Robert Fawcett

Who was Robert Fawcett?

Robert Fawcett trained as a fine artist but achieved fame as an illustrator of books and magazines and brought a superb sense of composition to his advertisement work.

Born in England, he grew up in Canada and later in New York. His father, an amateur artist, encouraged Robert's interest in art. While in Canada, he was apprenticed to an engraver. He attended the Slade School of Art in London, then returned to the United States to pursue a career in fine arts, although he had to work as a commercial artist to support himself. He soon became disenchanted with the poor pay and political infighting of the fine arts world and decided to commit himself to commercial art, where he was successful. He was the author of On The Art Of Drawing.

As he was slightly color blind, Fawcett did not excel as a painter, but he was an excellent draftsman and designer, with a strong eye for detail. He produced story illustrations and full-page ads that appeared in The Saturday Evening Post, Collier's, Holiday, Cosmopolitan and numerous other magazines. His work for Collier's magazine included detailed illustrations accompanying a series of Sherlock Holmes stories.