John R. Neill was only illustrating one Oz book a year, con- sequently the majority of his work appeared in magazine illustrations. Neill illustrated stories in Pictorial Review magazine over a number of years. I recently picked up an issue from February 1926 with a few of his drawings.
For the story shown above, Neill contributed three pieces of two-color artwork. The way his illustrations are used is interesting - particularly the combination of two pieces on the page to the right. The large drawing on the right of the woman handing the man his coat used to be available from the Neill family a few years ago. If anyone reading this blog happened to buy it, here's what it illustrated!Another drawing pops up further along in the magazine, illustrating a poem . This piece is dropped into the middle of another story, and the drawing is a simpler vignette.
A third use is found even further along, in an article about Abraham Lincoln. Here, two little drawings by Neill are used in conjunction with the photos illustrating the article. These two pieces are unsigned, but they are unmistakably Neill.
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4 comments:
Hi Bill -
Actually Eric and I now own the picture of the girl handing the coat to the nice young man. We also have a copy of the PICTORIAL REVIEW issue.
I really want the OTHER picture, too.
Cheers, David M.
I really liked that piece! Had it lingered long enough, I might have ended up with it - but, that's what happens! The other large drawing is also quite nice - It's interesting to see what survives and what doesn't. I suppose the other drawing might still exist and belong to someone in the family.
I forgot to mention that I had not spotted the two little Lincoln pics in this issue. So it was a nice surprise to have them pointed out.
I also think its very interesting what survives and what seems not to survive among Neill artwork - especially on the Oz work.
Have you by any chance ever started a list of what's known to survive from what Oz books? I've been keeping pretty good notes ( mental or otherwise) But a thorough list of what's known to survive might be very interesting to see. If you want to compare notes drop me an e-mail.
Best, David M.
I have been compiling a list over time - it's currently at about 176 published pieces. These are pieces that I've either seen in person, seen listed in catalogs or auctions, or seen mentioned in articles. Some of the references get fairly old, so it's difficult to say whether the piece mentioned still exists, but it did at one time!
There are also unpublished pieces, sketches, etc. which aren't included in that count. I'm sure there are more that I'm not aware of, but I keep adding to the list as I see or hear of things.
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