Howard Chandler Christy, born 10 January 1872, was an American artist and illustrator. He is best known for his creation of the "Christy Girl" – a colourful successor to the "Gibson Girl". Christy is also widely known for his WWI military recruitment and Liberty loan posters, along with his 1940 piece titled, Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States.
Christy was born in Morgan County, Ohio and attended early school in Duncan Falls, Ohio. He then attended the Art Students League of New York from 1890 to 1891 and then at the National Academy of Design under William Merritt Chase, continuing his education at Chase's summer retreat at Shinnecock Hills on Long Island, and then at his 10th Street Studio, the first multiple-artist studio built in New York.
Christy first attracted attention with his realistic illustrations and several articles as a combat artist during the Spanish–American War that included the Battle of Las Guasimas, the Battle of El Caney, and the Battle of San Juan Hill, which were published in Scribner's, Harper's, Cosmopolitan, Leslie's Weekly magazines, and in Collier's Weekly. He also illustrated books during this period as well.
Christy gained attention with the series, Men of the Army and Navy, and a portrait of Colonel Roosevelt that appeared on the cover of his Rough Riders series published in Scribner's. These illustrations propelled Christy to national prominence. He painted patriotic posters for the US Navy and US Marine Corps. He is also known for his illustrations of the works of the war correspondent, Richard Harding Davis.
He soon decided to turn away from war and painting men in uniform. Instead he created the "Christy Girl", redefining the portrayal of women in America through his illustrations and portraits. He captured the modern American woman – tall, confident, elegant, witty, and athletic.
Christy was married twice, both were women who had modelled for him as one of his "Christy Girls". The first was Maebelle Gertrude Thompson, whom he married on October 15, 1898, shortly after his return from the Spanish–American War. They had a daughter named Natalie Chandler Christy. They divorced in May 1919. His second marriage was to Nancy Mae (née Coone) Palmer, a widow who had modelled for him for over eight years prior to their marriage.
Together with fellow artists Harrison Fisher and Neysa McMein he was a part of the Motion Picture Classic magazine's "Fame and Fortune" contest jury of 1921–22, that discovered the It girl, Clara Bow. In 1924, Christy painted the official portrait of First Lady Grace Coolidge featuring her white collie Rob Roy. The painting was hung in the Red Room of the White House and has been displayed in the China Room since the Kennedy administration.
During the Great Depression, Christy found new success as a muralist and painter of historical events. In 1934 he painted a series of murals to decorate the New York City restaurant Café des Artistes. The newly cleaned paintings are on display at The Leopard at des Artistes restaurant, the successor to the Café des Artistes. They include six panels of wood nymphs named The Parrot Girl, The Swing Girl, Ponce De Leon, Fall, Spring, and the Fountain of Youth.
In 1940, he painted the Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States, which was installed in the House of Representatives wing in the United States Capitol. Christy's Portrait of Dorothy Barton Thomas is in the Zanesville Museum of Art in Zanesville, Ohio, along with other Christy posters, prints and paintings in their collection. Another of Christy's paintings was displayed at the Gettysburg Museum and Visitor Center. The National Museum of American Illustration in Newport, RI, has a large collection of works by Christy.
A Christy hangs above a desk and typewriter in Jack London's cottage, located in Jack London State Historic Park, Glen Ellen, California.
In the early 1930s, he had met Elise Ford who became his model for the murals on Café des Artistes wall. Elise Ford was also Christy's model for the 1941 I Am An American poster personifying America "rushing forward to give the touch of the contagion of liberty and democracy to the rest of the world" in the words of then New York Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia. Forty years his junior, she became Christy's companion until his death on 3 March 3, 1952, at age 80. They had a daughter named Holly (Holly Christina Longuski née Holly Ford) born in 1939 while he was painting Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States.
Attorney and author James Philip Head wrote a novelistic biography of Christy, The Magic of Youth, published in 2016. It is the first book in a projected trilogy titled An Affair with Beauty - The Mystique of Howard Chandler Christy. Romantic Illusions, the second instalment in the trilogy, was released in March 2019. Helen Frances Copley documented her research into the life of Christy in her 1999 book "The Christy Quest". In 2017, Copley donated her substantial collection of items related to Christy's career as a book and magazine illustrator to Laffayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania.
Reading Recommendations & Content Considerations
Howard Chandler Christy The Magic of Youth
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