Paul Calle

1928 - 2010

Born in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, Paul Calle earned an undergraduate degree from the Pratt Institute. During the Korean War Calle served as an Army illustrator, and following the War he illustrated covers for science fiction magazines such as, Galaxy, Fantasy Fiction, and Super Science Stories, as well as general interest magazines like The Saturday Evening Post.

In 1962 Paul Calle was one of eight artists selected to participate in the NASA Art Program, documenting the space program through paintings and drawings. His career as an artist for NASA spanned more than 40 years, covering the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, and Space Shuttle Missions. Among the art produced early on by Calle for the space program were the first “twin” stamps produced by the U.S. Postal Service, which commemorated the first American spacewalk of 1965 (issued in 1967) and the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969. When the Apollo 11 astronauts lifted off, among the things they carried was a die of Calle’s commemorative “First Man on the Moon” stamp. When they landed on the moon a proof was made from the die and hand-canceled by the crew, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins. Interestingly, 150 billion copies of the “First Man on the Moon” stamp were printed and sold, making Calle the most reproduced artist in history and his artwork for the stamp the most widely purchased artwork in the world.

When Paul Calle was named Chairman of the Department of Interior’s “Artist in the Parks” program it sparked his interest in the history of the American West and led to his decision to enter the field of fine art as a Western artist. Calle’s reputation as a fine artist grew rapidly due to his accurate and beautiful paintings of fur traders and mountain men. Calle spent a great deal of time in the field studying details of wildlife and the natural environment, often with the Northwest Rendezvous Group of Artists, of which he was a founding member. Noteworthy is the fact that the Northwest Rendezvous Group of Artists is credited with inventing the “quick draw” that has become so popular among art venues and Western art museums across the country.

Calle typically began his day at 8:30am working in his Connecticut studio, a converted hay loft in an old barn, where he would work for 10 hours a day at least five days a week. The final preparation for each of his paintings involved first producing a detailed full-size pencil drawing. Calle was known for the quality of his pencil drawings and wrote what some consider one of the best books on pencil drawing, titled simply, The Pencil.

Two quotes seem to best describe how Calle reconciled his diverse career as an artist. “For me, the dimensions of art can be as vast as the wild, windswept plains of the West, as infinite as outer space and as small as the historical scenes captured on postage stamps.” And, “To me there’s always been a similarity, a oneness, between that booted foot of Neil Armstrong sinking into the dust of the moon and the moccasin foot of mountain men, like John Colter, sinking into the snow of the Yellowstone River Valley. They were both establishing a new frontier at the edge of each new footstep.”

THE TRAPPER’S FEAST Oil on Masonite 2000 23 x 34 ½ inches

SHARING WITH FRIENDS Oil on Masonite 1995 27 ¼ x 39 ¾ inches