Tuesday Spill: Update… New Yorker Cartoonist Alan Foster

Update: New Yorker Cartoonist Alan Foster

It’s always a thrill when The Spill hears from a relative of a long-ago New Yorker cartoonist colleague. Last week, I was delighted to hear from Alan Foster’s granddaughter. She kindly offered photos as well as more information about her grandfather. 

Mr. Foster’s style had such an attractive flow — he was a natural. 

Mr. Foster’s last New Yorker drawing — shown here — appeared in the issue of February 27, 1932

His A-Z entry has looked like this for quite some time:

Alan Foster Born, Fulton, New York, November 2, 1892; died, NYC, July 26, 1969. Mr. Foster was a Saturday Evening Post cover artist, as well as the creator of “Mr. Fala At The White House” a single panel cartoon that ran in Collier’s for three years. New Yorker work, 14 cartoons appearing between March 1, 1930 and February 27, 1932.

With his granddaughter’s assistance we can now add this great photo, showing Mr. Foster and his granddaughter (the photo was taken by Mr. Foster’s son):

 This article, brought to my attention, informs us that Mr. Foster’s cover contributions to The Saturday Evening Post ranked 2nd only to Norman Rockwell’s. Here’s his cover of August 22, 1925.

A Foster painting of Ben Franklin, shown here as it appeared on the cover of Etude, January 1927.

Here’re two more Alan Foster New Yorker drawings:

Above: published in The New Yorker January 3, 1931. Below: December 13, 1930

And finally, from the Foster family archives, this holiday card: 

 

 

My thanks to Laurie Foster Palmer for getting in touch and for her kind permission to include these materials on the Spill