"Eavesdropping on Grownups, Post Cover" Lot no. 3118
By George Hughes (1907-1990)
1950 (Estimated)
29.50" x 22.50"
Oil on Board
Signed Lower Left
REQUEST PRICE
PURCHASE REQUEST
Click any of the images above for additional views.
Original cover illustration for The Saturday Evening Post, December 2, 1950
The Post described, “One night Art Editor Stuart was having a party. His three boys came downstairs four times and were conducted back up by their mother. The next time they came down, Papa Stuart waxed excited, firmly conveyed them aloft himself, and they did not show up again. Stuart was warmly congratulated on his success as a father. When the party broke up, the youngest lad was found asleep on the stairs. Stuart claims that the older ones never did come down again, but this was probably because they merely went to sleep in their beds from natural causes. George Hugehes has painted some other people’s offspring, to get over the idea that children all over America are eager to improve their minds by listening to sophisticated conversation.”
(The Saturday Evening Post, December 2, 1950, p. 3)
Exhibited:
Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge MA: Rockwell and Realism in an Abstract World. June 17, 2016 - October 29, 2016. Link to Exhibit Page
Explore related art collections: 1950s / Humor / Children / Saturday Evening Post Covers / Magazine Covers / Fatherhood / $100,000 & Above
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.