Above: Full view of painting

Above: The artist’s signature upper right

A dark, masterfully suspenseful, photo-realist in technique painting by noted American illustrator and avant-garde filmmaker Douglass Crockwell. This menacing oil on board was likely used as an interior illustration in an American slick magazine such as The Saturday Evening Post or Collier’s. Crockwell was a gifted and precise artist, his advertising accounts included Coca-Cola, GE, and US Steel. He designed U.S. Government printed posters for the home front during World war II, and he was a frequent cover illustrator for The Saturday Evening Post.

Above: Detail

Above: Framed and matted in handsome gallery frame

Above: Verso view

Douglass Crockwell spent a good part of his career creating illustrations and advertisements for The Saturday Evening Post. His WWII poster for the American Relief for Holland won him a gold medal from the Art Director’s Club in 1946. Crockwell created murals and posters for the Works Progress Administration during the Depression and also experimented with short flip-card films that could be viewed through a mutoscope. A few years before he died, Crockwell estimated that he had drawn four hundred full-page images, of which more than three billion prints had been made.

Above: “Paper Workers” by Douglass Crockwell in the collection of The Smithsonian Institute

His paintings can be seen in museums nationwide and in the permanent collection of The Smithsonian. Crockwell was also a vanguard and noted director who made experimental films best described as abstract and surrealist, with occasional instances of figurative elements.

Spencer Douglass Crockwell

1904 Born April 29 in Columbus, Ohio:

1929-33 Developed award winning “Men At Work” series

1932 Douglass moved to Glenn Falls, New York

1933 Married Margaret Braman, 3 children- Douglass (’37), Johanna (’41), Margaret (’45)

1931-1966 Freelance illustrative painting

EDUCATION:
1922-1926 Washington University; BSC
1927 American Academy of Art, Chicago
1927-1931 St. Louis School of Fine Arts
1930-1931 European Traveling Fellowships; to study in France and other countries

AWARDS:
1930-31 St. Louis Artists Guild
1930-31 New York Art Directors Award
1932 Honorable Mention in the first Treasury Mural competition (sponsored by the War Dept., landed 3 state murals commissions)

Partial list of clients:
Brow&Bigelow; General Electric; General Motors; Welch; Lederle; Wyeth; US Service Organizations; 18 Saturday Evening Post covers; Standard Oil; General Mills; Kraft Cheese Co.; Shrafft Candies; Kolynos Toothpaste; Red&White Stores; Coke; Coun try Gentleman covers; Hyram Walker; Moxie; International Harvester; Grace Line; 110 US Brewers Assn.; WPA; Ralston Purina; McCalls Magazine; Avondale Mills; American Tobacco Co.; Coronet Magazine; Curtis Publishing; Esquire Magazine; Republic Steel; United Artists; Life Magazine; Look Magazine; Camel Cigarettes; Army Marines; Womens Day; Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer; Saturday Evening Post-Story Illustrations