Philip R. Goodwin
Encyclopedia
Philip R. Goodwin was an American
painter
and illustrator
who specialized in depictions of wildlife
, the outdoors
, fishing
, hunting
and the Old American West
. He provided illustrations for numerous books and magazines, as well as for commercial items, such as posters, advertisements and calendars. He is perhaps best known for illustrating Jack London's The Call of the Wild and for providing the cover art for many issues of Outdoor Recreation / Outdoor Life
Magazine during the 1920s and early 1930s. He is also the artist who designed the Horse & Rider Trademark of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company
. Goodwin was a very private person and did not seek publicity, so not much was known about his private life during his lifetime. Most of what is known comes from letters held at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center.
in 1881. At age 11, he sold his first illustrated story to Collier's Magazine. Goodwin studied art at the Rhode Island School of Design
, the Art Students League in New York City
, and the Drexel Institute of Art, Science and Industry
(now Drexel University
) in Philadelphia under the well known Howard Pyle
. He later followed Pyle when he opened his own Howard Pyle School of Illustration Art. N.C. Wyeth, Thornton Oakley
and Frank Schoonover
were contemporaries of Goodwin who also studied under Pyle at that time.
The Call of the Wild
in 1903 at the age of 22. He later illustrated Theodore Roosevelt's
African Game Trails. Goodwin opened a studio in 1904 in New York City, and became well known for his illustrations in numerous magazines and commercial items, such as posters, calendars, and catalogs. Some of the magazines in which his work appeared include: Collier's Weekly
, Outdoor Life
, Outers' Recreation, Scribner's Magazine
, The Popular Magazine
, and McClure's Magazine. He also did several covers for The Saturday Evening Post.
, staying with him at Russell's Lazy KY Ranch and his Bull Head Lodge, and also traveling with him on painting, hunting and fishing expeditions. On these expeditions, Russell and Goodwin influenced each others painting techniques. Goodwin was also friends with Carl Rungius
, an avid outdoorsman who taught Goodwin the finer points of hunting and surviving in the wilderness. Goodwin also met and became friends with Theodore Roosevelt
, Will Rogers
, and Ernest Seton Thompson. Goodwin's calendars were published by Brown and Bigelow, the nation’s largest calendar publisher and he received substantial commissions for illustrating advertisements for both the Winchester Repeating Arms Company
and Marlin Firearms Company
when his savings bank failed. His work was primarily commission-based and his primary activities during that time were gun ads and calendar art, which were barely sufficient to maintain his studio.
"... a photographer is coming upon a mother bear and her two cubs. The painting exemplifies Goodwin's open color palette, use of distance and atmosphere, and sense of humor. He painted many wildlife, hunting, fishing, and western scenes, often composed from behind the subject's shoulder."
, the Brandywine River Museum
, the Buffalo Bill Historical Center
, the Charles M. Russell Museum
, the Glenbow Museum
, the Cowboy Hall of Fame
, the National Museum of Wildlife Art
, and the Gilcrease Museum
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
painter
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
and 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...
who specialized in depictions of wildlife
Wildlife
Wildlife includes all non-domesticated plants, animals and other organisms. Domesticating wild plant and animal species for human benefit has occurred many times all over the planet, and has a major impact on the environment, both positive and negative....
, the outdoors
Outdoor recreation
Outdoor recreation or outdoor activity is leisure pursuits engaged in outside, especially in natural or semi-natural settings out of town...
, fishing
Fishing
Fishing is the activity of trying to catch wild fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping....
, hunting
Hunting
Hunting is the practice of pursuing any living thing, usually wildlife, for food, recreation, or trade. In present-day use, the term refers to lawful hunting, as distinguished from poaching, which is the killing, trapping or capture of the hunted species contrary to applicable law...
and the Old American West
American Old West
The American Old West, or the Wild West, comprises the history, geography, people, lore, and cultural expression of life in the Western United States, most often referring to the latter half of the 19th century, between the American Civil War and the end of the century...
. He provided illustrations for numerous books and magazines, as well as for commercial items, such as posters, advertisements and calendars. He is perhaps best known for illustrating Jack London's The Call of the Wild and for providing the cover art for many issues of Outdoor Recreation / Outdoor Life
Outdoor Life
Outdoor Life is an outdoors magazine about hunting, fishing, survival and camping. It is a sister magazine of Field & Stream. Together with Sports Afield, they are considered the Big Three of American outdoor publishing. Outdoor Life launched in Denver, Colorado in January 1898. Founder and...
Magazine during the 1920s and early 1930s. He is also the artist who designed the Horse & Rider Trademark of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company
Winchester Repeating Arms Company
The Winchester Repeating Arms Company was a prominent American maker of repeating firearms, located in New Haven, Connecticut. The Winchester brand is today used under license by two subsidiaries of the Herstal Group, Fabrique Nationale of Belgium and the Browning Arms Company of Morgan, Utah.-...
. Goodwin was a very private person and did not seek publicity, so not much was known about his private life during his lifetime. Most of what is known comes from letters held at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center.
Early life
Goodwin was born in Norwich, ConnecticutNorwich, Connecticut
Regular steamship service between New York and Boston helped Norwich to prosper as a shipping center through the early part of the 20th century. During the Civil War, Norwich once again rallied and saw the growth of its textile, armaments, and specialty item manufacturing...
in 1881. At age 11, he sold his first illustrated story to Collier's Magazine. Goodwin studied art at the Rhode Island School of Design
Rhode Island School of Design
Rhode Island School of Design is a fine arts and design college located in Providence, Rhode Island. It was founded in 1877. Located at the base of College Hill, the RISD campus is contiguous with the Brown University campus. The two institutions share social, academic, and community resources and...
, the Art Students League in New York City
Art Students League of New York
The Art Students League of New York is an art school located on West 57th Street in New York City. The League has historically been known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists, and has maintained for over 130 years a tradition of offering reasonably priced classes on a...
, and the Drexel Institute of Art, Science and Industry
Drexel University
Drexel University is a private research university with the main campus located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. It was founded in 1891 by Anthony J. Drexel, a noted financier and philanthropist. Drexel offers 70 full-time undergraduate programs and accelerated degrees...
(now Drexel University
Drexel University
Drexel University is a private research university with the main campus located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. It was founded in 1891 by Anthony J. Drexel, a noted financier and philanthropist. Drexel offers 70 full-time undergraduate programs and accelerated degrees...
) in Philadelphia under the well known 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__...
. He later followed Pyle when he opened his own Howard Pyle School of Illustration Art. N.C. Wyeth, Thornton Oakley
Thornton Oakley
-Biography :Thornton Oakley was born March 27, 1881, in Pittsburgh. He studied at the University of Pennsylvania and received B.S. and M.S. degrees in architecture in 1901 and 1902...
and Frank Schoonover
Frank Schoonover
Frank Earle Schoonover was an American illustrator. Born in Oxford, New Jersey, he studied under Howard Pyle at the Drexel Institute in Philadelphia and became part of what would be known as the Brandywine School...
were contemporaries of Goodwin who also studied under Pyle at that time.
Early career
Goodwin illustrated Jack London'sJack London
John Griffith "Jack" London was an American author, journalist, and social activist. He was a pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction and was one of the first fiction writers to obtain worldwide celebrity and a large fortune from his fiction alone...
The Call of the Wild
The Call of the Wild
The Call of the Wild is a novel by American writer Jack London. The plot concerns a previously domesticated dog named Buck, whose primordial instincts return after a series of events leads to his serving as a sled dog in the Yukon during the 19th-century Klondike Gold Rush, in which sled dogs...
in 1903 at the age of 22. He later illustrated Theodore Roosevelt's
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
African Game Trails. Goodwin opened a studio in 1904 in New York City, and became well known for his illustrations in numerous magazines and commercial items, such as posters, calendars, and catalogs. Some of the magazines in which his work appeared include: Collier's Weekly
Collier's Weekly
Collier's Weekly was an American magazine founded by Peter Fenelon Collier and published from 1888 to 1957. With the passage of decades, the title was shortened to Collier's....
, Outdoor Life
Outdoor Life
Outdoor Life is an outdoors magazine about hunting, fishing, survival and camping. It is a sister magazine of Field & Stream. Together with Sports Afield, they are considered the Big Three of American outdoor publishing. Outdoor Life launched in Denver, Colorado in January 1898. Founder and...
, Outers' Recreation, Scribner's Magazine
Scribner's Magazine
Scribner's Magazine was an American periodical published by the publishing house of Charles Scribner's Sons from January 1887 to May 1939. Scribner's Magazine was the second magazine out of the "Scribner's" firm, after the publication of Scribner's Monthly...
, The Popular Magazine
The Popular Magazine
The Popular Magazine was an early American literary magazine that ran for 612 issues from November 1903 to October 1931. It featured short fiction, novellas, serialized larger works, and even entire short novels...
, and McClure's Magazine. He also did several covers for The Saturday Evening Post.
Mid-Career
Goodwin became good friends with Charles RussellCharles Marion Russell
Charles Marion Russell , also known as C. M. Russell, Charlie Russell, and "Kid" Russell, was an artist of the Old American West. Russell created more than 2,000 paintings of cowboys, Indians, and landscapes set in the Western United States, in addition to bronze sculptures...
, staying with him at Russell's Lazy KY Ranch and his Bull Head Lodge, and also traveling with him on painting, hunting and fishing expeditions. On these expeditions, Russell and Goodwin influenced each others painting techniques. Goodwin was also friends with Carl Rungius
Carl Rungius
Carl Clemens Moritz Rungius was a leading American wildlife artist. He was born in Germany though he immigrated to the United States and he spent his career painting in the western United States and Canada...
, an avid outdoorsman who taught Goodwin the finer points of hunting and surviving in the wilderness. Goodwin also met and became friends with Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
, Will Rogers
Will Rogers
William "Will" Penn Adair Rogers was an American cowboy, comedian, humorist, social commentator, vaudeville performer, film actor, and one of the world's best-known celebrities in the 1920s and 1930s....
, and Ernest Seton Thompson. Goodwin's calendars were published by Brown and Bigelow, the nation’s largest calendar publisher and he received substantial commissions for illustrating advertisements for both the Winchester Repeating Arms Company
Winchester Repeating Arms Company
The Winchester Repeating Arms Company was a prominent American maker of repeating firearms, located in New Haven, Connecticut. The Winchester brand is today used under license by two subsidiaries of the Herstal Group, Fabrique Nationale of Belgium and the Browning Arms Company of Morgan, Utah.-...
and Marlin Firearms Company
Marlin Firearms
Marlin Firearms Co., formerly of North Haven, Connecticut, is a manufacturer of high power, center fire, lever action, and .22 caliber rimfire rifles. In the past, the company made shotguns, derringers and revolvers...
Late career
Goodwin ran into bad luck during the Great DepressionGreat 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 his savings bank failed. His work was primarily commission-based and his primary activities during that time were gun ads and calendar art, which were barely sufficient to maintain his studio.
Style
Goodwin's style is epitomized by The Surprise, currently in the collection of the National Museum of Wildlife Art. The museum describes the painting:"... a photographer is coming upon a mother bear and her two cubs. The painting exemplifies Goodwin's open color palette, use of distance and atmosphere, and sense of humor. He painted many wildlife, hunting, fishing, and western scenes, often composed from behind the subject's shoulder."
Collections
Goodwin is well-represented in many private collections and museums featuring western and outdoor themes, including the American Museum of Natural HistoryAmerican Museum of Natural History
The American Museum of Natural History , located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States, is one of the largest and most celebrated museums in the world...
, 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...
, the Buffalo Bill Historical Center
Buffalo Bill Historical Center
The Buffalo Bill Historical Center is a complex of museums displaying artifacts and art of the American West located in Cody, Wyoming. Founded in 1917, the Buffalo Bill Historical Center is the oldest museum in the West...
, the Charles M. Russell Museum
C. M. Russell Museum Complex
C.M. Russell Museum Complex is an art museum located in the city of Great Falls, Montana, in the United States. The museum's primary function is to display the artwork of Great Falls "cowboy artist" Charles Marion Russell, for whom the museum is named...
, 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....
, the Cowboy Hall of Fame
National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum
The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum is a museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, with more than 28,000 Western and American Indian art works and artifacts. The facility also has the world's most extensive collection of American rodeo, photographs, barbed wire, saddlery, and early rodeo trophies...
, the National Museum of Wildlife Art
National Museum of Wildlife Art
The National Museum of Wildlife Art, located in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, is a museum dedicated to presenting art about wildlife. Located on a bluff called East Gros Ventre Butte and amid real wildlife habitat, the sandstone structure overlooks the National Elk Refuge...
, and the Gilcrease Museum
Gilcrease Museum
Gilcrease Museum is a museum located northwest of downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma. The museum now houses the world's largest, most comprehensive collection of art of the American West as well as a growing collection of art and artifacts from Central and South America...
.
Books
The primary biography on Goodwin's life and art is Philip R. Goodwin: Americas Sporting & Wildlife ArtistSee also
- Brandywine SchoolBrandywine SchoolThe Brandywine School was a style of illustration and an artists colony in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, near Brandywine Creek, founded by artist Howard Pyle at the end of the 19th century...
- Howard PyleHoward PyleHoward 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__...
- Charles RussellCharles Marion RussellCharles Marion Russell , also known as C. M. Russell, Charlie Russell, and "Kid" Russell, was an artist of the Old American West. Russell created more than 2,000 paintings of cowboys, Indians, and landscapes set in the Western United States, in addition to bronze sculptures...
- Carl RungiusCarl RungiusCarl Clemens Moritz Rungius was a leading American wildlife artist. He was born in Germany though he immigrated to the United States and he spent his career painting in the western United States and Canada...
External links
- Russel Fink Gallery page on Philip R. Goodwin
- National Museum of Wildlife Art page on Philip R. Goodwin
- AskArt page on Philip Goodwin, with photo
- National Museum of American Illustration page on Philip Goodwin
- Google Books page for Philip R. Goodwin: Americas Sporting & Wildlife Artist
- Winchester Firearms Company Page on the Artist that designed its logo
- Meadowlark Gallery page on Phillip Goodwin