Russell Patterson

Biography

Russell Patterson was a celebrated American artist of the 20th century who worked in varied fields. He was most famous as an illustrator for magazines, especially prominent magazine covers. His covers and magazine art have been recognized as contributing a great deal to trend setting of the time, especially in women's fashion. His art has appeared in Life magazine, The Saturday Evening Post, Cosmopolitan, Photoplay, Redbook, Vanity Fair and Vogue. But, Patterson was also prolific as a cartoonist for Hearst newspapers and magazines, including various comic strips, into the mid-20th century. Patterson also did considerable stage work and some work for the silver screen. In the 1930s he worked as an artist, art director, scene designer or costume designer for various Broadway productions. These included the Ziegfeld Follies of 1934 and George White's Scandals of 1936. During this same period, he had similar work for Hollywood films. He designed costumes and/or sets for several films. From his illustrations and costume work, Patterson became well-known in fashion design. From 1927 to 1945, he was a judge of the Miss America contests, and he judged the Miss Universe pageants from 1960-1963. He died at age 83 on March 17, 1977, in Atlantic City, New Jersey. His family moved to Montreal. Canada, when he was a youth. He studied architecture at McGill University, and began doing cartoons for newspapers. He then moved to Chicago where he illustrated for catalogs and did some interior design and window displays for department stores. He studied art on and off at the Art Institute of Chicago and then made and peddled his own mail-order art course. He traveled to Paris to try his hand at painting and in 1924 he traveled in the U.S. Southwest, trying to get established as a painter. But, finding little interest in his work among art dealers, he went to New York City in 1925. There, at age 32, he found his niche as an illustrator. In 1952-53, Patterson was president of the National Cartoonist Society. He later received awards from that group. He was inducted into the Society of Illustrators hall of fame in 2007. His work was the subject of a 2006 book, "Top Hats and Flappers: The Art of Russell Patterson," edited by Alex Chun. In 1937, Patterson appeared as himself in the Paramount comedy musical, "Artist and Models" that starred Jack Benny and Ida Lupino. He was one of four prominent artists sitting at easels and interviewed by Benny's Mac Brewster. The others were illustrator McClelland Barclay (1891-1943), Arthur William Brown, John LaGatta (1894-1977), and cartoonists Peter Arno, (1904-1968) and Rube Goldberg (1883-1970).