Who Are You? An Illustration by Howard Chandler Christy

The canvas was crucified, dead and buried in a dingy corner of a run down antique shop abutting a railroad overpass in a Port Jervis, New York. My father squinted at the oil painting nailed to the wall; it showed a lady sitting in a wing back chair holding a blue necklace in her left hand. She was staring straight ahead, smiling and unaware of the admiring gaze of the man sitting on her left. It was signed "To Margaret with every good wish and affection. Howard Chandler Christy-1924." Dad remembered seeing Christy's illustrations in The Saturday Evening Post and recognized a 'Christy Girl'. It was 1963. It had been bought from an estate. My dad loved the painting. He had it stretched, cleaned and framed. It has always been his prized possession.

Howard Chandler Christy (1873-1952) was known for his patriotic paintings, murals, portraits and landscapes. He illustrated articles in Leslie's Weekly, McClure's, Ladies Home Journal, Redbook, Hearst's,Scribner's, Cosmopolitan, Collier's Weekly and Harper'smagazines. An illustration is original artwork created to be reproduced in magazines, books, newspapers and advertisements. As a result of his successful illustration career, he was much in demand to paint portraits of celebrities.

My father tried to identify the subjects in the painting. The man resembled Neil Hamilton, the Commissioner from the TV series Batman. In 1972, Leatrice Joy Gilbert, wife of John Gilbert and a friend of my family kindly wrote Mr. Hamilton. He confirmed that, early in his career, he modeled for a number of artists, although Christy wasn't on his list; he received $6/day (plus 0.50 extra for lunch). He mentioned that he had been on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post and sometimes modeled with the actress Hope Hampton.

My father thought the woman might be Margaret Sullivan (1911-1960), however, the woman in the painting was older than 13. Another possibility was Norma Shearer (1902-1983), who would have been 22 years old at the time of the painting. I found a picture of Norma Shearer from 1924- it looked like the lady in the painting.

Three years ago, my father died at age 86. He was always very persistent, so for him I wanted to determine their identities. I believed a big clue was year 1924. If I could find a list of Christy's oil paintings from that year, I could solve the mystery. I didn't know if it had been a commissioned work, or not. Was it an illustration in one of the magazines to which he contributed?

Christy's second wife was Nancy Palmer Christy, who became his social secretary and the prototype for 'The Christy Girl.' She had a beautiful smile and modeled for Christy from 1912-21. The woman in the picture also had a very nice smile, which made me wonder if she were Nancy? I found a picture of Nancy dated 1928, which resembled the lady in dad's painting. However, 1924 was three years after Nancy stopped modeling.

I was excited to see a picture in an encyclopedia of President Calvin Coolidge's wife Grace painted by Christy. I hoped the painting was President Calvin Coolidge and his wife. Coolidge came into office in 1924.

I discovered Christy collaborated with Margaret Armstrong (1867-1944), who lived in NYC and was one of the premier book designers of the time; Armstrong created the covers and Christy did illustrations. By 1913, her book design career was mostly over and she became a writer and botanist until her death in 1944. I believe the painting may have been given to Margaret Armstrong by Christy in appreciation for her collaboration. In 1924, she would have been 57 years old. I thought Margaret Armstrong might be the woman in the painting, however, after seeing a picture of her in her brother's book, I decided it wasn't.

By accident, I discovered Lafayette College has a catalogue and collection of Christy's works. I sent them a file with a picture of the painting. The archivist's first reaction when she opened the file wasthis is not a portrait. It might be a study for an illustration, for the following reasons: Christy often painted or drew large-scale studies of his magazine illustrations, before they were sent to the publisher. He liked to work on a large design and then the composition was reduced in size for printing. The composition of the painting is a perfect example of Christy's illustration style. The woman looking out, the man looking at her...this is a common theme in Christy's illustration from this period. Also, she could not think of one example of Christy's portrait painting where a sitter did not gaze out of the painting, even if their body was turned slightly. Furthermore, she has never seen an example of Christy's portrait painting of a man and a woman together. Sometimes women with their children, but never a couple. A Christy illustration from a story entitled "Castle Builders," dating ca. 1903 has some similarities to my dad's painting -namely, the composition and the stylized "Christy Man."

I also learned there are museum collections that focus on this type of painting, particularly the National Museum of American Illustration in Newport, Rhode Island. I contacted them and they told me tolook on the back of the painting for any markings in pencil on the stretcher bars, or on the actual canvas itself for any labels and writing. I had trouble reading the pencil marks on the back of the canvas due to the stretchers, but I saw the following words:

"October"

"Original"

"Black and White"

"We do..."

Stamped vertically on the lower right was"Made in Belgium.Belgique"(i.e., the canvas).

Of these, I felt the most important clue was the word October and that this illustration had been targeted for publication in that month; I am still searching for the publication.