This month we feature an oil painting by Charles H. Taffs (1876 - 1964), recorded in our fine art collection records rather formally as Lady with Fan in Chair.

This original oil painting was commissioned as an illustration for The Bystander Magazine and was published on May 3rd 1905. It featured in a supplement to the magazine and the printed version gave the work the title In Maiden Meditation.

We do not know who the sitter is but she portrays a fashionable Edwardian lady in evening dress, epitomising the Gibson Girl look, a look created by American illustrator Charles Dana Gibson, which represented the ‘ideal’ of an independent, stylish, Euro-American woman around the turn of the 20th century. Although typically portrayed as upper middle-class, fashionable and confident, she would still be admired physically, with accentuated female attributes and behaving within the social norms of the time.

About the Artist

Charles H.Taffs, was born in 1876 in Camberley, Surrey. His career as an artist began in England and records show that he exhibited at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 1896 (with the artwork Summer Song), 1897(Outside Only!),1898 (Far Away) and 1905 (The Last Fence). It was in 1905 that our painting was created, and he was clearly well-regarded by this time.

Although an accomplished and prolific artist, he made his living principally as an illustrator. As such he did not appear to build any significant public reputation as an artist in his own right, and consequently relatively little is known about him, particularly in the UK. However, there was probably a good market for illustrations, providing a good income on a regular basis.

It seems that Charles emigrated from England to the USA, possibly in 1912, where there would have been numerous opportunities to capitalise on his skill as an illustrator. (New York Ellis Island passenger records show that a Charles H. Taffs travelled to New York from London in 1912 (although his birth date seems to be one year out) and a further New York passenger list shows a Charles Harold Taffs, English by birth, but already resident of New York travelling from the UK to New York.)

Certainly he was creating illustrations for American publications by 1913 when he provided the illustrations for Cora May Harris’s book In Search of a Husband. Other American books he illustrated included Proof of the Pudding by Meredith Nicholson in 1916 and The Private Wire to Washington by Harold MacGrath in 1919.

He created illustrations for books, American magazines and advertisements throughout his career. By 1930 Taffs got a mention in the New York Social Blue Book of names and addresses of prominent residents, so his move to the USA certainly paid off.

Taffs died in 1964. His archive can be found in the [Smithsonian Libraries].

The Golden Age of Illustration

In the 19th and eary 20th century magazines, newspapers and illustrated books were the principal forms of media, and with photography still in its infancy, illustrated images were in great demand to accompany text in articles and stories as well as advertisements. Book production increased hugely during this period and the cost of books fell. In the United states, the period around the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries was known as 'The Golden Age of Illustration'. This demand for illustrations perhaps led our artist Charles H. Taffs, to pursue a career in this field rather than as a painter in the conventional sense.

Acknowledgements

Many thanks go to Robert Savage, M.D. of the Wellesley Collection, whose article on AskArt provided information about the life and career of Charles H. Taffs.

Thanks also to the British Library for permission to use the image of the front cover of The Bystander Magazine.