Joseph F. Kernan (American, 1878–1958) Tying on a Fly (Saturday Evening Post Cover)

Literature

The Saturday Evening Post, May 25, 1929.

Note

While his work graced the covers and pages of many famous American magazines between the 1920s and 1940s (including 26 Saturday Evening Post covers), the name Joseph Francis Kernan is often eclipsed in comparison to better-known peers Norman Rockwell and Maxfield Parrish. Yet, Kernan was a master of nostalgic and humorous illustrations of middle-class America and, a sportsman himself, almost always featured "the human side of outdoor sports, hunting, fishing and dogs," which were considered ideal subjects for magazines. The present work is no different in that regard, as it depicts a fly fisherman, concentrating as he is about to attach the hook to his fishing stick. Immersed in water up to his waist in a seemingly tortuous part of the river, the fisherman is not losing his cool, and seems in fact fully determined to enjoy his last smoke before some action.

Provenance

American Illustrators Gallery (Judy Goffman Gallery), New York, New York (as Fly Fisherman).

Blakeslee Gallery, Wellington, Florida.

Acquired directly from the above in January 1996.

Private Collection, California.