Regular Spill readers are doubtless aware that Rea Irvin was The New Yorker’s first art supervisor (he’s sometimes referred to as its first “art director” or even “art editor” — but I’m not so sure that that last title is accurate. “Art Supervisor” has always seemed the best fit). Mr Irvin created the very first New Yorker cover of a top hatted dandy (later dubbed “Eustace Tilley”) observing a butterfly.
One of the unsolved New Yorker mysteries is: why. Why did he offer up this drawing to Harold Ross for Ross’s inaugural issue? (Apparently his first submission — obviously rejected — was of a rising theater curtain).
Left: Rea Irvin’s sketch for issue #1.
The answer Mr. Irvin gave to an inquiring columnist many moons ago will have to suffice until we come across something meatier (or, maybe, that’s all there is). Here’s Norton Mockridge, writing in his column of February 2, 1973:
While this answer may not satisfy some, I can certainly understand it. There’s often no answer to why we do certain things — often we do them because it seemed like the right thing to do at the time. Case closed, I guess.
The other big mystery surrounding Mr. Irvin’s cover is why Harold Ross decided the top hatted butterfly gazing fellow was right for the debut issue of The New Yorker. That’s something worth digging around for.
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Rea Irvin’s A-Z Entry:
Rea Irvin (pictured above. Self portrait above from Meet the Artist) Born, San Francisco, 1881; died in the Virgin Islands,1972. Irvin was the cover artist for the New Yorker’s first issue, February 21, 1925. He was the magazine’s first art and only art supervisor (some refer to him as its first art editor) holding the position from 1925 until 1939 when James Geraghty assumed the title of art editor. Irvin then became art director and remained in that position until William Shawn officially succeeded Harold Ross in early 1952. Irvin’s last original work for the magazine was the magazine’s cover of July 12, 1958. The February 21, 1925 Eustace Tilley cover had been reproduced every year on the magazine’s anniversary until 1994, when R. Crumb’s Tilley-inspired cover appeared. Tilley has since reappeared, with other artists substituting from time-to-time. Number of New Yorker covers (not including the repeat appearances of the first cover every anniversary up to 1991): 163. Number of cartoons contributed: 261.