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Boardman Robinson | |
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| Born | Boardman Michael Robinson (1876-09-06)September 6, 1876 Nova Scotia, Canada |
| Died | September 5, 1952(1952-09-05) (aged 75) Stamford, Connecticut, United States |
| Education | Massachusetts College of Art, Académie Colarossi, École des Beaux-Arts |
| Occupation(s) | Artist, illustrator and cartoonist |
| Spouse | Sarah Senter Whitney |
Boardman "Mike" Michael Robinson (1876–1952) was a Canadian-born American painter,illustrator andcartoonist.[1][2]
Boardman Robinson was born September 6, 1876, inNova Scotia. He spent his childhood in England and Canada, before moving to Boston in the first half of the 1890s.[3] Robinson worked his way throughnormal school, following a program to learnmechanical drafting.[3]
Robinson first studied art at theMassachusetts College of Art (now Massachusetts College of Art and Design) in Boston. He subsequently studied at theAcadémie Colarossi and theÉcole des Beaux-Arts, both inParis, where he was influenced by the political cartooning ofHonoré Daumier, as well asForain andSteinlen.[3]
In 1903, Robinson married Sarah Senter Whitney.[4] The couple moved to Paris where Robinson briefly worked as art editor forVogue, before returning to the United States in 1904.[3]
Upon returning to the United States, Robinson worked as an illustrator, drawing cartoons and theater illustrations for theNew York Morning Telegraph.[3] Hefreelanced for a wide range of other popular publications, includingPearson's Magazine,Scribner's Magazine,Collier's,Harper's Weekly, and others.[3]
In 1910, Robinson took a job on the staff of theNew York Tribune drawing editorial cartoons, a position which he retained for four years. With the eruption ofWorld War I in 1914, Robinson's increasinglyradicalanti-militarist political views brought him into conflict with his employer and he quit the publication.[3]
In 1915, Robinson travelled to Eastern Europe on behalf ofMetropolitan Magazine along with journalistJohn Reed.[3] The pair saw first hand the effects of the European war inRussia,Serbia,Macedonia andGreece. In 1916 Reed's account of the journey was collected in a book calledThe War in Eastern Europe, to which Robinson contributed illustrations.[3]
On his return from Europe, Robinson worked at thesocialist monthlyThe Masses. His highly political cartoons as well as the general anti-war stance ofThe Masses was deemed to have violated the recently passedEspionage Act of 1917, andThe Masses had to cease publication. Robinson, along with the other defendants were acquitted on October 5, 1918. FollowingThe Masses, Robinson became a contributing editor toThe Liberator andTheNew Masses, working with formerMasses editorMax Eastman.
Robinson would later go on to teach art at theArt Students League in New York City (1919–30) and head theColorado Springs Fine Arts Center (1936–47). Some of his students includeDuard Marshall,James Brooks,Bill Tytla,Edmund Duffy,Jacob Burck,Russel Wright,Eric Bransby,Rifka Angel, Mary Anne Bransby, Gerhard Bakker, Bernard Arnest, andEsther Shemitz (who marriedWhittaker Chambers): both Burck and Shemitz contributed illustrations to TheNew Masses as did their mentor.)
Robinson is also known as a muralist. Some of his mural commissions include works atRockefeller Center and theDepartment of Justice Building in Washington, D.C., and a nine-panel mural on theHistory of Trade forKaufmann's flagship department store inPittsburgh completed in 1929.
Robinson also illustrated several books, among them editions ofWalt Whitman'sLeaves of Grass (1921),Dostoyevsky'sThe Brothers Karamazov (1933),Edgar Lee Masters'Spoon River Anthology (1941), andHerman Melville'sMoby Dick (1942).
Robinson died on September 5, 1952, in Stamford, Connecticut.
