This Leslie Thrasher oil painting was created for the cover of the August 20,
1927 issue of Liberty magazine. This painting was used as part of the "For the Love O' Lil" series created weekly for 6 years by Thrasher from 1925 thru 1931.
This is a wonderful image depicting three boys swimming in the water at their
favorite swimming hole, while one tries to remove a knot from his shirt. This
painting has a great Norman Rockwell type of "americana" appeal, taking the
viewer back to the long, lazy days of summer, from which childhood memories are
made. As you move the cursor over this image, you will also see the 1927
Liberty magazine for which this painting was used.
Leslie Thrasher was born in Piedmont, West Virginia on September 15, 1889. His
mother encouraged his artistic talents at an early age, and he was sent to the
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1906. In 1909, he was awarded a traveling
scholarship, and was able to study in Paris for a year. Upon his return to the
US in 1910, Thrasher came to Wilmington, Delaware to study with Howard Pyle.
In 1920, Thrasher married Janet Jackson in Wilmington and moved with her to New York City and Setauket, Long Island. They had one daughter, Audrey.
Thrasher was best known for his humorous images which graced the covers of Saturday Evening Post and Liberty magazines. In 1912, Thrasher had his first
painting sold to Saturday Evening Post for $50.00. By 1925, he had contracted
with Liberty magazine to do a cover a week at the rate of $1000 per cover. The
magazine called this idea the "continuity cover", and was a weekly series
telling the story of the typical middle class American family, with the
likeness of the father being portrayed by none other than Leslie Thrasher
himself. The story depicted this couple from their high school romance, adding
family and extended family, through their middle age. This weekly story on the
covers of Liberty magazine was made into a full length movie, "For the Love O' Lil". Thrasher created this series for Liberty for 6 years.
Leslie Thrasher also did other story illustrations in addition to ads for Fisk Tire Co., Chesterfield cigarettes, DuPont, and Cream of Wheat, for which he is
well known. These appeared in magazines such as Everybody's, Colliers,
Redbook, The Popular Magazine, and others.
On December 2,1936, several days after being rescued from his burning home, Leslie Thrasher died of pneumonia induced by smoke inhalation. Several of his
paintings were also lost in the fire. Leslie Thrasher had achieved such
respect and popularity in the illustration world, that one can only wonder if
his life had not been so tragically cut short at age 47, that he may have
achieved the reputation of Norman Rockwell. Both artist's work had the same
"americana" appeal. By the time he left Liberty magazine, Leslie Thrasher had
produced more cover paintings than Norman Rockwell did in his whole career at
the Saturday Evening Post. Leslie Thrasher had become one of Howard Pyle's
most commercially successful students.
(Place mouse on image to view Liberty magazine close-up.)
