John P Falter - Nebraskan Cover Artist

John Falter (1910-1982) Born in Plattsmouth, Nebraska. Well known for his Americana style of cover art.

Falter's first Saturday Evening Post cover, a portrait of the magazine's founder, Benjamin Franklin, is dated September 1, 1943. That cover began a 25-year relationship with the Saturday Evening Post, in which Falter produced 128 covers for the magazine until the Post ceased publication in 1969. Falter commented, "There were plenty of Rockwell imitators and J. L. Leindecker imitators. My main concern in doing Post covers was trying to do something based on my own experiences. I found my niche as a painter of Americana with an accent of the Middle West. I brought out some of the homeliness and humor of Middle Western town life and home life. I used humor whenever possible." Of Falter's 128 covers, nearly all were his own ideas. "Four didn't make it," he said, "probably 12 ideas were supplied by the Post." Falter also did illustrations for Good Housekeeping, The Home magazine, the Ladies Home Journal, Cosmopolitan, McCall's, Life and Look. (Exerpt from an article on the website of the Museum of Nebraska Art).

His covers are highly collectible today.

Collecting Magazine Cover and Advertising Illustration Art

Artists and illustrators in past decades had to compete for the honor and recognition that they received when they were picked to create the cover for magazines like The Saturday Evening Post, Collier’s, Ladies Home Journal, Country Gentleman, and many others. At the time they wanted the prestige and recognition of their talents, little did they know that in the future many of them would become collectible items.Norman Rockwell became quite famous, as we all know. Did you know that many of the items that you see today started out as a cover for The Saturday Evening Post? Rockwell did many covers for that particular magazine along with others. He also did quite a lot of artwork for advertising campaigns. As much as we love Rockwell’s work, there were many other artists whose work is just as stunning and detailed as Mr. Rockwell’s work. Names you may or may not be familiar with are J. C. Leyendecker, Stevan Dohanos, John Clymer, John Falter, and George Hughes. These men also did many Covers for different magazines at a time when we didn’t have television to watch. Folks looked forward to the new magazine’s arrival to not only read the articles but to admire the cover. Today many people have come to recognize the talents of the Cover Artists and try to collect all of the covers that a particular artist did for a particular publishing company or sometimes for all of the companies that they worked for.You can find many of these original covers along with advertisements from the magazines done by advertising illustrators and cover artists at our website. We offer a nice selection with new items added daily. Most of our paper items include shipping to a US address and a certificate of authenticity. We also offer a Newsletter Subscription for our customers. Come visit us to find out more about the artists who illustrated advertisements and the covers of magazines. We are located at:http://www.tias.com/stores/tpt