"Fare Thee Well! Liberty Magazine Cover"   Lot no. 3151

Original cover for Liberty magazine, published August 4, 1928.

Having left her husband Sandy, Lil returns to the Morse family home with her two-month-old baby. Ma Morse worries about the family’s first divorce, as Pa dismisses her fears, certain that the young couple would patching things up and that Lil was just trying to scare Sandy. Ma claims she never liked Sandy, but Pa assures his wife that Sandy is a good man and has the prospect to become a successful businessman someday – the couple just married too young.
Lil walks in on the conversation and announces that she is returning to the city to gather more of her belongings and to try to get her old job back, but she has no intention of seeing a divorce lawyer. Meanwhile, Sandy struggles to adjust to his newfound bachelorhood, though he knows the separation was all his fault. Upset at the sight of two infant booties, Sandy rushes them over to his in-laws’ home, where he finds Lil happily playing with the baby as though they didn’t miss him at all. As Sandy struggles to say goodbye to his wife and baby, Lil has a change of heart, gulping “Sandy! How could we have been so foolish?” as the couple embraces their baby together.(Liberty magazine, August 4, 1928, p. 34)

            Charles Leslie Thrasher was made famous by signing on for a long-term contract to paint every single weeks cover for Liberty Magazine. It was a back-breaking commitment to work at such a pace and an even greater challenge to come up with enough original cover ideas. The latter problem was partially solved by settling on a continuing story line, which followed a couple's courtship, marriage and children. It was a popular series, later made into a movie called "For the Love of Lil." His marriage provided the ingredients for it, and he served as his own model for the hero. As the presentation was humorous and light, the artwork tended to be lightweight, below the standards of his earlier cover work for The Saturday Evening Post, Collier's, and his advertising illustrations Cream of Wheat, Fisk Tires and Spaulding.

            Thrasher's career had an auspicious beginning. He studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and won a years scholarship to attend the Ecole de Grande Chaumiere in Paris. After his return in 1910, he studied briefly with Howard Pyle, and developed a close friendship with fellow-student Douglas Duer. They both served oversees during World War I, where they were assigned to camouflage with the Fortieth Engineers.

            He resumed his illustration career after returning to the U.S, working for various magazines such as Redbook, Collier's, Popular Magazine, and Everybody's, prior to the Liberty contract.

            Thrasher's career came to an early tragic end when his summer home burned and he developed pneumonia from smoke inhalation.