"Future President, Saturday Evening Post Cover" Lot no. 2941
By George Hughes (1907-1990)
1948
20.00" x 16.00", Framed: 26.00" x 22.00"
Oil on Board
Signed Lower Left
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Original cover illustration for The Saturday Evening Post, September 25 1948.
The Post described, “A father who expects his son to be President, as all good fathers should, is very likely — when he visits Washington — to photograph his young candidate against the background of the White House, in a pose befitting one who will someday take over the joint. Artist George Huges saw it happen many times while camped outside the White House last May, getting started on this cover. Hughes did preliminary work on the spot, but he finished painting in Arlington, Vermont, home of several Post cover artists. The Washington sight-seeing guide at the left is really one of Hughes’ Arlington neighbors, as are almost all the other people in the picture. All but one — the proud father. He is really a Washington sight-seeing guide.”
(The Saturday Evening Post, September 25 1948, p. 3)
Copy of magazine accompanies this piece
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See all original artwork by George Hughes
ABOUT THE ARTIST
A native New Yorker, George Hughes studied at the Art Students League and the National Academy of Design. Some of his early work included fashion drawing, and there was a stint as a special designer in the automobile field in Detroit.
For many years, Hughes was one of the most prolific painters of Saturday Evening Post covers; in addition, he painted many editorial illustrations for the Post and other publications, including McCall’s, Woman’s Day, American Magazine, Reader’s Digest, and Cosmopolitan magazines.
Hughes was one of the originators and masters of the “sitcom” magazine cover, and through his efforts, readers would spend minutes rather than seconds looking at the covers.
Also a painter, he exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, The Detroit Museum, and the Art Institute of Chicago. In recent years he restricted his work to portraiture.