Fourth of July 2023 Issue

HISTORY
Drawn to Lake Hopatcong
Leyendecker, Pyle, Parrish, Flagg, Wyeth,
Gibson, Remington, Rockwell. In an era
when photography was still new, the sketches
and paintings created by these iconic artists
entered millions of American homes in the form
of calendars, magazine and book illustrations,
advertisements and art prints.
Through their bold and original work, which
appeared in popular magazines, American
illustrators of the late 19th and early to mid-
20th century played an important role in the
development of both literature and popular
culture.
Although this commercial art was passed over
by collectors for years, today these works are
highly prized.
American illustrations began to appear in
newspapers in the late 1800s as publishers
discovered that art increased sales and
stimulated interest in a story. By the turn of
the century, magazines began to compete for
mass circulation as editors added fiction to the
mix of articles. These stories usually featured
at least one illustration to set the tone, portray
characters and catch
readers’ attention.
The work of
certain artists
became instantly
recognizable. Charles
Gibson’s Gibson Girl
became the ideal for
millions of young
women—and men.
J.C. Leyendecker’s
renderings of the
34
by MARTY KANE
Photos courtesy of
the
LAKE HOPATCONG
HISTORICAL
MUSEUM
LAKE HOPATCONG NEWS Fourth of July 2023
Arrow Collar Man attracted fan mail
and even marriage proposals.
Uncle Sam, drawn by James
Montgomery Flagg, became an
American icon. Frederic Remington
helped popularize the adventure and
romance of the West, while Howard
Pyle’s work brought American history
and the chivalry of the Middle Ages to life.
The iconic images created by Norman
Rockwell, perhaps the best-known American
illustrator, captured everyday American life and
became part of the nation’s culture.
One artist considered an unheralded great
among American illustrators had ties to Lake
Hopatcong.
P.J. Monahan was among New York’s most
prolific illustrators during the first three
decades of the 20th century. Monahan created
advertisements, movie posters, magazine covers
and commissioned art but produced most of his
work for the “pulp” magazines of the day. (The
name comes from the cheap wood pulp paper
on which they were printed).
Pulp magazines often featured illustrated
novel-length stories of characters like The
Shadow and the Phantom Detective and were
intended for adult readers while comic books
were aimed at children and adolescents.
Although many respected writers wrote
for pulps, these magazines are perhaps best
remembered for their lurid, sensational stories
and thrilling cover art. Little attention was paid
to the work of pulp illustrators at the time, but
in recent years, due to some of Monahan’s other
work, his art has become better known and more
collectible.
Born in Iowa in 1882, Monahan began life as
Patrick John Sullivan.
At the age of 9, after losing both parents
and a sister to an influenza outbreak, he and a
brother were taken in by neighbors Rose and
Jim Monahan. At 17, Patrick Monahan won an art
scholarship to Drake University in Des Moines.
He began illustrating newspapers in Chicago and
St. Louis after graduating and soon won an art
contest that sent him to study painting in Europe.
Monahan married Louise Averill in 1905
and soon moved to New York City, where he
immediately found employment illustrating
fashion catalogs.
In 1907, he began painting covers for Leslie’s
Weekly, a leading magazine. During the ensuing
From top to bottom, left to right: Cover
illustration from July 1, 1909. Cover illustration
from August 3, 1911. Cover illustration from
December 9, 1922.
Pat and Louise Monahan at Hopatcong’s Pine Tree Point
on Lake Hopatcong, circa 1920.
years he painted for many popular magazines
of the day, including Ladies’ Home Journal,
Cosmopolitan and Hampton’s Magazine.
Monahan earned $125 for a typical painting
in the 1910s when the average annual American
salary was under $750.
In 1912, Monahan’s friendship with author Jack
London led to his illustrating “Smoke Bellew,”
London’s collection of short stories about the
Alaska Gold Rush. Monahan was admitted to the
Society of Illustrators the same year, where he
became friends with James Montgomery Flagg
and Norman Rockwell. During World War I,
Monahan teamed with a committee of artists to
help the war effort by contributing paintings for
Liberty Bonds and recruitment efforts.
Monahan’s work is noted for its composition,
design and use of color. Contemporary art
editors acknowledge his skill in depicting women.
Roger Hill, an expert on American illustrators,
wrote in his book, “The Fantastic Worlds of P.
J. Monahan” that Monahan “brought a quality,
not simply of art and draftsmanship, but of
femininity and romance to the women he so
obviously loved to paint.”
The artist’s best-known illustrations, however,
are of a different subject altogether.
Between 1913 and 1923, after his work caught
the attention of author Edgar Rice Burroughs,
Monahan painted all 13 covers for the Argosy All-
Story pulps featuring Burroughs’ Tarzan stories.
As Burroughs expert Bill Hillman explained in a
feature on the website erbzine.com, Monahan
“created stimulating images full of romance
and adventure,” which perfectly captured the
author’s concept for this character.
An admirer of Leonardo da Vinci, Monahan
was also a self-taught engineer whose inventions
included a compact umbrella.
In 1915, he designed the Monahan Rotary
Tube Engine, an internal combustion engine
that was patented. Shares of stock were sold to
raise money and a workshop was constructed
in Guttenberg, New Jersey, to build the engine.
Although the technology was exciting, the
venture ended in failure, the stock was worthless
and the place of business closed.
Many of Monahan’s close friends and associates
lost money on their investment, which the artist