by
Armand Cabrera
Stanley Meltzoff was born in Harlem in New York City in 1917; At eight years old he enrolled in a cartoon mail order school. He was allowed to go through school at his own pace an was enrolled in college by the age of 15. He attended City College of New York graduating with a science degree. HE then attended the Institute Fine Arts at New York University. Meltzoff was drafted into the army and was in Italy WW II 1941-45. He worked for the Stars and Stripes, an independent newspaper published for the troops.
After the war Meltzoff taught painting and art history first at New York City College then at the Pratt Institute. In 1949 Meltzoff took the plunge and became a fulltime illustrator. Hi first assignments were for Scientific American, but he would go on to work for just about every major publisher of the time including the Saturday Evening Post, Life, Sports Illustrated, Field & Stream, Atlantic, Colliers, Redbook, Cosmopolitan, National Geographic and New American Library for pocket book covers.
At a time when most artists were emulating a flat poster like graphic style with as few elements as possible. Meltzoff worked in oils creating complex scenes filled with people and things all fully rendered with a loose realism that set him apart from the crowd.
His successful career as an illustrator came to an end with the demise of the major magazines. Slowly photography replaced illustration in what was left of the market and at almost sixty Meltzoff struggled to make ends meet.
Quote
Visual Equivalence is not transcription but translation. You cannot make a copy of the real world in a picture or a photograph, but only mimic some of its visible qualities and the feelings it provokes.~Stanley Meltzoff
All images and copyright belong to Stanley Meltzoff estate
That it amazing, how he had to revamp his entire career at 60. But wow. Just …wow. Thanks for this profile, I'd never heard of Stanley Meltzoff before, but I'm sure I've seen his work.
suppose I must clarify, was curious if their are examples of observational painting to accompany his earlier illustration work before the marine endeavors, thanks
thanks for this great post, always inspiring to see a new name and see how impactful their work was.
Are you aware if he worked from observation as well to enhance his illustration ability? I will look into his site as well thanks again.
-Delton
Delton,
Meltzoff worked using reference and live models. There sre pictures in his book where he brought in big Marlin and suspend them from wires. As Meltzoff said the camera doesn't convey form so he would work from life when he could.
Kessie,
A lesson for us all; styles and media change, what guts he had to reinvent himself and carry on when most people would expect to just coast from there on out. A great painter that deserves more recognition.
Yup go ahead and add him to one of my new favorite artists. I love his work.
Great Post Armand. One of the greats of that era. You shed light on this great artist I never knew… even the "great ones" struggle!
Bill,
A scary thought for us mere mortals.
As a former illustrator myself, I was always amazed by the work of Stanley Meltzoff. It's his latter work that I was familiar with. I remember seeing a photo of him I will never forget. He was underwater with tank, mask and wetsuit standing at his easel, palette in hand, working on a painting of deep water life. It was a grest spoof. According to the letters the magazine received concerning that photo, many people believed that's how he actually did this underwater paintings.
Enjoy your blogs Armand. Thank you for your postings. They are appreciated.
Thanks for the post Armand. I love Stanley Meltzoff work. I did not know he started off as an Illustrator.