Clara Elsene Peck
Encyclopedia
Clara Elsene Peck was an American
illustrator
and painter known for her illustrations of women and children in the early 20th century. Peck received her arts education from the Minneapolis School of Fine Arts and was employed as a magazine illustrator from 1906-1940. Peck's body of work encompasses a wide range, from popular women's magazines and children's books, works of fiction, commercial art
for products like Ivory soap, and comic book
s and watercolor painting
later in her career. Peck worked during the "Golden Age of American Illustration" (1880s-1930s) contemporaneous with noted female illustrators Jessie Willcox Smith
, Elizabeth Shippen Green
and Violet Oakley
.
Peck's work appeared in exhibitions from the Art Institute of Chicago
to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and she received awards from the New York Association of Women Painters and Sculptors in the 1920s. Peck resided in an art colony
in Leonia, New Jersey
with her collaborator and husband, artist John Scott Williams. In the 1940s, Peck contributed to Catholic comic books distributed to parochial schools. She focused on watercolor painting in the 1950s and her work was exhibited in Europe and the United States. Her most notable illustrations and artwork were published in three books early in her career: Shakespeare's Sweetheart (1905), A Lady of King Arthur's Court (1907), and In the Border Country (1909).
, Michigan
on April 18, 1883. Peck spent her youth in St. Paul, Minnesota and later studied art at the Minneapolis School of Fine Arts
. She took classes at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts where she studied under American Impressionist
painter and teacher William Merritt Chase
. Reminiscing about her early years, Peck said: "With me the desire to become an artist has been strong since childhood. Other members of the family in previous generations were artists, making the love and joy in creative expression a natural one to me."
In 1906, Peck married British-born illustrator John Scott Williams (1877–1976), and they produced two children together, Ayvard and Conway. Peck and Williams shared similar styles, leading the two to occasionally collaborate on illustrations together. These works were signed with the first initials of their last names, "P W". Some of Peck's works are also credited as Clara Elsene Williams and the press sometimes referred to her as "Mrs. John Scott Williams."
After illustrator Harvey Dunn
founded the Leonia School of Illustration in Leonia, New Jersey
in 1915, Peck and Williams moved to an artist colony in Leonia, joining a group of about 90 professional artists.
They lived in a house originally built by artist Charles Harry Eaton (American, 1850–1901) on Crescent Avenue and were neighbors with artist-couple John Rutherford Boyd (1884–1951) and Harriet Boyd. The Boyd's house became a community center of artistic gatherings where many of Leonia's artists exhibited their works. The marriage between Peck and Williams came to an end, and J. Scott Williams remarried in 1930.
Peck later resided in Brooklyn, New York and Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
. Towards the end of her life, art historian Helen Teri Caro located Peck and acquired over 100 pieces of her artwork on behalf of the Glenbow Museum
in Calgary, Alberta. Peck died in Gettysburg in February 1968.
. This was a period when technological innovations in halftone
and color printing engendered the "Golden Age of Illustration". In addition to illustrations, Peck created decorations and lettering designs for books. Notable works from this period include illustrations for Sara Hawks Sterling's Shakespeare's Sweetheart (1905) and A Lady of King Arthur's Court (1907), and Josephine Daskam Bacon
's In the Border Country (1909). Peck eventually illustrated at least four additional books by Bacon.
By 1908, Peck had designed her first cover for Collier's. Peck began illustrating women's magazines during the 1910s and 1920s, contributing to Cosmopolitan
, Good Housekeeping
, Ladies Home Journal, Today's Housewife, and Household Magazine. Peck's magazine illustrations appeared in St. Nicholas Magazine
, The Century Magazine
, The Delineator
, the Pictorial Review
, and the The Youth's Companion. She contributed several cover illustrations to Theatre Magazine in the early 1920s and worked as a commercial artist on advertising campaign
s for companies such as Procter & Gamble
, Metropolitan Life, the Aeolian Company
, and Ivory Soap. Peck also illustrated educational books, educational certificates, sheet music, fiction, and fairy tales.
Women and children in Peck's work were depicted with great sensitivity in a wide variety of roles and responsibilities. Art historian and illustrator Walt Reed
describes Peck's style as "decorative in composition and sensitive in rendering". Artistic themes found in Peck's work include education, child psychology, and the expectant mother. The decorative style of the period was popularized by seminal American illustrator Howard Pyle
and his female students. According to Elizabeth H. Hawkes, curator emeritus of the Delaware Art Museum
, the style consisted of "using flat, brightly colored figures boldly outlined and placed against a patterned background. They incorporated elements of the popular 1890's poster style and borrowed motifs from Walter Crane, Kate Greenaway, and the English Arts and Crafts movement style of illustration."
Peck's career in illustration was active from the "Golden Age of American Illustration" through the onset of the Great Depression
when the careers of illustrators suffered due to the poor economy. The output of magazine illustrations from Peck continued until at least 1935.
In the 1940s, Peck worked as a cartoonist
for Topix Comics and Treasure Chest, a series of Catholic
-themed comic book
s. Topix Comics was launched in 1942 and produced in St. Paul, Minnesota. The comic book featured stories of courageous Christians, Saints, and Biblical narratives, and by 1946, it had a circulation of over 600,000. Peck's work was distributed exclusively in parochial schools and appeared throughout most of the title's nine-year run. She also provided material for early issues of the similarly themed Treasure Chest title, including a few episodes of "The Robinson's Rumpus Room" feature and the cover for Volume 2, Number 9 in 1946.
. From 1956-1957, Peck was part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
's European traveling exhibition; In 1958, Peck's work appeared at the Washington County Museum of Art, in a solo exhibition at Gettysburg College
, at the York
Art Center, and in New Canaan, Connecticut
. The Brandywine River Museum
and the Delaware Art Museum
host her paintings. Since 2000, a few landscape and portrait oil paintings sales have been recorded at various auction houses.
. Along with Florence Scovel Shinn
, Rose O'Neill
and others, Peck was one of the first 20 women to become a member of the Society of Illustrators by 1922, representing about 10% of the total membership. In 1913, Peck's work was featured in exhibitions at the Art Institute of Chicago
and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and at the National Association of Women Artists and the New York Association of Women Painters and Sculptors where she won awards in 1920 and 1921. Posthumously, Peck's works were featured in the seminal 1976 New York exhibition, 200 Years of American Illustration; In 1985 at the America's Great Women Illustrators 1850-1950 exhibition in New York; And, in 1986, at the American Illustration 1890-1925 exhibition held in Calgary.
Book illustrations:
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
illustrator
Illustrator
An Illustrator is a narrative artist who specializes in enhancing writing by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text...
and painter known for her illustrations of women and children in the early 20th century. Peck received her arts education from the Minneapolis School of Fine Arts and was employed as a magazine illustrator from 1906-1940. Peck's body of work encompasses a wide range, from popular women's magazines and children's books, works of fiction, commercial art
Commercial art
Commercial art is historically a subsector of creative services, referring to art created for commercial purposes, primarily advertising. The term has become increasingly anachronistic in favor of more contemporary terms such as graphic design and advertising art.Commercial art traditionally...
for products like Ivory soap, and comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
s and watercolor painting
Watercolor painting
Watercolor or watercolour , also aquarelle from French, is a painting method. A watercolor is the medium or the resulting artwork in which the paints are made of pigments suspended in a water-soluble vehicle...
later in her career. Peck worked during the "Golden Age of American Illustration" (1880s-1930s) contemporaneous with noted female illustrators Jessie Willcox Smith
Jessie Willcox Smith
Jessie Willcox Smith was a United States illustrator famous for her work in magazines such as Ladies Home Journal and for her illustrations for children's books....
, Elizabeth Shippen Green
Elizabeth Shippen Green
Elizabeth Shippen Green was an American illustrator. She illustrated children's books and worked for many years for Harper's Magazine....
and Violet Oakley
Violet Oakley
Violet Oakley was an American artist known for her murals and her work in stained glass. She was a student and later a faculty member at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.-Life:...
.
Peck's work appeared in exhibitions from the Art Institute of Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago is one of America's largest accredited independent schools of art and design, located in the Loop in Chicago, Illinois. It is associated with the museum of the same name, and "The Art Institute of Chicago" or "Chicago Art Institute" often refers to either...
to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and she received awards from the New York Association of Women Painters and Sculptors in the 1920s. Peck resided in an art colony
Art colony
right|300px|thumb|Artist houses in [[Montsalvat]] near [[Melbourne, Australia]].An art colony or artists' colony is a place where creative practitioners live and interact with one another. Artists are often invited or selected through a formal process, for a residency from a few weeks to over a year...
in Leonia, New Jersey
Leonia, New Jersey
Leonia is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 8,937. It is located near the western approach to the George Washington Bridge....
with her collaborator and husband, artist John Scott Williams. In the 1940s, Peck contributed to Catholic comic books distributed to parochial schools. She focused on watercolor painting in the 1950s and her work was exhibited in Europe and the United States. Her most notable illustrations and artwork were published in three books early in her career: Shakespeare's Sweetheart (1905), A Lady of King Arthur's Court (1907), and In the Border Country (1909).
Early life
Clara Elsene Peck was born in AlleganAllegan, Michigan
Allegan is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 4,838. It is the county seat of Allegan County. The city lies within Allegan Township, but is administratively autonomous....
, Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
on April 18, 1883. Peck spent her youth in St. Paul, Minnesota and later studied art at the Minneapolis School of Fine Arts
Minneapolis College of Art and Design
Minneapolis College of Art and Design is a private, nonprofit four-year and postgraduate college specializing in the visual arts. Located in the Whittier neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, MCAD currently enrolls approximately 1,000 students offering curriculum that includes...
. She took classes at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts where she studied under American Impressionist
American Impressionism
Impressionism, a style of painting characterized by loose brushwork and vivid colors, was practiced widely among American artists in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.-An emerging artistic style from Paris:...
painter and teacher William Merritt Chase
William Merritt Chase
William Merritt Chase was an American painter known as an exponent of Impressionism and as a teacher. He is also responsible for establishing the Chase School, which later would become Parsons The New School for Design.- Early life and training :He was born in Williamsburg , Indiana, to the family...
. Reminiscing about her early years, Peck said: "With me the desire to become an artist has been strong since childhood. Other members of the family in previous generations were artists, making the love and joy in creative expression a natural one to me."
Marriage and later life
After illustrator Harvey Dunn
Harvey Dunn
Harvey Thomas Dunn was an American painter. He is best known for his prairie-intimate masterpiece, The Prairie is My Garden. In this painting, a mother and her son and daughter are out gathering flowers from the quintessential prairie of the Great Plains.-Early life:Dunn was born on a homestead...
founded the Leonia School of Illustration in Leonia, New Jersey
Leonia, New Jersey
Leonia is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 8,937. It is located near the western approach to the George Washington Bridge....
in 1915, Peck and Williams moved to an artist colony in Leonia, joining a group of about 90 professional artists.
They lived in a house originally built by artist Charles Harry Eaton (American, 1850–1901) on Crescent Avenue and were neighbors with artist-couple John Rutherford Boyd (1884–1951) and Harriet Boyd. The Boyd's house became a community center of artistic gatherings where many of Leonia's artists exhibited their works. The marriage between Peck and Williams came to an end, and J. Scott Williams remarried in 1930.
Peck later resided in Brooklyn, New York and Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
Gettysburg is a borough that is the county seat, part of the Gettysburg Battlefield, and the eponym for the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg. The town hosts visitors to the Gettysburg National Military Park and has 3 institutions of higher learning: Lutheran Theological Seminary, Gettysburg College, and...
. Towards the end of her life, art historian Helen Teri Caro located Peck and acquired over 100 pieces of her artwork on behalf of the Glenbow Museum
Glenbow Museum
The Glenbow Museum in Calgary is one of Western Canada's largest museums, with over 93,000 square feet of exhibition space in more than 20 galleries, showcasing a selection of the Glenbow's collection of over a million objects....
in Calgary, Alberta. Peck died in Gettysburg in February 1968.
Illustration
Peck's career in illustration began in the early 1900s with her work for publisher George W. Jacobs in Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaPennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
. This was a period when technological innovations in halftone
Halftone
Halftone is the reprographic technique that simulates continuous tone imagery through the use of dots, varying either in size, in shape or in spacing...
and color printing engendered the "Golden Age of Illustration". In addition to illustrations, Peck created decorations and lettering designs for books. Notable works from this period include illustrations for Sara Hawks Sterling's Shakespeare's Sweetheart (1905) and A Lady of King Arthur's Court (1907), and Josephine Daskam Bacon
Josephine Daskam Bacon
Josephine Daskam Bacon was an American writer of great versatility. She is chiefly known as a writer who made the point of having female protagonists....
's In the Border Country (1909). Peck eventually illustrated at least four additional books by Bacon.
Cosmopolitan (magazine)
Cosmopolitan is an international magazine for women. It was first published in 1886 in the United States as a family magazine, was later transformed into a literary magazine and eventually became a women's magazine in the late 1960s...
, Good Housekeeping
Good Housekeeping
Good Housekeeping is a women's magazine owned by the Hearst Corporation, featuring articles about women's interests, product testing by The Good Housekeeping Institute, recipes, diet, health as well as literary articles. It is well known for the "Good Housekeeping Seal," popularly known as the...
, Ladies Home Journal, Today's Housewife, and Household Magazine. Peck's magazine illustrations appeared in St. Nicholas Magazine
St. Nicholas Magazine
St. Nicholas Magazine was a popular children's magazine, founded by Scribner's in 1873. The first editor was Mary Mapes Dodge, who continued her association with the magazine until her death in 1905. Dodge published work by the country's best writers, including Louisa May Alcott, Francis Hodgson...
, The Century Magazine
The Century Magazine
The Century Magazine was first published in the United States in 1881 by The Century Company of New York City as a successor to Scribner's Monthly Magazine...
, The Delineator
The Delineator
The Delineator was an American women's magazine of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, founded by the Butterick Publishing Company in 1869 under the name The Metropolitan Monthly. Its name was changed in 1875. In November 1926, under the editorship of Mrs...
, the Pictorial Review
Pictorial Review
Pictorial Review is a magazine which first appeared in September, 1899. The magazine was originally designed to showcase dress patterns of William Paul Ahnelt's American Fashion Company. By the late 1920s it was one of the largest of the "women's magazines"....
, and the The Youth's Companion. She contributed several cover illustrations to Theatre Magazine in the early 1920s and worked as a commercial artist on advertising campaign
Advertising campaign
An advertising campaign is a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme which make up an integrated marketing communication...
s for companies such as Procter & Gamble
Procter & Gamble
Procter & Gamble is a Fortune 500 American multinational corporation headquartered in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio and manufactures a wide range of consumer goods....
, Metropolitan Life, the Aeolian Company
Aeolian Company
The Æolian Company was a manufacturer of player organs and pianos.- History :It was founded by New York City piano maker William B. Tremaine as the Æolian Organ & Music Co. to make automatic organs, and, after 1895, as the Æolian Co. automatic pianos as well. The Æolian Company was a...
, and Ivory Soap. Peck also illustrated educational books, educational certificates, sheet music, fiction, and fairy tales.
Women and children in Peck's work were depicted with great sensitivity in a wide variety of roles and responsibilities. Art historian and illustrator Walt Reed
Walt Reed
Walt Reed is an art historian and author of books on illustration. He is the author of several works on illustration and illustrators including Harold von Schmidt, John Clymer, and Joseph Clement Coll. In 1974, he founded the gallery Illustration House in Westport, Connecticut. His book on Coll,...
describes Peck's style as "decorative in composition and sensitive in rendering". Artistic themes found in Peck's work include education, child psychology, and the expectant mother. The decorative style of the period was popularized by seminal American illustrator Howard Pyle
Howard Pyle
Howard Pyle was an American illustrator and author, primarily of books for young people. A native of Wilmington, Delaware, he spent the last year of his life in Florence, Italy.__FORCETOC__...
and his female students. According to Elizabeth H. Hawkes, curator emeritus of the Delaware Art Museum
Delaware Art Museum
The Delaware Art Museum is an art museum located on the Kentmere Parkway in Wilmington, Delaware, which holds a collection of more than 12,000 works. The museum, was founded in 1912 as the Wilmington Society of the Fine Arts in honor of the artist Howard Pyle and is now celebrating its centennial...
, the style consisted of "using flat, brightly colored figures boldly outlined and placed against a patterned background. They incorporated elements of the popular 1890's poster style and borrowed motifs from Walter Crane, Kate Greenaway, and the English Arts and Crafts movement style of illustration."
Peck's career in illustration was active from the "Golden Age of American Illustration" through the onset of the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
when the careers of illustrators suffered due to the poor economy. The output of magazine illustrations from Peck continued until at least 1935.
Cartooning
Cartoonist
A cartoonist is a person who specializes in drawing cartoons. This work is usually humorous, mainly created for entertainment, political commentary or advertising...
for Topix Comics and Treasure Chest, a series of Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
-themed comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
s. Topix Comics was launched in 1942 and produced in St. Paul, Minnesota. The comic book featured stories of courageous Christians, Saints, and Biblical narratives, and by 1946, it had a circulation of over 600,000. Peck's work was distributed exclusively in parochial schools and appeared throughout most of the title's nine-year run. She also provided material for early issues of the similarly themed Treasure Chest title, including a few episodes of "The Robinson's Rumpus Room" feature and the cover for Volume 2, Number 9 in 1946.
Painting
Peck participated in several exhibitions in the 1950s, beginning with the American Watercolor SocietyAmerican Watercolor Society
The American Watercolor Society is a nonprofit membership organization devoted to the advancement of watercolor painting in the United States. It was founded in 1866 by eleven painters and, originally, was known as the American Society of Painters in Water Colors...
. From 1956-1957, Peck was part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
's European traveling exhibition; In 1958, Peck's work appeared at the Washington County Museum of Art, in a solo exhibition at Gettysburg College
Gettysburg College
Gettysburg College is a private four-year liberal arts college founded in 1832, in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, United States, adjacent to the famous battlefield. Its athletic teams are nicknamed the Bullets. Gettysburg College has about 2,700 students, with roughly equal numbers of men and women...
, at the York
York, Pennsylvania
York, known as the White Rose City , is a city located in York County, Pennsylvania, United States which is in the South Central region of the state. The population within the city limits was 43,718 at the 2010 census, which was a 7.0% increase from the 2000 count of 40,862...
Art Center, and in New Canaan, Connecticut
New Canaan, Connecticut
New Canaan is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, northeast of Stamford, on the Fivemile River. The population was 19,738 according to the 2010 census.The town is one of the most affluent communities in the United States...
. The Brandywine River Museum
Brandywine River Museum
The Brandywine River Museum is a museum of regional and American art located on U.S. Route 1 in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania on the banks of the Brandywine River. The museum showcases the art of Andrew Wyeth a major American realist painter, and his family: his father, N.C...
and the Delaware Art Museum
Delaware Art Museum
The Delaware Art Museum is an art museum located on the Kentmere Parkway in Wilmington, Delaware, which holds a collection of more than 12,000 works. The museum, was founded in 1912 as the Wilmington Society of the Fine Arts in honor of the artist Howard Pyle and is now celebrating its centennial...
host her paintings. Since 2000, a few landscape and portrait oil paintings sales have been recorded at various auction houses.
Awards and distinctions
Peck was a member of several art associations, including the American Watercolor Society (1931–1967), the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors, National Association of Women Artists, the New York Watercolor Society and the Society of IllustratorsSociety of Illustrators
The Society of Illustrators is a professional society based in New York City. Founded in 1901, the mission of the Society is to promote the art and appreciation of illustration, as well as its history...
. Along with Florence Scovel Shinn
Florence Scovel Shinn
Florence Scovel Shinn was an American artist and book illustrator who became a New Thought spiritual teacher and metaphysical writer in her middle years...
, Rose O'Neill
Rose O'Neill
Rose Cecil O'Neill was an illustrator who created a popular period comic called Kewpie.-Early life:...
and others, Peck was one of the first 20 women to become a member of the Society of Illustrators by 1922, representing about 10% of the total membership. In 1913, Peck's work was featured in exhibitions at the Art Institute of Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago is one of America's largest accredited independent schools of art and design, located in the Loop in Chicago, Illinois. It is associated with the museum of the same name, and "The Art Institute of Chicago" or "Chicago Art Institute" often refers to either...
and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and at the National Association of Women Artists and the New York Association of Women Painters and Sculptors where she won awards in 1920 and 1921. Posthumously, Peck's works were featured in the seminal 1976 New York exhibition, 200 Years of American Illustration; In 1985 at the America's Great Women Illustrators 1850-1950 exhibition in New York; And, in 1986, at the American Illustration 1890-1925 exhibition held in Calgary.
Selected illustrated books
- Phases, Mazes and crazes of love. By Minna Thomas Antrim. Philadelphia: George W. Jacobs and Company, 1904.
- Knocks, Witty Wise and ____. By Minna Thomas Antrim. Philadelphia: George W. Jacobs and Company, 1905.
- Shakespeare's Sweetheart. By Sara Hawks Sterling. Philadelphia: George W. Jacobs & Co, 1905.
- A Lady of King Arthur's Court. By Sara Hawks Sterling. Philadelphia: George W Jacobs and Co., 1907.
- In the Border Country. By Josephine Daskam Bacon. New York: Doubleday Page, 1909.
- The Hallowell Partnership. By Katharine Holland Brown. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1912.
- The Prince of Mercuria. By Atkinson Kimball. New York: Heart's International Library Co., 1914.
- The Diary of an Expectant Mother. By Charlotte Hirsch. Chicago: A.C. McClurg, 1917.
Gallery
External links
- Auction records at askart.com Retrieved 27-09-2008
- Bio at Ortakales.com Retrieved 10-07-2008
Book illustrations:
- Girl Wanted! by Josephine Daskam Bacon
- In the Border Country by Josephine Daskam Bacon
- The Prince of Mercuria by Atkinson Kimball