Lot 269: William V. Cahill 1878 - 1924 , Young Girl at Her Toilette, Cream of Wheat Advertisement, 1913 oil on canvas

signed Wm. V. Cahill , l.l.; inscribed Breakfast's Ready/ Missy and Ain't You Ready for Breakfast Yet? on the reverse oil on canvas

measurements 36 by 26 in. alternate measurements 91.5 by 66 cm.

Dave Stivers, The Nabisco Brands Collection of Cream of Wheat Advertising Art, San Diego, 1986, p. 40, illustrated in color

Archives, Cream of Wheat Company Headquarters, Minneapolis
Acquired from the above by the present owners

Sold together with an original tearsheet depicting the present image as it appeared in the January 11, 1913 edition of The Saturday Evening Post.

Cahill created 18 advertisements for Cream of Wheat cereal. The company's ad campaign was considered quite innovative and technologically daring for its time, as it used four-color printing and commissioned the work of several well-known artists of the "Golden Age" of illustration. Aside from Cahill, N.C. Wyeth, Jessie Wilcox Smith, Phillip Goodwin, J.C. Leyendecker, James Montgomery Flagg and Edward Brewer were among them. The idea for the original and enduring image of a black chef holding a bowl of the hot, steaming cereal over his shoulder came from one of the company's founders, Emery Mapes, a former printer. In the late 19th century, as the company was just starting out, there was no money for advertising or package design. Mapes happened to find the illustration among old printing plates he had in storage. Mapes took great care to store and protect the original paintings used for the company's ad campaigns in the Cream of Wheat headquarters in northeast Minneapolis. His insistence on a well-maintained and thorough archive was unusual. Most advertising illustration in the early 20th century was considered expendable and was quickly destroyed, lost or thrown away.