Nov 10, 2022 - Sale 2621

Sale 2621 - Lot 133

Price Realized: $ 8,750
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 7,000 - $ 10,000

SAM HYDE HARRIS (1889-1977)

SOUTHERN PACIFIC'S NEW DAYLIGHT. Gouache maquette. 1937.

26 3/4x19 1/2 inches, 68x49 1/2 cm.
Condition A-: minor scuffs and scratches to surface; gouache on artist board, taped at edges on verso to mat. Matted.

Harris was born in England and moved to Los Angeles when he was 15. He began his career as a commercial artist, painting notices on sides of buildings, creating signs and billboards, designing posters, typography and more. In 1920, he was hired by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Company to design posters. He also worked for the Southern Pacific. "The major portion of the advertising appeared in brochures, magazines and newspapers, but local advertisements were in the form of billboards and hand-painted posters that appeared in department stores, banks, displays in windows and bulletin boards in ticket offices and lobbies" (Harris p. 18). In the 1930s, "streamlined trains were among the most striking, visible and accessible examples of Modernism" in America (Zega p. 104). "The streamliner was perfectly suited to the poster medium; its smooth airflow profile offered the prospect of a respite from America's stylistic preoccupation with realism" (ibid). An excellent example of American modernist design. Zega 141, Harris p. 103, Affiche Art Deco p. 86, Affiches Chemins de Fer p. 69.
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Additional Details

From the collection of Victor Ryerson.