Maxwell Coburn Whitmore (June 11, 1913 – October 12, 1988)M.C. Whitmore
Social Security Number 287-10-5182, at the

Social Security Death Index The Social Security Death Index (SSDI) was a database of death records created from the United States Social Security Administration's Death Master File until 2014. Since 2014, public access to the updated Death Master File has been via the Limit ...

via FamilySearch.org. was an American painter and magazine illustrator known for his '' Saturday Evening Post'' covers, and a

commercial art Commercial art is the art of creative services, referring to art created for commercial purposes, primarily advertising. Commercial art uses a variety of platforms (magazines, websites, apps, television, etc.) for viewers with the intent of prom ...

ist whose work included advertisements for Gallo Wine and other brands. He additionally became known as a race-car designer. Whitmore was inducted into the

Society of Illustrators The Society of Illustrators is a professional society based in New York City. It was founded in 1901 to promote the art of illustration and, since 1959, has held an annual exhibition. History Founding The Society of Illustrators was founded on ...

Hall of Fame in 1978.

Biography

Early life and career

Coby Whitmore was born in

Dayton, Ohio Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater D ...

, the son of Maxwell Coburn Whitmore Sr. and Charlotte Bosler. He graduated from Steele High School and attended the Dayton Art Institute. After moving to

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, he apprenticed with

Haddon Sundblom Haddon Hubbard "Sunny" Sundblom (June 22, 1899 – March 10, 1976) was an American artist of Swedish and Finnish descent and best known for the images of Santa Claus he created for The Coca-Cola Company. Sundblom's friend Lou Prentice was t ...

, illustrator of the "Sundblom Circle", in addition to working for the '' Chicago Herald Examiner'' and taking night classes at the

Chicago Art Institute The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mill ...

. Whitmore moved to New York in 1942 and shortly afterward joined the Charles E. Cooper Studio, on West 57th Street in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. Additional, July 16, 2009 There he illustrated for leading magazines of the day and did other commercial art. Whitmore and

Jon Whitcomb Jon Whitcomb (1906–1988) was an American illustrator. He was well known for his pictures of glamorous young women. He was born in Weatherford, Oklahoma and grew up in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. He attended Ohio Wesleyan University and graduated ...

were two of the top illustrators at Cooper, which in the 1940s and 1950s "monopolized the ladies' magazines like ''

McCall's ''McCall's'' was a monthly American women's magazine, published by the McCall Corporation, that enjoyed great popularity through much of the 20th century, peaking at a readership of 8.4 million in the early 1960s. It was established as a small-f ...

'', ''

Ladies Home Journal ''Ladies' Home Journal'' was an American magazine last published by the Meredith Corporation. It was first published on February 16, 1883, and eventually became one of the leading women's magazines of the 20th century in the United States. In ...

'', and ''

Good Housekeeping ''Good Housekeeping'' is an American women's magazine featuring articles about women's interests, product testing by The Good Housekeeping Institute, recipes, diet, and health, as well as literary articles. It is well known for the "Good Hous ...

'' with postwar images of the ideal white American family centered around pretty, middle-class, female consumers living happily in new kitchens, new houses, driving new cars, living with handsome husbands, adorable children, and cute dogs". Aside from women's magazines, Whitmore also illustrated for '' Esquire'', ''

The Saturday Evening Post ''The Saturday Evening Post'' is an American magazine, currently published six times a year. It was issued weekly under this title from 1897 until 1963, then every two weeks until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely ...

'' and ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twi ...

''.

Later life and career

Additionally, Whitmore, by then living in

Briarcliff Manor Briarcliff Manor () is a suburban village in Westchester County, New York, north of New York City. It is on of land on the east bank of the Hudson River, geographically shared by the towns of Mount Pleasant and Ossining. Briarcliff Manor inc ...

, New York, teamed with former

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

fighter pilot John Fitch, an imported car dealer in

White Plains, New York (Always Faithful) , image_seal = WhitePlainsSeal.png , seal_link = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Country , subdivision_name = , subdivision_type1 = U.S. state, State , su ...

, to design and race sports cars in the 1950s and 1960s.

Personal life

He and his wife, Virginia, moved Hilton Head,

South Carolina )'' Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

, in 1968. He died there in 1988, at age 75.

Legacy

Whitmore's work influenced such

comic-book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

artists as John Buscema,Spurlock, David J., and John Buscema, ''John Buscema Sketchbook'' (Vanguard Productions: Lebanon, N.J. 2001), Hardcover , signed-numbered hardcover , trade paperback , p. 27. John Romita, Sr.,Spurlock, J. David, and John Romita. ''John Romita Sketchbook''. (Vanguard Productions: Lebanon, N.J. 2002) , p. 16 and Phil Noto. Glen Murakami, producer of the 2000s ''

Teen Titans The Teen Titans are a superhero team appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, frequently in eponymous monthly series. As the group's name indicates, the members are teenage superheroes, many of whom have acted as sidekicks to DC ...

animated series An animated series is a set of animated works with a common series title, usually related to one another. These episodes should typically share the same main characters, some different secondary characters and a basic theme. Series can have eith ...

on Cartoon Network, cited Whitmore and fellow illustrator

Bob Peak Robert M. Peak (May 30, 1927 – August 1, 1992) was an American commercial illustrator. He is best known for his developments in the design of the modern film poster. His artwork has been on the cover of ''Time'' magazine, '' TV Guide'', an ...

as "big influences on the loose, painterly style we have been using for the backgrounds". His work was presented alongside that of several contemporaries of illustrator Al Parker in the "Re-Imagining the American Woman" section of the retrospective "Ephemeral Beauty: Al Parker and the American Women's Magazine, 1940-1960", mounted by the

Norman Rockwell Museum The Norman Rockwell Museum is an art museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, dedicated to the art of Norman Rockwell. It is home to the world's largest collection of original Rockwell art. The museum also hosts traveling exhibitions pertaining to ...

from June 9 to October 28, 2007. Whitmore art is included in the permanent collections of

The Pentagon The Pentagon is the headquarters building of the United States Department of Defense. It was constructed on an accelerated schedule during World War II. As a symbol of the U.S. military, the phrase ''The Pentagon'' is often used as a meton ...

, the

United States Air Force Academy The United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) is a United States service academy in El Paso County, Colorado, immediately north of Colorado Springs. It educates cadets for service in the officer corps of the United States Air Force and U ...

, the

New Britain Museum of American Art The New Britain Museum of American Art is an art museum in New Britain, Connecticut. Founded in 1903, it is the first museum in the country dedicated to American art. A total of 72,000 visits were made to the museum in the year ending June 30, 200 ...

, and Syracuse University.

Accolades

Whitmore was inducted into the

Hall of Fame in 1978. He received awards from the Art Directors Clubs of New York, Philadelphia and Chicago.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Whitmore, Coby American magazine illustrators American art educators 1913 births 1988 deaths Artists from Dayton, Ohio People from Briarcliff Manor, New York