Above: Detail

This large, innovative and sophisticatedly composed gouache by Alexander Sharpe Ross was created as an interior illustration for the April 1949 Cosmopolitan Magazine story The Small Vice of Alicia Crispin by Cynthia Hathaway. Ross was a leading American illustrator of the time and worked as cover artist for Good Housekeeping, The Saturday Evening Post, Ladies Home Journal and Colliers. Along with a handful of key illustrators—Coby Whitmore, John Whitcomb, Al Parker, Norman Rockwell—Ross helped create an indelible image of Americans in the post WWII decades.

Above: Full view on board unframed

Above: The artists signature

Above: Detail of Alicia Crispin

Above: Verso label from Cosmopolitan

Above: Text with usage and date

Above: Framed view in period frame

Some more information on the artist

Born in Dunfermline, Scotland, Ross settled in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania, as a youth. He was largely self-taught, although he had one year of night school at Carnegie Tech. His first break occurred in 1941 when one of his illustrations was chosen from a roomful of contestants to be a Good Housekeeping cover. The editor, Herbert Mayes, commissioned 130 additional cover illustrations over the next dozen years at roughly $1000 apiece.

The covers were of children, mostly Ross’s own who early on learned to model for him. After that, Ross became quite popular as a painter of “clinch” pictures—men and women in romantic postures. His clinches appeared in Saturday Evening Post, McCall’s, Cosmopolitan, and Colliers.

Shows

Smithsonian Institute, Washington, DC
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
National Academy of Design Galleries, New York, NY
Society of Illustrator’s, New York, NY
Salamagundi Gallery, New York, NY
Royal Society of Painters, London, England
Australian Watercolor Institute, Sydney, Australia
Wadsworth Athenaeum, Hartford, CT
New Britain Museum of Art, New Britain, CT
Mattituck Museum of Art, Waterbury, CT
De Cordova Museum, Lincoln, MA
Tennessee Fine Arts Center, Nashville, TN
Chouinard Art Center, Los Angeles, CA
Scareb Club Gallery, Detroit, MI
Eric Galleries, New York, NY
Thompson Galleries, Phoenix, AZ
Collector’s Gallery, Nashville, TN
Carlson Gallery, U of Bridgeport, Bridgeport, CT
Joe DeMers Gallery, Hilton Head Island, SC
Palm Beach Galleries, Palm Beach, FL
Naples Art Gallery, Naples, FL
Phillips Gallery, Dallas, TX

Awards

1955 Silvermine Guild New England Annual Exhibition
Prize award in Watercolor

1960 Los Angeles County Fair Exhibition
First Prize popular opinion medal award

1962 American Watercolor Society Annual Exhibition
Salamagundi prize award

1963 Society of Illustrator’s Annual Exhibition
Award of Excellence

1964 Society of Illustrator’s Annual Exhibition
Award of Excellence

1964 American Watercolor Society Annual Exhibition
Ranger Fund Purchase Award

1964 New Canaan Annual Exhibition
First prize award in Watercolor

1964 Connecticut Watercolor Society Annual Exhibition
Dixie Award

1965 Society of Illustrator’s Annual Exhibition
Award of Merit

1965 Connecticut Watercolor Society Annual Exhibition
Alexander Crane Memorial Award

1967 New Canaan Annual Exhibition
Thomas Saxe Foundation Award

1967 Ridgebury Gallery & Exhibition
First Prize-oil

1967 Connecticut Watercolor Society Annual Exhibition
Sage Allen Award

1968 Connecticut Watercolor Society Annual Exhibition
Sage Allen Award

1969 Connecticut Arts Festival
Third Prize

1971 Connecticut Watercolor Society Annual Exhibition
Dixie Award

1972 National Academy of Design Annual Exhibition
Adolph and Clara Obrig Award

1973 American Watercolor Society Annual Exhibition
Ford Times Award

1974 American Watercolor Society Annual Exhibition
Martha T. McKinnon Award

1975 National Academy of Design Annual Exhibition
Walter Biggs Memorial Award

1976 American Watercolor Society Annual Exhibition
Ford Times Award

1976 Connecticut Watercolor Society Annual Exhibition
Connecticut Watercolor Prize (second place)

1976 Ellsworth National Art Competition
Award of Excellence

1977 28th New England Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture
Laura M. Gross Memorial Award

1980 National Academy of Design Annual Exhibition
Adolph and Clara Obrig Award

1981 Georgia Watercolor Society
Columbus Award

1982 American Watercolor Society Annual Exhibition
Lena Newcastle Award