Lars HOKANSON
(Philadelphia 1942 - Philadelphia 2012)
Lion and Lamb: Two Designs for a Cover for The New Yorker Magazine
Sold
a. Watercolour, gouache and black ink and black wash on thick paper.
Signed Hokanson / Cichetti near the lower right. Inscribed crop at the top left.
252 x 392 mm. (9 7/8 x 15 1/2 in.) [image]
337 x 457 mm. (13 1/4 x 18 in.) [sheet]
b. Watercolour and black ink on onionskin paper.
Signed Hokanson / Cichetti near the lower right. Inscribed crop at the top right.
232 x 292 mm. (9 1/8 x 11 1/2 in.) [image]
265 x 347 mm. (10 3/8 x 13 5/8 in.) [sheet]
Signed Hokanson / Cichetti near the lower right. Inscribed crop at the top left.
252 x 392 mm. (9 7/8 x 15 1/2 in.) [image]
337 x 457 mm. (13 1/4 x 18 in.) [sheet]
b. Watercolour and black ink on onionskin paper.
Signed Hokanson / Cichetti near the lower right. Inscribed crop at the top right.
232 x 292 mm. (9 1/8 x 11 1/2 in.) [image]
265 x 347 mm. (10 3/8 x 13 5/8 in.) [sheet]
Lars Hokanson and Frances Cichetti contributed designs for only two covers for The New Yorker, in March and August 1996, as well as a cartoon for the Westminster Dog Show, entitled ‘Top Dogs’, which appeared inside the February 19, 1996 issue of the magazine.
The present sheet - depicting a well-known turn of phrase in America, referring to the changing of winter into spring, from March to April, as ‘in like a lion, out like a lamb’ - was published as a cover for The New Yorker of 18 March 1996. Although the larger gouache design is the finished work, the artistic director of the magazine chose to use a related sketch, drawn on onionskin paper, in which the image is slightly different, as the final cover design.
The present pair of drawings are sold with a copy of the 18 March 1996 issue of The New Yorker [see photo].
The present sheet - depicting a well-known turn of phrase in America, referring to the changing of winter into spring, from March to April, as ‘in like a lion, out like a lamb’ - was published as a cover for The New Yorker of 18 March 1996. Although the larger gouache design is the finished work, the artistic director of the magazine chose to use a related sketch, drawn on onionskin paper, in which the image is slightly different, as the final cover design.
The present pair of drawings are sold with a copy of the 18 March 1996 issue of The New Yorker [see photo].
A contemporary American illustrator, Lars Hokanson studied at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, graduating in 1967, and worked mainly as a freelance artist. Working between Pennsylvania and New Jersey, Hokanson was a talented illustrator for magazines and books, as well as a painter and wood engraver. Among his public works are a series of large murals in the theatre of the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center in Little Falls, New Jersey. Early in Hokanson’s career, he often worked in tandem with his late wife Lois, mainly on book illustrations. He later married Frances I. Cichetti, with whom he continued to occasionally collaborate, such as on drawings for the anthology The Ultimate Dragon, published in 1995. Hokanson also produced illustrations for such books such as Jules Verne’s A Journey to the Center of the Earth, published in 1995 and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Twice-Told Tales, which appeared in 2000. Examples of Hokanson’s prints are today in the collections of the Tate and the National Portrait Gallery in London.
Literature
The New Yorker, 18 March 1996, a variant of this composition reproduced on the cover.