.

According to Reed, there have always been a small group of private collectors building collections since World War II. "They are the ones who now have museum quality collections of the early illustrators such as Howard Pyle, N.A. (1853-1911). So do the museums, such as the Delaware Art Museum, The Brandywine River Museum and the Norman Rockwell Museum, as well as the Metropolitan Museum of Art. As Reed pointed out, "Young collectors are showing up at auctions where they can still find pen and ink sketches by fine, early illustrators for under a thousand dollars, and pencil sketches for even less."

CLUES: Illustration House holds regular auctions twice a year featuring moderate to expensive illustration art. The Porch Auction, twice yearly, features less expensive examples, some with minor damage.

Did you know that Paul Revere and Amos Doolittle are among our first American illustrators? Revere's famous engraving depicting the Boston Massacre goes for top dollar when examples come to auction. George Catlin (1796-1872) not only painted various American Indian chiefs, he then turned them into lithographs, hand painted. They can sell for several thousand dollars and have been reproduced. Considered the father of American illustration is Howard Pyle who founded the Brandywine School of Art in Delaware. Among his students were other famous illustrators, including Newell Convers Wyeth, Harvey Dunn and Frank Schoonover. These days, if they come to market, their work commands thousands of dollars.

Before his death, Norman Rockwell noted that, "There have been disadvantages to being an illustrator. Many who consider themselves serious painters look down their noses at us. We paint for money, against deadlines, our subject matter often prescribed by an editor."

You could say that Rockwell and other illustrators are having the last laugh. Their oil paintings, made as magazine illustrations, often cost as much or more than so-called fine art. To learn more about American illustrators and their art, read The Illustrator in America by Walt Reed. Illustration House auction catalogues are a good way to keep track of prices.

For information contact: Roger Reed, President, Illustration House, 110 West 25 Street, New York, NY 10001. (212) 966-9444.

Calendar illustration, "Toddlers", oil on board, signed Charlotte Becker (1907-1984).
(Photos, courtesy Illustration House.)

Illustration, watercolor, gouache and pencil, "Gypsy Girl with Tambourine", c. 1920s, signed Willy Pogany (1882-1955).