Eugenics by Artist and Illustrator Gustav Michelson

A topical newspaper illustration (presumably for the Hearst Newspapers) confronting the dilemma of Eugenics. In the 1910s-20s the United States was faced with the question of whether individuals should marry with a mind towards creating superior babies through genetic family planning.

This cartoon finds this notion farfetched and we see love conquering science to the shock and delight of a couple now free to live as their hearts command. A very sophisticated topical take on a preeminent question of the early 20th Century. In a stylish contemporary fine gilded wood frame.

About the Artist: Gustav Michelson

Eric Gustavus Michelson was born in Boston, MA in 1884. Michelson studied art at the Boston Latin School and the ASL in NYC. He drew scenes of famous criminal cases for the Hearst papers in New York and Boston, and his illustrations appeared on the covers of McCalls and Harpers magazines. During the 1920s he was a resident of Hollywood and painted many posters of movie stars for Columbia Pictures. He retired from commercial art in the late 1940s to concentrate on portraiture. Michelson died in Queens, NY on March 7, 1964.