Original Art for the Cover of the March 19, 1938 St. Patrick's Day Issue of The New Yorker

[1938].

Price: $22,000.00

Unbound. Original pastel. Image size matted to 11" x 15". Framed. Signed in lower left ("W. Cotton"). Additionally Inscribed by Cotton in discreet white album ink in the upper righthand corner to fellow illustrator and close friend, R. Roberts Baldwin: "To Baldy (the figure on the left) from W. Cotton." Unexamined out of the frame, but all indications are that the image is fine and completely unfaded. Accompanied by a near fine issue of the published magazine.

This St. Patrick's Day cover depicts an African-American man dressed in a festive green sash and Irish-style top hat with affixed shamrock, with a liquor bottle between his knees, passed out on the steps of a brownstone, apparently the victim of overindulgence on St. Patrick's Day, while a redheaded, presumably Irish policeman strokes his chin and looks on, displaying emotions that range somewhere between consternation and perplexity.

Both a caricaturist and respected portrait painter, Cotton created some of *The New Yorker's* most arresting covers between 1932 and 1951. This particular cover was the first example cited by then-Art Director of *The New Yorker* Lee Lorenz in a 1997 article when he wrote about controversial "politically incorrect" covers published by *The New Yorker*:

"By way of illustration, so to speak, consider this arbitrary sample of zingers from a less enlightened age--not quite B.C., but definitely pre-P.C. Will Cotton's covers, skillfully executed in pastel, are memorable for their elegance and gentle wit. He was a gifted caricaturist, and his portraits of people were always warm, never grotesque. In contrast, the cover accompanying this article, which depicts an Irish cop looking at a homeless black man (3/19/38), manages to abuse both the Irish and blacks."

This is very likely the most memorable of the 55 covers that Cotton created for *The New Yorker* and is an excellent example of the pervasive institutional racism that was so often indulged by reasonably progressive publications. We have been aware of the cover for several decades and were beyond surprised when it was brought to us by an art historian and dealer.


Item #431800

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Item #431800 Original Art for the Cover of the March 19, 1938 St. Patrick's Day Issue of The New Yorker. Will COTTON.
Original Art for the Cover of the March 19, 1938 St. Patrick's Day Issue of The New Yorker
Original Art for the Cover of the March 19, 1938 St. Patrick's Day Issue of The New Yorker
Original Art for the Cover of the March 19, 1938 St. Patrick's Day Issue of The New Yorker