Nov 10, 2022 - Sale 2621

Sale 2621 - Lot 173

Unsold
Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 4,000

OSCAR RABE HANSON (1901-1926)

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS / SCHOOL OF MEDICINE / BY THE ELEVATED LINES. 1923.


82x42 inches, 106 1/2x208 1/4 cm. Illinois Litho. Co., [Chicago.]
Condition B+: restoration along vertical and horizontal folds; repaired tears in restoration in image. Two-sheets.

In the 1920s, the Chicago train companies, including the North Shore Line, the South Shore Line and the Chicago Rapid Transit Company "commissioned the city's finest graphic designers to produce advertising posters that encouraged Chicagoans to use rapid transit for more than commuting to work" (www.Chicago-L.org). Hanson, who died extremely young, designed posters for all three of the companies; those he did for the Chicago Rapid Transit Company illustrated destinations one could reach by elevated train and subway. He is credited with designing 29 posters between 1923 and his death at an early age, in 1926. His compositions and graphic style set him among the best of American designers from the period.