| Coby Whitmore | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Maxwell Coburn Whitmore, Jr. |
| Born | June 11, 1913 Dayton, Ohio |
| Died | October 12, 1988 (aged 75) Hilton Head, South Carolina |
| Nationality | American |
| Field | Commercial art, Magazine illustration |
| Influenced | John Buscema, John Romita, Sr. |
| Awards | Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame |
Maxwell Coburn Whitmore, Jr. (June 11, 1913 - October 12, 1988)[1] was an American painter and magazine illustrator known for his Saturday Evening Post covers, and a commercial artist whose work included advertisements for Gallo Wine and other national brands. He additionally became known as a race-car designer.
Whitmore was inducted into the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame in 1978.
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Coby Whitmore was born in Dayton, Ohio, the son of Maxwell Coburn Whitmore Sr. and Charlotte Bosier, and attended the Dayton Art Institute.[2] Following an apprenticeship with the "Sundblom Circle" of Chicago, Illinois, illustrator Haddon Sundblom, Whitmore joined the Charles E. Cooper Studio, on West 57th Street in New York City, in 1943.[3][4] There he illustrated for leading magazines of the day and did other commercial art.
Whitmore and Jon Whitcomb were two of the top illustrators at Cooper, which in the 1940s and 1950s "monopolized the ladies' magazines like McCall's, Ladies Home Journal, and Good Housekeeping with postwar images of the ideal white American family centered around pretty, middle-class, female consumers living happily in new kitchens, new houses, driving new cars, living with handsome husbands, adorable children, and cute dogs".[5][6]
Whitmore later became an instructor with the Famous Artists School, joining Norman Rockwell, Stevan Dohanos, Albert Dorne and others members of what became known as the Westport School of American illustration.[7] Additionally, Whitmore, by then living in Briarcliff Manor, New York, teamed with former World War II fighter pilot John Fitch, an imported car dealer in White Plains, New York, to design and race sports cars in the 1950s and 1960s.[8][9][10]
Whitmore died in Hilton Head, South Carolina, in 1988 at age 75.[1]
Whitmore's work influenced such comic-book artists as John Buscema,[11] John Romita, Sr.,[12] and Phil Noto.[13] Glen Murakami, producer of the 2000s Teen Titans animated series on Cartoon Network, cited Whitmore and fellow illustrator Bob Peak as "big influences on the loose, painterly style we have been using for the backgrounds".[14]
Whitmore was inducted into the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame in 1978.[15]
His work was presented alongside that of several contemporaries of illustrator Al Parker in the "Re-Imagining the American Woman" section of the retrospective "Ephemeral Beauty: Al Parker and the American Women's Magazine, 1940-1960", mounted by the Norman Rockwell Museum from June 9 to October 28, 2007.[16]