Harry Devlin (March 22, 1918 – November 25, 2001) was an

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating the work of art. The most common usage (in both everyday speech and academic discourse) refers to a practitioner in the visual arts o ...

and a

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

who also worked as a

cartoonist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comics illustrators/artists in that they produce both the litera ...

for magazines such as ''

Collier's } ''Collier's'' was an American general interest magazine founded in 1888 by Peter F. Collier, Peter Fenelon Collier. It was launched as ''Collier's Once a Week'', then renamed in 1895 as ''Collier's Weekly: An Illustrated Journal'', shortened i ...

''. His work won him the

National Cartoonist Society The National Cartoonists Society (NCS) is an organization of professional cartoonists in the United States. It presents the National Cartoonists Society Awards. The Society was born in 1946 when groups of cartoonists got together to entertain the ...

Advertising and Illustration Award for 1956, 1962, and 1963, their Illustration Award for 1977 and 1978, and their Magazine and Book Illustration Award for 1990. Devlin, and his wife Wende, were residents of

Mountainside, New Jersey Mountainside is a Borough (New Jersey), borough in Union County, New Jersey, Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The borough is located on a ridge in North Jersey, northern-central Jersey, central New Jersey, within the Raritan River, ...

.Horner, Shirley
"ABOUT BOOKS"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', October 3, 1993. Accessed December 19, 2007. "Previous recipients of the award, which has come to be known as the Michael, include Mary Higgins Clark of Saddle River, Belva Plain of Short Hills, Wende and Harry Devlin of Mountainside, the Nobel laureate Dr. Arno Penzias of Highland Park and Gay Talese of Ocean City."

Biography

Harry Devlin was born in

Jersey City, New Jersey Jersey City is the List of municipalities in New Jersey, second-most populous

. He was the second son of Harry G. and Amelia Crawford Devlin. The Devlins first settled in

Elizabeth, New Jersey Elizabeth is a City (New Jersey), city in and the county seat of Union County, New Jersey, Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.Thomas Jefferson High School. In 1935, he entered

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York, United States. It was established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church but has been nonsectarian since 1920 ...

to major in illustration, despite his family's encouragement of a career in medicine. In Devlin's senior year he met Dorothy Wende, a junior from Buffalo, New York majoring in Fine Arts. Dorothy is a distinguished portrait and still life painter, poet and children's book author. In 1939, Harry graduated from Syracuse and moved to a studio in New York City. Harry Devlin married Dorothy Wende in 1941. Harry and Dorothy moved to

, in 1950, where the couple raised their seven children. Devlin has been focusing on Victorian Architecture for more than 30 years. There are shows by Harry Devlin at the Morris Museum including a sizable show of children's book illustrations, most of which are in collaboration with his wife, Wende.VIVIEN RAYNOR. "ART; Urban-Suburban Scenes and Unlikely Shapes." ''

'', (27 Jan. 1991): 16. Devlin died on November 25, 2001, at the age of 83. One of his children is artist Alexandra Eldridge, who also became a painter.

Career

Devlin started his career primarily in magazine illustration. After the beginning of World War II, he began his active duty in the

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest displacement, at 4.5 million tons in 2021. It has the world's largest aircraft ...

as an

ensign Ensign most often refers to: * Ensign (flag), a flag flown on a vessel to indicate nationality * Ensign (rank), a navy (and former army) officer rank Ensign or The Ensign may also refer to: Places * Ensign, Alberta, Alberta, Canada * Ensign, Ka ...

, where he was assigned to the Identification and Characteristics Office of

Naval Intelligence Military intelligence is a military discipline that uses information collection and analysis approaches to provide guidance and direction to assist commanders in their decisions. This aim is achieved by providing an assessment of data from a ...

. There he assumed responsibility for all illustrations and technical drawings published in manuals that were used by U.S. fliers to identify enemy planes. He was so proficient that by 1945, he had illustrated all Japanese, German, and Italian aircraft. Rising to the rank of

lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a Junior officer, junior commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations, as well as fire services, emergency medical services, Security agency, security services ...

at the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Devlin returned to a private life and began a ten-year association with

Collier's Weekly } ''Collier's'' was an American general interest magazine founded in 1888 by Peter F. Collier, Peter Fenelon Collier. It was launched as ''Collier's Once a Week'', then renamed in 1895 as ''Collier's Weekly: An Illustrated Journal'', shortened i ...

. He created editorial cartoons and illustrations for the magazine’s advertisements and articles. Furthermore, his work also appeared in other publications including the Saturday Home Magazine and the

New York Daily News The ''Daily News'' is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, New Jersey. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson in New York City as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in Tabloid (newspaper format ...

. During the

McCarthy era McCarthyism is a political practice defined by the political repression and persecution of left-wing individuals and a campaign spreading fear of communist and Soviet influence on American institutions and of Soviet espionage in the United S ...

, after refusing to design a pro-McCarthy cartoon, he was fired from these publications. It was during the 1950s, a period of political uncertainty and the concurrent decline of illustration that Devlin developed a comic strip carried in local papers, the

Newark Evening News The ''Newark Evening News'' was an American newspaper published in Newark, New Jersey. As New Jersey's largest city, Newark played a major role in New Jersey's journalistic history. At its apex, ''The News'' was widely regarded as the newspaper of ...

and the Elizabeth Daily Journal, and syndicated in newspapers as far west as

Honolulu Honolulu ( ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, located in the Pacific Ocean. It is the county seat of the Consolidated city-county, consolidated City and County of Honol ...

. Moreover, Devlin began painting portraits and

Victorian architecture Victorian architecture is a series of Revivalism (architecture), architectural revival styles in the mid-to-late 19th century. ''Victorian'' refers to the reign of Queen Victoria (1837–1901), called the Victorian era, during which period the st ...

. In a collaboration with his wife Dorothy (known as Wende), the couple produced more than two dozen children's books featuring Wende's imaginative writing accompanied by Devlin's colorful and energetic illustrations. The first of these children’s books was ''Old Black Witch'' (1963), a story, along with its two sequels, has sold almost two million copies. Harry and Wende Devlin made a comic strip ''Fullhouse'' (later retitled to ''Raggmopp''), which ran between 1954 and 1957. Afterwards Devlin proceeded to renew a long-standing interest in

where he published ''To Grandfather's House We Go'' (1967), containing illustrations after paintings he had begun as early as 1954. The clarity of the descriptions and illustrations of architecture made the work not only an educational children's book but also a source book for college courses in architectural history. Devlin published ''What Kind of a House Is That?'' shortly after, and in 1989 came his major volume on the subject, ''Portraits of American Architecture: Monuments to a Romantic Mood'', 1830-1900. Devlin's style results from a technique very similar to contemporary photo-realism as is evident in ‘’Off the Yellow Brick Road’’ (1989). He alters slide images to define his basic composition, but incorporates "high truths" in the form of the removal of offending modern incursions such as telephone poles to infuse a sense of nostalgia and mood. Today, Devlin's works can be found in several New Jersey private, corporate, and museum collections including the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum and the

Morris Museum of Art The Morris Museum of Art is an art museum in Augusta, Georgia. It was established in 1985 as a non-profit foundation by William S. Morris III, publisher of The Augusta Chronicle, in memory of his parents, as the first museum dedicated to the coll ...

.Mitnick, Barbara J. "Devlin, Harry", ''Encyclopedia of New Jersey.'' Maxine N. Lurie & Marc Mappen. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. 2004 pg 205.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Devlin, Harry 1918 births 2001 deaths American magazine cartoonists 20th-century American painters 20th-century American illustrators American comics artists American comic strip cartoonists American children's book illustrators Artists from Elizabeth, New Jersey Artists from Jersey City, New Jersey People from Mountainside, New Jersey Thomas Jefferson High School (New Jersey) alumni United States Navy personnel of World War II United States Navy officers Military personnel from Elizabeth, New Jersey Military personnel from Jersey City, New Jersey Military personnel from Union County, New Jersey American advertising artists and illustrators

Biography

Career

Further reading

References