Golden Age of Illustration Romance Story, Man Woman Relationship, 1962

This impeccably rendered mid-century double portrait of a quarreling man and woman exhibits a supreme academic training knowledge lost in almost all contemporary art. It features an upward-looking close-up of a woman lost in thought while a man who is smaller in the frame simultaneously ponders the moment. Mark Miller sets the two against an abstract background of quick energic brush strokes that reflects the brooding internal state of both subjects.
Signed lower right in pencil. Gouache on paper glued to illustration board with printer marks. Unframed. Spring of Sorrow." Story illustration for part two of "Spring of Sorrow," published in Woman's Own magazine (U.K.), December 1962 -
Mark Miller, American, b. 1919
Gouache on board Mixed Media
16 - 22
$3750 plus shipping

Mark Miller was born Marshall Dawson Miller on Jan. 2, 1919, in Eldorado, Oklahoma. He began his art career as a costume designer in Hollywood in the 1930s. His career was cut short during WWII when he enlisted in the armed services. After the war, he established himself in the highly competitive field of New York City magazine illustration. His work appeared in Collier's and The Saturday Evening Post, as well as many European magazines. While working as an illustrator, he developed a love for winemaking. When demand for illustrators waned in the 1960s, he moved his family to Europe to turn his hobby into his livelihood. Miller sold his first wines commercially in 1972, for which he illustrated the labels. By the early 1990s, Benmarl Vineyards (about 70 miles north of New York City) spanned about 70 acres and produced about 10,000 cases a year.
Source: Marshall Dawson (Mark) Miller - Biography. (n.d.). askart