Illustration House

Biography

For over twenty five years, Illustration House has been America's foremost gallery devoted to the art and history of illustration. The gallery offers a fascinating look at the intersection of American popular culture and art history of the past. Thousands of oil paintings, drawing and watercolors cover a broad range of styles, genres (including poster design, books decoration, advertising, comic strip, calendar art, record album and magazine covers) and subjects — science fiction, romance, history, suspense, fairy tales, pin-ups, humor and fashion, to name a few.

With Illustration House's founding in 1974, Walt Reed pioneered the market in the resale of original illustration art. Initially based in Westport, Connecticut, Walt personally knew many of the great illustrators, including Norman Rockwell, Tom Lovell, Al Parker, Jon Whitcomb, Stevan Dohanos, and has authored monographs on Harold von Schmidt, John Clymer, and Joseph Clement Coll. His son, Roger, joined him in 1981 and in 1987 they moved the gallery to the heart of SoHo in New York City. Together they have written a definitive historical reference which provides a description of the evolution of illustration art with pictorial examples and biographical sketches on hundreds of illustrators. The book has been thoroughly updated three times and is available through the gallery in its current version, The Illustrator in America, 1860-2000. In fall of 2004 Illustration House relocated to West 25th Street, in the Antiques district of Chelsea.

As president of Illustration House, Roger Reed has written articles, compiled an Index of Illustrators, is on the Permanent Collection committee of the Society of Illustrators in New York, and has acted as a consultant to the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. In the fall of 1997, he curated the first major museum retrospective of J.C. Leyendecker's work at the Norman Rockwell Museum. He is regularly called on by museums and auction houses regarding his specialty, authentication.

Joining Illustration House from the Society of Illustrators in 1991, our director Frederic B. Taraba is also a well-respected authority and historian. Fred has written dozens of articles on great illustrators of the past for Step-by-Step Graphics magazine and has co-authored a book on J. C. Leyendecker. He is a consultant for the Society of Illustrators, and also an independent appraiser of illustration and related art.

In addition to select exhibitions each year, the gallery holds twice annual Premier auctions of fine illustrative paintings and drawings. These have set the market benchmark for original illustration artwork. Prices brought at our auctions have set the records for a wide variety of artists, from Norman Rockwell, J.C. Leyendecker and N. C. Wyeth to Ludwig Bemelmans, James Thurber and Dr. Seuss. We also hold a variety of absentee auctions, including the popular ?Porch? auction, and thematic specialty sales. In addition, our gallery space hosts major exhibitions of illustrators. Illustration House prides itself on having the most expert staff and a wide variety of illustrative art. We produce illustrated catalogs for our auctions, and occasional exhibition catalogues.