Maurice Logan, (1886-1977)

Portrait of a Japanese Woman in an Iris Garden 29 1/2 x 22 3/4in framed 36 x 29in

Portrait of a Japanese Woman in an Iris Garden
signed 'Maurice Logan' (lower left)
oil on canvas affixed to board
29 1/2 x 22 3/4in
framed 36 x 29in

Provenance
Senator Arthur Capper, Topeka, Kansas.
Private collection, 1957.
Thence to the present owner.

Exhibited
The Household Magazine, April, 1933, cover illustration.

By the late 1920s Logan had already established himself as a leading illustrator in San Francisco. His specialty was creating painted images on demand for advertising work. Someone else would then usually do the lettering and layout work. His expertise with the landscape and the figure made him very versatile. There were few ad agencies at that time. Logan was well liked and was able to make the rounds of customers and come back with jobs to do. Some of his clients were railroads such as Southern Pacific and Canadian Pacific which wanted landscape travel advertisements. In the 1920's and 30's Logan did a number of landscapes and figurative work, including several covers, for such publications as Sunset Magazine and The Household Magazine .

In 1935 Logan founded the commercial art business of Logan, Staniford, and Cox. Their accounts included such names as Dole, Lucky Lager Beer, and Ghirardelli Chocolate. Standard Oil of California was another major client. Logan had a distinctive style that served him well until he retired in 1957. Even after that he occasionally did watercolors on commission for special projects such as Westways magazine covers.

Senator Arthur Capper, the original owner of Portrait of a Japanese Woman with Parasol, was a two-term governor and five-term senator from Kansas. He also owned Capper publications, which included the Daily Capital (Topeka, KS), the North Topeka Mail, the Kansas Breeze, Missouri Valley Farmer, Capper's Weekly, Nebraska Farm Journal, Missouri Ruralist, Oklahoma Farmer, and The Household Magazine. This painting was part of Cappers personal art collection and was said to be his favorite painting, which might explain it's appearance on the cover of the April, 1933 edition of The Household Magazine.