GERARD CURTIS DELANO (1890-1972)

Gerald Curtis Delano began drawing at an early age. After the encouraging sale of a pen and ink drawing to Life Magazine, he attended evening classes at the Swaine Free School of Design in New Bedford. Delano moved to New York City and enrolled at the Art Students League where he studied under George Bridgeman, Edward Dumond, and Edward Dufer. He also attended the Grand Central School of Art, taking classes with prominent illustrators Harvey Dunn, Dean Cornwell, and N.C. Wyeth.

Delano illustrated numerous magazine covers, drew fashions for women’s magazines, and painted subjects for various calendar companies. He also became an animator of movie cartoons. His humorous sketches appeared in many U.S. and European magazines, including Life, Judge, Puck, and Punch. Beginning in 1919, Delano traveled numerous times to the west and, in the mid-twenties, he settled in New York to create illustrations for the covers of Cosmopolitan, Colliers, and Western Stories, as well as a Native American series for the Santa Fe Railway Company.

In 1936, he was awarded a two-year contract to create illustrations with accompanying text for The Story of the West, a chronological account of events highlighting the development of the West from the beginning of the nineteenth century. Eventually, Delano left the illustration business to pursue painting. In 1947, Delano traveled to Arizona and visited the Navajo reservation. For the rest of Delano’s career, depictions of Navajo people, red sandstone canyons, and wildlife dominated his paintings.