"New York Rainbow, Post Cover" Lot no. 4858
By John Philip Falter (1910-1982)
1949
26.00" x 22.00"
Oil on canvas
Signed Lower Left
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Cover illustration of the April 30, 1949 issue of The Saturday Evening Post
Page 3 of the Post states:
When John Falter’s cover painting was accepted, there was lightening trickling down the sky beside the rainbow. Presently the Art Department began to worry- do lightning and rainbows ever show up at the same time? The ever helpful Weather Bureau was asked to look at the Post’s storm- which has just doused midtown New York and is rumbling away beyond Central Park’s man-made ramparts, “Fair and cooler,” was the comment. “But we never saw a streak of lightening in such bright daylight. Of course, where weather is concerned, anything can happen.” So the picture was delightninged, leaving only that sign of clearing weather, a patch of blue sky large enough to make a sailor a pair of breeches.
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See all original artwork by John Philip Falter
ABOUT THE ARTIST
John Philip Falter was born in Plattsmouth and reared in Falls City, Nebraska. He studied at the Kansas City Art Institute, the Art Students League in New York on a scholarship, and the Grand Central School of Art in New York. Among his teachers were Mahonri Young, George Wright and Monte Crews.
Falter began his career in illustration early, starting with the Pulps, and at 20, sold his first picture to Liberty, a “slick” paper magazine. Talented and prolific, he soon added most of the other major magazines, and many advertising agencies, to his roster of clients.
His most important pictures were painted for the covers of The Saturday Evening Post, and he produced more than 200 of them. Many were based on the experiences of his Nebraska boyhood, in small town and country settings. He also painted a notable series of detailed street scenes in cities across the United States. These grew out of a chance visit of a Post art editor to Falter’s studio; there a picture of Gramercy Park caught his eye, which Falter had painted for pleasure.
John served in the Navy as a Chief Boatswain’s Mate during World War II; later, he was commissioned a Lieutenant on special art assignments. Among other projects after the war, he illustrated over 40 books for Reader’s Digest and completed many portrait commissions, including those of Admiral Halsey, Louis Armstrong, Olivia de Havilland, James Cagney, Mrs. Clark Clifford, and tenor John Charles Thomas. He later painted an outstanding series of historical subjects for the Bicentennial, commissioned by the 3M Company in 1976.
Falter was a member of the Society of Illustrators, the Players, and the Philadelphia Sketch Club. In 1976, he was elected to the Society of Illustrators’ Hall of Fame. Although he did not often exhibit, his paintings are in several museums.