"The Collector, Saturday Evening Post Cover" Lot no. 918
By Stevan Dohanos (American- 1907-1994)
1951
15.00" x 12.25", Framed 21.00" x 18.25"
Acrylic on Board
Signed Lower Left
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Original cover illustration for The Saturday Evening Post, August 11, 1951.
The Post described, “Make the acquaintance of Kit Dunham, a Westport, Connecticut, lepidopterist. This is only his butterfly department; Stevan Dohanos says that the rest of his bedroom really gets complicated, for Kit also collects other undomesticated creatures and affectionately maintains many of them alive as roommates. Among his buddies, is a harmless but startling ball python, which Kit purchased one winter day in a New York animal store and brought home on the train in a bag inside his shirt so that it would not catch a sore throat. Kit’s ambition is to grow from a small naturalist into a big one. He probably won't get detoured into a career in Yankee Stadium, although we note that he has a fine specimen of an American baseball”.
(The Saturday Evening Post, August 11, 1951, p. 3)
Exhibited: Christie's New York, Illustrating America: Norman Rockwell and His Contemporaries, November 30, 2013- January, 2014
Explore related art collections: Magazine Covers / Saturday Evening Post Covers / School/Education / Children / 1950s / $50,000 - $100,000
See all original artwork by Stevan Dohanos
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.