Heading: (California - San Francisco)
Author: Perceval, Don Louis
Title: Illustration and Study for ATSF San Francisco Poster
Place Published:
Publisher:
Date Published: c.1950
Description: 2 original images. Lot includes:
Tempura painting in color. Image: 56x40.5 cm (22x16“); board: 66x51 cm (26x20“).
Silver photograph. Image: 56x46 cm (22x18“); mounted to board: 69.5x56 cm (27¼x22“), with opaque paper overlay over bottom half.
Unique example of what might have become a nationally-recognizable view of San Francisco in Don Perceval‘s unique style. Two drafts for a Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway (ATSF) poster featuring San Francisco. The first is a color tempura painting showing the city from under the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, which was apparently rejected by ATSF in favor of a second design with the perspective shifted above the bridge. The end result was essentially a colored photograph, with the second poster included being the original black and white photograph with an opaque overlay planning the Santa Fe-San Francisco art to be painted over. His art was already well-respected before he moved from England to Los Angeles, and his art was rarely rejected, making this a rare snub of one of the great illustrators of the American West in the twentieth century.

Both with light soiling and wear to board edges; board surrounding photograph with annotations; color painting with some residue to upper left quadrant, large portion of Santa Fe logo torn away and remaining white spotted; overall still a near fine survival.