Tuesday Spill: First & Last New Yorker Drawing…Robert Kraus

First & Last New Yorker Drawing…Robert Kraus

A series of quick looks at an artist’s very first New Yorker cartoon and their last

To begin with, here’s the Spill‘s Robert Kraus A-Z entry.

Robert Kraus Born June 21, 1925, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; died, Kent, Connecticut, 2001. In 1966 he founded Windmill Books, which published children’s books by such New Yorker artists as Steig, Darrow, and Addams. New Yorker work: Sept. 6, 1947 – Jan. 25, 1969. More information.

 

It’s rare enough to hear of a New Yorker cartoonist quitting the magazine, let alone quitting to run a publishing house. But nothing much surprises me about what cartoonists have done and do. Mr. Kraus’s Windmill Press stuck close by a good number of New Yorker artists (The link above will take you to a Wikipedia page that names names).

For our purposes today, here is Mr. Kraus’s very first New Yorker drawing, published in the issue of September 6, 1947:

And here is his very last New Yorker cartoon, published January 26, 1969:

Obviously a big change of style from first to last. The latter style (a heavily stylized style!) is the the one I think of when I think about Kraus’s work. When talking about “golden age” New Yorker artists I find myself saying over and over again that each possessed a singular style (i.e., no one else drew like that). And in Kraus’s case, it is undeniably true: That “look” is instantly recognizable. But I do like his early style as well. As with so many first drawings it gives us an idea of influences. I see at least one possible influence (I should say I have zero information to back me up on this — I’ve never read an in depth piece on his development as a cartoonist). Just going by the American Can Company drawing I see some Sam Cobean, particularly in the way the man’s head is drawn (see the ad below).

As Cobean entered the magazine’s pages just a few years before Kraus, it’s a possibility tho not a certainty.

In all, Mr. Kraus contributed 21 covers, and 454 drawings in his 22 years with the magazine. A terrific amount of work in a relatively short span.