Walk: Short
Distance: 1.5 miles, Yoga Room 1 hour
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| John Philip Falter (1910-1982), Commuters in the Rain, ca. 1961, (Saturday Evening Post Cover, october 7, 1961) oil on Masonite |
So, Ciwt is old enough to remember The Saturday Evening Post which arrived at her family's Midwestern mailbox in one of the two daily deliveries (until 1950) until its final issue in February, 1969. By that year there were zip codes (beginning in 1963) one mail delivery a day and Ciwt was out of college doing her best to navigate NYC, DC and the world outside her childhood home.
She particularly remembers the Norman Rockwell covers which warmed her heart even after grown up history of art classes taught her they were corny. But she doesn't remember the covers illustrated by John Philip Falter. Her loss.
Rockwell created over 300 covers during his near five decade collaboration with The Saturday Evening Post beginning in 1916. Falter produced the second highest number having begun his long and fruitful relationship with the magazine in 1943 with a portrait of Benjamin Franklin (the true father of the SEP).
You really can't get more 'Americana' than the combination of these three men: Franklin, Rockwell, Franklin. But Franklin's magazine didn't have full page illustrated covers which began in 1899 ( before Ciwt, btw). Although Rockwell and Falter both depicted American life, Falter was no Rockwell imitator. Falter tended to specialize in Midwestern scenes which he captured with humor and a broad view, often from above looking down. Their creative processes were also different with Rockwell relying on methodical staging while Falter was gifted with a photographic memory, often sketching entire complex scenes from it and adding finishing details later. Falter's long perspective allowed for more of a panorama (like the Commuters in the Rain cover above) while Rockwell was more concentrated on the character's themselves - their clothing, expressions.
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| (Norman Rockwell, 1941) |
Rockwell came to respect Falter's work and actually had what he referred to as a "Falter Period" when he employed Falter's long view perspective.
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(Norman Rockwell, 1940)
Falter, on the other hand, grew up revering Rockwell's work, even opening an early studio in New Rochelle, New York, long a colony for illustrators, including Frederic Remington and Rockwell himself as well as friends from the Kansas City Art Institute. As he told it: "Rockwell was our inspiration then. I didn't meet him until years later. We would hear that Rockwell had been out on the street. and we'd all rush out and hunt for him. If they'd tell us that he had looked in a shop window, we'd look in the same window trying to absorb what he looked at by osmosis.
"There were plenty of Rockwell imitators imitators. My main concern in doing Post covers was trying to do something based on my own experiences. I found my niche as a painter of Americana with an accent of the Middle West. I brought out some of the homeliness and humor of Middle Western town life and home life. I used humor whenever possible."
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