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An early and rare pin-up painting by the great American illustrator and fine artist Howard Terpning, which was comissioned by the Shaw-Barton calendar company in the late 1940s. This striking and well rendered commercial illustration is a rare surviving example of Terpning's formative years. After his years as a calendar illustrator, Terpning became a famous fine artist of American Indian scenes. This is painted in the Haddon Sundblom/Gil Elvgren school and features a fresh faced, wholesome, all-American glamour girl. Terpning's later American Indian themed oils have fetched up to $1,456.000.00 at recent auctions. His illustration works have also become very desirable. This is a large, important, and new to the market offering which was directly purchased from the Shaw-Barton archives.
Some additional information on this important American artist Howard Terpning ( born 1927) in Oak Park Illinois has received more accolades than has any Western artist painting today. He has won more than 20 gold and silver medals, including five Colt awards and a Stetson award from the Cowboy Artists of America. He studied at the Chicago Academy of Fine Art as well as the American Academy of Art. Upon completion of his education, Terpning ventured his way to New York where he gained employment as a commercial illustrator. He painted movie posters (including "The Guns of Navarone" and a reissue of "Gone with the Wind"), created advertising art and illustrated stories and articles in such publications as Ladies' Home Journal, Reader's Digest, Field and Stream and Time. But it was a commission from Winchester Firearms that rekindled in Terpning a childhood interest in the early West. He began to do extensive research, particularly on Indians, and to paint for his own satisfaction and for gallery exhibition. In his mid-40s, tired of painting what other people told him to paint, he began painting for himself. Among his first portraits was one of Sioux Chief Gall, done for his daughter Susan. But it wasn't until he was nearly 50 that Terpning realized what intrigued him most were Native Americans. Living in what used to be Apache country, he began studying historic photographs of American Indians, fascinated by the differences among tribes. As his respect for them increased, so did his sense of duty to portray them as they really were. Terpning has remained true to that duty throughout his career, spending time researching his subjects and visiting the scenes of historic events. He keeps a personal collection of Native American artifacts for reference and uses contemporary Native Americans as models whenever possible.  |                  
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