Notable Poster Artists and Illustrators, “A...-”

Edwin Austin Abbey
b. 4-1-1862; Philadelphia, PA
d. 8-1-1911

Illustrator and painter Edwin Austin Abbey is best remembered for his drawings and paintings of Shakespearean and Victorian subjects.

He also painted the frieze mural, The Quest of the Holy Grail for the Boston Public Library, as well as murals for the rotunda of the Pennsylvania State Capitol in Harrisburg.

• Arthur Conan Doyle

Cecil Charles Windsor Aldin
b. 4-28-1870; Slough, England
d. 1-6-1935

In addition to his animal paintings Cecil Aldin illustrated The Jungle Book magazine serial of Rudyard Kipling, and the 1910 edition of Dickens' Pickwick Papers.

• Cecil Aldin's Puppy Dogs' Tales

Helen Allingham, née Paterson
b. 9-26-1848; at Swadlincote in Derbyshire, England
d. 9-28-1926

Illustrator and watercolor painter Helen Allingham was active during the Victorian era. She illustrated Thomas Hardy's "Far from the Madding Crowd", children's books, and magazines, as well as painting landscapes and portraits, including one of philosopher Thomas Carlyle, a family friend, in his garden.

• Helen Allingham's England
• folk dance posters

Charles Alston, Family No. 1, Art Print

Charles Alston
b. 11-28-1907; Charlotte, NC
d. 4-27-1977

Charles Alston illustrated album covers for jazz musician Duke Ellington, book covers for poet Langston Hughes and painted murals as part of the Works Progress Administration's Federal Art Project at the Harlem Hospital Center.

Alston was also the first African American instructor at the Art Students League of New York (1950–1971) and the Museum of Modern Art (1956), and he became a full professor at the City University of New York (CUNY) in 1973.

FYI ~ Charles Alston and Romare Bearden were cousins by marriage.

Anne Anderson
b. 1874; Scotland
d. 1940s?

Illustrator, watercolorist and etcher, Anne Anderson's work falls into the Art Nouveau movement. Anderson, who collaborated with her artist husband Alan Wright, designed for books, fairy tales and greeting cards.

• Sleeping Beauty Illustration
• Rapunzel Illustration

John James Audubon
b. 4-26-1785; Haiti
d. 1-27-1851; NY

Audubon was an ornithologist (a zoologist specializing in birds), hunter, and artist known today for his illustrations and descriptions of the birds of North America.

Audubon was an explorer and careful observer, noting “... the nature of the place — whether high or low, moist or dry, whether sloping north or south, or bearing tall trees or low shrubs — generally gives hint as to its inhabitants.”

FYI ~ Audubon's method for portraying birds in the motions of hunting and feeding involved using wires to prop the birds he first killed with fine shot.

• Audubon's Birds of America