Illustration Art

Swann Auction Galleries Sale #2761: Swann's fall Illustration Art auction celebrates the many ways artists have communicated with the public through visual storytelling, from travel advertising and classic children's books to cartoons and fantasy art.

Among the highlights of advertising material is a painting by Frederick Leonard King commissioned in the early 1920s by the United Fruit Company for its Great White Fleet Caribbean Cruises campaign. Created as a travel poster, the composition depicts a Caribbean village and marketplace overlooking the harbor, where one of the Great White Fleet ships rests beneath swaying palms and distant mountains.

Children's book illustration is another strength of the sale, tracing the artform's evolution from the imaginative worlds of the early twentieth century through the bold innovations of midcentury publishing. The auction features works by Arthur Rackham, E. H. Shepard, and Tasha Tudor, whose classic illustrations still captivate readers today. The sale will also highlight the Golden Age of mid-century picture book publishing with works by Gustaf Tenggren, Richard Scarry, and the husbandand-wife team of Alice and Martin Provensen. It will also feature the imaginative fantasy art of Mark Teague, Brian Froud, and Troy Howell, demonstrating the genre's enduring appeal to readers of all ages.

Humor is represented by the macabre cartoons of Charles Addams, the sophisticated wit of Russell Patterson, and the pioneering comic art of Frederick Opper. The sale also features magazine art from the era when “the slicks” were America's most influential visual medium, with works by Barbara Shermund, McClelland Barclay, and Dean Cornwell.