Stevan Dohanos Continued

Another Saturday Evening Post Illustrator

Dohanos was considered the Cultural Spokesman for the Saturday Evening Post because of his clear visual images and the poigant messages of Americana they revealed.  He cherished this relationship and relished the differences between his work and that of Norman Rockwell plus other Post favorites.  Often times, he would use images from Westport, Connecticut and readers could catch a glimpse of their neighbors in the backgrounds of scenes depicting everyday activities.  Dohanos came to represent one of the essential American magazine illustrators.  His images were generally slightly humorous, optimistic and they manifested the best of American ideals.  Dohanos was always familiar to the reader.  Stevan Dohanos was considered "The Delineator of the Heart of America".  One cannot discuss the illustration art of Dohanos without mentioning Norman Rockwell because their Saturday Evening Post cover images are invariable compared.  Dohanos along with Rockwell came to represent the quintessence of American magazine illustrators.  

 In the style of his friend and inspiration Norman Rockwell, Dohanos told stories in pictures featuring scenes out of what he called "Anytown USA".  He portrayed children from his home in Westport as models for "Star Pitcher" and combined them with an image of the house where he was born in Lorain, Ohio.  Typical of Dohano's style, the scene captures a specific moment, a snapshot of the boys waiting for their friend to finish mowing the lawn.  Showing that boy in his baseball uniform amplifies the urgency. 

Star Pitcher

July 20, 1946

Rural Post Office at Christmas

July 13, 1947

After Dinner Dishes

January 8 1949

Weatherman Was Right

April 27, 1946

Playing House Circa 1953

The Collector

August 11, 1951

Labor Day at Putnam Memorial State Park

Redding, Connecticut

Saturday Evening Post 

September 11, 1954

Christmas Decorating

Medical Times 

Circa 1960

Tree in Town Square

Saturday Evening Post 

December 4, 1948

Kids Practicing Parachuting in Hay Loft

Saturday Evening Post

October 27, 1945

Returning Home From College

Muddlied by Dry Cleaning Truck

Circa 1948

Shop Class

Billboard Painters

July 13, 1957

Billboard Painter in Winter

February 14, 1948

Inflating Beach Toy

August 20, 1949

Trailer Park Garden

February 2, 1952

Tex's Motorcycle

April 7, 1951

Menemsha, Massachusetts Post Office

August 26, 1950

Penny Candy

September 23, 1944

Dohanos painted over 125 Saturday Evening Post covers during the 1940s and 1950s illustrating scenes of American life including baseball games, ice cream, mobile homes, gas stations, children with toys or butterfly collections, barns and families enjoying all walks of ordinary life.  Of the many masterworks Dohanos created Penny Candy*, the cover of the September 23, 1944 Saturday Evening Post is widely considered his tour de force, his Mona Lisa.  In his masterful and cinematic Penny Candy, Dohanos depicts a scene right out of every person's childhood storybook:  A young boy, dressed like Howdy Doody in his rough and tumble, tattered and torn red shirt and bandana, stands with his muddied legs firmly rooted and his soiled hands hidden behind his back as he takes a break from his playtime shenanigans to buy himself a cheap treat.  He gazes at the assorment of penny candy laid out before him like a sea of gold as the elderly counter man stares off, head in hand and mind elsewhere, bored and daydreaming waiting for his little patron to select a sweet treat.  Every detail of this composition is painted impeccably, as Dohanos spared no artistic element in creating this flawless scene.  Each colorful gumball shines, every sheet of paper above the cash register is delineated, every hair on the figures' head is unique.  The painting explodes with color, form, light and shadow resulting in what is arguably the finest and most complex scene the artist produced.  It is no wonder one cannot walk into a vacation town candy shop without seeing a poster of this very work.  

*Tootsie Roll was the first penny candy to be individually wrapped in America.

One cannot discuss the illustration art of Dohanos without mentioning Norman Rockwell because their Saturday Evening Post cover images are invariable compared.  Dohanos along with Rockwell came to represent the quintessence of American magazine illustrators.  Whereas Rockwell was noted for idealizing Americans and their way of life, Dohanos had an all-consuming love for the common everyday things in life.  He named Grant Wood and Edward Hopper as the greatest influences on his painting.  Little did Stevan know he would develop a close personal friendship with Norman Rockwell during his lifetime.

As an artist I have always gloried in finding beauty in the ordinary things of life.

Stevan Dohanos

Walking the Tightrope

June 11, 1949

Fourth of July

Two Generations of Vets

July 5, 1947

 January 5, 1946

Tying Flies

March 4, 1950

After Church

April 16, 1949

Fish Aquarium

October 30, 1954

Trainyard Flower Garden

August 9, 1947

New Paint Job

Circa 1950

Grandpa's Workshop

November 12, 1949

Apartment Painters

May 1, 1948

Art Lover

March 3, 1956

Patriotic Band Concert

July 7, 1951

First Cake

May 21, 1955

Puppies For Sale

September 30, 1950

Soda Fountain Dieter

Circa 1954

Stevan Dohanos used Connecticut's people and places as models for his fine art and perhaps most famously, for his cover illustrations for the Saturday Evening Post.  He leveraged lessons learned from his productive art career to help create the Famous Artists School, a commercial art correspondence course managed out of Westport,

Connecticut.  Inspired by the local scene, Dohanos captured a middle-America experience with his realist approach and gentle wit. 

Dohanos grew up as the third of nine children born to Hungarian immigrant parents.  Though factory work enticed them to America, both came from poor, farm-based families.  Starting in his teens, Dohanos worked his way through jobs as a newsboy, floral delivery driver and steel mill worker to help support his family.  When he tranferred to a desk job at the mill, be began copying calendar art and Norman Rockwell covers selling them for $1.00 to $3.00 to other employees. A befitting reward for his own hard work, Dohanos later befriended Rockwell and joined him and 10 other "Founding Artists" to form FAS.  He made his home and kept his studio in Westport, Connecticut.

His first Saturday Evening Post cover was on the March 7, 1942 issue.  It was a well-received wartime image of air raid searchlights from an artillery battery.  

March 7, 1942

Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, the artist's workload for The Saturday Evening Post increased, garnering a contract for roughly a dozen covers a year. During WWII, Dohanos aided the war effort by painting recruitment posters and wall murals for federal buildings.  He also designed stamps for the federal government, starting during the Roosevelt administration and staying in the profession the rest of his life. During his illustrious career, he did film art for the classic movie, White Christmas. 

Stevan Dohano's paintings are in the collections of the Avery Memorial of Hartford, The Cleveland Museum, New Britain Museum of American Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the Whitney Museum of American Art. 

I hope you have enjoyed the many Saturday Evening Post covers by Stevan Dohanos and learning about this illustrator.