"Crying on Santa's Lap, Post Cover" Lot no. 4790
By George Hughes (1907-1990)
1958
25.00" x 23.25"
Oil on Canvas
Signed Lower Left
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This artwork is one of the artist's well-known covers for The Saturday Evening Post and effectively showcases Hughes's talent for portraying the human experience with humor and a lighthearted, "sitcom"-like tone. In pieces like Screaming Child on Santa's Knee, Hughes’s intricate and evolving narrative draws viewers in with its charm. The layered, story-driven illustrations he produced, including this one, stand out from other Post covers of the era.
The Post described, “Whatever did Santa (a notoriously jolly old elf) do to make Charles so unjolly? If he has scared the daylights out of the lad, of course it was an unintentional boo-boo; even the tiniest child knows that Saint Nick is the sweetest soul who ever trod the roofs of earth or went sleighing among the stars. Maybe Santa’s voice is hoarse from uttering jolly exclamations, and when he croaked, ‘HO! HO! HO!’ It gave the boy the willies. Or maybe the merry old fellow reached back and rang a hair-curling blast on those jingle bells. After all, even a grownup can be given the heebie-jee-bies—just tiptoe up behind one and yell, ‘Boo!’ Well, Charley will feel all right in a minute because artist George Hughes has arranged for the world’s greatest tranquilizer to be on duty—mother.” (The Saturday Evening Post, December 6, 1958, page 3)
Literature:
"The Saturday Evening Post," December 6, 1958, cover illustration.
Jan Cohn, "Covers of the Saturday Evening Post: Seventy Years of Outstanding Illustration from America's Favorite Magazine," New York, 1995, p. 254, illustrated.
A "Saturday Evening Post" publication order document is housed in a plastic sleeve taped to the frame's backing foam board. A copy of this Post magazine also accompanies this painting.
Hughes, titled on the "Saturday Evening Post" publication order document attached to the frame's backing board
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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.