Cover Gallery: Setting Sail

Have the doldrums? These illustrations of schooners and sloops will buoy your spirits in no time.

Illustrator George Gibbs was also an author, having written more than 50 books. Most of his books fell into the the spy and adventure genres, making him a perfect fit to paint this cover to accompany Cyrus Townsend Brady’s story. Gibbs was the illustrator of the first color cover of the Saturday Evening Post, which was published on December 30, 1899.

 

This cover by an unknown artist was drawn a year after sailing first debuted at the Olympics, in Paris, France in 1900. A Swiss sailor at the games,  Hélène de Pourtalès, was the first ever female Gold medalist of the modern Olympic era, according to sailing.org.

 

Artist Eugene Iverd grew up in Minnesota, giving him plenty of opportunities to observe ice boating. Iverd was known for painting indelible childhood moments of kids around the campfire, on the football field, in the swimming pool, or on a windswept, frozen lake.

 

Anton Otto Fischer painted hundreds of covers and interior illustrations for the Post. He also illustrated books such as Moby Dick, Treasure Island, and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

 

This Fischer illustration beautifully captures a moment of drama and also serves as a metaphor for the encroachment of the industrial age over the old ways.

 

This illustration by Norman Rockwell is a departure from his typical “slice-of-America” scenes.

 

Artist Gordon Grant was well known for his maritime covers, particularly his watercolor of the USS Constitution. He was also the cover designer for the first edition of the Boy Scout Handbook in 1911.

 

Charles Chickering got his start as a medical illustrator of the wounded and dead during the World War I, and went on to a career as a postage stamp designer, before painting this winsome cover for the Post.

 

Ski Weld’s covers always depicted action – skiers jumping, snow geese flying, or, in this case, a stunning regatta of boats sailing.

 

Dale Nichols was best known for his paintings of red barns in rural, Midwestern landscapes. This northern scene was a departure from his usual subject matter.

 

Artist Richard Sargent (1911-1979) painted 47 Post covers between 1951 and 1962, when photographs were rapidly replacing magazine illustrations. Sargent often used a playful narrative style where one picture did indeed express a thousand words.

The Modern Vacation

Fun for the Whole Family!

The educational road trip leading up to a spectacular vista is not always appreciated by those for whom all that effort was expended. Artist Richard Sargent was also a father and the complex and often hilarious child-parent dynamic was a regular theme.

 

 

Beached

Retirees in the 1930s may not have known how to dress down for the shore, but they seem to be enjoying the sand just as much as their modern-day equivalents do.

 

 

Dedicated vacationers march to the water first thing in the morning, forming an impromptu parade.

 

 

Baggage

 

Universal Truth No. 1: After a week at the beach, you will accumulate at least twice the baggage that you arrived with.

 

Universal Truth No. 2: Vacations are short and much anticipated, which doesn’t leave time for unpacking — at least not in Dad’s view.

 

Disappointment

When your job is to help others achieve their dreams as is the case for this travel agent, sometimes you need a quiet moment to dream one up for yourself.

 

 

You can’t plan the weather for that dream vacation, but this family is determined to get in as much outdoor time as humanly possible.

 

Back Again

When you go away for what looks to be about three weeks — judging from the number of newspapers on the lawn, strewn about the front entry by some lout of a paperboy — there’s a lot of cleanup to be done. The weight of this realization is quite evident in the droop of Father’s shoulders.

 

 

There may be no place like home, but after a long trip, Rockwell’s family requires rest.