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Above: Full view of painting |
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Above: The artists signature |
A humorous moment in the midst of the Great Depression is the subject of this Liberty Magazine (November 21, 1931) original cover painting by Leslie Thrasher. Titled “Second From The Right” the cover chronicles the continuing story of “Sandy and Lil”, who frequented the cover of Liberty magazine in scenes from their typically 1920s courtship, wedding and early married life. This artwork (as explained in short interior story) finds the couple’a finances wiped out in the recent stock market crash. A neighbor (a rich lawless bootlegger!) turns up with a pair of complimentary tickets to The Follies and Sandy finds a particular showgirl much to his liking “second to the right.”
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Above: Detail of Sandy & Lil |
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Above: Detail |
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Above: Detail |
A Bio by Walt Reed:
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Above: For The Love O’ Lil (interior story page 37) |
The editors of Liberty magazine, which first appeared on the newsstand in 1924, prided themselves on innovation – any innovation that would broaden their readership. One of their most successful and appealing ideas was the “continuity cover”, and the artist who took the assignment was Leslie Thrasher (1889-1936). For six years, Thrasher created a cover a week for $1,000 each, depicting the lives of a middle-class couple and their extended family, from their high school romance to a well-heeled middle age. Entitled “For The Love o’ Lil”, the series was the prototype for the soap opera and its popularity warranted adaptations to radio and the big screen.
Thrasher was a populist almost in spite of his fine arts training in Philadelphia and Paris; he even used himself as the model for the husband in the “Lil” series. He was certainly one of Howard Pyle’s most commercially successful students. He did ads for Chesterfield Cigarettes, Cream of Wheat and DuPont, and by the time he left Liberty, he had produced more cover paintings than Norman Rockwell did in his whole career at the Saturday Evening Post.
His pictures are relatively spare, composed around a compelling action or an object rich with meaning – an engagement ring, for instance. Thrasher and Rockwell, while they were opposite numbers in rival publications, did share a view of America as a nation bound by humor, common sense and altruism.
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Above: Liberty Magazine November 1931 (included in sale) |
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Above: Framed in newer gold frame |
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Above: Verso view of relined and stretched canvas |