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Al Parker (1906–1985) was an American artist and illustrator. Parker's display of talent as a teenager led his grandfather, a Mississippi River Pilot, to pay for Al's first year in Washington University's School of Fine Arts in St. Louis, Missouri in 1922. He also played saxophone in a jazz band on a river boat to earn money for tuition. He participated in many combination jam-sessions-and-sketching-trips to service hospitals during World War II. He married a fellow student, Evelyn, and later joined with several former classmates to open an advertising agency in St. Louis. The business did not do well during the Great Depression, and Parker moved to New York City in 1935.〔(Off the Shelf )〕 Parker got a break when a cover illustration he did for ''House Beautiful'' won a national competition. He soon was producing illustrations for ''Chatelaine'', ''Collier's'', ''Ladies' Home Journal'' and ''Woman's Home Companion''. Starting in 1938, he produced a total of 50 covers over a 13-year period for the ''Ladies' Home Journal''. He also sold illustrations to ''Cosmopolitan'', ''Good Housekeeping'', ''McCall's'', ''The Saturday Evening Post'', ''Sports Illustrated'', ''Town and Country'' and ''Vogue''. Parker later became part of the art colony in suburban New Rochelle, New York, which was well known for its unprecedented number of prominent American illustrators 〔(Toast of the Town: Norman Rockwell and the Artists of New Rochelle )〕 (more than fifty percent of the illustrations in the country’s leading publications were done by artists from New Rochelle).〔(New Rochelle - Arts City )〕 Parker is credited with creating a new school of illustration and was much imitated. In an effort to distinguish himself from his imitators, he worked in a variety of styles, themes and media. Examples range from children's crayons to acrylics. In cooperation with the magazine's art director, he secretly provided every illustration in an issue of ''Cosmopolitan'', using different pseudonyms, styles and mediums for each story. Over the years, he won more than twenty-five gold medals and awards of excellence in Art Directors Club and Society of Illustrators' shows. He was also a past president of the Westport Artists.〔The Illustrator in America, 1860-2000 by Walt Reed〕 Parker was one of the founding faculty members for the Famous Artists School. He was elected to the Society of Illustrators' Hall of Fame in 1965. A stamp commemorating his art was issued by the United States Postal Service on February 1, 2001 as part of the American Illustrators Issue series.〔(American Illustrators Issue stamp )〕 Parker moved to Carmel, California by 1961, and with the demise of many of the magazines, his output of illustrations was curtailed. He continued to do occasional assignments for publications such as Sports Illustrated and Boys' Life. One such commission was an outstanding series of paintings of the Grand Prix auto race of Europe for Sports Illustrated.〔The Illustrator in America, 1860-2000 by Walt Reed〕 His son, Kit Parker, founded the film company, Kit Parker Films.〔(Kit Parker Films )〕 ==References== 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Al Parker (artist)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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