WATSON
ENTIRE 1948
"As a teenager
Ernest Hamlin Baker took a fifteen dollar correspondence course in
drawing and studied the drawings of the famous nineteenth century American
cartoonist Thomas Nast. A local Democratic newspaper in Baker's hometown
of Poughkeepsie, New York, offered him a job as a cartoonist during
a hotly contested election for county sheriff, paying
three dollars a piece. His unflattering cartoons of the incumbents paid
off, and the Democrats won the election. After college at Colgate University,
Baker was eventually contracted to do a series of covers, portraits and
maps for Fortune magazine." Colgate
University site
Here
are the major works undertaken by this great artist for FORTUNE magazine,
together with an oral account of the commission to do the portrait
of the American Union leader, John L. Lewis (1935) from Watson, Forty
Illustrators and their Work, 1946. As well as some accomplished
covers for the magazine, Baker did this less happy emblematic scene
(1935) as a promotion. I have
a few of over 300 of Baker's portrait covers from TIME, which are a major
graphic achievement. This site is dedicated to Baker's daughter who
keeps the archive. Baker's detailed diary of his professional and personal
life cries out to be published.
MURAL
The Activities of the Narragansett Planters,
for the Wakefield Post Office, 1939
American
Red Cross Stamp 1919
YWCA
Poster 28 x 41 inches 1918
National
Tuberculosis Association Poster c 1935
FORTUNE COVER APRIL 1937, aviation
FORTUNE COVER JANUARY 1934, snow plough
BUSINESSMEN
FOR FORTUNE 1930'S
PORTRAITS
OF WILSON AND REED FORTUNE JAN 1940
MAP
FOR FORTUNE NETHERLAND'S INDIA C1936 detail
FEDERAL FIRMAMENT MARCH 1934
MAP
FOR FORTUNE BANANALAND 1933
Baker
is often described as the "father" of Time magazine
portraiture, where he developed a style known as "facial
reporting." Baker's first cover portrait for Time appeared
in 1939. Some of his more popular portraits included Dwight
D. Eisenhower, Earl Warren and Richard M. Nixon."
PORTRAIT
OF Nathan Twining TIME February 1954
PORTRAIT
OF Harry Hopkins TIME cover January 1945
PORTRAIT
OF Vannevar Bush TIME cover
"Colgate
has extensive holdings of Baker's drawings and illustrations,
and University Archivist Carl Peterson has mounted a Baker exhibition
in Case Library, to remain through reunion weekend. Here, Peterson
reflects on Baker's broad and fascinating career and on the artist's
fond connections to Colgate." COLGATE SCENE site
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