Allen Russell Saalburg (1899–1987) was an American painter, illustrator, and screen printer born in

Rochelle, Illinois Rochelle is a city in Ogle County, Illinois. The population was 9,446 at the 2020 census. Rochelle is approximately west of Chicago and south of Rockford. History Originally named Hickory Grove, the town sits at the intersection of two rail ...

. His father was the cartoonist Charles W. Saalburg. He studied at the Art Students League of New York before working in advertising and magazine illustration in the 1920s. A business trip he took to Paris in 1929 with his wife, sketching runway fashion for department stores, led to his first gallery show, at the esteemed

Bernheim-Jeune Bernheim-Jeune gallery is one of the oldest art galleries in Paris. Opened on Rue Laffitte in 1863 by Alexandre Bernheim (1839-1915), friend of Delacroix, Corot and Courbet, it changed location a few times before settling on Avenue Matignon. Th ...

, with his second in New York at a gallery of

Louis Bouché Louis George Bouché (March 18, 1896 – August 7, 1969) was an American artist, muralist, and decorator. He was a 1933 Guggenheim Fellow. Life Bouché was born in New York City. He traveled to Paris at age thirteen in 1909 to live with famil ...

. During the 1930s he had regular shows of screenprints on glass (his specialty) and wall panels, and directed a mural division of the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

(WPA), in New York City, overseeing murals in the Central Park Zoo and other New York locations. His murals in the Arsenal of Central Park survive today. In 1942, the United States Flag Association awarded him the Cross of Honor and Patriotic Service Cross for his painting ''Flag Over Mt. Vernon''. By the 1940s Saalburg had established his own press. He was married to fashion designer

Muriel King Muriel King (1900–1977) was an American fashion designer based in New York City. She was one of the first American fashion designers along with Elizabeth Hawes and Clare Potter to achieve name recognition. She also designed costumes for several m ...

, and later to Mary Faulconer, a painter. In 1947 after divorce and the loss of his child by his first wife, he moved to

Bucks County, Pennsylvania Bucks County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 646,538, making it the fourth-most populous county in Pennsylvania. Its county seat is Doylestown. The county is named after the English ...

, re-establishing his printing operation as the Canal Press, for the Delaware Canal nearby. He died in

Flemington, New Jersey Flemington is a borough in and the county seat of Hunterdon County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–194 ...

, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

. File:REMEMBER DECEMBER 7 - NARA - 513624.jpg, "Remember December 7th!", one of the first posters published after the

attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii ...

File:Lobby murals at the Arsenal (4002496549).jpg, Detail of a mural at the Arsenal Building, New York City

References

External links

Allen Saalburg papers
at the

Archives of American Art The Archives of American Art is the largest collection of primary resources documenting the history of the visual arts in the United States. More than 20 million items of original material are housed in the Archives' research centers in Washingt ...

* 1899 births 1987 deaths 20th-century American painters American graphic designers People from Rochelle, Illinois American male painters Painters from Illinois People of the New Deal arts projects 20th-century American male artists {{US-illustrator-stub