Harry Beckhoff

Beckhoff was born in Perth Amboy, New Jersey and studied under Harvey Dunn and George Bridgman at the Art Students League and at the Grand Central School of Art. His work was first published in The Country Gentleman in 1929. Beckhoff’s story and advertising illustrations subsequently appeared in many magazines, and he also did book illustrations, but he was most well-known for illustrations done for Damon Runyon’s Broadway stories in Collier’s. His was an inimitable, graphic style, a clean line based on caricature and which emphasized bold patterns, active, whimsical interweaving shapes, and vibrant color.