"Saturday Evening Post Cover, January 31, 1953"   Lot no. 155

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By Stevan Dohanos (American- 1907-1994)

1953
42.00" x 32.50"
Oil on Masonite
Signed Lower Left

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Original cover illustration for The Saturday Evening Post, January 31, 1953.

 

The Post described, “Santa Claus recently whispered down a chimney to us that half the fun of Christmas is watching children play with their presents afterward, and that if the presents prove to be educational ho! ho! so much the more fun. We guess Santa tipped off Stevan Dohanos to observe these little ladies blissfully learning how to boil water without forgetting it and melting the pot down into the stove, and other complex principles of homemaking. The only un-educational toys in sight are the dolls for they are sniveling, hollering, raging around the room like maniacs or falling to the stove, as normal children do. And now for the ticklish question: Will the little girls wash those dishes or go find a little boy to do it?” 

 

(The Saturday Evening Post, January 31, 1953, p. 3)



Explore related art collections: Family / Saturday Evening Post Covers / Children / Magazine Covers / Humor / Food / 1950s

See all original artwork by Stevan Dohanos

ABOUT THE ARTIST

 

 Stevan Dohanos made his mark as a nationally famous cover artist for The Saturday Evening Post and chronicler of Americana, but he began at the bottom.

   He studied nights at the Cleveland School of Art long enough to get a job as an apprentice letterer, and gradually developed a solid studio background. A hard worker, he simultaneously painted and printed woodcuts for national exhibitions.

   In 1936, he painted an assignment for the Treasury Art Project in the Virgin Islands, and later, various mural commissions for federal buildings in Elkins, West Virginia; West Palm Beach, Florida; and Charlotte Amalie, Virgin Islands. His pictures are in the collections of the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Avery Memorial of Hartford, and the New Britain Museum of American Art.

   His illustrations have appeared in almost all of the major magazines; he painted over 100 covers for The Saturday Evening Post. Twice a victim of tuberculosis himself, Dohanos contributed Christmas seal designs to the National Tuberculosis Association, and made many posters and designs for national and local charitable purposes. He designed well over forty stamps for the U.S. Postal Service, and for several years he served on the Citizen Stamp Advisory Committee for the Postmaster General and as its Design Coordinator.

    Dohanos was a member of the National Society of Mural Painters, the Artists and Writers club, the Dutch Treat Club. He served as President of the Society of Illustrators from 1961-63, was inducted into its Hall of Fame in 1971, and served as Honorary President from 1982 until his death.