"Icing the Cake, Cover of The Saturday Evening Post " Lot no. 2523
By Stevan Dohanos (American- 1907-1994)
1945
14.50" x 11.25", Framed 20.50" x 17.25"
Gouache and Tempera on Masonite
Signed Lower Right
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Original cover illustration for The Saturday Evening Post, June 16, 1945.
The Post described, "Stevan Dohanos may have added an inch or two to his waistline while working on this week’s cover, but the chances are that he also added several inches to the chest measurement of a certain Army private. Seeking authenticity, Dohanos enlisted the help of the De-Lite bakery, Westport, Connecticut, and its star baker, Gus Volkening, who, judged by the cake he produced for the Dohanos brush, is a bakers’ baker if we ever saw one. Volkening’s masterpiece seemed too impressive for the Dohanos table, so Steve called the marriage-license bureau in search of a bride and groom, and found Pvt. Bernard F. Stall, Jr., altar-bound with Lucia Frances Moore. Westport held a reception for the happy couple in the town hall at which the De-Lite-Volkening-Dohanos gift was ‘enjoyed by all.’" (The Saturday Evening Post, June 16, 1945, p. 3)
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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.