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<TITLE>Frederic R. Gruger Exhibit and Sale at Illustration House</TITLE>
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<font face="Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif" size="5"><B>Frederic R. Gruger Exhibit and Sale</B></font><BR>
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<p>The fan base for Gruger's work -- now and in his day -- is strongest among his peers. Fellow illustrators can see his breakneck draftsmanship and supreme control of values achieved only with the humble carbon pencil and the humble lampblack "wash". They can perceive the tens of thousands of hours of reportage experience he amassed that allowed him to render anything, out of his head and on deadline. To hold the likeness of a repeating character reliably and consistently requires a powerful visual memory and a detective's power of observation. The reading public only saw the magic trick of bringing the story to life, but classically trained artists know what's behind the curtain.</p>
<p>Gruger did have a blindspot that prevented him becoming a star illustrator to the public: he wasn't great at glamorous women or their clothes. Note that he married a minister's daughter and was not an artist who lead an "artist's life". His close friend, the illustrator Arthur William Brown, wrote in his unpublished autobiography: "[Gruger] could design any object from memory because for practice he would take a telephone, a chair, or a tree for example and draw it carefully in different positions and study how it was constructed. He was only stumped trying to draw the modern smart pretty girl. I told him he could do it if he studied the fashion magazines and I would help him too. "I simply can't do it Brownie," he said. "I can't understand why," I replied. So he came back at me with "you can't draw trees, can you?" He had me there..."</p>
<p>For all his abilities to set a scene and establish character, FRG's work looks wan -- in reproduction -- to modern eyes. In the 1920s, magazines had difficulty printing rich blacks (the halftone dots had to be rather coarse or the ink would smear) just as music recordings of the time weren't able to carry bass and as a result, sound tinny. Fortunately, there exists a sufficient supply of Gruger's rich original drawings that collectors don't have to settle for reproductions.</p>
<p>That means they're affordably priced. We hereby offer 16 master drawings: illustrations with a variety of settings and characters, from sketchily linear to subtly tonal, from the height of Gruger's career, and even a rare one with color!</p>
<p>— Roger T. Reed<br>
Illustration House</p></td>
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