Grace Drayton , Three Rosy Cheek Children - Children Book Illustration. Female Illustrator, ca. 1920s

Legendary female illustrator creates a graphic and tightly designed triple portrait of her signature subjects. Kids!
Signed lower right. Unframed on heavy illustration board. Grace Drayton had a recognizable style which is a hallmark of all great artists. Instantly recognizable, a Grace Drayton subject is a stylized child with a cherubic style, often with round faces, plump bodies, rosy cheeks, and a happy disposition. Three Rosy Cheek Children is an excellent example of her best work.
Grace G. Drayton, American, 1878 - 1936
Gouache
22.5 - 16.25 inches
US$15,000 Plus Shipping




Grace Drayton
Born: Grace Gebbie
October 14, 1878
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US
Died: January 31, 1936 (aged 58)
Cartoonist, Illustrator
Grace G. Wiederseim
Notable works
Campbell Soup Kids
Dolly Dimples
Dolly Dingle Paper Dolls
The Pussycat Princess
Spouse = Theodore Wiederseim
Grace Drayton (née Gebbie, also known as Grace Wiederseim; October 14, 1878 – January 31, 1936) was an illustrator of children's books, fashion pages, and magazine covers. She created the Campbell Soup KidsShe is considered to be one of the first and most successful American female cartoonists

Drayton was born Grace Gebbie in 1878 in Philadelphia. Her father, George Gebbie, was an art publisher.
Drayton attended Drexel Institute (now Drexel University) and the Philadelphia School of Design for Women (PSDW).While at PSDW, she was a student of the American artist and teacher Robert Henri during 1893 and 1894. Drayton began her career as a freelance artist in 1895.[2] From 1905 to 1909, she was a member of The Plastic Club, an arts organization in Philadelphia.She created the Campbell Soup Kids which was used in advertisements for Campbell's Soup beginning in 1904. The Campbell Soup Kids and Drayton's other children characters were drawn in a cute cherubic style often with round faces, plump bodies, and rosy cheeks

With her sister Margaret G. Hays (1874-1925) as writer, Drayton produced The Adventures of Dolly Drake and Bobby Blake in Storyland and The Turr’ble Tales of Kaptin Kiddo in the period 1905–1909. Drayton designed the popular Dolly Dingle paper dolls, which appeared in the women's magazine Pictorial Review.

She also created syndicated newspaper comic strips for Hearst/King Features such as Naughty Toodles, Dottie Dimple, Dimples, Dolly Dimples and Bobby Bounce, and The Pussycat Princess.Drayton was the first woman to be a cartoonist for Hearst.[3] The Pussycat Princess was started in 1935. After Drayton's death in 1936, the strip was continued by Ruth Carroll and Ed Anthony.Wikipedia