Like most children, when Bernie Fuchs was a boy he enjoyed drawing and doodling in his school notebooks. But he had no ambitions to become an illustrator (at that young age he didn't even know what an illustrator was) and he never painted a single picture in high school. The summer after graduation Fuchs lost three fingers on his right hand in a terrible workplace accident, making it almost impossible to hold a pencil. The following year he found a job on an assembly line in a puppet factory, painting the cartoon heads on puppets. He was fired because he was so bad at it. Ten years later Bernie Fuchs was one of the top illustrators in America. How a little boy from the coal mining town of O'Fallon, Illinois who's father abandoned the family when Bernie was only four... ... became the Artists Guild of New York's "Artist of the Year" by age 30 and the youngest person ever elected to the Illustrators Hall of Fame is a remarkable story of triumph over adversity and a celebration of what can be accomplished through hard work and determination -even during one of the most trying times in the history of illustration. Walt Reed, author of "The Illustrator in America" said that "his pictures are probably more admired - and more imitated - than those of any other current illustrator." David Apatoff wrote an issue-long (now out of print) article on Bernie Fuchs in Illustration magazine #15. He shared this anecdote with me recently and, with David's permission, I'm sharing it here with you: "The first time I met Bernie ... was when I wrote that article. He and I were getting acquainted in his huge studio and the walls were plastered with drawings and paintings, some by Bernie but mostly from his peers who he admired (Al Parker, Bowler, Briggs, etc.). Bernie didn’t know what the heck to make of me; he assumed I must be just another dopey newspaper reporter who didn’t know anything about illustration. I saw an Austin Briggs drawing on the wall and I said, “hey-- nice Briggs.” Bernie immediately perked up, because Briggs was Bernie’s mentor and one of his closest friends. He said, “You know Austin’s work?” Somehow we got into this game where he started testing me by going around the room, saying “Who is that?” I was getting them all correct, one after the other. I felt like Annie Oakley sharpshooting targets at a carnival: bang bang bang bang bang. Finally, I screwed up. I said “that’s Coby Whitmore” and Bernie got this hurt look on his face." "He said, “no, I did that.” I was so aghast that he laughed and decided to take mercy on me. He said, “when I first came to Westport I was a big admirer of Coby’s. I got an assignment for a woman’s magazine and I didn’t know any models in town or anything yet, so Coby-- who became a great friend-- loaned me the two models he always used. And I did the illustration in a Coby Whitmore style and sent it in to the magazine which loved it but mistakenly ran it with a credit line, “Coby Whitmore.” They didn’t really know me yet and assumed it must have come from him. But the punchline is that when the magazine came out with the misattribution, Coby’s son called him to say that he thought Coby’s illustration in that issue was one of the best things Coby had ever done! So I guess I can’t blame you for getting it wrong.” It was my intention this week to (finally) showcase the work of Bernie Fuchs for the benefit of readers who were unaware, as I once was, of his work and how powerfully influential it has been on countless artists - and on the entire profession - over the last 50 years. Many thanks to Charlie Allen for all his many scans, David Apatoff (who provided the photo of Bernie, as well as his childhood drawings), and all the enthusiastic commentors who contributed so much to our discussion this week. We will definitely be revisiting the work of Bernie Fuchs again in the months ahead. * My Bernie Fuchs Flickr set. Addendum: Bernie's Big Brushes Several comments about the size of Bernie's brushes in the photo above compelled me to add the photo below, from David Apatoff's article in Illustration magazine #15. I can't, however, explain why it appears Bernie has a full set of fingers on his right hand in that photo-- perhaps David will enlighten us.

When I was at a meeting of our CAPS (California Artists Professional Society) a few years back I had the good fortune one night to attend a lecture by Bernie Fuchs on his career as an illustrator. I was very familiar with the work of Bernie Fuchs and he was one of my idols. Getting a chance to see his originals first hand and to listen to him speak about his life made for a splendid evening for me. Later in the evening after the talk, I brought several books illustrated by Bernie up for him to sign, and afterwards shook it hand. It was only then I realized that he had three fingers missing missing on his drawing hand. I was a bit shocked, but also had a new found respect for the man; his hand had been injured in an industrial accident late in his teenage years, but he hadn’t let it stop him from excelling as an artist. And excel he did. When he exploded on the scene in the late 1950s his work was extremely competent, but stylistically looked little different from most of the illustration being used. That changed quickly as like Parker, Briggs and Peak before him, once his foot was in the door, he immediately began to develop a unique and dynamic style which has influenced so many other artists. Coming into a field that was facing a life and death battle with photographic competition, he not only survived, but flourished where so many others were fell by the wayside. Ironically, growing up in Detroit, one of my complaints when I was trying to break into comics, was that there weren’t the plethora of great illustrators to learn from in the area, as there were in New York. It wasn’t until much later in life I discovered that even at that time the great Bernie Fuchs worked in advertising for the car industry in Detroit; and he was not alone as Bob Peak, Austin Briggs, Harry Borgman and a number of others were continually in the area because of the automobile clients. I just hadn’t taken the time to find out about them. My fellow Fawcett collector and noted illustration historian, David Apatoff has just written a remarkable book, The Life and Art of Bernie Fuchs and it’s a must for any serious fan of illustration. Besides being filled with amazing pictures, the biography is a fun and interesting read. One anecdote he relates is that when Fuchs moves to Westport, Connecticut one of the first persons he meets is Robert Fawcett, who insists that they run over to meet his neighbor, Austin Briggs. Fuchs had just replaced Briggs as the artist on a major account and Fawcett, who was feuding with Briggs at the time, thought it would be amusing to twist the knife. Ironically, while the meeting was awkward, Fuchs and Briggs immediately liked each other, bonded, and became close friends. It might be poetic justice that Fuchs also replaced Fawcett on a major account not soon after. Here is a link to where you can pick up this wonderful book: Amazon.com (Bio from Wikipedia) Fuchs was born in O’Fallon, Illinois on October 29, 1932. He grew up in humble circumstances with no father. His ambition was to be a trumpet player, but that ended after he lost three fingers on his right hand in an industrial accident the summer after he graduated from high school. Fuchs turned to art as a career, despite having had no formal art training. He enrolled in Washington University in St. louis, Missouri, where he graduated in 1954. His first job was illustrating car advertisements for New Center Studios, located first in the Fisher Building, then in the Penobscot Building in Detroit. Art Greenwald was the owner of the studio. it was the largest and most successful studio in Detroit in the 50’s and 60’s. A couple of the other illustrators were Chic Albertson and Donald Silverstein. Bernie was recognized immediately for his incredible talent and pulled in major accounts for Greenwald. Within a few years of moving to Detroit, Fuchs’ opened the studio The Art Group, which specialized in work for the city’s auto companies. In the late 1950s, Fuchs moved to Westport, Connecticut where he began doing illustrations for McCalls, Redbook, The Ladies Home Journal, Sports Illustrated and other magazines. Fuchs was commissioned for the illustration of four US postage stamps, released in 1998. The stamps featured folk musicians Huddie “Leadbelly” Ledbetter, Woody Guthrie, Sonny Terry, and Josh White. Fuchs also illustrated several children’s picture books, including Ragtime Tumpie and Carolina Shout!, both written by Alan Schroeder. He painted portraits of several U.S. Presidents, including John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, as well as of such athletes and celebrities such as Muhammad Ali, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nichlaus, Ted Koppel and Katharine Hepburn. At age 76, he died September 17, 2009

In 1958, a staff artist worked patiently in a back room at the famed Cooper Studio in New York, retouching the Pepsi Cola logo on a stack of illustrations. He came to an illustration by a new, unknown artist and stopped dead in his tracks. Illustrator Murray Tinkelman, who also worked at Coopers, remembers receiving the call: "Hey Murray, come take a look at this." Tinkelman went over to see the new picture. "It was gorgeous" he recalls. The two decided to call in the superstars of Cooper Studios, Joe Bowler and Coby Whitmore. Bowler and Whitmore arrived together to inspect the new painting. Whitmore was "speechless." Bowler said, "I don't know who the hell did this, but the business is never going to be the same." Bowler was right. Young Bernie Fuchs arrived in New York and quickly set the field on fire. By the time he was 30, the Artists Guild of New York had voted him "Artist of the Year"-- an unprecedented achievement. His dynamic illustrations for magazines such as McCalls made him famous and attracted dozens of imitators. So Fuchs was feeling pretty cocky by the time Sports Illustrated called him in the early 1960s to ask him to illustrate an article. Fuchs met with the legendary art director of Sports Illustrated, Richard Gangel. A tough minded visionary, Gangel gave Fuchs an assignment, but as Fuchs was leaving, added-- "Oh-- and I don't want that shit you do for McCalls." Fuchs could have walked off in a huff. It would have been easy for him to continue working for other clients in the successful style he had already developed. Instead, he rose to Gangel's challenge and became even bolder and more innovative: Image courtesy of Illustration House gallery For a later issue of Sports Illustrated, Fuchs turned a portrait of the rather dumpy looking Branch Rickey into poetry. Fuchs left behind all the imitators who continued to exploit the formula for Fuchs' earlier approach, and instead moved forward to grapple with new challenges. As illustration styles came and went, Fuchs' work was selected each and every year for more than 40 years by different juries from the Society of Illustrators as among the very best work produced that year. No other illustrator can claim such a record. I am convinced that in order to accomplish what Fuchs has, you need both of the qualities demonstrated in the two stories above. You have to begin with great talent, sure, but perhaps even more important, you have to be prepared to take your initial success and re-invest it in new challenges. There is no guarantee that such a gamble will pay off, but if you are really, really good, that's what artistic success is for.

Bernie FUchs Sat Eve POst nov 20 1965

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When I was at a meeting of our CAPS (California Artists Professional Society) a few years back I had the good fortune one night to...

Bernie Fuchs Look mag march 23 1965

Bernie Fuchs Good Housekeeping 66

Publication unknown Illustrated by Bernie Fuchs Year unknown

Bernie Fuchs (1932 – 2009)

redbook sketch

I think this is the image that everyone sites as really putting Bernie on the map illustration wise. Yeah he was a big car ad illustrtor but this was the one that people say he "landed" with a bang in the Magazine world so to speak. It has been floating around the net for a while but never with the layout which i think makes it even more powerful. so here you go. McCalls JUne 1959

Lynn Buckham (1918-1982)