Paul Bransom Explained

Paul Bransom (July 1885 – July 19, 1979) was an American painter, cartoonist, and illustrator of animals.

Biography

Born in Washington, D.C., as a child Bransom started sketching animals he saw in his backyard and at the National Zoo.^[1] He began his career as a technical draftsman for the U.S. Patent Office when he was 13 years old. He relocated to New York City in 1903 and began drawing comic strips for the New York Evening Journal there. He drew the comic strip The Latest News from Bugville (1903-1912).^[2] After moving to New York, his talent as a wildlife artist was recognized while creating studies of the animals at the Bronx Zoo.^[3] His earliest commissions were covers for the Saturday Evening Post and illustrations for editions of Kipling's Just So Stories and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows.^[4]

Bransom was awarded the Benjamin West Clinedinst Memorial Medal, and his works are included in the collection of the National Museum of American Illustration at Newport, Rhode Island.^[5]

Bransom was a resident of New York City from 1906 until his death. He died on July 19, 1979, during a visit to Quakertown, Pennsylvania, several days before his 94th birthday.^[6]

Selected works

• The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame (C. Scribner's Sons, 1913)
• An Argosy of Fables, ed. Frederic Taber Cooper (Frederick A. Stokes, c1921)
• The Wild Heart, Emma-Lindsay Squier (Cosmopolitan Book Corp., 1922)
• Just So Stories, Rudyard Kipling, illustrated by Kipling and Joseph M. Gleeson (Garden City, NY: Country Life Press, c1912) – Bransom provided front cover, endpapers, and title page illustrations for a 1932 edition containing the Kipling and Gleeson interior illustrations
• The Country Gentleman (Curtis Publishing) cover illustration

External links

• • • (see previous page of browse report, 'Bransom, Paul, 1885–' without '1979')
• Artwork by Paul Bransom

Notes and References

1. http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/paul-bransom-papers-8933/more "Paul Bransom papers, 1862–1985, bulk 1904–1979"
2. Web site: Paul Bransom. lambiek.net. September 16, 2019.
3. Web site: Paul Bransom (1885–1979). Artists Gallery. Curtis Publishing. 14 July 2011. Indianapolis .
4. Web site: Online Books by Paul Bransom . The Online Books Page. University of Pennsylvania. 14 July 2011.
5. Web site: Artists . National Museum of American Illustration (americanillustration.org) . 2 September 2016.
     Formerly retrieved July 2011. Bransom's works are not among those included in the changing online display as of September 2016.
6. https://www.nytimes.com/1979/07/22/archives/paul-bransom-illustrator-dies-called-dean-of-animal-artists.html?_r=1 "Paul Bransom, Illustrator, Dies; Called 'Dean of Animal Artists