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Eugene Iverd

Eugene Iverd (1893-1936) was an American illustrator, teacher, and painter.

Early Life

Eugene Iverd is the pseudonym of the painter George Ericson. Eugene Iverd was born January 13, 1893 in St. Paul, Minnesota and he graduated from High School in Wasecam, Minnesota. He received degrees from the Saint Paul School of Art and The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia.

Career

Eugene Iverd came to Erie, Pennyslvania in September 1921 directly from the U.S. Army where he was an instructor at the Walter Reed Hospital in Washington where he was located between August 1919 and July 1921. In the summer of 1921 he was hired as an art instructor at the Erie School district assigned to Academy High School. He is remembered fondly as an art instructor among his many successful students that were Joseph Plavcan, Wilbur Adams, Robert Joy, Albert Hintenach, Lester Roesner, and Harry Simpson. When he was at the Art Academy he sent many Erie Students to the Academy of Fine Arts at Philadelphia and at one time there was six of his students out of one hundred.

He gave his time to the art classes until 1930 when his commercial work became too heavy. In his career he designed a series of four calendars and he completed work for Erie Lithograph Co., and work for the U.S. Lithograph Co. in Brooklyn .Eugene Iverd was nationally known for the covers he painted for the Saturday Evening Post, McCall’s, Ladies Home Journal, and American Magazines. Also, He made several painting for the Dorrance Co., owners of the Campbell’s soup., Successful Farming, Christian Herald, The Rotarian, Monarch Foods, Winchester Western Company, Pure Oil Cooperation, Iodent Toothpaste and the Buffalo Evening News.

Legacy

He used the children of Erie as models for his works. Mr. Ericson remained in Erie and did not move to a Metropolitan area because he was assured of securing child models that had the “glow of sunshine in them.

As an illustrator he shared an important accomplishment along side artists as Grant Wood, Frederic Remington, Norman Wyeth, Andrew Wyeth, and Normal Rockwell. They all had in common that they contributed photos to the Curtis Publishing Company that were used for covers on the Saturday Evening Post. He produced 29 covers for the Saturday Evening Post between 1926 and his death in 1936.

Many Erie Children who posed for Ericson appeared on the cover of magazines, calendars and advertisements. He had a niche for capturing the joys and wholesomeness of boyhood and children were the subjects of many of his paintings.

In Erie, Pennsylvania there is a Mural by George Ericson in the Zem Zem Children’s Hospital. Also, A large collection of his work is at the Erie School Board at the Erie History Center in Erie, Pennsylvania. .