Rea Irvin

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Rea Irvin
Born August 26, 1881
San Francisco, United States
Died May 28, 1972
Frederiksted, Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands
Nationality American
Area(s) Illustrator, cartoonist, art editor

Rea Irvin (August 26, 1881—May 28, 1972) was an American graphic artist. He was the first art editor of the The New Yorker. He was the creator of the Eustace Tilley cover portrait and the New Yorker typeface. He first drew Tilley for the cover of the magazine's first issue on February 21, 1925. Tilley appeared annually on the magazine's cover every February until 1994.[1][2]

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[edit] Early career

Born in San Francisco, he studied at the Mark Hopkins Art Institute for six months, started his career as an unpaid cartoonist for The San Francisco Examiner.[3] He also contributed to the San Francisco Evening Post. He also worked as an itinerant actor and in 1906 he moved to the East Coast. In the 1910s he contributed many illustrations to both Red Book magazine and its sister publication, Green Book.[4]

Before World War I, Irvin contributed illustrations regularly to Life, and rose to the position of art editor. (Life the humorous weekly, and not to be confused with the more famous magazine of the same name published by Henry Luce). Irvin also contributed to Cosmopolitan when it was still a serious literary publication. He illustrated Wallace Irwin's "Letters of a Japanese Schoolboy" in Life.[5] He would later incorporate Japanese imagery in satirical kakemono for The New Yorker.[6]

He also created a series of humorous advertisements for Murad cigarettes.[7]

He was fired from his position as art editor at Life in 1924.

[edit] Career at The New Yorker

However, Irvin had joined an advisory board to help launch The New Yorker and then worked on the staff of The New Yorker as an illustrator and art editor. The magazine's first cover, of a dandy peering at a butterfly through a monocle, was drawn by Irvin. The gentleman on the original cover is referred to as "Eustace Tilley," a character created for The New Yorker by Corey Ford.

When he had taken the job at The New Yorker, Irvin had assumed that the magazine would fold after a few issues[8], but his work would appear on 169 covers of The New Yorker between 1925 and 1958)[9], including, for example, the piece known as The Unity of the Allied Nations. This appeared on the cover for the July 1, 1944 issue, and depicts the national personifications of the Allies (the American Eagle, the Chinese Dragon, the Russian Bear and the British Lion).[10]

According to James Thurber, "the invaluable Irvin, artist, ex-actor, wit, and sophisticate about town and country, did more to develop the style and excellence of The New Yorker's drawings and covers than anyone else, and was the main and shining reason that the magazine's comic art in the first two years was far superior to its humorous prose.”[11]

The New Yorker signature display typeface, used for its nameplate and headlines and the masthead above The Talk of the Town section, is called "Irvin" or "Irvin type," after him.[12] He also added the New Yorker's squiggly column rules; these provide a delineation between the text and illustrations.[13]

[edit] The Smythes

Irvin also created the comic strip The Smythes. It ran in the New York Herald Tribune during the early 1930s.[14][15]

Last week famed Cartoonist Rea Irvin broke into the "funnies" with a new full-page Sunday series... His title is "The Smythes;" his characters, the conventional father, mother, small son & daughter, Pekinese pup; his theme, the conventional burlesque of U. S. middleclass home life. Sample episode: Mrs. Smythe insists upon buying Pekinese, to utter disgust of Mr. Smythe who snorts, "I don't know what you can see in that mutt." Mrs. Smythe, in desperation, goes to bed. Later, Tootums (the Pekinese) awakes and sneezes. Unable to arouse his wife, Smythe arises, grudgingly walks the floor with Tootums, finally melts, talks baby-talk to Tootums, nurses it back to sleep. Whereupon Mrs. Smythe, awake, triumphantly mocks her husband: "I don't know what you can see in that mutt!"

– Life, June 23, 1930, [16]

[edit] Retirement

Six years before his death, Irvin and his wife retired to a home in Frederiksted, Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands.[17] He died of a stroke there at age 90 on May 28, 1972.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Dewan, Shaila K., et. al. "PUBLIC LIVES", The New York Times, February 15, 2001. Accessed January 14, 2008. "Although no substantiation is offered for HENDRIK HERTZBERG'S claim on The New Yorker's new Web site that EUSTACE TILLEY, the persnickety snob created by REA IRVIN, is one of the most successful and recognizable corporate trademarks in the history of hype, Mr. Tilley does have a lengthy curriculum vitae. He appeared on The New Yorker's first cover on Feb. 21, 1925, and each February thereafter until 1994."
  2. ^ The Many Faces of Eustace Tilley: Online Only: The New Yorker
  3. ^ TomFolio.com: Rea Irvin, Author Autograph Sample, Book List Link, Search Books Available
  4. ^ TomFolio.com: Rea Irvin, Author Autograph Sample, Book List Link, Search Books Available
  5. ^ Stripper Irvin - TIME
  6. ^ Stripper Irvin - TIME
  7. ^ Stripper Irvin - TIME
  8. ^ TomFolio.com: Rea Irvin, Author Autograph Sample, Book List Link, Search Books Available
  9. ^ The Talk of the Town; Rea Irvin of The New Yorker
  10. ^ The Talk of the Town; Rea Irvin of The New Yorker
  11. ^ Quoted in http://www.wolfsonian.fiu.edu/exhibitions/past/talkoftown.html
  12. ^ Consuegra, David. American Type Design and Designers. New York: Allworth Press, 2004.
  13. ^ The Talk of the Town; Rea Irvin of The New Yorker
  14. ^ TomFolio.com: Rea Irvin, Author Autograph Sample, Book List Link, Search Books Available
  15. ^ Comic creator: Rea Irvin
  16. ^ Stripper Irvin - TIME
  17. ^ http://www.askart.com/AskART/artists/biography.aspx?searchtype=BIO&artist=71481

[edit] External links