Lillian Chestney (September 22, 1913 – August 6, 2000) was an American illustrator and painter. She studied in New York City and illustrated children's books, comic books (during the Golden Age of Comic Books), and magazine and book covers at a time when few women held artist positions in the industry.[1]
Later in life she painted waterfront scenes in Eastern Canada and Northeastern America.[2]
Lillian Chestney was born in 1913 and studied art in New York City.[3] In the 1930s, she attended the Pratt Institute on an art scholarship and later studied at the Art Students League of New York. She married Stanley Maxwell Zuckerberg, who she met at Pratt, on June 22, 1941. Zuckerberg also studied at the Arts Students League and worked for Gilberton, using the name "Stanley Maxwell."[2][4] The couple had shared career pursuits, both being artists and having worked as illustrators, and had a close relationship.[2]
Chestney used an ornamented oval logo for the series. There was controversy on the jinn's portrayal on the cover. It was questioned if Chestney or the inker, Fred Eng, had intended on portraying pubic hair or a shadow above the jinn's loincloth. To avoid the controversy the Gilberton Company, Inc. (a later corporate identity of Classic Comics) removed the black blotch when the issue was reprinted in 1944.[10][1]
Chestney's illustrations for Arabian Nights were praised for their fanciful and charming qualities. In 2011 Heritage Auctions valued an issue of Chestney's work for US$300.[11] Chestney's version of Arabian Nights was last reissued in 1950. In 1961 a revision of Arabian Nights was printed in which Chestney's illustrations replaced with new artwork by Charles Berger.[12] This revision has been criticized for lacking much of the charm in Chestney's adaptation and the form was strictly dictated by the editors with a structure of four or five panels a page. All panels were rectangular, as opposed to the oval and semi-circle panels Chestney used.[1]
In 1943, Chestney illustrated the comic book based upon the first book of Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, "Voyage to Lilliput." It was Classic Comics 16th issue, published in December 1943. It was dropped from the reorder list for Classics Illustrated in 1954.[12]
Other work
She created advertisements for cook books and music books and covers for paperback romance novels, but she specialized in illustrating children's books. Her and her husband's work were featured in magazines such as "McCall's", "The Saturday Evening Post", and "Collier's". The Signet Classic edition of Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy commissioned Chestney for a cover painting in 1964.[1][2]
Later in life Chestney painted waterfront scenes of Nova Scotia and New England, based upon the vacations she had taken there with her husband.[2][12]
List of works
A few of her works are:
Comic books
"Arabian Nights". Comic Classics (8). Gilberton. February 1943.
"Gulliver's Travels". Comic Classics (16). Gilberton. December 1943.
Other works
Nelson, Mary Jarman; Tipton, Gladys, eds. (1951). Music for Early Childhood. New Music Horizon Series. Illustrator: Lillian Chestney and Ellen Simon. New York: Silver Burdett Company.
Waldo, Myra (1960). The complete book of oriental cooking. Illustrator: Lillian Chestney. D. McKay Co.
Awards and recognition
Chestney won contributions were recognized in commercial arts when she won the award from the Society of Illustrators for Best Advertisement of 1948.[1] She also earned the Citation for Merit from the Society of Illustrators in 1961 and 1965.[1]
She is in the Who's who in Commercial Art and Photography of 1960 and 1964.[5][6]
References
Notes
1234567Jones, Classics Illustrated: A Cultural History.
↑"United States Social Security Death Index," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/JPQW-V5M: accessed 22 Feb 2013), Lillian C Zuckerberg, 1 August 2000; citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing).
12Director's Art Institute, New York (1960). Who's who in commercial art and photography: a guide to artists, photographers, agents, studios, representatives and buyers of art in the graphics field. p.18.
12Who's who in Commercial Art and Photography: A Guide to Artists, Photographers, Agents, Studios, Representatives and Buyers of Art in the Graphics Field. Director's Art Institute. 1964. pp.25, 118.
↑Chestney, Lillian. Arabian Nights. New York City: Gilberton, 1943. Print.
John Castagno (1989). Artists as illustrators: an international directory with signatures and monograms, 1800 -- the present. Scarecrow Press. ISBN978-0-8108-2168-2.
Trina Robbins (1 November 2001). Great Women Cartoonists. Crown Publishing Group. ISBN978-0-8230-2170-3.
Trina Robbins (December 1993). A century of women cartoonists. Kitchen Sink Press. ISBN978-0-87816-206-2.
Ernest William Watson; Arthur Leighton Guptill (1973). American Artist. Watson-Guptill Publications, Incorporated. p.49.
