"Native in Army Raft, Post Cover" Lot no. 4573
By Stevan Dohanos (American- 1907-1994)
1945
12" x 12"
Oil and pencil on Masonite
Signed Lower Left
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The Saturday Evening Post cover, December 1, 1945
The Post described, "The theory is that nothing surprises New Yorkers. Even so, those who encountered a flustered young civilian trying to get in and out of elevators while carrying a fully inflated Army Air Forces life raft must have wondered why. They will be pleased to learn that this was merely an artist, suffering some of the transportation problems of a bull-fiddle player, a tuba player or a harpist. Stevan Dohanos found a model readily enough for his painting of the South Pacific chief taking his ease in left-behind Army surplus. The model is the singer, Richard Huey, of Bloomer Girl. To get the raft, Dohanos walked briskly into a famous sporting-goods store looking like a customer, and then borrowed their floor sample." (The Saturday Evening Post, December 1, 1945, p. 2)
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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.