“A storyteller with a brush, a custodian of the past” is how illustrator Tom Lovell once described himself. Lovell is regarded as one of the 20th century’s leading Western artists, with his work including figurative paintings of important historical events, portraits of homespun American life and thought-provoking illustrations for publications such as Life, National Geographic and The Saturday Evening Post.
Born in 1909 in New York City, Lovell spent his childhood in Nutley, New Jersey, where he developed a keen interest in art and Native American culture. He often visited New York’s American Museum of Natural History, where he would sketch Native American clothing, weapons and artifacts.
Lovell studied art at Syracuse University, where he roomed with future well-known illustrator Harry Anderson. While there, he began his illustration career by selling his work to pulp magazines. Later, he illustrated for publications such as The American, Cosmopolitan and Women’s Home Companion.
During World War II, Lovell enlisted with the Marine Corps Reserve and created illustrations for the Marine Corps’s Leatherneck magazine and the Marine Corps Gazette. He also completed several large paintings chronicling historical military events; they are now displayed at the Marine Corps headquarters in Washington, DC.
After the war, Lovell continued illustrating for magazines like Collier’s, Redbook, Ladies’ Home Journal and McCall’s, which featured “Day of Yellow Flowers,” one of his better-known illustrations. He contributed a series of historical works, including his famous Civil War painting “Surrender at Appomattox,” to National Geographic.
Throughout the 1960s, he was increasingly fascinated with the American Southwest. In 1975, Lovell and his family moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he found inspiration for his landscapes that depict Native American and Old West culture.
Lovell received numerous accolades throughout his career. In 1974, the Society of Illustrators named him a Hall of Fame Laureate. In 1992, the National Academy of Western Art and National Cowboy Museum honored him with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Lovell is the only artist to have won the National Cowboy Museum’s invitational Prix de West exhibition twice.
Lovell died in 1997. His illustrations and paintings continue to be prized by Western art and Americana collectors.
On 1stDibs, discover a range of Tom Lovell’s paintings.
$10,000
H 15 in W 12.5 in
Love Story, Illustration for the Saturday Evening Post
By Bruce Bomberger
Located in Miami, FL
An illustrator for Time, Life, Look, True, True West, Saturday Evening Post, Good Housekeeping, Readers Digest, and others, he also painted for adverti...
Gouache
$10,000
H 15 in W 12.5 in
Love Story, Illustration for the Saturday Evening Post
By Bruce Bomberger
Located in Miami, FL
An illustrator for Time, Life, Look, True, True West, Saturday Evening Post, Good Housekeeping, Readers Digest, and others, he also painted for adverti...
Gouache
$5,648
H 37.01 in W 37.01 in D 1.58 in
Secrets, oil painting on canvas after Norman Rockwell
By Norman Rockwell
Located in Gavere, BE
Secrets, oil painting on canvas after Norman Rockwell The original painting was used for the cover of a 1942 Saturday Evening Post. Hand-painted edition after the Painting of Secre...
Canvas, Oil
$6,000
H 20.75 in W 19.75 in D 1 in
Mid Century Golden Age of Illustration- Narrative Art - Norman Rockwell School
By Alex Ross
Located in Miami, FL
“Graduation Day” is emblematic of mid-century American Illustration. But the real story of this storytelling work is that it embodies the lost art of portrait painting and graphic design. Alex Ross borrows on the classical tradition and flaunts his skills as a narrative painter. In “Graduation Day”, he paints a complex composition involving at least thirteen portraits. The subjects are beautifully rendered and lit. They are set against a dark grey background and jump off the surface at the viewer. The composition is complexly designed. The future graduate in the red jacket engaging with a girl photographer is a compositional device that leads the viewer's eye to the main subject - a father congratulating his son on graduating from medical school. Creating art that relies on facial expressions and body gestures is a talent absent in contemporary art. Why? It’s very hard to do and takes years and training and practice to get it right. Despite Alex Ross's folksy subject matter, this work is a high example of naturalism and representation by an important member of the Golden Age of American Illustration. Signed lower right Born in the town of Dunfermline, Scotland, Alexander Sharpe Ross (1908-1990) moved with his family to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1911. After attending Carnegie Tech (now Carnegie Mellon University), Ross moved to New York and joined the Charles E. Cooper Studio, where he worked among such notable illustrators as Ward Brackett, Stevan Dohanos, J. Frederick Smith...
Gouache, Illustration Board
Louisa, Please Come Home
By Robert G. Harris
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Robert G. Harris, American (1911 - 2007) Title: Louisa, Please Come Home (Grace Kelly) Year: 1960 Medium: Acrylic on Canvas, signed l.l. Size: 20 x 28 in. (50.8 x 71.12 cm) F...
Canvas, Acrylic
Norman Rockwell -- Dreams of Long Ago
By Norman Rockwell
Located in BRUCE, ACT
Norman Rockwell Dreams of Long Ago, 1976 Lithograph Hand signed lower right Edition 18 / 200 Image size 68 x 51 cm Sheet size 85 x 60 cm Dreams of Long Ago/Cowboy with Gramophone...
Lithograph
$12,000Sale Price|40% Off
H 26.25 in W 20.75 in
Allegory of Defense Industry (figurative male illustration)
By Frank Godwin
Located in Wilton Manors, FL
Frank Godwin (1889-1959). Allegory of Defense Industry, 1919. Oil on canvas. Signed lower right. Image measures 20.75 x 26.25 inches. The canvas measures 24 x 36 inches in total. Ann...
Canvas, Oil
$100
H 31 in W 28 in
The Critic Collotype Print, American Impressionist, 1970s, Unframed
By Norman Rockwell
Located in Aventura, FL
Collotype in colors on paper. Unsigned. Title and copyright info in typeset lower margin. Artwork is in excellent condition. All reasonable offers will be considered.
Paper
$36,000
H 15.2 in W 32 in
Below Deck Gouache Painting, Realist Style, Signed, 1950s, 15.2x32
By Tom Lovell
Located in Miami, FL
Charles Martignette Heritage Auctions, This is a Wonderfully rendered work with high level of detail and color saturation. Norman Rockwellesqu...
Gouache
$10,000
H 17 in W 16 in
Love Story Gouache Painting on Board, American Realist, Circa 1950s
By Jon Whitcomb
Located in Miami, FL
Most likely for Redbook, Cosmopolitan, Collier's Weekly, Good Housekeeping or Macall's
Gouache, Board
Happy Endings
By Tom Lovell
Located in Fort Washington, PA
Medium: Oil on Linen Signature: Signed and Dated Story illustration for "Farewell Without Regret" by Sarah-Elizabeth Rodger for Good Housekeeping, published July 1940, page 58. The...
Linen, Oil
"Farewell Without Regret"
By Tom Lovell
Located in Fort Washington, PA
Signature: Signed Lower Left Medium: Oil Paint Story illustration for "Farewell Without Regret" by Sarah-Elizabeth Rodger for Good Housekeeping, published September 1940, page 47. ...
Oil
“He’s a dear, but a type you perhaps haven’t met before”
By Tom Lovell
Located in Fort Washington, PA
Magazine story illustration for “A Song for Miss Julie” by Michael Foster for Hearst’s International Combined with Cosmopolitan, published March 1944, page 39. The tale is described as: “A delicious story about a couple of Broadway playwrights who invade the Old South looking for scandal and come up drenched in magnolia.” The full caption reads: “I think someone should talk to you about men of Stephen’s type, my dear,’ said Mrs. Kimbro. ‘He’s a dear, but a type you perhaps haven’t met before.’ Miss Julie gasped. ‘But Mrs. Kimbro!’” A Native American finding a Raggedy Ann doll...
Canvas, Oil
Formal Affair
By Tom Lovell
Located in Fort Washington, PA
Date: July 1942 Medium: Oil on Canvas Dimensions: 36.00" x 26.00" Signature: Signed Lower Left Illustration for Cosmopolitan magazine. Tom Lovell’s illustrations range from adventur...
Canvas, Oil
“I had the pleasure of knowing your dear departed husband, ” Cosmopolitan
By Tom Lovell
Located in Fort Washington, PA
Magazine story illustration for “Saratoga Trunk” by Edna Ferber for Hearst’s International Combined with Cosmopolitan, published July 1941, pages 42-43....
Canvas, Oil
Bridal White
By Tom Lovell
Located in Fort Washington, PA
Medium: Oil on Canvas Signature: Signed Lower Right and Titled on reverse Dimensions: 28.13" x 25.13" (71.45 cm x 63.83 cm) Literature: Temple Bailey, Bridal White, The American Mag...
Canvas, Oil
