John La Gatta : An Artist's Life

Glamour, grace, and beauty epitomized John La Gatta's work and life. This book tells the extraordinary story of the artist's career and the loving partnership he shared with Florence, his wife of fifty-eight years. As one looks at La Gatta's illustrations from the 1920s and 1930s, one cannot help but feel the nostalgic tug of a time when a life of elegance and glamour was the fantasy harbored by the American masses. What was fantasy for the many, however, was reality for only a select few. While America was in the grip of the Great Depression, John La Gatta's ability to portray the well-bred, the refined, and the sensual afforded him a life that reflected the characters he created for the pages of America's most popular magazines.John La Gatta's story is classically American -- an immigrant's successful rise to wealth and fame by dint of his talent, ambition, some luck and extremely hard work. As a small child, La Gatta moved from Naples to New York's rough-and-tumble Lower East side, where his early aptitude in art was recognized and nurtured, so that by his teens he was already a working illustrator. When he moved to Cleveland to join one of that city's burgeoning art studios, he met Florence Olds, an art student herself, whom he wooed and wed, and whose judgment he would forever trust.Although La Gatta's early advertising work often featured working men in overalls, he longed to illustrate women. Taking a six-month sabbatical, he produced a portfolio filled with revolutionary illustrations that would change his life and career, making him one of the most sought after artists in the world. His illustrations of sensuous, elegant women in posh settings would fill the pages of topperiodicals, such as the Saturday Evening Post, Ladies' Home Journal, and Cosmopolitan among many others. Later in his distinguished career, La Gatta became a respected teacher, and was inducted into the Society of Illustrators' Hall of Fame in 1984.As their son, John Hawley Olds La Gatta writes in his preface, To say my parents were in relentless pursuit of beauty and art would be an understatement; it was their world and their life. This book is to honor their wonderful union and to share their story with others. It is a love story, the story of an artist's life, and provides a glimpse of their glamorous world.