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Just found in a storage facility, pristine full-color prints of John Russell Fulton’s “New York Series” from the early 1950’s. These prints were sold by the artist after his work for Blue Book dried up and he was struggling to find the next avenue for his art.

Fulton’s heart always remained in New York, even though he subsequently moved to California for inspiration.

For most of my life I’ve know these painting like this:


They were drab in an artistic way, and I felt that is the way he meant them to look.

However, after discovering the cache of prints below, I’m not so sure. The newly discovered images are below. The prints above were signed and set inside a glass frame that was most likely not UC coated, so the colors faded over time. The prints below appear to be the way my grandfather always intended them to be.

If here is interest, e plan to offer high quality reprints of these gorgeous discoveries. For now though, please enjoy John Russell Fulton’s New York series as they were originally intended.

From the bio:

One of Fulton’s last works as a magazine illustrator was an assignment to paint a series of scenes, one for each state (Blue Book’s “State Series”) which required extensive research as each scene was based on historical fact. A notable Blue Book cover by Fulton in another series (March 1951) was entitled “Men of America: Mark Twain.” This work received a congratulatory note from Mark Twain’s cousin Cyril Clemens, the president of the International Mark Twain society on March 25th 1951.

Unfortunately, the “State Series” was dropped after about half the paintings had appeared when Blue Book magazine changed their style before they “ceased publication in the rash of magazine failures that followed the advent of the radio, and LIFE and LOOK picture magazines.”

John Russell Fulton Blue Book Illustration

This is new blog dedicated to the art work of John Russell Fulton, a 20th Century American artist and illustrator.  This is a companion blog for the new Facebook page created for John Russell Fulton

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