'Getting Ready' by Frederick Sands Brunner, Circa 1935, Elementary School, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Saturday Evening Post, Illustrator

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Signed lower right 'F. Sands Brunner' for Frederick Sands Brunner (American, 1886 - 1954) and painted circa 1935.
Canvas dimensions: … Read more Signed lower right 'F. Sands Brunner' for Frederick Sands Brunner (American, 1886 - 1954) and painted circa 1935.
Canvas dimensions: 17 x 16.5 inches

Born in Boyertown, Pennsylvania, Frederick Sands Brunner displayed an early interest in drawing. In 1905, he enrolled in the School of Industrial Art in Philadelphia (later the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art, now University of the Arts), where he studied illustration under instructors including Daniel Garber. Concurrently, Brunner attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the Graphic Sketch Club; he completed his diploma in illustration in 1909, graduating with multiple prizes and medals.

Upon finishing his formal studies, Brunner’s first professional engagement was as a staff artist for Ladies’ Home Journal, where for thirteen years he produced pen-and-ink celebrity portraits, illustrations, and cover designs that brought his work into national circulation. After leaving that position he established himself as a freelance illustrator, creating cover art for magazines such as the Saturday Evening Post and This Week and designing advertising illustrations for major commercial clients including Coca-Cola, Kellogg’s, and Camel cigarettes.

Brunner continued to engage with work of public purpose during World War II, producing at least two posters for the American Red Cross, and during his career also painted numerous commissioned portraits, among them his childhood friend General Carl A. Spaatz, New York financier Chester Gersten, and George F. Tibbitts, founder of the Gospel Volunteers of the World. A portrait attributed to him of Edith Wilson is retained in the Woodrow Wilson House collection in Washington, D.C. as part of that historic house’s holdings.

Reference:
Who Was Who in American Art 1564-1975: 400 Years of Artists in America, Peter Hastings Falk, Sound View Press 1999, Vol. 1, page 484; Vollmer Allgemeines Lexikon der Bildenden Künstler des 20. Jarhhunderts, Hans Vollmer, Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag 1992, Vol. 1, page 336; et al. See less