1933 Franklin Roosevelt Inauguration Poster Orig FDR MIGUEL COVARRUBIAS MEXICO
Item History & Price
| Reference Number: Avaluer:2842756 | Type: Posters |
| Country/Region of Manufacture: Mexico |
.MEXICO ARTIST MIGUEL COVARRUBIAS POSTER of FDR's 1933 inauguration. From a Covarrubias painting now at the Smithsonian. About 20 x 23 inches in a light frame with uv plexiglass; not very heavy. From the collection of noted FDR collector Donald Carmichael. Quite rare; this seller could find no copies online or auction records. An intriguing, original and artistic panorama of FDR's 1933 inauguration with legend of attendees at bottom. ISSUED BY VANITY FAIR ...MAGAZINE AS A SEPARATE POSTER IN 1933 FOR 10 DOLLARS. Guaranteed original, from 1933 and complete. Covarrubias was contracted many times during fdr's presidential career to promote his programs.Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) was in his second term as governor of New York when he was nominated to run for President at the June 1932 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. America was then three years into the Great Depression.During the fall election campaign that year, Vanity Fair, a magazine of the arts and culture based in New York, put a caricature of Roosevelt on its September 1932 cover, shown at right. The illustration — by Mexican-American artist Miguel Covarrubias — featured a dapper, blue-eyed and smiling FDR against a background of an American flag’s red and white stripes. This would be the first of about a dozenVanity Fair covers that would either feature FDR, his New Deal programs as president, or the situation in Washington and nation during the early- and mid-1930s.Vanity Fair, although primarily a magazine of arts and culture, would use its magazine covers, its artists, and its inside pages to draw attention to Roosevelt’s programs and his time in office through late 1935, when the magazine ceased publishing for at time. A review of some of that coverage — focused primarily on the cover art — follows below, along with a few sketches of the artists involved, cover subject, and the politics of the day.nauguration of Franklin D Roosevelt, 1933: "Inauguration of FDR" by Miguel Covarrubias, 1904 - 1957"No president ever took office against a darker backdrop than Franklin Roosevelt (oh? Lincoln maybe?) on March 4, 1933. With banks failing by the dozens and unemployment at 28 percent, total national collapse seemed possible, and the day's gray weather only reinforced the bleak mood. The carefully chosen words of Roosevelt's inaugural speech, however, briefly lifted the gloom, and when he broke into a confident smile at the close, the crowd sent up a relieved cheer. The optimism of that moment grew in the coming months as Roosevelt's New Dealers launched their whirlwind of innovative measures to cure the Great Depression.Caricaturist Miguel Covarrubias produced this rendering of the inauguration for Vanity Fair, which billed it as a panorama of "magnificos, diplomats, and military commanders." In the lower right is the doleful "Forgotten Man, " wearing a sandwich board-a grim reminder of the country's dire straits."
Miguel Covarrubias
Artist Profile
Covarrubias at work on a mural, 1939. Photo, Life magazine. Miguel Covarrubias (b.1904- d.1957) is the Mexican-American painter, illustrator, caricaturist, and writer who did numerous works and covers for Vanity Fair, Vogue, The New Yorker, Fortune, Life and Time. He also did illustrations for more than 20 books. For Vanity Fair, he was one of a handful of artists who helped give the magazine its distinctive image in the 1930s. The Vanity Fair covers of FDR and Herbert Hoover that appear above, as well as several others throughout this article, feature his work. Covarrubias covered a range of subjects. Working from the 1920s-1950s, his art explored the Harlem renaissance; Bali, Mexican, and Caribbean cultures; relations between Mexico and the U.S., and more. He arrived in New York in 1923 at the age of 18 on a scholarship from the Mexican govern- ment having contributed illustrations to popular Latin American newspapers. By 1924, Vanity Fair’s editor, Frank Crownshield, had begun to use his work in the magazine and he soon became a regular contributor. A book of his caricatures — The Prince of Wales and Other Famous Americans — was published in 1925 and was a hit. By 1926 Covarrubias had become one of the most hopeful new caricaturists in America and would soon become as well known as some of his celebrity subjects. He also did some famous illustrations for advertising, such as an award-winning “American in Paris” drawing for Steinway & Sons pianos.
Impossible Interview: Al Capone v. Chief Justice Hughes, 1932. At Vanity Fair, Covarrubias also became noted for the magazine’s “Impossible Interviews” series of caricatures that featured unlikely pairings of public figures from opposing sides of the political and/or social spectrums. Each sketch was accompanied by a short and witty caption or contrived dialogue. The sketches were usually of two famous people unlikely to even be in the same room with one another — i.e., mob boss Al Capone and Chief Justice Charles Hughes; conservative and moralist, U.S. Senator Smith W. Brookhart (R-IA) and movie star Marlene Dietrich; writer Gertrude Stein and comedienne Gracie Allen; movie star Clark Gable and the Prince of Wales; J. D. Rockefeller and Josef Stalin; dancer/stripper Sally Rand with modern dance pioneer Martha Graham; and others.
Benito Mussolini cover by Miguel Covarrubias, Oct 1932. Through his exposure at Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, and other outlets, a great demand for Covarrubias’ art developed. Throughout the 1930s he continued designing covers for Vanity Fair and Vogue. Among others he sketched or caricatured were D.H. Lawrence, Joe Louis, Walt Disney, Benny Goodman, and scenes from the 1943 Broadway musical, Carmen Jones. Covarrubias would later leave Manhattan and return to Mexico, undertaking a study of the anthropology and ethnology of ancient American cultures, while also writing and teaching. He had wide-ranging interests, from archeology and folk art to theater and dance. choreography. He counted among his friends and associates both the Whitney and Rockefeller families, as well as leftist causes and known communists such as Diego Rivera. In 1950, as the U.S. descended into its McCarthyism hysteria, Covarrubias, under scrutiny from the FBI 1943, was labeled a threat to national security. Without visas for U.S. travel, his career took a turn for the worse. He died in 1957 due to complications from ulcers. His art survives today, and is periodically shown in American, Mexican, and other museums.
Miguel Covarrubias
Artist Profile
Covarrubias at work on a mural, 1939. Photo, Life magazine. Miguel Covarrubias (b.1904- d.1957) is the Mexican-American painter, illustrator, caricaturist, and writer who did numerous works and covers for Vanity Fair, Vogue, The New Yorker, Fortune, Life and Time. He also did illustrations for more than 20 books. For Vanity Fair, he was one of a handful of artists who helped give the magazine its distinctive image in the 1930s. The Vanity Fair covers of FDR and Herbert Hoover that appear above, as well as several others throughout this article, feature his work. Covarrubias covered a range of subjects. Working from the 1920s-1950s, his art explored the Harlem renaissance; Bali, Mexican, and Caribbean cultures; relations between Mexico and the U.S., and more. He arrived in New York in 1923 at the age of 18 on a scholarship from the Mexican govern- ment having contributed illustrations to popular Latin American newspapers. By 1924, Vanity Fair’s editor, Frank Crownshield, had begun to use his work in the magazine and he soon became a regular contributor. A book of his caricatures — The Prince of Wales and Other Famous Americans — was published in 1925 and was a hit. By 1926 Covarrubias had become one of the most hopeful new caricaturists in America and would soon become as well known as some of his celebrity subjects. He also did some famous illustrations for advertising, such as an award-winning “American in Paris” drawing for Steinway & Sons pianos.
Impossible Interview: Al Capone v. Chief Justice Hughes, 1932. At Vanity Fair, Covarrubias also became noted for the magazine’s “Impossible Interviews” series of caricatures that featured unlikely pairings of public figures from opposing sides of the political and/or social spectrums. Each sketch was accompanied by a short and witty caption or contrived dialogue. The sketches were usually of two famous people unlikely to even be in the same room with one another — i.e., mob boss Al Capone and Chief Justice Charles Hughes; conservative and moralist, U.S. Senator Smith W. Brookhart (R-IA) and movie star Marlene Dietrich; writer Gertrude Stein and comedienne Gracie Allen; movie star Clark Gable and the Prince of Wales; J. D. Rockefeller and Josef Stalin; dancer/stripper Sally Rand with modern dance pioneer Martha Graham; and others.
Benito Mussolini cover by Miguel Covarrubias, Oct 1932. Through his exposure at Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, and other outlets, a great demand for Covarrubias’ art developed. Throughout the 1930s he continued designing covers for Vanity Fair and Vogue. Among others he sketched or caricatured were D.H. Lawrence, Joe Louis, Walt Disney, Benny Goodman, and scenes from the 1943 Broadway musical, Carmen Jones. Covarrubias would later leave Manhattan and return to Mexico, undertaking a study of the anthropology and ethnology of ancient American cultures, while also writing and teaching. He had wide-ranging interests, from archeology and folk art to theater and dance. choreography. He counted among his friends and associates both the Whitney and Rockefeller families, as well as leftist causes and known communists such as Diego Rivera. In 1950, as the U.S. descended into its McCarthyism hysteria, Covarrubias, under scrutiny from the FBI 1943, was labeled a threat to national security. Without visas for U.S. travel, his career took a turn for the worse. He died in 1957 due to complications from ulcers. His art survives today, and is periodically shown in American, Mexican, and other museums.
