Lot 97: ORIGINAL FREDERIC RODRIGO GRUGER (1871-1953)

Original Frederic Rodrigo Gruger (1871-1953) Illustration / Drawing on Board for the Saturday Evening Post. A well dressed man and woman aboard a ocean liner. Stamp on back states "This drawing must not be reproduced for any purpose. It is copyrighted by the Curtis Publishing Company. The Saturday Evening Post, Philadelphia". Measure 9 1/4"x14". Weight 3 oz. PROVENANCE: The Estate of Jacob Bates Abbott, Artist and Illustrator, by descent. Gruger was one of the most highly regarded and prolific illustrators of the day. In 1939, Time proclaimed him “the dean of U.S. magazine illustrators.” Norman Rockwell looked up to him as “one of our greatest illustrators.” His work appeared everywhere, he created an astonishing 6,000 illustrations between 1898 and 1943, but his true home was with the Post, for which he did thousands of illustrations. The same Time article stated, “After 1899 when George Horace Lorimer became editor of The Saturday Evening Post, Gruger became the mainstay of that magazine. The Post’s romantic and period fiction, got half its atmosphere from Gruger’s old fashioned, deep-browed men and frail but credulous women.” Gruger had a long, successful career working for the top magazines and companies, including The Saturday Evening Post, Cosmopolitan, Redbook, Harper’s, Century, Collier’s, Scribner’s, McClure’s, and Good Housekeeping.

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