Charles Gates Sheldon

**mrcheese** · November 1st, 2009, 08:00 AM

"Charles Sheldon was a prolific and gifted early 1900's American Illustrator who specialized in "pretty woman" themed cover portraiture and advertising in the Art Nouveau and Edwardian styles. After studying at the Art Students League, he went to Paris to study under the legendary Alphonse Mucha. He returned to America and set up a studio at Carnegie Hall in New York City.
In 1918 Sheldon received his first pin-up commission, a series of ads for La Vogue lingerie. He went on to do a series of work for the Fox Shoe Company as well as front covers for Collier's Magazine, The Saturday Evening Post and Photoplay.
By 1921 he was contributing high fashion portraits to Woman's Home Companion and Theater magazine. Famous women all over the world arranged to sit for portraits in his studio in Carnegie Hall in New York.
The pastels he created for Photoplay 1925- 1930 launched his career as a portrait cover artist. During this time period most of the stars sat three or four times for each of these portraits, later came cover art commissions for Screenland, Movie Classic and Radio Digest magazines.
His glamorous interpretations of Clara Bow, Mae West, Jean Harlow, Greta Garbo, Gilda Gray, Mary Pickford, Shirley Temple and hundreds of other early tinsel town enchantresses were in high demand for these attention grabbing newsstand viewed publications. Charles Sheldon like many of his contemporary illustrators was also a competent photographer, Grapefruit Moon Gallery recently acquired a large archive of his Carnegie Hall studio portraits that we will be offering for sale on our ebay site in the coming months.
In 1936, Breck Shampoo asked this famous portrait artist to develop a national ad campaign and the ever-successful "Breck Girl" advertisements were born, Sheldon is known to have created 109 portraits for them until his retirement in the late 1950's.
Charles Sheldon was one the highest paid illustrators of his time and his cover illustrations were ingrained in the minds and eyes of the American people. He died in 1961 at his home in Springfield with his beloved summer gardens.
Grapefruitmoongallery recently purchased a vast collection of artist's studio C. 1916-1930 gelatin silver antique photographs taken by the American Illustrator Charles Gates Sheldon in his Carnegie Hall New York City Studio. These stills were used to create advertising pastels and paintings for lingerie companies, and his other advertising accounts including Breck Shampoo, as the artist was the originator of the "Miss Breck" series of pastel portraits. Sheldon went on to create hundreds of stylized covers for Photoplay Magazine and the other Silent Movie pre-code titles."
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November 1st, 2009, 08:00 AM	#1
mrcheese Vintage Member Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Kyiv Posts: 578 Thanks: 44 Thanked 17,705 Times in 579 Posts	Charles Gates Sheldon "Charles Sheldon was a prolific and gifted early 1900's American Illustrator who specialized in "pretty woman" themed cover portraiture and advertising in the Art Nouveau and Edwardian styles. After studying at the Art Students League, he went to Paris to study under the legendary Alphonse Mucha. He returned to America and set up a studio at Carnegie Hall in New York City. In 1918 Sheldon received his first pin-up commission, a series of ads for La Vogue lingerie. He went on to do a series of work for the Fox Shoe Company as well as front covers for Collier's Magazine, The Saturday Evening Post and Photoplay. By 1921 he was contributing high fashion portraits to Woman's Home Companion and Theater magazine. Famous women all over the world arranged to sit for portraits in his studio in Carnegie Hall in New York. The pastels he created for Photoplay 1925- 1930 launched his career as a portrait cover artist. During this time period most of the stars sat three or four times for each of these portraits, later came cover art commissions for Screenland, Movie Classic and Radio Digest magazines. His glamorous interpretations of Clara Bow, Mae West, Jean Harlow, Greta Garbo, Gilda Gray, Mary Pickford, Shirley Temple and hundreds of other early tinsel town enchantresses were in high demand for these attention grabbing newsstand viewed publications. Charles Sheldon like many of his contemporary illustrators was also a competent photographer, Grapefruit Moon Gallery recently acquired a large archive of his Carnegie Hall studio portraits that we will be offering for sale on our ebay site in the coming months. In 1936, Breck Shampoo asked this famous portrait artist to develop a national ad campaign and the ever-successful "Breck Girl" advertisements were born, Sheldon is known to have created 109 portraits for them until his retirement in the late 1950's. Charles Sheldon was one the highest paid illustrators of his time and his cover illustrations were ingrained in the minds and eyes of the American people. He died in 1961 at his home in Springfield with his beloved summer gardens. Grapefruitmoongallery recently purchased a vast collection of artist's studio C. 1916-1930 gelatin silver antique photographs taken by the American Illustrator Charles Gates Sheldon in his Carnegie Hall New York City Studio. These stills were used to create advertising pastels and paintings for lingerie companies, and his other advertising accounts including Breck Shampoo, as the artist was the originator of the "Miss Breck" series of pastel portraits. Sheldon went on to create hundreds of stylized covers for Photoplay Magazine and the other Silent Movie pre-code titles." © http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/grapefruitmoongallery Last edited by mrcheese; November 18th, 2010 at 03:05 PM..