Edward Penfield | |
|---|---|
 Penfield circa 1900 | |
| Born | (1866-06-02)June 2, 1866 |
| Died | February 8, 1925(1925-02-08) (aged 58) |
| Education | Art Students League of New York |
Edward Penfield (June 2, 1866 – February 8, 1925)[1] was an Americanillustrator in the era known as the "Golden Age of American Illustration" and he is considered the father of the American poster. His work has been included in almost every major book on American Illustration or the history of the poster. He is also a major figure in the evolution ofgraphic design.[2]
He was born June 2, 1866, inBrooklyn, New York, to Ellen Lock Moore and Josiah B. Penfield. He first studied atNew York's Art Students League. He worked underGeorge de Forest Brush, who was known for his romantic scenes of American Indian life. He first worked forHarper's Weekly and later became art director. He developed his own unique style of simplified figures with bold outlines in settings free of extraneous detail. He believed, "A design that needs study is not a poster, no matter how well executed."[3] He wrote and published a book titledHolland Sketches, which was published by Scribner's in 1907.[4]
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Penfield lived inNew Rochelle, New York, a popularart colony among actors, writers and artists of the period. The community was most well known for its unprecedented number of prominent American illustrators.[5] He was one of the founding members of theNew Rochelle Art Association which was organized in 1912.
His posters were bold and stood out from a distance with great clarity. As artists likeAlphonse Mucha,Théophile Steinlen andToulouse-Lautrec popularized the poster in Europe, Penfield accomplished the same feat in the United States. For his posters, Penfield utilized simple shapes and a limited palette of colors that lent themselves to the primitive methods of reproduction of the era.
