Charles Santore Fifty Years of Art and Storytelling
WoodmereArtMuseum
FUNDING CREDITS?
Charles Santore Fifty Years of Art and Storytelling
CONTENTS
Foreword 2 A Conversation with Charles Santore 4 Selected Chronology 48 Works in the Exhibition 58
February 17–May 13, 2018
WoodmereArtMuseum
FOREWORD
It is no exaggeration to say that Charles Santore’s
Woodmere is pleased that Santore has become
work is known by hundreds of millions of people. A
part of the Museum’s family, and we are grateful
favored artist of media mogul Walter Annenberg,
to him for generously sharing his work, answering
Santore produced cover illustrations for TV
questions, and assisting in all aspects of organizing
Guide that helped define the graphic aesthetic
the exhibition. We are also honored that he
of American art in the 1970s and ’80s. More
entrusted the Museum with the stewardship of
recently, he has become one of the most popular
many important works of art. Peter Paone and
illustrators of children’s books in the United States.
Lita Solis-Cohen, members of Woodmere’s
His technique as a draftsman and watercolorist
Collections Management Committee, brought
is flawless, and as a storyteller he brings out the
Santore’s work to our attention, and we thank
human complexity of characters like Dorothy Gale,
them for their enthusiasm and for the gift of the
Paul Revere, Alice in Wonderland, and Snow White.
introduction. Rachel McCay, Woodmere’s Assistant
Disney and Hollywood have created standardized
Curator, organized the exhibition together with
versions of these characters that circulate in
Rick Ortwein, Deputy Director for Exhibitions, who
popular culture; Santore’s accomplishment is to
designed the installation. Thank you all.
make us see them with fresh eyes. Woodmere is honored to present Charles Santore: Fifty Years of
WILLIAM R. VALERIO, PHD
Art and Storytelling, an overview of the career of
The Patricia Van Burgh Allison Director and Chief
a virtuoso artist whose creativity has evolved with
Executive Officer
the times.
2
WOODMERE ART MUSEUM
Charles Santore in his studio, 2018. Photograph by Ralph Giguere
CHARLES SANTORE: FIFTY YEARS OF ART AND STORYTELLING
3
A CONVERSATION WITH CHARLES SANTORE
On November 14, 2017, William Valerio, the Patricia Van Burgh Allison Director and Chief Executive Office; Rachel McCay, Assistant Curator; and Hildy Tow, the Robert L. McNeil, Jr. Curator of Education, sat down with Charles Santore to discuss his career and body of work. WILLIAM VALERIO: Woodmere is excited to be
SANTORE: Yes, when I work with a model it’s just
working with you on this career retrospective and
what I see in front of me. With a book, however,
we’d like to talk about your biography and life story.
it’s different; there’s a choreography of multiple
A good place to start in an exhibition is with a self-
images that comes into play. I think of ballet, really.
portrait, and you have one that is special. What’s
I think of music. That’s why I start with little dummy
really nice about it is that you appear to be a person
books, because I like to choreograph the story and
of your time there: the mustache, the sweater,
my compositions have to make sense in dynamic
even the expression is very much of the 1970s. You
relation to each other. They are part of a sequence
present yourself as a regular guy, a Philadelphian.
with a beginning, middle, and end. When I started
Do you see that?
my career as an illustrator, I did advertising and
CHARLES SANTORE: Yes, I’m starting to see
it these days, and again yes, this self-portrait is from 1972. In the early seventies, whenever I had the opportunity, when I wasn’t working on a commission, I would do a still life or a figure study, bring somebody in or paint myself from the mirror. Even today, making studies from life—dealing with objects in space and light as it falls across those objects—informs my pictures and makes my illustration better. When I get back to illustration I have a larger vocabulary to work with. VALERIO: In your introduction to Alice’s Adventures
in Wonderland, you describe how you worked with a model, a little girl, as your figure for Alice. Was that process coming out of this period of experimentation in the 1970s when you started painting from life?
then magazine illustration. It wasn’t until I did the first book that I realized that what I’d been doing all those years is really poster illustration, because whatever idea, whatever you’re selling, has to be summed up in one vision. You produce a single, iconic image, it’s absorbed, and people move on. In 1985, when I started doing books, when I did Peter Rabbit, I realized that a long narrative meant that all the pictures didn’t have to jump off the page at the viewer. They could be quiet. They could move along and build up to a climax. They could build and then go back down, like composing a piece of music or a ballet. VALERIO: When you’re given the assignment, for
example, to capture The Jeffersons TV show in one picture for TV Guide, do you have to ask yourself, how do I do that? If I have to distill it down to one image, what elements have to be included?
4
WOODMERE ART MUSEUM
Self-Portrait, 1972, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
CHARLES SANTORE: FIFTY YEARS OF ART AND STORYTELLING
5
Left: The Jeffersons: Sherman Hemsley, Isabel Sanford, and Paul Benedict, for TV Guide, 1978, by Charles Santore (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the artist, 2017) Below: Sanford and Son: Redd Foxx, for TV Guide, 1976, by Charles Santore (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the artist, 2017)
SANTORE: Exactly. I would watch The Jeffersons
SANTORE: That’s why I put Louise’s hand there
over and over again and start to see the essence of
with all the rings, and she wears gold clothing
the show. That total synthesis can be relaxed when
like the jewelry, a sign of wealth. She laughs, and
you’re doing a book. It’s a whole different thing.
George makes that expression that was typical
VALERIO: You’ve chosen to depict George and
Louise Jefferson and the relationship between them, and then there’s the neighbor who represents their interaction with the world, specifically the white world, right? The whole idea is that they are a successful, wealthy black family, and they’ve moved to uptown Manhattan.
6
WOODMERE ART MUSEUM
of his character; the white guy, the neighbor, he’s the referee. There’s this sort of interface between George and Louise and he looms in the background behind them. A good example of what you’re saying is when I did the Redd Foxx portrait for Sanford and Son. I think it was the third or fourth TV Guide cover I did. I would do a sketch and send it to TV Guide, they would okay the sketch, and then I would do the
Above: Cover for the March 25–31, 1972 issue of TV Guide, illustration by Charles Santore Left: Columbo: Peter Falk, for TV Guide, 1972, by Charles Santore (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the artist, 2017)
finished work. I sent the sketch of Redd Foxx off to
VALERIO: TV Guide was a defining force in
TV Guide and I never heard from them so I did the
American life from the 1950s through the 1970s.
finished piece. I sent them the finished painting and
Gerry Lenfest , owner of TV Guide at the time, tells
it was printed. I got paid and it was on the magazine
me that every issue went to twenty million homes.
cover. One day about six months later I walked into
Twenty million people a week saw this image, so
the studio hallway and there’s an old mailbox on
in a lot of ways—and this is where I was going
the wall that nobody ever used. For some reason I
with the self-portrait of 1972—I think that’s what
looked in the mailbox and there was a little manila
is significant about your work, Charles—you’re an
envelope. I opened it, and there was my sketch
artist whose work contributed to the aesthetic of
with all these corrections on it, saying, “Why is he
that era. I remember seeing these images when I
so dour? This is a comedy show.” I had never seen
was a kid. There’s an incredible force and power in
this note, but from then on I never sent in another
that. How did you get started at TV Guide?
preparatory sketch for TV Guide. I would just submit the finished painting for each assignment. CHARLES SANTORE: FIFTY YEARS OF ART AND STORYTELLING
7
The Godfather Is Reborn (interior): Francis Ford Coppola and Marlon Brando, for TV Guide, 1977, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
SANTORE: Columbo was the first cover I did. I was
it looks just like Peter Falk.” Then the door opens
doing a lot of work for N. W. Ayer and Gray and
and the assistant editor comes in, a big, lumbering
Rogers in Philadelphia and many of the magazines
man. He lumbers over to the couch, looks, and says,
in New York, and Jerry Alten, TV Guide’s art director,
“I hate the goddamn thing,” turns around and walks
called me. I never solicited TV Guide, I never went
out. I started laughing and I said to Jerry, “When
there with a portfolio, he just called me. He gave me
the circus is over, give me a call.” I got up and
the assignment for Columbo and when I finished
walked out. He called me later and said, “I finally
I brought the painting to TV Guide—they were in
sold it to him, but I had to change the color in the
Radnor at the time—and he ushered me into the
background.” So, if you look at the actual TV Guide,
editor’s office. The editor’s name was Merrill Panitt.
he had to change the background color to please
It was a big office, and Panitt was sitting pretty far
Panitt.
away from me, Jerry’s standing behind me with his hand on the chair, and the portrait is across the room on a couch. Panitt says, “I hate that goddamn color in the background.” VALERIO: The bright pink?
VALERIO: To me that pink color has a lot of snap
to it. SANTORE: Yeah, for me too. When Walter
Annenberg created TV Guide in 1953, the men who worked there were hardboiled newspapermen he
SANTORE: Yeah, so I didn’t say anything. Jerry
brought over from the Philadelphia Inquirer. They
said, “But it looks just like Peter Falk.” And Panitt
knew nothing about art. Jerry had to do a kind of
said, “Why is his hand so big?” I said, “Because it’s
a dance with these people in order to sell them
between the viewer and him.” And Jerry said, “But
anything, and he really handled it well. He was like
8
WOODMERE ART MUSEUM
chronological presentation of the movie and reedited it all while in the jungle. That’s the reason for my second picture of Coppola that ran on the editorial page. The cover image shows Michael seated like Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial. VALERIO: Was the Italian community in
Philadelphia proud of you for doing these images? SANTORE: Oh my God—I did five hundred
prints because my brother wanted some for his restaurant and other people wanted one. They were lithographs, I believe. I don’t remember the printer, but they sold out like that. People ask me all the time, “Why don’t you do it again?” I say, “No, I did a limited edition. I did 500 prints and that’s it.” It was very popular. TV Guide had one real problem. They sold twenty million magazines a week but they were small, only The Godfather: Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, and Robert De Niro, for TV Guide, 1977, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
a few inches high by a few inches wide. Advertisers were reluctant to spend all that money for so small a space. So, TV Guide took out full-page
a bullfighter, you know—he knew when to put the
newspaper ads in the Wall Street Journal, the New
cape on. So, I had a great relationship with Jerry
York Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and so on,
after that. I never had to deal with the editors
about why it was editorially significant to advertise
anymore; I just dealt with Jerry and I kept doing the
in their magazine. I did many of these ads. Here’s
pictures.
something that will be interesting relative to the events of today: a full-page ad I did for TV Guide
VALERIO: I love your images of The Godfather.
that I call the “bear ad.” It shows how the Russians
These were made for TV Guide when it was
were manipulating the American media with their
determined that there would be a chronological
propaganda.
presentation of the different storylines that are intermingled in the Godfather movies, which I remember was on TV. Now I think it’s a violation of the integrity of the movie.
VALERIO: Wow! Sounds eerily familiar! SANTORE: Yeah. Ronald Reagan loved it. Russia
was a priority for him. He felt himself a match for
SANTORE: Francis Ford Coppola was in the jungle
Gorbachev. It was a time of KGB disinformation.
making Apocalypse Now at the time. So, they had
When the copywriters at N. W. Ayer, who were then
to send him all the footage and he agreed to the
handling the TV Guide account, sent me the copy
CHARLES SANTORE: FIFTY YEARS OF ART AND STORYTELLING
9
TV Guide newspaper ad, c. 1985, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
and headline for the ad, their job was finished. I
the president responded to the timeless phrase, “A
supplied the visual, in this case the image of the
picture is worth a thousand words.”
bear. I think what the president reacted to was my choice to portray a large, ponderous Russian bear having his way with a generic, almost anemic network anchorman. Keep in mind, none of the people at Ayer or TV Guide had any image at all when they sent me the copy. The graphics convey an overwhelming threat to a free press and I think 10
WOODMERE ART MUSEUM
Walter Annenberg called me and he said, “The president loves that.” I said, “Yeah?” I was waiting for the shoe to drop, and he said, “He would really love to have it.” And I thought to myself, “Well, are you going to buy it?” He said, “Yeah, he would really love to have it.” I thought, well, he’s asking me to donate it. I said, “Okay, you can give it to him.” So he sent
his limousine, and I gave him the drawing. Then,
working relationship for about ten years, but then
about two months later, one of my black-and-white
books became my priority and I wasn’t so interested
reproductions was accepted in the annual Society
in doing magazine work anymore.
of Illustrators show. I called N. W. Ayer and I said, “I
With advertising illustration, very often if you give
need that drawing back, for the show.” They said,
the directors more in an image than they need to
“Can’t do that—the president has it.” I said, “I don’t
get their point across, they don’t want it. Many
care if the president has it, I need the drawing for
illustrators—I could even say most illustrators at
the show.” Nobody from the agency would call, so
the time—wanted to be told exactly what to paint,
I called Walter Annenberg and I got his secretary. I explained the situation, and she said, “When do you need it?” I said, “I could use it within the week.” Next thing you know, the limousine brought it and I put
because they really wanted a paycheck. They wanted to do a job and get paid. Increasingly, I wasn’t interested in that; it wasn’t me. I became more and more interested in seeing how far I could push myself
the drawing in the show in New York. It was there for a month or so and when it was returned I called and the limousine came to pick it up and bring it back. In the meantime, Walter Annenberg moved to California and became the ambassador to Britain. Years went by, he came back to Radnor, and I got a call from his secretary: “We were going through Mr. Annenberg’s things and we found this picture of a Russian bear.” So, it never went back to Reagan. She
as an artist. I wanted to explore whatever the subject was that they gave me, and very often I got myself in trouble with the clients. It got to the point where I almost loved getting up and walking out and telling them to go to hell. I thought that if I couldn’t do it the way I wanted to do it, then I might as well be a bartender or do something else. I wasn’t going to be told what to paint or draw.
said, “You want it?” I said, “Sure.” And they brought
VALERIO: Well, let’s go back to the beginning.
it back to me. For the presentation to Reagan, they
You grew up in the Italian community of South
actually had the type used in the newspaper ad set
Philadelphia, but your family goes back several
right on the drawing, so the original artwork still
generations; your great-grandfather came to
retains this type.
Philadelphia in the 1860s from Buffalo, having sold a successful business there. He bought a big house in
VALERIO: It’s an incredible story.
Philadelphia.
SANTORE: It is. In addition to the work I did for TV
SANTORE: They came to Philadelphia in 1868. I’m
Guide, I did a lot of work for N. W. Ayer. They had
not sure when they got to Buffalo from Italy—it
national accounts, like the French Line, Plymouth,
must have been the 1850s.
De Beers diamonds. I was lucky that Paul Darrow, one of the revered art directors at N. W. Ayer, finally
VALERIO: So they were not part of the big
started giving me some work. I’d gone there two
migration of Italians in the late nineteenth and early
or three times with a portfolio in the 1960s and as
twentieth centuries, people leaving the south of
soon as he started hiring me, other people started
Italy when conditions were very poor and all of the
hiring me. Jerry Alten had probably been aware of
post-unification forces were conspiring against the
my work for N. W. Ayer as well. He and I had a good
regular folk.
CHARLES SANTORE: FIFTY YEARS OF ART AND STORYTELLING
11
“Little Soul” for Ladies’ Home Journal, mid-1970s, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
SANTORE: There was a community around
VALERIO: I’m guessing it helped that your family
Bainbridge to Catharine Streets, between 6th
owned a building.
and 8th—they all seemed to come from a village right outside Naples called Ruta. It was an Irish neighborhood and the Italians didn’t even have a church; they used to have to borrow the basement of Saint Paul’s Church on Christian Street one night a week. Years later there was a church built on Montrose Street. They all seemed to have come really early, and probably my relatives—my great-grandfather—came from Buffalo because he knew people from the same village in that area of Philadelphia.
SANTORE: We did own a family building, but
when my grandfather died it belonged to twentyfive people. So, my father sort of took care of it and we lived in one of the apartments. My point is that so many of the people I went to art school with, when they got out of school, were concerned with getting a job, working, and getting a check. It never really occurred to me. I wasn’t interested in that. I began to see that sort of process could become a trap. You get a job, you get married, you buy a house in the
Nobody in my family really ever had a job. They all
suburbs, you even put a little pool outside—before
figured out some way to work for themselves. When
you know it, you’re working to pay for what you
I was growing up, my father worked for himself for
bought, and I never wanted to be in that situation.
a long time. He did finally take a job for the City, but
I always wanted to be able to bail out whenever
then he became union president, so he was his own
the work was not to my liking. That’s why I liked
boss anyway. I’d never even thought about it until
the push and shove of seeing how far I could push
one of my sons said one time, “You know, nobody
the clients to get them to think like I wanted them
in this family ever had a regular job.” He was right!
to think, rather than them imposing their opinions
At the dinner table, there was never a mention of
on me. I would always say things like, “I don’t have
money when I was a child.
a pair of hands to sell you. I have opinions. If you
12
WOODMERE ART MUSEUM
He hid with a pair of storks in a nest of twigs, from A Stowaway on Noah’s Ark, 2000, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
want to give me your problem, I’ll solve it. If not,
encouraging. There was a parent-teacher meeting
give it to somebody else.”
and my mother said to one of the teachers, “Who
VALERIO: You went to public school in Philadelphia.
did all those nice pictures that are hanging in the hallway?” And the teacher said, “Your son.” My
SANTORE: I went to the Meredith School until
mother had no idea. I was always encouraged by
second grade, then transferred to the Campbell
the teachers in school.
School, an elementary school in the neighborhood. I drew a lot at home and had an aunt who would buy me drawing materials. When I started school the teachers really encouraged me. From a very young age I was always, it seems, doing a frieze. They used to call them friezes in those days. They had these
I went on to Bartlett Junior High School, but there was a lot of racial tension, a lot of fighting. I grew up right where the Fleisher Art Memorial is, but I was never in the building. I would sit on the steps outside with my friends and make fun of the people going into Fleisher, but I would never go in. It was
big rolls of brown paper and teachers would ask me to draw something. One teacher used to spend her vacations in Mexico, so she would ask me to draw scenes of Mexico. Maybe in second grade, I’m
important to me to be able to hold my own with my friends. That’s one of the things you had to do. VALERIO: You hung out with the rough kids?
doing these big friezes of Mexico for her. It was very CHARLES SANTORE: FIFTY YEARS OF ART AND STORYTELLING
13
The Hare and the Tortoise, from Aesop’s Fables, 1988, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
SANTORE: Oh, yeah. They were the worst. [laughs]
art teacher had a little jewelry business, and he had
They were the worst, and I loved it. So, for years it
all the kids doing mechanicals and paste ups for his
was a double life.
jewelry catalogues, which I would have no part of.
HILDY TOW: Did your friends know that you drew
so well?
So, they just sort of left me alone and I did whatever I wanted to do. They encouraged it. When I was a senior, they offered me a scholarship to what is now
SANTORE: Yeah, but I could fight as well as they
the University of the Arts. I said I didn’t want
could too, so there was no problem.
it, because I didn’t know anybody that went to college. Many of my friends had quit school at
TOW: So you had your street side.
sixteen years old.
VALERIO: The racial tension was black and white?
Then I was in an English class, and when the class
Irish and Italian?
was dismissed, the teacher asked me to stay. I
SANTORE: It was black and white. The junior high
school was on 11th and Catharine, bordering on the black neighborhood. All the Italians and Irish from 2nd Street, and all the Italians from 9th Street and from my neighborhood would go west to 11th Street. All the black people would come from Christian Street and Bainbridge Street, and they would all converge on the school. Every day there were fights going into school, and fights coming out of school. It was constant.
thought maybe I did something wrong. She said, “I heard through the grapevine that you were offered a scholarship to art school and you said no.” I said, “Yes, that’s true.” She asked me why, and I said, “I don’t know. I just don’t want to go.” She said, “Well, did it ever occur to you that you could go and if you didn’t like it you could quit? But it’s never going to be offered to you again.” And I thought, she’s right. So I said, “Okay, I’ll take it.” VALERIO: That was a turning point in your life.
For high school, I went to Bok Vocational School.
SANTORE: That was a turning point in my life. I
I studied commercial art, but when I got there the
began to enjoy drawing and painting so much that
14
WOODMERE ART MUSEUM
The Mouse’s Tale, from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 2017, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
if I had a sandlot football or baseball game to play,
SANTORE: Yes, because he was too busy. He would
I was conflicted. I usually had a painting or work of
come in on Fridays and everybody would have the
some kind in process at home, but when I knew I
assignment on the wall, and he would look at it and
had to be at the field at two o’clock, it was hard! I
say, “It’s not quite right.” But he wouldn’t tell you
couldn’t leave a painting that wasn’t right yet. So
what to do or how to fix it. There was only one man,
there was always this tension between the two. I
a man named Isa Barnett, who was a local illustrator,
finally gave in to the art.
who was doing work nationally. He knew what he was doing, and he could tell you how to make your
VALERIO: So you went to the University of the
picture better. I never forgot him. The rest of the
Arts, which was then the Philadelphia Museum
teachers that I had in the illustration department—Al
School of Art.
Gold, Ben Eisenstadt, and others—were a lot of fun,
SANTORE: Yes, I was in the illustration program.
good artists, but they weren’t illustrators and that
I didn’t know what illustration was. I had no idea.
was evident in their teaching.
I knew I liked to draw and paint, and this was
VALERIO: Can we talk about your career after you
the 1950s so representational painting was out.
graduated from art school?
They were throwing out the plaster casts and so forth. New York abstraction was in. I knew I wasn’t
SANTORE: I never really wanted the cloak of an
interested in that, so I didn’t know what to do, and
artist. I didn’t want to be in an art community. I
somebody suggested illustration because you can
wasn’t really interested in that. I got out of school
draw and paint in illustration. So that’s what I took.
and I started walking around with a portfolio
Henry Pitts was the head of the department, and he
because that’s what they told me you’re supposed
would show up once a week to do a crit. His crits
to do. I would show it to people and get rejected,
weren’t very instructive.
and then finally someone at a little tiny advertising
VALERIO: Really?
agency on 16th and Spruce said, “Well, you can
CHARLES SANTORE: FIFTY YEARS OF ART AND STORYTELLING
15
So through the night rode Paul Revere, from Paul Revere’s Ride: The Landlord’s Tale, 2002, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
Study for So through the night rode Paul Revere, 2002, for Paul Revere’s Ride: The Landlord’s Tale, 2002, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
16
WOODMERE ART MUSEUM
work here.” I was rendering dental plates for about
story, do a picture, and it usually was fine. Before
two months. There was a letter-stamping machine
long, it began to feel competitive, not challenging.
right behind my desk. The noise was constant. It
The stories started to be the same boy-and-girl
was like Dante’s Inferno. [laughs]
romances over and over. I was longing to do something else, but I didn’t quite know what.
Luckily for me, one of the freelancers they used said to me, “There’s a little art service up on Arch
VALERIO: A picture I’ve seen many times is the
Street that’s looking for illustrators.” So, I took my
Redbook illustration you have of the big Irish setter.
portfolio, and they hired me, but they really didn’t
That’s an important picture because if you ask me
have anything for me to do. I was there for six
to describe Charles Santore the illustrator, I think of
months, and I began to see how the whole thing
an artist who loves to draw animals: Aesop’s Fables,
worked. Then when I was on vacation they fired me.
A Stowaway on Noah’s Ark, The Wizard of Oz, even
It was the only job I ever had in my life.
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. You love animals.
It was the best thing that ever happened to me.
SANTORE: I do.
When the art director from there left to open his
VALERIO: There’s something about the beauty of
own art service, he called me and said, “We’ll give you space and a telephone. If we get any illustration, you can do it, or you can go out and get your own
animals. Did the Irish setter start something for you? Did you realize when you were making that drawing that it was something you liked doing?
accounts.” So I had space and a telephone and I could get out of my mother’s basement. That’s how
SANTORE: I did, because I actually made my
it started. I would walk around looking for work, and
model dog into an Irish setter. The story in
finally I’d get a little drawing here or there. Then
Redbook magazine was about an Irish setter,
when N. W. Ayer started giving me work, I started
but the closest dog I could find to borrow as
getting work really all over the city.
a model was a golden retriever. The story was about a woman who had an unruly setter that
VALERIO: Was Redbook a client of theirs?
was always bothering the neighbors. She loved
SANTORE: No, I worked directly for Redbook,
the dog because it had the freedom that she
Good Housekeeping, Ladies’ Home Journal,
didn’t have in her own life. She’d take the dog out,
Esquire, and Cosmopolitan. I began in advertising
but she got so many complaints that she knew
but magazine illustration was the real showcase in
she had to get rid of the dog. So she took it out
the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s, so I took my portfolio to
one last time, to a field, and while the dog was
New York. I illustrated stories in magazines, which
running in circles around her, she was watching
was getting closer to the narrative pictures that
it and thinking about her own life. Ultimately she
I later did when I began to do books. Magazine
found a new home for the dog. For me, whether
work was a lot of fun for several years. I would
it’s the Irish setter, or the horse in Paul Revere’s
do some advertising in between, because with a
Ride, the illustration isn’t of the Irish setter per
magazine assignment I’d get maybe three or four
se, or the horse per se, it’s the Irish setter of the
weeks to do it. They’d send me a story, I’d read the
imagination, and the horse of the imagination.
CHARLES SANTORE: FIFTY YEARS OF ART AND STORYTELLING
17
Illustration for Redbook, mid-1970s, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
18
WOODMERE ART MUSEUM
CHARLES SANTORE: FIFTY YEARS OF ART AND STORYTELLING
19
Impact, mid-1970s, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
Above: Later, Phoenix Theater, 1979, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist) Right: Poster for Later, Phoenix Theater, 1979, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
20
WOODMERE ART MUSEUM
Impact (self-titled album), released 1976 by Atco Records
It has to transcend or else it just becomes a
after his death, as much as they resented him, they
pedantic rendering of the animal.
found comfort being on his sailboat.
VALERIO: It represents something: in this case,
VALERIO: So, those are his hands? And is that your
freedom.
invention?
SANTORE: Right.
SANTORE: Yes, they’re his hands—he’s still got
them in his grip. I started doing theater posters
VALERIO: Before we get to your children’s books
because my sister-in-law is the dramaturge for
I’d like to talk a bit more about your earlier work.
Lincoln Center. Then, she was with the Phoenix
The show will include your commercial magazine
Theater in New York, a smaller venue. She asked
and advertising work as well as your album covers
me if I’d be willing to do theater posters for free. I
and theater posters. I love the album cover of the
said, “As long as nobody criticizes them. Give me
four men merged with the charging rhinoceros.
the play, I’ll read the play, I’ll do a poster, and you
SANTORE: The name of the group was Impact.
have to use it.” I did five or six of them. The last one
I got this assignment through a local advertising
was for a play about Vaslav Nijinsky, and it started
agency. I never knew whether the group was local
to get Broadway buzz even before it opened. All of
or not. I don’t think I ever heard of them again.
a sudden, all these money people came out of the woodwork. I got a call because I had sent a sketch
RACHEL MCCAY: Did you listen to their music
up to them, and they wanted to talk to me about
before you did this?
the poster. So, I went to New York and there’s six people in a room and they start telling me their
SANTORE: No, I don’t think so.
ideas. I said, “Who’s going to pay for it?” They said, “What do you mean? The posters are free.” I said,
TOW: So, how’d you come up with the rhino?
“No, the posters were free when I do the poster the
SANTORE: Well, because it was called “Impact,” I
way I want to do it. You want to art direct a poster,
was thinking about force.
you’re going to pay,” which I knew they weren’t
MCCAY: Do you know if they liked it?
going to do and I wasn’t going to do it anyway.
SANTORE: Oh, they loved it. The image was
VALERIO: You saw the writing on the wall.
included in one of the Society of Illustrators
SANTORE: Yeah, I just did that on purpose. So I did
exhibitions in New York.
five posters in 1979 because they let me do it my
VALERIO: It’s a spectacular illustration. You also did
a few theater posters.
own way.. I saw the possibilities and the excitement of
SANTORE: Yes, one I did was for a play called Later.
working with multiple images when I did Peter
It was about a father who was very domineering.
Rabbit, my first book. As wonderful as it is, the
When he died, he still had a grip on his two
original and well-known Beatrix Potter storybook is
daughters and his wife. He had been a sailor, and
depicted as though she’s looking from the kitchen
CHARLES SANTORE: FIFTY YEARS OF ART AND STORYTELLING
21
His mother put him to bed and made some chamomile tea, from Peter Rabbit, 1987, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
22
WOODMERE ART MUSEUM
Peter sees Mr. McGregor as he rounds the cucumber frame, from Peter Rabbit, 1987, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
window into the yard, or the garden, and everything’s
obscure the subject. I would much rather let the text
happening in the middle distance. When you see
affect me and maybe change me as an artist.
Mr. McGregor chasing Peter, they’re both relatively
VALERIO: I see that approach very clearly in TV
small. I thought I’d like Peter to be like Huckleberry
Guide covers, because it’s a different medium, a
Finn. I’d like the viewer to get down with Peter and
different approach, a different touch as an artist for
when he turns that frame and sees Mr. McGregor,
each subject. As you described earlier, it all has to
he’s the scale of the Jolly Green Giant. He’s big. In my illustration the book starts with the introduction of the characters in a formal square format and then moves into vignettes. Peter disobeys his mother and he’s running around through the text; he’s free of the confines of the standard picture. At the end of the story, when he’s safe again, he’s back in the confines of the square format. I began to realize this is what
do with conveying the essence of the TV show. You depict Archie Bunker differently than you depict the news reporters on 60 Minutes. It’s the content that’s driving the style. Although there are consistent elements in what you do, it’s striking a balance with the demands of the content that makes your work elastic and interesting.
I wanted to do. I saw so many possibilities, a way
MCCAY: I agree. For the books that you write
to challenge—especially with these classics—what
yourself, where do you start? You’re not
was done before. Maybe something could be added
responding to an existing story. Do you write
to them.
the story first and then create the illustrations
Nothing to me is more boring than an illustrator who
or vice versa?
develops a style and then just pours the style on any
SANTORE: With my very first book, William the
subject, whatever that subject is. In my opinion, they
Curious, I tried to simultaneously write the story
CHARLES SANTORE: FIFTY YEARS OF ART AND STORYTELLING
23
Cover image for William the Curious, from William the Curious, 1997, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
and illustrate it. That was a bad idea because I did
frog—it’s been sitting on my desk ever since. I
four or five pictures, I put a lot of time in, and then
thought I’d like to write a story about that frog, but
the story went off in another direction and they
I didn’t consider myself a writer. So I just started
were no longer relevant. So, I stopped that. Now I
scribbling. I mentioned it to a friend who was a
write the story and don’t think about pictures at all.
professor at the Annenberg School at the time,
I just write a story, then I illustrate it as though I’m
and he said, “Just write it. I’ll edit it for you.” I wrote
illustrating somebody else’s story.
it and he edited it, but I didn’t like what he did,
TOW: When did you start writing your own stories?
so I put it away for a while. Then I took it out and rewrote it, and I sent it to a couple of publishers
SANTORE: I wrote William the Curious before I ever
and got responses like, “Knights in armor are
did a children’s book, maybe thirty-five years ago.
not in vogue.” I never got criticism that I thought was valid, but I just put the story away and never
TOW: What propelled you to do that? SANTORE: Somebody gave me a little ceramic
24
WOODMERE ART MUSEUM
thought about it. After I did Peter Rabbit, Aesop’s Fables, and The Wizard of Oz, I was in a different position; I showed it to the same editors, saying,
Listen, my children, and you shall hear of the midnight ride of Paul Revere, from Paul Revere’s Ride: The Landlord’s Tale, 2002, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
somebody had donated, and they wanted to know
“What do you think of this?” They loved it.
what they were. They sent me pictures of them and
VALERIO: The book that we’ll reproduce in its
I told them what they had. I found the letter, and
entirety—that is, preparatory works and finished
I thought, “I wonder if the curator is still there.” I
drawings—is your version of Longfellow’s The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere. Could you talk about how that book came to be?
called and sure enough the curator was still there. I explained what I was doing and he said, “I’ll send you pictures of the room where Longfellow set his
SANTORE: I got a call from a publisher at Harper
poem.” He also sent me a picture of a portrait of the
Collins in New York, and she said, “Would you be
landlord who Longfellow chooses to tell the story.
interested in doing a version of Paul Revere?” I told her I’d love to, and while we were talking on the phone, I looked at my bookshelf and there was a old
VALERIO: How did you develop the character of
Paul Revere?
volume of Longfellow that my daughter gave me,
SANTORE: Well, there’s a famous John Singleton
which I’d never even looked at. As soon as I hung up
Copley portrait of Paul Revere, and I romanticized
the phone, I went to the book and I looked up the
that portrait.
poem. It’s part of a set called “Tales of a Wayside
VALERIO: The Copley portrait is of a stocky guy. To
Inn.” I thought at the time, “Wayside Inn, Wayside
me, you’ve made Paul Revere an Olympic athlete.
Inn, where did I hear that?” I remembered back in 1980, when I wrote a book about Windsor chairs—
You’ve brought him to a twentieth-century ideal.
antique Windsor chairs are a passion of mine—I
SANTORE: Well, he’s Paul Revere! [laughs]
had gotten a letter from the Wayside Inn saying
Longfellow’s poem already idealizes Revere’s
that they had three or four Windsor chairs that
story, so I didn’t want to go the route of historic CHARLES SANTORE: FIFTY YEARS OF ART AND STORYTELLING
25
Paul Revere, 1768, by John Singleton Copley (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: Gift of Joseph W. Revere, William B. Revere and Edward H. R. Revere) Photograph © February 17, 2018 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Model for Paul Revere, 2002 (Collection of the artist) Photographer uknown
26
WOODMERE ART MUSEUM
Meanwhile, impatient to mount and ride, from Paul Revere’s Ride: The Landlord’s Tale, 2002, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
realism, in the sense of having Copley’s jowly guy riding a horse. I wanted it to be the Paul Revere of the imagination, just like it is the horse of the imagination, as we described earlier. I hired a model for the figure of Revere and started doing rough sketches from life and just kept working them. This is not my traditional starting point, but because the book takes place at night I wanted to figure out the relationship between the characters and darkness. It gave me a sense of the tonal values, then I used those as a guide to develop the finished pencil drawings, the color sketches, and the paintings.
CHARLES SANTORE: FIFTY YEARS OF ART AND STORYTELLING
27
Study for Then he climbed the tower of the Old North Church, for Paul Revere’s Ride: The Landlord’s Tale, 2002, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
Study for Then he climbed the tower of the Old North Church, for Paul Revere’s Ride: The Landlord’s Tale, 2002, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
Study for Then he climbed the tower of the Old North Church, for Paul Revere’s Ride: The Landlord’s Tale, 2002, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
Tonal sketch for Then he climbed the tower of the Old North Church, for Paul Revere’s Ride: The Landlord’s Tale, 2002, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
28
WOODMERE ART MUSEUM
Study for Then he climbed the tower of the Old North Church, for Paul Revere’s Ride: The Landlord’s Tale, 2002, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
Study for Then he climbed the tower of the Old North Church, for Paul Revere’s Ride: The Landlord’s Tale, 2002, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
Color study for Then he climbed the tower of the Old North Church, for Paul Revere’s Ride: The Landlord’s Tale, 2002, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist) CHARLES SANTORE: FIFTY YEARS OF ART AND STORYTELLING
29
Then he climbed the tower of the Old North Church, from Paul Revere’s Ride: The Landlord’s Tale, 2002, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
30
WOODMERE ART MUSEUM
CHARLES SANTORE: FIFTY YEARS OF ART AND STORYTELLING
31
VALERIO: Turning to another one of your books,
The Wizard of Oz-it’s a long story, and I realize your version is abridged. But every page is imagecentered. I love the way the text follows the yellow brick road or the image of the Lion leaping into space. You create a sense of emptiness under the Lion that’s yellow, but then it’s blue on top, creating an illusion of the sky. The text and the images work together in a very subtle way. What was the process for arranging them? SANTORE: It was a kind of choreography. The first
thing I do when I’m beginning a book is read the story and create these little dummy books of images in sequence. If you look at the dummy book, it really surprises even me that the little doodles I did as I read the story often didn’t change that much in the end. Right in the beginning, the metaphor stuck in my mind that Dorothy was an orphan and her journey was one of discovering identity. She had to find out who she is, and that idea made the concept of the book fall into place. I developed some distinct
There’s a cyclone coming, Em, from The Wizard of Oz, 1991, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
compositional approaches for the book. The journey had to go from left to right; it could never go the other way. The characters always had to be small in relation to the circumstances—if you turn the page and you see a big Dorothy filling the page, she would be dominating the circumstances. I didn’t want that. I wanted the characters to always look like they might not make it to the next page. They keep going from left to right until they encounter the Wicked Witch, and then it starts moving in the opposite direction. When they overcome the Witch, it starts back again. TOW: So, that’s what you mean when you describe
choreographing the movement of the book. SANTORE: That’s what it is. It’s like music, and with
each of these books, there’s something unique—in The Little Mermaid, it was the music of the ocean, 32
WOODMERE ART MUSEUM
Dummy book for The Little Mermaid, 1993, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
The next moment it seemed as if she were flying through the air, from The Wizard of Oz, 1991, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
the various moods of the sea. The story rides on
SANTORE: Yes, you have to find your connection.
the moods of the sea, and I try to let the ocean
MCCAY: Michael Patrick Hearn writes in One
just take me where it would go. With The Wizard
Hundred Years of American Children’s Book
of Oz, it is the yellow brick road that provides a
Illustration that the great children’s book illustrators
continuous structure. With Paul Revere’s Ride, Longfellow’s poem is so moving and so strong that people who have illustrated it in the past have just decorated the page and gotten out of the way
reject the notion that children are less perceptive than adults. You must certainly agree with him. How do you think children’s books should affect children?
of the poem. The poem’s like a racing locomotive
SANTORE: Children pick up so many things and
and I thought, to hell with Longfellow, I’m going to
I want them to get caught up in the story. The
challenge his words, I’m going to ride his text like a
other thing that I’ve always felt was important to
surfer rides a wave. I wanted to create pictures that
acknowledge is that children grow quickly and I’d
were challenging each of his stanzas in the poem.
like them to be able to get interested in the story
You find something that gives you the impetus to
just from the imagery before they’re able to read or
keep moving.
are comfortable with text. Then later they can read the story through the pictures at the same time,
TOW: It sounds like you find not just the essence
but what you really love about it, your connection.
following the narrative. The more they get familiar
CHARLES SANTORE: FIFTY YEARS OF ART AND STORYTELLING
33
The Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman, not being made of flesh, were not troubled by the scent of the flowers, from The Wizard of Oz, 1991, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
34
WOODMERE ART MUSEUM
CHARLES SANTORE: FIFTY YEARS OF ART AND STORYTELLING
35
In a minute I shall melt away, from The Wizard of Oz, 1991, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
with text, the more they can pick up details in the
SANTORE: When Random House first asked me to
art. I want my books to have a long shelf life.
do The Wizard of Oz, I said no because I didn’t like
VALERIO: One of the things that makes your work
so astounding is the use of scale. In The Wizard of Oz, your cyclone is larger than life. Dorothy is small and the things that are happening are big: a child’s point of view. TOW: It’s beyond her control. One of the things
that I find amazing about the Lion in the field of poppies is that you capture the truth about the scene. Having watched the movie as a kid, I never knew why the Lion and Dorothy fell asleep, but the Tin Woodman and the Scarecrow did not, until I read Frank Baum’s story. Dorothy and the Lion are affected by the poppies because they’re the only ones who are flesh and blood. When I saw your painting, it was just so clear.
the movie. Then I thought, well, maybe I should read it. The minute I read the first page, and it said Dorothy was an orphan, the metaphor for the whole story fell into place, and the yellow brick road became the journey. All of a sudden it made sense, and I decided I wanted to do the book. That’s when I began to see how important the choreography needed to be. Certain images in these books are iconic: the poppy field in The Wizard of Oz, the caterpillar in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. When I worked on The Wizard of Oz, one thing that was in the back of my mind was that I didn’t want to disappoint people— everybody knows this story, everybody has an image of Judy Garland as Dorothy. So there was the movie to deal with and everybody’s preconceptions and expectations. I had an interesting meeting with Random House on this subject. I said, “I’m very
36
WOODMERE ART MUSEUM
concerned about Dorothy, because I’m not going
SANTORE: If you’re only giving what you already
to do Dorothy by committee.” This is what happens
know how to do, then you’re wasting everybody’s
in advertising, you know, everybody gets involved. I
time. I start by reading the book and making
said, “This has to be my Dorothy.” They said, “Sure,
sketches in sequential order in a tiny dummy book,
no problem.” I said, “That’s what you say now.” They
as I mentioned. I leave room for text in the book.
said, “Well, you had no trouble with Aesop’s Fables.”
Then I draw some rough sketches in ink. Then I
I said, “A fox two thousand years ago is the same
create a final drawing on tracing paper, then a color
as a fox today. That’s not Dorothy. All you people in
study, and finally a finished painting.
this room have a concept of who Dorothy is, and it’s not going to be your concept, it’s going to be my
VALERIO: Do you make several versions of the
same image?
concept.” They said, “Fine.” I walked out of the meeting thinking to myself that I had no idea who Dorothy should be, so I started
SANTORE: No. There was a time when my floor
would be piled high with sketches. I would try every possible situation. As the years go by, I let
looking. I looked at models, and I went on, and
myself react more and more instinctively. You can’t
on, until finally my son, who was about thirteen or fourteen at the time, said, “There’s a girl in my class who has a little sister that might work for you.” I was getting desperate, so I called the mother and I explained, “I’m working on this project, The Wizard
overthink it. I just let it happen now. If it’s wrong, I’ll discard it. To me it’s like a Ouija board. I’m reading and my hand is just going. I don’t have that pile of sketches anymore.
of Oz. I’m looking for a model for Dorothy, but it’s
VALERIO: Can you describe how it comes to your
not up to me, it’s up to the editors.” [laughs] I was
mind? You told me earlier that it was completely
looking for somebody to play it off on. We met in
“inevitable” that the depiction of Alice and the
Rittenhouse Square, and as soon as I looked at her I
caterpillar would end up like this.
said, “That’s Dorothy.” SANTORE: I felt that the mushroom was very VALERIO: What was it about her?
important and it should be large in the picture. In my mind I wanted it to be a spread with the
SANTORE: I felt from the description in the book
caterpillar on the one side and Alice completely
and her age at the time—I think she was ten—that this girl was her. She had a corn-fed Kansas look. It was visceral. I just responded to it. I try to approach each book a little differently, so the process keeps to be unsure that you’re going to accomplish what that keeps you relevant.
really join them was the mushroom. We’re looking at the mushroom from the perspective of Alice because we’re looking at it from underneath. For
me off-balance, because in my opinion, you have you’re trying to accomplish. That’s the only thing
on the other side, and the thing that was going to
this image I changed the color of the smoke. When I did the color sketch the smoke didn’t work in white. I knew I wanted a yellow sky. I ended up making the smoke blue and it was done.
VALERIO: It has to be a challenge.
CHARLES SANTORE: FIFTY YEARS OF ART AND STORYTELLING
37
Study for The caterpillar addressed her in a languid, sleepy voice, for Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 2017, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
Study for The Caterpillar addressed her in a languid, sleepy voice, for Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 2017, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
38
WOODMERE ART MUSEUM
Color study for The Caterpillar addressed her in a languid, sleepy voice, for Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 2017, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
Color study for caterpillar’s smoke for The Caterpillar addressed her in a languid, sleepy voice, for Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland 2017, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
CHARLES SANTORE: FIFTY YEARS OF ART AND STORYTELLING
39
The Caterpillar addressed her in a languid, sleepy voice, from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 2017, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
40
WOODMERE ART MUSEUM
CHARLES SANTORE: FIFTY YEARS OF ART AND STORYTELLING
41
“It’s always 6 o’clock now. It’s always tea time,” said the Hatter, from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 2017, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
She was now more than nine feet high, from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 2017, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
Down, down, down, would the fall never come to an end?, from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 2017, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
42
WOODMERE ART MUSEUM
VALERIO: How is the character of Alice different
the book, she’s watching events unfold. Except
from Dorothy? Both are on a journey and they
for the growing and shrinking, she doesn’t really
encounter strange characters; some are friends,
interact with what’s going on. So the challenge was
others are not.
to have this little girl appear like she isn’t always just standing there looking at things. I had to find
SANTORE: In my mind, Alice is internally
ways to get her into the composition of what’s
comfortable. She knows pretty much who she is as a little girl, and that’s how she can cope with all
happening.
these strange events that are happening around her.
VALERIO: You describe that Alice is often a
She’s grounded most of the time.
bystander to the action in the story; however, in the end of the adventure she confronts the Queen
VALERIO: So, while Alice is confident and self-
posessed, Dorothy is on a journey of self-discovery. Her eventual wisdom comes from finding her own
cut through the falsity of the dream-like fantasy
this sense, the Lion, the Tin Woodman, and the
world, discerning the real from the fake. We should
Scarecrow are symbolic manifestations of her
acknowledge Alice as a powerful figure who pulls
interior self. They don’t think they have courage,
back the curtain on pretense and false power, a
heart, or brains, but by the end of the adventure
child who sees through the charades of the adults
they realize it was there all along.
around her.
SANTORE: Yes, and by contrast Alice is confidence
is that she’s pretty much a bystander. Throughout
knows that the queen is just a playing card. There is something profound in this; Alice is able to
courage, her own heart, her own intelligence. In
personified, but one of the challenges with Alice
of Hearts and is unafraid to do so because she
SANTORE: That is an excellent interpretation and
characterization of Alice.
CHARLES SANTORE: FIFTY YEARS OF ART AND STORYTELLING
43
But hardly had the first bite passed Snow White’s lips, than she fell down dead, from Snow White, 1997, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
VALERIO: Another well-known story you’ve
She’s saying, “Daddy loves me more than he loves
illustrated is Snow White.
you.” This is what begins to propel the story—at
SANTORE: Yes, for Snow White I focused on the
idea of the stepmother and how that functions
least that’s what Bettelheim says. His ideas were a guide for me.
within a family. The psychologist Bruno Bettelheim
VALERIO: Is that psychological understanding of
says that children can’t criticize their mothers.
the story built into the pictures?
That’s why the stepmother is introduced into stories, not only in Snow White, but Cinderella and others. Whatever gripes children have against their mothers, they can freely pour those difficulties onto symbolic stepmothers, because stepmothers are a step removed. Snow White is really a story about a little girl who gets to be about seven years old and starts to vie with her mother for her father’s attention. When the stepmother looks in the mirror and says, “Who is the fairest of them all?” and the mirror says, “It’s not you anymore, it’s Snow White,” it’s really the little girl saying that to her mother.
44
WOODMERE ART MUSEUM
SANTORE: Yes. If you look at older versions of
Snow White, the pictures never make much sense, because Snow White is a big girl and the dwarves are small. At the end, the prince has to marry somebody who’s an adult. I’ve never seen anybody do what I did, which is to start with a seven-yearold girl. She doesn’t grow until she’s in the crystal casket, which I interpret as a chrysalis, like a moth or a butterfly. In the beginning, however, she’s a little girl, because she’s fooled three times by the stepmother in disguise; if you can fool a teenage girl three times, she deserves whatever she gets! So,
“Where am I who are you?”(Snow White and Prince), from Snow White, 1997, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
she has to be a little girl. Of course, the third time
dwarves as models. They wanted cartoon-like,
is the apple—it’s the Adam and Eve symbol. She’s
Disney-like dwarves, and I said no.
so beautiful they can’t bury her in the ground, so, they make a casket of crystal and that, to me, is the chrysalis. She grows in the casket because there’s
TOW: I think they’re more interesting characters for
the realism.
no timeline in the story for how long she’s in there.
VALERIO: At the end of Snow White you used Jan
In my book, by the time the prince comes along, the
van Eyck’s Arnolfini Wedding as your model? It is
dwarves are old. They have long beards and now
marvelous to me that you couldn’t resist the detail
she’s a young woman.
of the shoes.
VALERIO: So, you retell the story.
SANTORE: Yes, and the mirror that the stepmother
SANTORE: Well, the story doesn’t change—the
uses is the one from van Eyck’s painting.
pictures do. The other thing, too, is the publishers
VALERIO: Have you always been inspired by
gave me a really hard time because I hired real
paintings from art history?
CHARLES SANTORE: FIFTY YEARS OF ART AND STORYTELLING
45
The Arnolfini Portrait, 1434, by Jan van Eyck (The National Gallery: Museum purchase, 1842) Š National Gallery, London / Art Resource, NY
My Lady Queen, you are fair, ‘tis true, but Snow White is fairer far than you, from Snow White, 1997, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
46
WOODMERE ART MUSEUM
...Snow White and the prince lived in the palace and reigned happily over the land for many, many years, from Snow White, 1997, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
CHARLES SANTORE: FIFTY YEARS OF ART AND STORYTELLING
47
“You are free to go, poor child,” from Snow White, 1997, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
SANTORE: Yes, I have. I don’t often go to
museums, but I have numerous books. I’ve always been interested in the Northern Renaissance. We mentioned van Eyck’s portrait. The huntsman’s
VALERIO: Did you have a model for Snow White? SANTORE: I did. There’s a framer in Philadelphia,
Ursula Hobson, and this is her daughter at that age.
clothing and Snow White’s dress were also inspired
VALERIO: Charles, we’ve learned so much and
by the work of Lucas Cranach. The headdress and
covered a great deal of territory. Thank you for
clothing of the duchess from Alice in Wonderland
being so open and for sharing this intertwining of
is modeled off of Hans Holbein the Younger’s
your life story and your interpretation of these many
portraits of Henry VIII’s wives, Jane Seymour and
tales!
Anne of Cleves. I’ve always been drawn to the sculptural way that Northern Renaissance artists depict fabric. The many folds and angles give the fabric a life of its own. I’m interested in their attention to detail and the careful rendering of textures, jewels, and embroidery, and I’ve used this approach in my own work.
48
WOODMERE ART MUSEUM
Portrait of a Saxon Noblewoman as Mary Magdalene, 1525, by Lucas Cranach the Elder (Wallraf-Richartz Museum)
Anne of Cleves, Queen of England, by Hans Holbein the Younger (Musée du Louvre) © RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, NY. Photography by G. Blot, C. Jean.
Jane Seymour, 1536, by Hans Holbein the Younger (Kunsthistorisches Museum) Erich Lessing / Art Resource, NY
When the footmen had gone, Alice went timidly up to the door and knocked, from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 2017, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
CHARLES SANTORE: FIFTY YEARS OF ART AND STORYTELLING
49
SELECTED CHRONOLOGY
1935 Born on March 16 to Charles and Nellie Santore, the eldest of four sons. The family lives at 707 South 7th Street in Philadelphia.
1940–43 Attends Meredith School.
1943–47 Attends Campbell School Pfizer vertigo medication advertisement, early 1980s, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
1947 Santore family moves to Fulton Street in Philadelphia.
1958 Serves for six months as a medic in the US National
1947–50
Guard in Kentucky and Texas.
Attends Bartlett Junior High School.
1958–61 1950–53 Attends Bok Vocational School.
1953–56
Works as a freelance illustrator for the Dezmelyk & Whitson design firm in Philadelphia; accounts include the Armstrong Cork Company, Lancaster, PA. Performs at the Society Hill Playhouse in Philadelphia.
Attends the Philadelphia Museum School of Art (now the University of the Arts) on a four-year scholarship.
1961–82 Works as a freelance illustrator. Independent
1956–58
clients include Smith, Kline and French; Merck, Sharp and Dohme; and the US Department of
Works as a freelance illustrator for various
the Interior (Independence Hall). Editorial clients
Philadelphia design firms.
include the Saturday Evening Post, Redbook, Good Housekeeping, Esquire, Ladies’ Home
50
WOODMERE ART MUSEUM
1972 Wins the Hamilton King Award and Silver Medal in the Society of Illustrators Annual Exhibition. Solo exhibition: Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia Ice Skating, for Parents magazine, c. 1977, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
1972–85 Illustrates magazine covers for TV Guide.
Journal, Cosmopolitan, Playboy, Venture, Money Magazine, Parents Magazine, the New York Times, and Avon Books. Advertising clients include J. Walter Thompson, N. W. Ayer, Gray and Rogers, and Lewis and Gilman for accounts such as the New York World’s Fair, Bell Telephone, AT&T, De Beers, TV Guide, DuPont Corporation, Newsweek, the US Army Reserve, Chrysler (Plymouth), Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, Weyerhaeuser Paper, the US Bicentennial Commission, and Standard Oil (New Jersey).
1962 Sells first editorial illustration to Good Housekeeping.
1963 Marries Olenka Litynska, with whom he has three children: Christina (born 1966), Charles III (born 1970), and Nicholas (born 1973).
Clockwise from top: Quincy: Jack Klugman, for TV Guide, 1977, by Charles Santore (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the artist, 2017); 60 Minutes: Mike Wallace, Morley Safer, and Dan Rather, for TV Guide, 1977, by Charles Santore (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the artist, 2017); Kaz: Ron Leibman, for TV Guide, 1978, by Charles Santore (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the artist, 2017)
1970 Wins an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America.
CHARLES SANTORE: FIFTY YEARS OF ART AND STORYTELLING
51
Life of Benjamin Franklin, for the Philadelphia Bicentennial Commission, 1975, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
1975 Mural of the life of Benjamin Franklin, commissioned by the Philadelphia Bicentennial Commission, is installed at 4th and Arch Streets.
1977 Receives the Silver Star Alumni Award from the Philadelphia College of Art (now the University of the Arts).
1978–79 Illustrates posters for a series of acclaimed off-Broadway productions for the Phoenix Theater in New York.
1982 Writes The Windsor Style in America, published by Running Press.
1986
1988
First illustrated children’s book, The Classic Tale of Peter Rabbit and Other Cherished Stories by Beatrix Potter, published by Running Press (Philadelphia). 52
Santore with his illustrations for Aesop’s Fables, 1987 (Courtesy of the artist) Photograph by Hal Lewis
WOODMERE ART MUSEUM
Illustrates Aesop’s Fables, published by Random House (New York).
Says I, Says He, Phoenix Theater, 1979, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
Big and Little, Phoenix Theater, 1979, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
Poster for Big and Little, Phoenix Theater, 1979, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
Poster for Says I, Says He, Phoenix Theater, 1979, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
CHARLES SANTORE: FIFTY YEARS OF ART AND STORYTELLING
53
She saw her sisters rising out of the flood, from The Little Mermaid, 1993 and 2013, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
They followed him through the portal into the streets of the Emerald City, from The Wizard of Oz, 1991, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
1991
1992–93
1995
Illustrated edition of The
Solo exhibition: Children’s
Illustrations from The Wizard of Oz
Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
Illustrations by Charles Santore,
serve as the backdrops for Turner
published by Random House.
Brandywine River Museum of
Classic Movies broadcast of The
Art, Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania,
Wizard of Oz Concert (Lincoln
November 27–January 10.
Center, New York).
appear in Merrill Lynch TV
1993
1996
commercials aired during the
Illustrated edition of The Little
Illustrates Snow White for
Winter Olympic Games.
Mermaid by Hans Christian
Random House.
1992 Illustrations from Aesop’s Fables
Andersen published by Random House. 54
WOODMERE ART MUSEUM
…beautiful and delicious, but anyone who took a bite would surely die, from Snow White, 1997, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
They carried the coffin to the top of the mountain, from Snow White, 1997, by Charles Santore (Collection of James Campenella)
1996–97
1997
1998
Group exhibition: Myth, Magic,
Documentary film Charles
Receives the Storytelling World
Mystery: One Hundred Years
Santore Illustrates the Wizard
Honor Title for William the
of American Children’s Book
of Oz released by Sirocco
Curious: Knight of the Water
Illustration, Chrysler Museum of
Productions.
Lilies.
Original illustrated book William
Illustrated version of Aesop’s The
the Curious: Knight of the Water
Fox and the Rooster published
Lilies published by Random
by Random House.
Art, Norfolk, June 2–September 8, 1996; Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis, November 3–January 6, 1997; and Delaware Art Museum,
House.
Wilmington, February 7–April 6, 1997.
CHARLES SANTORE: FIFTY YEARS OF ART AND STORYTELLING
55
Then the old man gathered all the animals of the world together, from A Stowaway on Noah’s Ark, 2000, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
2000 Original illustrated book A Stowaway on Noah’s Ark published by Random House. Wins the Gold Medal for A Stowaway on Noah’s Ark at Society of Illustrators Original Art annual exhibition of children’s illustration.
Achoo!, from A Stowaway on Noah’s Ark, 2000, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
2003 Illustrated edition of Paul Revere’s Ride: The Landlord’s Tale by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow published by Harper Collins. Wins the Silver Medal for Paul Revere’s Ride: The Landlord’s Tale at the Society of Illustrators Annual Exhibition.
Achbar followed along out of curiosity, from A Stowaway on Noah’s Ark, 2000, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
2004 Illustrated edition of The Camel’s
Illustrates first digital/online publication, Jack and
Lament by Charles E. Carryl published by Random
the Beanstalk, for the Saturn Corporation (Agency:
House.
Goodby Silverstein & Partners)
Paul Revere’s Ride: The Landlord’s Tale named Children’s Book of the Year for Poetry by the Bank Street College Children’s Book Committee. 56
WOODMERE ART MUSEUM
Then he said, “Good night!” and with muffled oar, from Paul Revere’s Ride: The Landlord’s Tale, 2002, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
It was one by the village clock, from Paul Revere’s Ride: The Landlord’s Tale, 2002, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
You know the rest. In the books you have read, from Paul Revere’s Ride: The Landlord’s Tale, 2002, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist) CHARLES SANTORE: FIFTY YEARS OF ART AND STORYTELLING
57
“Off with her head!”, from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 2017, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
2005
2011
Original illustrated book Three Hungry Pigs and The
Illustrated edition of The Night before Christmas
Wolf Who Came to Dinner published by Random
by Clement C. Moore published by Cider Mill Press
House.
Book Publishers.
2007
2012
Original illustrated book The Silk Princess published
The Night before Christmas reaches #1 on the New
by Random House.
York Times Best Sellers list. Solo exhibition: Society of Illustrators, New York.
2009 Illustrated edition of The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum published by Running Press. Illustrates the official poster of the annual Library of Congress National Book Festival in Washington, DC.
2015 Solo exhibition: Charles Santore: Alice and the Narrative Picture Book, Stockton University Art Gallery, Galloway, New Jersey, January 20–March 28. Illustrated edition of Alice’s Adventures Underground published by Cider Mill Press Book Publishers.
58
WOODMERE ART MUSEUM
Suddenly she heard a mighty roar, from The Silk Princess, 2007, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
2016
2018
Group exhibition: A Big Story, Pennsylvania
Solo exhibition: Charles Santore: Fifty Years of
Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, November
Art and Storytelling, Woodmere Art Museum,
25, 2016–February 5, 2017.
Philadelphia, February 17–May 13.
2017
2019
Illustrated edition of Alice’s Adventures in
Group exhibition: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
Wonderland published by Cider Mill Press Book
tour planned for seven cities in Japan.
Publishers.
CHARLES SANTORE: FIFTY YEARS OF ART AND STORYTELLING
59
WORKS IN THE EXHIBITION
All works are by Charles Santore (American, born 1935) and are on loan from the collection of the artist, unless otherwise indicated. Windsor Chair, c. 1780–1800 Hickory, pine and maple, 27 x 14 x 13 in. Made in New York City Collection of Charles Santore
Christmas in Bethlehem, for Bell Telephone Hour Christmas program, 1968 Ink on paper, 22 1/2 x 19 in. Columbo: Peter Falk, 1972 Acrylic on canvas, 12 x 16 in. Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the artist, 2017
Self-Portrait, 1972 Charcoal on board, 14 1/2 x 21 in. They Came Bearing Gifts, 1972 Graphite, ink on paper, 29 3/4 x 23 3/4 in. Tom Paine at Valley Forge, 1972 Acrylic on canvas, 11 3/4 x 11 3/4 in. Washington’s Crossing, 1776, 1972 Acrylic on canvas, 11 3/4 x 11 3/4 in. Adam-12: Martin Milner and Kent McCord, 1973 Ink, gouache, and colored pencil, 10 3/8 x 15 in. Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the artist, 2017
Cannon: William Conrad, 1973 Colored pencil, 9 x 11 3/4 in. Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the artist, 2017
60
WOODMERE ART MUSEUM
Christmas in Bethlehem, for Bell Telephone Hour Christmas program, 1968, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
They Came Bearing Gifts, 1972, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
Streets of San Francisco: Karl Malden and Michael Douglas, 1973 Watercolor, 11 1/8 x 16 in. Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the artist, 2017
The US Army Reserve Presents Al Gee, Rap n’ Rhythm, 1973 Acrylic on canvas, 14 x 14 in. Kojak: Telly Savalas, 1974 Oil on canvas, 16 x 19 in. Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the artist, 2017
Adam-12: Martin Milner and Kent McCord, for TV Guide, 1973, by Charles Santore (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the artist, 2017)
All in the Family: Carroll O’Connor, 1975 Watercolor, gouache, and colored pencil on paper, 11 x 17 in. Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the artist, 2017
Life of Benjamin Franklin, for the Philadelphia Bicentennial Commission, 1975 Oil on canvas, 16 1/4 x 32 in. Little Esther Phillips, Angel (front cover), 1975 Acrylic on canvas, 11 1/2 x 11 1/2 in.
Little Esther Phillips, Devil (back cover), 1975 Acrylic on canvas, 11 1/2 x 11 1/2 in. Medical Center: Chad Everett, 1975 Watercolor, 13 x 17 in. Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the artist, 2017
[Illustration for Redbook], mid-1970s Watercolor and ink on paper, 18 x 24 1/2 in.
CHARLES SANTORE: FIFTY YEARS OF ART AND STORYTELLING
61
Howard Cosell, for TV Guide, 1985, by Charles Santore (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the artist, 2017) The Rookies: Sam Melville, Georg Stanford Brown, and Michael Ontkean, for TV Guide, 1980, by Charles Santore (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the artist, 2017)
Impact, mid-1970s Colored pencil and charcoal, 15 1/8 x 15 1/2 in.
Sanford and Son: Redd Foxx, 1976 Pastel, 11 x 16 1/4 in. Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the artist, 2017
“Little Soul,” for Ladies’ Home Journal, mid-1970s Watercolor, 16 1/2 x 24 in.
September 1976, 1976 Pastel on paper, 20 7/8 x 29 1/4 in.
Independence Day, 1976 Pastel on paper, 27 x 35 1/4 in.
Starsky and Hutch: Paul Michael Glaser and David Soul, 1976 Charcoal and watercolor, 15 1/2 x 21 in.
Requiem, 1976 Pastel on paper, 21 1/2 x 34 3/4 in.
62
WOODMERE ART MUSEUM
Ice Skating, for Parents magazine, c. 1977 Gouache, 22 x 30 in. Bobby, 1977 Charcoal on paper, 39 x 28 in. Private collection
Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the artist, 2017
The Godfather: Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, and Robert De Niro, 1977 Watercolor and sepia ink, 13 1/2 x 20 in.
Washington’s Crossing, 1776, 1972, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
Tom Paine at Valley Forge, 1972, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
Cannon: William Conrad, for TV Guide, 1973, by Charles Santore (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the artist, 2017)
Streets of San Francisco: Karl Malden and Michael Douglas, for TV Guide, 1973, by Charles Santore (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the artist, 2017)
CHARLES SANTORE: FIFTY YEARS OF ART AND STORYTELLING
63
The house whirled around and 2 or 3 times and rose slowly through the air, from The Wizard of Oz, 1991, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
Don’t you dare bite Toto, you ought to be ashamed of yourself, from The Wizard of Oz, 1991, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
There was a rushing of a great many wings, a great chattering and laughing and the witch was surrounded by a crowd of monkeys, from The Wizard of Oz, 1991, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
64
WOODMERE ART MUSEUM
I am Oz, the Great and Terrible, from The Wizard of Oz, 1991, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
. . . at the end of the yellow brick road was a big gate all studded with emeralds, from The Wizard of Oz, 1991, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
CHARLES SANTORE: FIFTY YEARS OF ART AND STORYTELLING
65
The US Army Reserve Presents Al Gee, Rap n’ Rhythm, 1973, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
66
WOODMERE ART MUSEUM
Little Esther Phillips, Angel (front cover), 1975, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
The Godfather Is Reborn (interior): Francis Ford Coppola and Marlon Brando, 1977 Watercolor and colored ink, 12 1/2 x 12 3/4 in. Quincy: Jack Klugman, 1977 Watercolor and colored inks on paper, 12 1/2 x 17 3/4 in. Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the artist, 2017
60 Minutes: Mike Wallace, Morley Safer, and Dan Rather, 1977 Colored pencil, gouache on gray paper, 15 x 19 in. Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the artist, 2017
The Jeffersons: Sherman Hemsley, Isabel Sanford, and Paul Benedict, 1978 Gouache on board, 11 1/2 x 16 1/2 in. Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the artist, 2017
Little Esther Phillips, Devil (back cover), 1975, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the artist, 2017
Says I, Says He, Phoenix Theater, 1979 Charcoal pencil on paper, 12 x 17 3/4 in.
Big and Little, Phoenix Theater, 1979 Charcoal and gouache on paper, 17 x 27 in.
Taxi: Danny DeVito and Judd Hirsch, 1979 Watercolor and ink on paper, 12 3/8 x 17 1/2 in.
Kaz: Ron Leibman, 1978 Gouache on board, 12 x 16 1/2 in.
Bonjour, LĂ Bonjour, Phoenix Theater, 1979 Gouache on paper, 15 x 23 in. Getting Out, Phoenix Theater, 1979 Graphite on paper, 28 x 30 in. Later, Phoenix Theater, 1979 Graphite and gouache on paper, 24 x 31 3/4 in.
Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the artist, 2017
Pfizer vertigo medication advertisement, early 1980s Acrylic on canvas, 27 5/8 x 21 3/4 in. The Rookies: Sam Melville, Georg Stanford Brown, and Michael Ontkean, 1980 Colored pencil and charcoal, 9 3/8 x 13 3/4 in. Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the artist, 2017
CHARLES SANTORE: FIFTY YEARS OF ART AND STORYTELLING
67
All in the Family: Carroll O’Connor, for TV Guide, 1975, by Charles Santore (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the artist, 2017)
Kojak: Telly Savalas, for TV Guide, 1974, by Charles Santore (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the artist, 2017)
Sesame Street, 1980 Watercolor and colored inks, 12 1/8 x 15 1/2 in.
Howard Cosell, 1985 Watercolor and gouache on paper, 14 x 20 in.
Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the artist, 2017
Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the artist, 2017
Sheriff Lobo: Claude Akins, Brian Kerwin, and Mills Watson, 1980 Pen and ink and watercolor, 13 x 17 in.
Ronald Reagan/Inauguration/ Super Bowl, 1985 Watercolor and gouache on paper, 18 x 25 in.
Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the artist, 2017
Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the artist, 2017
Soap: Richard Mulligan and Cathryn Damon, 1980 Watercolor and colored pencil, 12 1/2 x 17 3/4 in. Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the artist, 2017
[TV guide newspaper ad], c. 1985 Ink on paper, 23 1/4 x 27 5/8 in. (sheet)
68
WOODMERE ART MUSEUM
PETER RABBIT His mother put him to bed and made some chamomile tea, 1987 Watercolor and ink on paper, 11 1/4 x 10 1/2 in.
Medical Center: Chad Everett, for TV Guide, 1975, by Charles Santore (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the artist, 2017)
AESOP’S FABLES The Hare and the Tortoise, 1988 Watercolor and ink on paper, 23 1/4 x 37 1/4 in. (frame)
THE WIZARD OF OZ There’s a cyclone coming, Em, 1991 Watercolor and ink on paper, 19 x 14 3/4 in. The house whirled around and 2 or 3 times and rose slowly through the air, 1991 Watercolor and ink on paper, 20 x 15 3/4 in.
Requiem, 1976, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
Independence Day, 1976, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
CHARLES SANTORE: FIFTY YEARS OF ART AND STORYTELLING
69
September 1976, 1976, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
70
WOODMERE ART MUSEUM
Sheriff Lobo: Claude Akins, Brian Kerwin, and Mills Watson, for TV Guide, 1980, by Charles Santore (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the artist, 2017) Soap: Richard Mulligan and Cathryn Damon, for TV Guide, 1980, by Charles Santore (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the artist, 2017)
Don’t you dare bite Toto, you ought to be ashamed of yourself, 1991 Watercolor and ink on paper, 13 x 20 in. The next moment it seemed as if she were flying through the air, 1991 Watercolor and ink on paper, 13 1/4 x 20 1/2 in.
The Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman, not being made of flesh, were not troubled by the scent of the flowers, 1991 Watercolor and ink on paper, 20 1/4 x 13 1/2 in. . . . at the end of the yellow brick road was a big gate all studded with emeralds, 1991 Watercolor and ink on paper, 20 x 16 in.
They followed him through the portal into the streets of the Emerald City, 1991 Watercolor and ink on paper, 15 1/2 x 23 1/4 I am Oz, the Great and Terrible, 1991 Watercolor and ink on paper, 21 1/2 x 27 3/4 in. (sheet)
CHARLES SANTORE: FIFTY YEARS OF ART AND STORYTELLING
71
Sesame Street, for TV Guide, 1980, by Charles Santore (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the artist, 2017)
72
WOODMERE ART MUSEUM
Cover for the August 9–15, 1980 issue of TV Guide, illustration by Charles Santore
He thought himself alone in the bright moonlight, from The Little Mermaid, 1993 and 2013, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
There was a rushing of a great many wings, a great chattering and laughing and the witch was surrounded by a crowd of monkeys, 1991 Watercolor and ink on paper, 13 x 20 1/4 in.
She saw her sisters rising out of the flood, from The Little Mermaid, 1993 and 2013 Watercolor on paper, 13 x 19 3/4 in.
In a minute I shall melt away, 1991 Watercolor and ink on paper, 13 1/2 x 20 1/4 in.
SNOW WHITE
THE LITTLE MERMAID He thought himself alone in the bright moonlight, from The Little Mermaid, 1993 and 2013 Watercolor on paper, 14 1/2 x 21 5/8 in.
…beautiful and delicious, but anyone who took a bite would surely die, 1997 Watercolor on paper, 14 x 21 1/2 in.
The Queen pricked her finger and three drops of blood fell on the snow outside, 1997 Watercolor on paper, 13 1/4 x 9 in. Collection of Christina Santore
She ran like the wind over sharp stones and bramble bushes, 1997 Watercolor on paper, 13 1/4 x 20 1/4 in. When it got quite dark, the owners of the little house returned, 1997 Watercolor on paper, 13 1/4 x 20 1/4 in.
But hardly had the first bite passed Snow White’s lips, than she fell down dead, 1997 Watercolor on paper, 13 1/4 x 20 1/2 in. They carried the coffin to the top of the mountain, 1997 Watercolor on paper, 23 x 30 in. (frame) Collection of James Campenella
“Where am I? Who are you?” (Snow White and Prince), 1997 Watercolor on paper, 20 x 27 1/4 in. (sheet)
CHARLES SANTORE: FIFTY YEARS OF ART AND STORYTELLING
73
Bonjour, Là Bonjour, Phoenix Theater, 1979, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
74
WOODMERE ART MUSEUM
Poster for Bonjour, Là Bonjour, Phoenix Theater, 1979, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
Getting Out, Phoenix Theater, 1979, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
Poster for Getting Out, Phoenix Theater, 1979, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
CHARLES SANTORE: FIFTY YEARS OF ART AND STORYTELLING
75
Mali in the Ninth Century (fishing village), for National Geographic, 1981, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
76
WOODMERE ART MUSEUM
WILLIAM THE CURIOUS Cover image for William the Curious, 1997 Watercolor on paper, 13 1/4 x 20 1/4 in.
A STOWAWAY ON NOAH’S ARK Building of the ark, 2000 Watercolor and sepia ink on paper, 17 1/8 x 26 in. (sheet) Then the old man gathered all the animals of the world together, 2000 Watercolor on paper, 11 1/2 x 22 1/4 in. (sheet) Achbar followed along out of curiosity, 2000 Watercolor on paper, 15 1/2 x 23 3/4 in. (sheet) Achoo!, 2000 Watercolor on paper, 12 7/8 x 17 in. (sheet) Soon villages were washed away, 2000 Watercolor on paper, 14 x 14 1/4 in. (sheet)
Poster for Children’s Book Council, 2003, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
…finally covering the peaks of the highest mountains, 2000 Watercolor on paper, 14 x 14 1/4 in. (sheet)
CHARLES SANTORE: FIFTY YEARS OF ART AND STORYTELLING
77
“And that’s the jury box,” thought Alice, from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 2017, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
The whole world was underwater, 2000 Watercolor on paper, 16 3/8 x 19 1/4 in. (sheet)
The ark drifted over the silent world, 2000 Watercolor on paper, 10 x 17 1/2 in. (sheet)
Achbar hid in a forest of elephant legs, 2000 Watercolor on paper, 17 1/8 x 26 1/8 in.
The ark came to rest on a lone peak rising out of the ocean, 2000 Watercolor on paper, 12 x 18 1/4 in. (sheet)
He hid with a pair of storks in a nest of twigs, 2000 Watercolor on paper, 15 x 15 1/2 in. (sheet) He burrowed into the folds of the sheep’s warm, bushy wool, 2000 Watercolor on paper, 15 x 15 1/2 in. (sheet)
78
WOODMERE ART MUSEUM
…Achbar leapt onto the railing and peeked over the side, 2000 Watercolor on paper, 18 1/4 x 18 5/8 in. The creatures spilled out, covering the land in every direction, 2000 Watercolor on paper, 10 1/4 x 19 1/4 in.
PAUL REVERE’S RIDE: THE LANDLORD’S TALE Listen, my children, and you shall hear of the midnight ride of Paul Revere, 2002 Watercolor on paper, 9 x 22 1/2 in. Then he said, “Good night!” and with muffled oar, 2002 Watercolor on paper, 9 x 22 1/2 in. Meanwhile, his friend, through alley and street, 2002 Watercolor on paper, 9 x 22 1/2 in. Then he climbed the tower of the Old North Church, 2002 Watercolor on paper, 9 x 22 1/2 in.
“You’re nothing but a pack of cards!” said Alice, from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 2017, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
CHARLES SANTORE: FIFTY YEARS OF ART AND STORYTELLING
79
Starsky and Hutch: Paul Michael Glaser and David Soul, for TV Guide, 1976, by Charles Santore (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the artist, 2017)
Taxi: Danny DeVito and Judd Hirsch, for TV Guide, 1979, by Charles Santore (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the artist, 2017)
Beneath, in the churchyard, lay the dead, 2002 Watercolor on paper, 9 x 22 1/2 in.
A hurry of hoofs in a village street, 2002 Watercolor on paper, 9 x 22 1/2 in.
It was two by the village clock, 2002 Watercolor on paper, 9 x 22 1/2 in.
Meanwhile, impatient to mount and ride, 2002 Watercolor on paper, 9 x 22 1/2 in.
He has left the village and mounted the steep, 2002 Watercolor on paper, 9 x 22 1/2 in.
You know the rest. In the books you have read, 2002 Watercolor on paper, 9 x 22 1/2 in.
And lo! As he looks, on the belfry’s height, 2002 Watercolor on paper, 9 x 22 1/2 in.
It was twelve by the village clock, 2002 Watercolor on paper, 9 x 22 1/2 in.
So through the night rode Paul Revere, 2002 Watercolor on paper, 9 x 22 1/2 in.
It was one by the village clock, 2002 Watercolor on paper, 9 x 22 1/2 in.
80
WOODMERE ART MUSEUM
Ronald Reagan/Inauguration/Super Bowl, for TV Guide, 1985, by Charles Santore (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the artist, 2017)
Cover for the January 19–25, 1985 issue of TV Guide, illustration by Charles Santore
CHARLES SANTORE: FIFTY YEARS OF ART AND STORYTELLING
81
Beneath, in the churchyard, lay the dead, from Paul Revere’s Ride, 2002, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
Meanwhile, his friend, through alley and street, from Paul Revere’s Ride, 2002, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
82
WOODMERE ART MUSEUM
Study for Meanwhile, his friend, through alley and street, from Paul Revere’s Ride: The Landlord’s Tale, 2002, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
Study for minutemen figure, from Paul Revere’s Ride: The Landlord’s Tale, 2002, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
Storyboard for Paul Revere’s Ride: The Landlord’s Tale, 2002, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
A hurry of hoofs in a village street, from Paul Revere’s Ride: The Landlord’s Tale, 2002, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
It was twelve by the village clock, from Paul Revere’s Ride: The Landlord’s Tale, 2002, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
CHARLES SANTORE: FIFTY YEARS OF ART AND STORYTELLING
83
Color study for Suddenly she heard a mighty roar, for The Silk Princess, 2007, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
End paper for Paul Revere’s Ride: The Landlord’s Tale, 2002, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
End paper for Paul Revere’s Ride: The Landlord’s Tale, 2002 Watercolor on paper, 9 x 22 1/2 in. Study for Then he climbed the tower of the Old North Church, 2002 Graphite on paper, 11 x 14 in. Study for So through the night rode Paul Revere, 2002 Graphite on paper, 13 x 24 1/8 in.
84
WOODMERE ART MUSEUM
Study for Then he climbed the tower of the Old North Church, 2002 Graphite on paper, 7 1/2 x 11 in.
Study for Then he climbed the tower of the Old North Church, 2002 Ink on tracing paper, 12 x 24 in.
Study for Then he climbed the tower of the Old North Church, 2002 Graphite on paper, 7 ¼ x 14 in.
Study for Meanwhile, his friend, through alley and street, 2002 Graphite on paper, 14 x 11 in.
Tonal sketch for Then he climbed the tower of the Old North Church, 2002 Photocopy on paper and ink, 11 1/4 x 25 1/4 in.
Study for minutemen figure, 2002 Ballpoint pen on paper, 11 x 8 1/2 in. Storyboard for Paul Revere’s Ride: The Landlord’s Tale, 2002 Ink on paper, 16 1/2 x 14 in.
And lo! As he looks, on the belfry’s height, from Paul Revere’s Ride: The Landlord’s Tale, 2002, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
He has left the village and mounted the steep, from Paul Revere’s Ride: The Landlord’s Tale, 2002, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
It was two by the village clock, from Paul Revere’s Ride: The Landlord’s Tale, 2002, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist) CHARLES SANTORE: FIFTY YEARS OF ART AND STORYTELLING
85
The ark drifted over the silent world, from A Stowaway on Noah’s Art, 2000, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
He burrowed into the folds of the sheep’s warm, bushy wool, from A Stowaway on Noah’s Art, 2000, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist) The whole world was underwater, from A Stowaway on Noah’s Art, 2000, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
86
WOODMERE ART MUSEUM
…Achbar leapt onto the railing and peeked over the side, from A Stowaway on Noah’s Art, 2000, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
…finally covering the peaks of the highest mountains, from A Stowaway on Noah’s Art, 2000, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
Soon villages were washed away, from A Stowaway on Noah’s Art, 2000, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist) CHARLES SANTORE: FIFTY YEARS OF ART AND STORYTELLING
87
Achbar hid in a forest of elephant legs, from A Stowaway on Noah’s Art, 2000, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
The creatures spilled out, covering the land in every direction, from A Stowaway on Noah’s Art, 2000, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
88
WOODMERE ART MUSEUM
Building of the ark, from A Stowaway on Noah’s Art, 2000, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
The ark came to rest on a lone peak rising out of the ocean, from A Stowaway on Noah’s Art, 2000, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
CHARLES SANTORE: FIFTY YEARS OF ART AND STORYTELLING
89
Bobby, 1977, by Charles Santore (Private Collection)
Study for Then he climbed the tower of the Old North Church, 2002 Ink on tracing paper, 12 3/4 x 24 in.
You know the rest. In the books you have read, from Paul Revere’s Ride: The Landlord’s Tale, 2002, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND Children’s Book Council, 2003 Poster, 22 x 9 in.
Articulated horse mannequin for Paul Revere’s Ride: The Landlord’s Tale, 2002 Wood, 17 x 18 x 4 in.
THE SILK PRINCESS
Color study for Then he climbed the tower of the Old North Church, 2002 Watercolor on paper, 10 1/4 x 23 in.
Suddenly she heard a mighty roar, 2007 Watercolor on paper, 19 1/2 x 33 1/2 in. (frame)
Color proof of Then he climbed the tower of the Old North Church, 2002 Inkjet print on paper, 9 3/4 x 23 in.
Color study for Suddenly she heard a mighty roar, 2007 Watercolor on paper, 3 7/8 x 9 7/8 in.
Stapled layout with text inserts (entire book multiple sheets), 2002 Photocopy on paper, 12 x 25 in.
THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF SANTA CLAUS The nymph knelt before Ak and said, “Let me keep this child,” 2009 Watercolor on paper, 3 7/8 x 9 7/8 in.
90
WOODMERE ART MUSEUM
Down, down, down, would the fall never come to an end?, 2017 Watercolor on paper, 12 1/2 x 36 in. She was now more than nine feet high, 2017 Watercolor on paper, 15 3/4 x 22 1/2 in. (sheet) The Mouse’s Tale, 2017 Watercolor on paper, 17 3/4 x 28 1/2 in. (sheet) The Caterpillar addressed her in a languid, sleepy voice, 2017 Watercolor on paper, 17 3/4 x 28 1/2 in. “It’s always 6 o’clock now. It’s always tea time,” said the Hatter, 2017 Watercolor on paper, 17 x 55 1/2 in. (sheet)
When it got quite dark, the owners of the little house returned, from Snow White, 1997, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
“Off with her head!”, 2017 Watercolor on paper, 17 3/4 x 55 1/2 in. (sheet) “And that’s the jury box,” thought Alice, 2017 Watercolor on paper, 17 1/4 x 27 1/2 in. (sheet)
The Queen pricked her finger and three drops of blood fell on the snow outside, from Snow White, 1997, by Charles Santore (Collection of Christina Santore) She ran like the wind over sharp stones and bramble bushes, from Snow White, 1997, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
“You’re nothing but a pack of cards!” said Alice, 2017 Watercolor on paper, 14 3/8 x 14 in. And so the White Rabbit continues to be late for a very important date, 2017 Watercolor on paper, 17 x 17 in. (sheet)
The nymph knelt before Ak and said, “Let me keep this child,” from The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, 2009, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
Mali in the Ninth Century (fishing village), for National Geographic, 1981 Watercolor and ink on paper, 19 1/8 x 26 in. (sheet)
CHARLES SANTORE: FIFTY YEARS OF ART AND STORYTELLING
91
And so the White Rabbit continues to be late for a very important date, from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 2017, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
92
WOODMERE ART MUSEUM
Woodmere Art Museum receives state arts funding support through a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.
Support provided in part by The Philadelphia Cultural Fund.
Š 2018 Woodmere Art Museum. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission of the publisher. Photography by Rick Echelmeyer unless otherwise noted. Catalogue designed by Barb Barnett and edited by Gretchen Dykstra. Front cover: The Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman, not being made of flesh, were not troubled by the scent of the flowers, 1991, by Charles Santore (Collection of the artist)
CHARLES SANTORE: FIFTY YEARS OF ART AND STORYTELLING
93
WoodmereArtMuseum 9201 Germantown Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19118
| woodmereartmuseum.org