Observatory car suspended from Zeppelin Scientific American 1916-12-23

Edgar Franklin Wittmack (1894–1956) was an

illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicat ...

and

cover artist Cover art is a type of artwork presented as an illustration or photograph on the outside of a published product such as a book (often on a dust jacket), magazine, newspaper ( tabloid), comic book, video game (box art), music album (album art ...

for many of the most popular magazines of the 1920s and 1930s. His covers, just as the artwork of his contemporary,

Norman Rockwell Norman Percevel Rockwell (February 3, 1894 – November 8, 1978) was an American painter and illustrator. His works have a broad popular appeal in the United States for their reflection of Culture of the United States, the country's culture. Roc ...

, were usually created as oil paintings. Where Rockwell specialized in the humorous aspects of small-town life, Wittmack dealt mainly with male-oriented interests. He often painted heroic or action-type figures for the ''Saturday Evening Post'', ''American Boy'', ''Outdoor Life'' as well as the "quality" pulp magazines such as '' Adventure'' and '' Short Stories''. Robinson, Frank M., and Davidson, Lawrence. ''Pulp Culture - The Art of Fiction Magazines''. Collectors Press, 2007. (p.42). However, he is probably most known for the covers he created for ''

Popular Science ''Popular Science'' (also known as ''PopSci'') is an American digital magazine carrying popular science content, which refers to articles for the general reader on science and technology subjects. ''Popular Science'' has won over 58 awards, incl ...

''. His "

retro-futuristic Retrofuturism (adjective ''retrofuturistic'' or ''retrofuture'') is a movement in the creative arts showing the influence of depictions of the future produced in an earlier era. If futurism is sometimes called a "science" bent on anticipatin ...

" style was used during the depression to artistically convert the ideas of inventive

Americans Americans are the Citizenship of the United States, citizens and United States nationality law, nationals of the United States, United States of America.; ; Although direct citizens and nationals make up the majority of Americans, many Multi ...

into unique visual expressions of potential reality.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wittmack 1894 births 1956 deaths American magazine illustrators