Headpiece for Carousel
Date1929
Artist
Saul Tepper
(American illustrator, 1899–1987)
Illustration Citation"Carousel," by Fannie Hurst, in Hearst's International combined with Cosmopolitan, January 1930
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions29 3/4 x 48 3/4 in. (75.6 x 123.8 cm)
frame: 34 3/4 × 53 1/2 in. (88.3 × 135.9 cm)
frame: 34 3/4 × 53 1/2 in. (88.3 × 135.9 cm)
Credit LineF. V. du Pont Acquisition Fund, 1983
Object number1983-170
On View
Not on viewClassificationsPAINTING
Label TextIn this scene, Saul Tepper places two unhappy-looking women at the edge of an amusement park. They are sisters, who have had to cede their family home for the park's construction. To complicate matters, the younger one is in love with the older one's husband. Tepper, who studied with Pyle's student Harvey Dunn, was an illustrator, songwriter, and advertising artist. During his career, his work reflected the changing focuses of illustration art. In the late 1920s he began illustrating magazine fiction, and in the 1930s branched out into advertising art. In the 1950s he created imagery for television commercials.
In this illustration from 1930, Tepper uses the impasto and vigorous brushwork he was known for. Since full color remained too expensive for many magazines, in this case Tepper had to restrict his palette to three colors. The vignette style kept some areas blank to accommodate the title and some of the text.
In 1922, the monthly Hearst's Magazine (founded in 1912) became Hearst's International and a few years later combined with Cosmopolitan, which later absorbed it.
