User:TwoTwoHello/Hubert Rogers

Reginald Hubert Rogers (21 December 1898 - 12 May 1982) was a Canadian artist best known for his book and pulp magazine illustrations in the 1940s and 1950s and, in later years, as a portrait artist.

Early life
Hubert Rogers was born in Alberton, Prince Edward Island, Canada, to Florence and Frederick L. Rogers. His father ran a store; his grandfather, Benjamin Rogers, was a shipbuilder and former Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island. He was educated at the Horton Academy, Wolfville, Nova Scotia and at the Central Technical School in Toronto. His art teacher introduced him to the Canadian "Group of Seven" landscape painters, including a future mentor, A. Y. Jackson. Rogers enlisted in the Canadian Army, underage, in 1916 and served in France during World War I. In 1920 he returned briefly to Prince Edward Island before moving to Boston, where he studied at the Massachusetts Normal Art School and Boston Museum of Fine Arts. From 1925 he studied at the Art Students League of New York where he was taught by the illustrator Dean Cornwell.

Pulp magazine illustrations
Rogers began working freelance for the pulp magazines Ace-High, Adventure, Romance, and West. In 1931 the Great Depression led him to leave New York temporarily, to join a group of modern landscape artists in Taos, New Mexico. While there he painted portraits of Pueblo Indians, in addition to the freelance magazine illustrations that he submitted by post. Two of his Pueblo Indian portraits are in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. By 1936 the freelance work had grown sufficiently to warrant his return to New York, so he moved into a studio in Greenwich Village. He sold covers to Street & Smith magazines including Detective Story, Love Story and Astounding Science Fiction.

Rogers was the principal cover artist for Astounding Science Fiction during the magazines "Golden Age", when John W. Campbell was editor. Beginning with the February 1939 issue, Rogers supplied the cover art to 58 editions. Along with William Timmins, he dominated the magazine's cover and gave it a more serious tone than its rivals. His October 1939 illustration for E. E. "Doc" Smith's Gray Lensman, and May 1947 cover for Fury by Lawrence O'Donnell, were particularly well received.

Second world war
In 1942 Rogers returned to Canada to work as an artist for the Wartime Information Board. He produced a series of patriotic propaganda posters. His painting of the 1943 Quebec Conference is displayed at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa.

Late work
Rogers resumed producing science fiction illustrations in 1947. He also began painting portraits of eminent people, including Mary Churchill, Lord Alexander and Admiral Leahy. By 1953 his commercial work was almost entirely commissioned portraits.