James Allen St. John (October 1, 1872 – May 23, 1957) was an American author, artist and illustrator. He is especially remembered for his illustrations for the novels of

Edgar Rice Burroughs Edgar Rice Burroughs (September 1, 1875 – March 19, 1950) was an American author, best known for his prolific output in the adventure, science fiction, and fantasy genres. Best-known for creating the characters Tarzan and John Carter, he ...

, although he illustrated works of many types. He taught at the Chicago Art Institute and with the

American Academy of Art The American Academy of Art College is a private art school in Chicago, Illinois. It was founded in 1923 for the education of fine and commercial arts students. The school's Bill L. Parks Gallery is open to the public and features exhibitions ...

. He is considered by many to be 'The Godfather of Modern Fantasy Art'. His most famous disciples were Roy Krenkel and Frank Frazetta,''Heavy Metal Magazine'', January 2009 p. 19 the latter of whom has also been styled as the grandmaster of the Genre. St. John's artistic career began in 1898. He studied at the

Art Students League of New York The Art Students League of New York is an art school at 215 West 57th Street in Manhattan, New York City, New York. The League has historically been known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists. Although artists may stu ...

which included

William Merritt Chase William Merritt Chase (November 1, 1849October 25, 1916) was an American painter, known as an exponent of Impressionism and as a teacher. He is also responsible for establishing the Chase School, which later would become Parsons School of Design. ...

, F.V. Du Mond, George de Forest Brush,

H. Siddons Mowbray Harry Siddons Mowbray (August 5, 1858 – 1928) was an American artist. He executed various painting commissions for J.P. Morgan, F.W. Vanderbilt, and other clients. He served as director of the American Academy in Rome from 1902–1904. Biog ...

, Carol Beckwith and Kenyan Cox. This was followed by his first commercial relationship with the ''

New York Herald The ''New York Herald'' was a large-distribution newspaper based in New York City that existed between 1835 and 1924. At that point it was acquired by its smaller rival the ''New-York Tribune'' to form the '' New York Herald Tribune''. His ...

''. During this period he spent time in Paris from 1906 to 1908 at the

Académie Julian The Académie Julian () was a private art school for painting and sculpture founded in Paris, France, in 1867 by French painter and teacher Rodolphe Julian (1839–1907) that was active from 1868 through 1968. It remained famous for the number a ...

, then moved to Chicago around 1912 and would eventually live at Tree Studios art colony until his death. While in Chicago he became close friends with artist Louis Grell. Here he began his work with the publisher A.C. McClurg & Co., although he had already produced his best-known work for this publisher back in 1905, ''The Face in the Pool'', which he had both written and illustrated.

References

External links

* http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?261822 Publication: The Paintings of J. Allen St. John: Grand Master of Fantasy Publication Record # 261822 Authors: Stephen D. Korshak, J. David Spurlock, J. Allen St. John Date: 2008-07-00 Publisher: Vanguard Productions Type: NONFICTION Cover: The Paintings of J. Allen St. John: Grand Master of Fantasy (1925) • by J. Allen St. John (variant of ''The Eternal Lover'')
Biography
at ERBzine.com * * *

(book) at VanguardProductions.net

(bpib.com/illustrat) * * (alphabetization failure?) 1872 births 1957 deaths School of the Art Institute of Chicago alumni American illustrators Fantasy artists Artists from Chicago Science fiction artists American speculative fiction artists Pulp fiction artists {{chicago-stub