Herbert Paus (1880-1946) American, Large Framed 1918 Third Liberty Loan Poster. Depicts soldiers in near silhouette above the words "TO MAKE THE WORLD A DECENT PLACE TO LIVE IN DO YOUR PART - BUY U.S. GOVERNMENT BONDS THIRD LIBERTY LOAN." Attribution middle left. Printed by Edwards & Deutsch Litho. Co. Framed.

Overall Size: 36 1/4 x 56 in. 

Sight Size: 35 1/2 x 55 1/4 in. 

#10 #3575 . 

Herbert Andrew Paus was born in 1880 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. By the age of seven he was already showing artistic interest and ability, and his parents encouraged his talent by sending him to study under Burt Harwood, a European-trained artist. Even after his family moved to the Puget Sound area in Washington, he spent every summer until he was sixteen in Minneapolis studying with Harwood, meeting numerous eccentric artists at the Sibley House Artist Enclave. In 1896 Harwood got him work as an illustrator for the St. Paul Pioneer Press, quickly becoming the head staff cartoonist. When he was eighteen he quit journalism to join the Binner Engraving Company in Chicago, and encouraged them to open a New York office with himself as head illustrator. He worked during the day and spent his nights taking classes at the Chase School of Art under Robert Henri and George Bridgeman. In 1902 he decided to become a freelance illustrator, quickly earning work with The Ladies’ Home Journal, Life, Pictorial Review, and The Associated Sunday Magazine. He also worked as a theatrical set designer, earning a reputation as a savvy, brilliant, extremely fast artist, which led him to be one of the first ones recruited by the Division of Pictorial Publicity when World War I broke out. His style of war poster became so recognizable that he was hired by Collier’s to do its covers, but his interest in illustration began to wane and he taught himself carpentry, trying to develop his own furniture line. Although it did not take off, he found a new interest in decoration, and fused concepts of illustration with them to craft holiday pieces and early Americana that his contemporary Norman Rockwell cited as inspirations for his own work. He was a renowned designer of advertisements in the 1920s, including pieces for Victor Records, Hart, and Goodyear, and became closely associated with Popular Science when he was contracted to produce all their covers between 1927 and 1931. Despite his growing fame he remained a very private person, and the only female model he ever used for his work was his wife, Elizabeth. In 1932 they left New York City for Mamaroneck, a town about twenty minutes north of the city, to raise their children. He died there in 1946. In 2007 a massive collection of hundreds of original, never-before-seen artwork was discovered by his son Jack in Bainbridge Island, Washington, a testament to his prolific output even after “retiring” from the public eye.

Tears and stains throughout.