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Willard A. Downes (Artist)

Willard A. Downes
Born Willard Alfred Downes
(1908-10-14)October 14, 1908
Washington, D.C., U.S.
Died September 11, 2001(2001-09-11) (aged 92)
Gulfport, Florida
Education Art Students League
National Academy of Design
Industrial Arts School
Known for Portraits, caricatures

Willard A. Downes (1908–2000) was an American artist and illustrator. He was artistically active his entire life as a painter and illustrator. He painted portraits, landscapes and did caricatures of famous people. He was the uncle of Doris Downes, an American botanical artist.

Willard Alfred Downes, was born in Washington, D.C., on October 14, 1908, and grew up in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

When he was 17 years old he relocated to New York City to pursue his artistic career. He attended the Art Students League; the National Academy of Design; and, the Industrial Arts School.

He began his professional career as a commercial illustrator and a fine arts painter. He was hired to help paint billboards for Columbia, Paramount Pictures and Warner Brothers studios in Atlantic City and Philadelphia. He worked for three newspapers in New York City as an advertising artist: The Herald Tribune; The New York Journal-American; and, The Brooklyn Eagle. His illustrations appeared in magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post, Life, Good Housekeeping, and Colliers.

In the 1930s and the 1940s he was commissioned to sketch publicity portraits of big name actors. He drew portraits of Clark Gable, Errol Flynn, Spencer Tracy, Tallulah Brockman Bankhead, Donald Crisp, and Miriam Hopkins, among others. His drawing of William Randolph Hearst for Editor & Publisher magazine led to a job at Hearst newspapers. Fawcett and Golden Books hired him to illustrate covers of their paperbacks books. He led a $15 million advertising campaign for Kent cigarettes. He introduced a series of posters called "I Am Still an American", which now is part of the Library of Congress. His movie star portraits and caricatures have been promised to the Smithsonian Institution.


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