The Ideal American Type

A press photo from 1933 featuring Gladys Swarthoute, Metropolitan Opera star, chosen by the Society of Arts and Sciences as the "Ideal American Type," is sketched by, left to right, Russell Patterson, John La Gatta and James Montgomery Flagg.

Over Sexteen 6

This is an old post from my Sekvenskonst blog that I felt belonged here. /Joakim.

Russell Patterson is probably most well known for his stylish artwork, produced between the late teens and the early forties. Covers for Ballyhoo, American Weekly etc including numerous gorgeous flappers.

A lesser known part of his career is his work for Grayson Publishing Corp. in the 50's.
Not beeing the hot artist anymore, he illustrated at least two joke books in the "Over Sexteen" series.
Just to give you a few samples of his work on these books, I've scanned a few of his gag illustrations from volume 6. If you want to see Patterson artwork from his peak years I recommend the book "The Art of Russell Patterson".

Now, over to the Sexteen gags. Funny or not, here they come...
















There's more in the book, so if you like them it's pretty easy to find it on eBay, along with the "Sexteen goes abroad" book that followed. Enjoy!

Original art

Illustration artwork to ...?

Custom Russell Patterson

Artists and models clip

TCM will show the 1937 movie Artists and models on February 23, 2010. And they have posted a few clips online. Including this one where we see Patterson and other artists drawing.

Just click HERE to watch it. (The image above is just a screen shot.)
Or HERE for the entire list of clips including a scene with Pattersons Personettes.

New York Journal April 29, 1933

Pin-up girls, 7-6 1944

Original art for a 1944 "Pin-up Girls" cartoon.

Found a couple more items. Wish I could hold on to them, but trying to sell off unecessary stuff. You can find them on e-bay. Hope you don't mind me posting information on these here.

Patterson-Cleary Children's Book

I came across Top Hats and Flappers and the name of Russell Patterson rang a bell. After digging around, I found this children's book in my storage container. Do not know how it got there or who it came from. The thing that baffles me is that not much of Mr. Patterson's original art is on the open market and when it does sell, it goes rather cheap. How can this be for such an accomplished artist?