E. Simms Campbell Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Santa has a quickie with Mom. Elmer Simms Campbell was the first African American Illustrator to work for major newsstand magazines. Published December, 1963 Signed in pencil lower...

E. Simms Campbell was the first and top black commercial artist in the USA for decades. In "Grandma," we see a deeply conceptual work, with the blank canvas as the main point of the...

The first Black Illustrator, E. Simms Campbell, paints a complex comic narrative featuring an opulent harem with 14 wives/concubines. The artist caters to a man's fantasy by placing the male subject in the middle of a 360-degree ring of well-endowed beauties. Almost all of the women are chomping at the bit to see if she will be the lucky winner. Each portrait is painstakingly rendered to flaunt its well-endowed feminine charms with gravity-defying breasts. In the center of it all is the male protagonist, vicariously representing the viewer. He is depicted playing spin-the-bottle to see who will be his next lover of the moment. Visually, it's a delight to look at. Technically, it's masterfully designed, with curving shapes, bathed in soft light, and a mouthwatering purple color scheme. It may be one of Campbell's most ambitious efforts because it successfully conceives and executes a large scene populated with 16 people. As with all vintage cartoons...

Playboy Magazine ran this joke cartoon illustration in color on page 43 for the October 1960 edition. Signed lower right. The work is executed on a heavy Whatman Illustration board....

Elmer Simms Campbell was a brilliant illustrator and cartoon artist and was also the first African American cartoonist to be nationally syndicated in major newsstand magazines such a...

Cuties Cartoon Strip - E. Simms Campbell My Husband Former Girl Friends - First Black Illustrator/ Cartoonist,

E. Simms Campbell was the first African-American illustrator/ cartoonist published in nationally distributed, slick magazines, he created Esky, the familiar pop-eyed mascot of Esquire. This early work of 1930 was done on assignment for an interior page of Life Magazine. It features two Rowing teams engaged in spirited competition with cheering onlookers. This is a highly stylized black-and-white illustration and is masterfully executed. The work is composed of two illustrations, 6 x 9 inches and 2-3/4 x 2 inches respectively. It is initialed center bottow ESC. unframed Campbell left the University of Chicago and transferred to and received his degree from the Chicago Art Institute.[3] Professional career During a job as a railroad dining-car waiter, Campbell sometimes drew caricatures of the train passengers, and one of those, impressed by Campbell's talent, gave him a job in a St. Louis art studio, Triad Studios. He spent two years at Triad Studios before moving to New York City in 1929. A month afterward, he found work with the small advertising firm, Munig Studios, and began taking classes at the National Academy of Design.During this time, he contributed to various magazines, notably Life, & Judge Following the suggestion of cartoonist Russell Patterson to focus on good girl art, Campbell created his "Harem Girls", a series of watercolor cartoons that attracted attention in the first issue of Esquire, debuting in 1933. Campbell's artwork was in almost every issue of Esquire from 1933 to 1958 and he was the creator of its continuing mascot, the cartoon character in a silk top hat. He also contributed to The Chicagoan, Cosmopolitan, Ebony, The New Yorker, Playboy, Opportunity: A Journal of Negro Life, Pictorial Review, and Redbook. His commercial artwork for advertising included illustrations for Barbasol, Springmaid, and Hart Schaffner...