Rough Water

Item

Title

Rough Water

Creator

Ellison Hoover
American, 1888–1955

Date

1940

Materials

Lithograph

Measurements

Image: 13-3/8 x 9-5/8 in. (34 x 24.4 cm), sheet: 16-1/4 x 12-5/8 in. (40.9 x 32.1 cm)

Description

Although he trained as a fine artist, studying first at the Cleveland School of Art and then at the Art Students League, Ellison Hoover was best known by the American public for his commercial work. From about 1915 until well into the 1920s, he provided illustrations, including numerous covers, for the original Life—an entertainment weekly quite distinct from Henry Luce’s later news magazine of the same name. He was also a popular humorist, sketching cartoons for the New York Herald Tribune, the Brooklyn Eagle, and the Newark Evening News, and drawing the syndicated daily comic strip Mr. and Mrs. between 1930 and 1947.

Hoover apparently turned to printmaking only in his spare time, producing scarcely more than a few dozen lithographs over the course of his career. Whether out of necessity or choice, the exiguity remains unfortunate for those who would prefer the skillfully rendered Rough Water to the artist’s lighthearted efforts in the funny papers.

Source

Palmer Museum of Art, The Pennsylvania State University, Gift of J. Fred Beamer.

Identifier

92.49

Rights

This image is posted publicly for non-profit educational uses, excluding printed publication. Other uses are not permitted.

Item sets