Author: Bridgman, L. J. (Lewis Jesse)
Title: A Pair of Drawings by One of the Most Prolific Artists of the Golden Age of Illustration Lewis Jesse Bridgman
Description: S. l. By the artist. Two drawings - the first in ink, the second in pencil, n. d. (ca 1870s - 1900); 5 x 5 1/2 and 5 1/2 x 3 1/4 respectively; the first with two pieces of paper tape to verso, else mild wear; in very good condition. Two drawings, apparently created at different times of the artist's creative period, they showcased the talent of one of the most prolific painters and illustrators of the Golden Age of Illustration - from the 1880s to just after World War I - alongside Beatrix Potter, Arthur Rackham, and Maxfield Parish. A master of pencil, pen-and-ink, and watercolors, Lewis Jesse Bridgman (1857-1931) studied at Harvard before illustrating and, in several cases also writing, numerous books - most of them children's, for which he would be best remembered ("Guess," "Mother Wild Goose and Her Wild Beast Show," and "The Hook. A Picture Book for Adults" among them). A lesser-known fact of his life was that he spent a significant amount of time studying the Colonial era and painted many historical scenes from the 16th- and 17th- centuries. The first of the drawings, initialed L. J. B. showed two bedraggled-looking boys in torn clothes, one playing the accordion, the other extending a hat and begging for money and holding a sign in his other hand: "Ladies and Gentlemen I am the mother of Five children Please Help Me". Research uncovered that a story of the two beggar boys, holding a plackard with the above-mentioned quote, had appeared in the Boston Journal and in the Christian Union in April of 1878. Perhaps inspired by that newspaper article, Bridgman would have been just 21, when drawing the picture, before his Harvard days and even longer before his commercial success. The second drawing, signed L. J. Bridgman and showing a hysterical child, was titled "Hard Times" and subtitled: "The Boy that did not get a Christmas present." . Very good .

Keywords: Original Drawings


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