Coby Whitmore
{{Short description|American painter and illustrator (1913–1988)}}
{{Infobox artist
| name = Coby Whitmore
| image =
| image_size =
| caption =
| birth_name = Maxwell Coburn Whitmore
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1913|6|11|mf=y}}
| birth_place = Dayton, Ohio, U.S.
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1988|10|12|1913|6|11|mf=y}}
| death_place = Hilton Head, South Carolina, U.S.
| known_for = Commercial art, Magazine illustration
| training =
| movement =
| notable_works =
| patrons =
| awards = Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame
}}
Maxwell Coburn Whitmore{{cite web | url = http://www.societyillustrators.org/Awards-and-Competitions/Hall-of-Fame/Past-Inductees/1978--Maxwell-Coburn-Whitmore.aspx | title=Maxwell Coburn Whitmore: 1978 Hall of Fame Inductee | publisher=Society of Illustrators| access-date= November 21, 2014| archive-date=March 17, 2012 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120317232803/http://societyillustrators.org/Awards-and-Competitions/Hall-of-Fame/Past-Inductees/1978--Maxwell-Coburn-Whitmore.aspx|url-status=live}} (June 11, 1913 – October 12, 1988)[https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:J2J7-36K M.C. Whitmore], Social Security Number 287-10-5182, at the Social Security Death Index via FamilySearch.org. 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 brands. He additionally became known as a race-car designer.
Whitmore was inducted into the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame in 1978.
Biography
=Early life and career=
File:CobyWhitmoreSatEvePost3-53.jpg]]
Coby Whitmore was born in Dayton, Ohio, the son of Maxwell Coburn Whitmore Sr. and Charlotte Bosler. He graduated from Steele High School and attended the Dayton Art Institute.{{cite web|url=http://www.askart.com/AskART/artist.aspx?artist=23159&redir |publisher=Ask Art: The Artists' Bluebook |title=M. Coburn Whitmore (1913 - 1988)|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110629063419/http://www.askart.com/AskART/artist.aspx?artist=23159&redir |archive-date = June 29, 2011|url-status=live}}{{cite web |url=http://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/post-artists/biography-coby-whitmore |title=Biography: Coby Whitmore |publisher=SaturdayEveningPost.com |access-date=May 7, 2017 |archive-date=May 7, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170507204825/http://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/post-artists/biography-coby-whitmore |url-status=live }} After moving to Chicago, Illinois, he apprenticed with Haddon Sundblom, illustrator of the "Sundblom Circle", in addition to working for the Chicago Herald Examiner and taking night classes at the Chicago Art Institute. Whitmore moved to New York in 1942 and shortly afterward joined the Charles E. Cooper Studio, on West 57th Street in New York City.{{cite web |last=Mendez |first=Prof. A. E. |url=http://profmendez.tripod.com/html/photo2.htm |title=The Rules of Attraction: The Look of Love: The Rise and Fall of the Photo-Realistic Newspaper Strip, 1946–1970 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090502003520/http://profmendez.tripod.com/html/photo2.htm |archive-date=May 2, 2009 |url-status=dead }} Additional, July 16, 2009{{cite web |last=Pelotas |first=Geza |url=http://www.atmanart.org/html/charles_e__cooper_studio.html |title=The Charles E. Cooper Studio |publisher=Atman Art |date=n.d. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110526071013/http://www.atmanart.org/html/charles_e__cooper_studio.html |archive-date=May 26, 2011 |url-status=dead |access-date=October 29, 2009 }} 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".Heller, Steven, and Marshall Arisman. [https://books.google.com/books?id=5SP2rij0B8MC&dq=coby+whitmore+illustrator&pg=PA42 Inside the Business of Illustration] (Allworth Press : 2004), {{ISBN|1-58115-386-4}}, {{ISBN|978-1-58115-386-6}}, p. 42[http://www.fulltable.com/vts/aoi/w/w/menun.htm "The Visual Telling of Stories: Coby Whitmore"], Fulltable.com, n.d. [https://web.archive.org/web/20110203013917/http://www.fulltable.com/vts/aoi/w/w/c.htm Archive] of page "Coby Whitmore: Gallery One - Illustrated Fiction", retrieved July 25, 2010.
Aside from women's magazines, Whitmore also illustrated for Esquire, The Saturday Evening Post and Sports Illustrated.
=Later life and career=
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.{{cite web |last=Frank |first=Michael |url=http://www.jtc-nj.com/jagcorner/Fitchspecial.html |title=The Fitch Whitmore Le Mans Special in Detail |publisher=New Jersey Jaguar Touring Club |date=2001 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110713123039/http://www.jtc-nj.com/jagcorner/Fitchspecial.html |archive-date=July 13, 2011 |url-status=dead |access-date=October 29, 2009 }}{{cite news | last = Blunk | first= Frank M. | title = Luxury Sports Car of Tomorrow Is Unveiled Here | work = The New York Times | date= July 8, 1966 | page = Section: Sports, p. 60}}{{cite news | title =Blackwood Takes Race; Hits 132 M. P.H. in National Modified Sports Car Test | work = The New York Times | date=February 22, 1953 | page = Section: Sports, p. S7}}
=Personal life=
He and his wife, Virginia, moved to Hilton Head, South Carolina, in 1968. He died there on October 12, 1988, at age 75.
Legacy
Whitmore's work influenced such comic-book artists as John Buscema,Spurlock, David J., and John Buscema, John Buscema Sketchbook (Vanguard Productions: Lebanon, N.J. 2001), Hardcover {{ISBN|1-887591-18-4}}, signed-numbered hardcover {{ISBN|1-887591-17-6}}, trade paperback {{ISBN|1-887591-19-2}}, p. 27. John Romita, Sr.,Spurlock, J. David, and John Romita. John Romita Sketchbook. (Vanguard Productions: Lebanon, N.J. 2002) {{ISBN|1-887591-27-3}} {{ISBN|1-887591-29-X}}, p. 16 and Phil Noto.{{cite web |last=Arrant |first=Chris |url=http://www.newsarama.com/comics/110805-Maelstrom-Noto.html |title=Phil Noto on Superman/Supergirl: Maelstrom |publisher=Newsarama.com |date=November 5, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081208160754/http://www.newsarama.com/comics/110805-Maelstrom-Noto.html |archive-date=December 8, 2008 |url-status=dead |access-date=October 29, 2009 }} 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".Murakami in {{cite web|last=Worley|first=Rob|url=http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=2380|title=Teen Titans, LXG, Hulk, Illuminati, X-Men: Comics2Film Wrap|publisher=ComicBookResources.com|date=July 14, 2003|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121010130338/http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=2380|archive-date=October 10, 2012|url-status=dead|access-date=October 29, 2009}}
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.{{cite press release|url=http://www.nrm.org/pdfs/Al%20Parker_final.pdf |title=Norman Rockwell Museum Presents First In-Depth Exhibition of Influential Illustrator's Work |publisher=Norman Rockwell Museum |date=n.d. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101204150533/http://www.nrm.org/2009/10/ephemeral-beauty-al-parker-and-the-american-womens-magazine-1940-1960/ |archive-date=December 4, 2010 |url-status=dead }} (Archive link to capsule description and date only of Al Parker exhibit; full press-release no longer online)
Whitmore art is included in the permanent collections of The Pentagon, the United States Air Force Academy, the New Britain Museum of American Art, and Syracuse University.
Accolades
Whitmore was inducted into the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame in 1978.{{cite web |url=http://www.societyillustrators.org/Awards-and-Competitions/Hall-of-Fame/Hall-of-Fame-Past-Inductees.aspx |publisher=Society of Illustrators |title=Hall of Fame |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141120193618/http://www.societyillustrators.org/Awards-and-Competitions/Hall-of-Fame/Hall-of-Fame-Past-Inductees.aspx |archive-date=November 20, 2014 |url-status=dead |access-date=November 21, 2014 }}
He received awards from the Art Directors Clubs of New York, Philadelphia and Chicago.
References
{{reflist|30em}}
External links
- {{cite web |url=http://www.larochecollections.com/CobyWhitmore.html |publisher=LaRoche Collections |title=Coby Whitmore Original Illustrations (circa early '1940s - late '60s) |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100618200803/http://www.larochecollections.com/CobyWhitmore.html |archive-date=June 18, 2010 |url-status=dead |access-date=October 29, 2009 }}
{{Society of Illustrators' Hall of Fame}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Whitmore, Coby}}
Category:American magazine illustrators
Category:American art educators