SAM HYDE HARRIS (1889-1977) THE IMPERIAL / LOS ANGELES - CHICAGO. Gouache maquette. Circa 1939. 39 1/2x16 3/4 inches, 100 1/4x42 1/2 cm. Condition B+: waterstaining along right edge; abrasions in image; pin holes at edges; hand-signed by the artist at lower right corner. Painted on board. Framed. 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). Pictured is a Southern Pacific GS-2 locomotive, which pulled the railway's Daylight passenger trains. The Imperial ran the same route, but overnight. To the best of our knowledge, this image was never turned into a poster. It was likely a speculative work by the artist that was never accepted by the railway. Not only was the train mentioned never pulled by this class of engine, but the image doesn't bear the railroad's name. Not in Harris.
