This large and colorful noir montage by Alexander Sharpe Ross was created as an interior illustration for a mid 1950’s American mainstream slick magazine. Ross was a leading American illustrator of the time with work featured on the covers of Good Housekeeping, The Saturday Evening Post, Ladies Home Journal and Collier’s. Along with a handful of key illustrators — Coby Whitmore, John Whitcomb, Al Parker, and Norman Rockwell — Ross helped create an indelible image of Americans in the post-WWII decades.
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| Above: Verso notations |
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
