As a boy in Carmel, Indiana, Franklin Booth was determined to become an artist. He studied pictures and illustrations in magazines such as Harper’s. His unusual technique was the result of a misunderstanding: Booth scrupulously copied magazine illustrations thinking they were pen-and-ink drawings. In fact they were wood engravings.

He developed a style composed of thousands of lines, whose careful positioning next to one another produced variations in density and shade. He was largely a commercial artist with illustrations appearing in Cosmopolitan, Good Hosuekeeping, Ladies Home Journal and Harper’s.

The characteristics of his art were large scales in extremes, with large buildings and forests looming over tiny figures. He also created advertising art for Rolls-Royce, Paramount Pictures and Bulova Watches among others.

Booth contributed to the Great War by illustrating recruit posters, the Red Cross, US savings bonds envelopes, booklets and death certificates for American soldiers who parished in France and Belgium.

Despite the laboriousness of his technique, Booth’s compositions were characterised by a grand sense of space. As a result, his drawings were often well-matched to poetic or editorial entries. Two wonderfully done books of his illustrations have been published and has helped to bring back the memory and incredible output of his work.

Mr. Booth possesses to a rare degree the power of expressing in design or picture an idea, an abstract conception. He illustrates not so much things as thoughts.

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Franklin Booth – Biography