ART & ARTISTS: Cosmopolitan magazine

Monday, 8 June 2020

Cosmopolitan magazine - part 1

1886 The fifth edition of Cosmopolitan MagazineThe first issue was dated March, 1886.

Cosmopolitan Magazine was first published in 1886 as a family magazine, but became a literary magazine in the late 1960s. Today, Cosmopolitan is a popular and trusted women's publication that covers topics ranging from relationships and sex to news, pop culture, and fashion. Cosmopolitan has 63 international editions printed in 32 languages and is distributed in more than 100 countries around the world.

Cosmopolitan started using colour photography of models around 1950. These covers were interspersed with illustrated covers.

They seem to have gone over completely to photography by 1963.

This is part 1 of a 4-part series on Cosmopolitan Magazine:

1887 August

1888 October

1904 January

1904 Christmas
December issue

1905 February
Cover by Brendon Campbell

1907 May
Cover by Harrison Fisher

Harrison Fisher (1875/77 – 1934) was born in Brooklyn, New York City and began to draw at an early age. Both his father and his grandfather were artists.Fisher spent much of his youth in San Francisco, and studied at the San Francisco Art Association. In 1898, he moved back to New York and began his career as a newspaper and magazine illustrator.

Harrison Fisher

He became known particularly for his drawings of women, which won him acclaim as the successor of Charles Dana Gibson. Together with fellow artists Howard Chandler Christy and Neysa McMein, he constituted the Motion Picture Classic magazine's, "Fame and Fortune" contest jury of 1921/1922, who discovered the It-girl, Clara Bow. Fisher's work appeared regularly on the cover of Cosmopolitan magazine from the early 1900s until his death.

1909 September
Cover by G. Patrick Nelson

1912 March
Cover by Harrison Fisher

1912 August
Cover by Harrison Fisher

1912 November
Cover by Harrison Fisher

1915 May
Cover by Harrison Fisher

1918 August
"Somewhere in France"
WW1 reference
Cover by Harrison Fisher

1918 October
Cover by Harrison Fisher

1918 November
"Buy Bonds!"
WW1 reference
Cover by Howard Chandler Christy

Howard Chandler Christy (1872 – 1952)was an American artist and illustrator. Famous for the "Christy Girl" – a colourful and illustrious successor to the "Gibson Girl" – Christy is also widely known for his iconic WWI military recruitment and Liberty loan posters, along with his 1940 masterpiece titled “Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States” which is installed along the east stairwell of the United States Capitol.

Howard Chandler Christy

From the 1920s until the early 1950s, Christy was active as a portrait painter whose sitters included many Presidents, senators, industrialists, film stars, and socialites. By 1938, Time magazine proclaimed Christy "the most commercially successful U.S. artist."

1922 August
Cover by Harrison Fisher

1923 Illustration by Dean Cornwell

Dean Cornwell (1892-1960) was a left-handed painter and muralist who dominated the illustration field for many years.

Dean Cornwell

He began his professional art career at age 18 as a cartoonist for the Louisville Herald. A year later, he enrolled at the Chicago Art Institute and went to work in the art department of the Chicago Tribune. At the Chicago Art Institute, he met and studied under prominent art educator Harvey Dunn. In 1915 followed Dunn to New York and joined him in his studio-classroom. After studying with Dunn Cornwell quickly became a success.

He produced over 1,000 illustrations for nearly every major publication in the country including Cosmopolitan, Harper's Bazaar, Redbook, and Good Housekeeping magazines.

In 1927 he decided to devote the rest of his life to mural painting and travelled to England to study mural painting for three years under famous muralist and autodidact Frank Brangwyn.