🔥 Fine RARE Grace Drayton CAMPBELL'S KIDS Original Paintings Collection, 1910s

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Seller: willsusa_utzeqm ✉️ (505) 99.3%, Location: Orange, California, US, Ships to: US, Item: 276191414625 🔥 Fine RARE Grace Drayton CAMPBELL'S KIDS Original Paintings Collection, 1910s. This is an incredible and museum worthy Fine RARE Grace Drayton CAMPBELL'S KIDS Original Paintings Collection (26 watercolor on paper paintings in total,) by world famous early 20th century American cartoonist and illustration artist, Grace Drayton aka Grace G. Wiederseim (1877 - 1936.) This phenomenal art collection comprises of 26 original watercolor paintings, depicting Drayton's famous "funny babies," in various costumes, poses and thematic scenarios. Some of these paintings may represent characters from her various comic strips, that she produced before and during her renowned Cambell's Soup advertisements in the 1900's. These paintings offered for sale likely date to the 1900's - 1910's. Some exceptional works in this collection include two Halloween themed pieces, and several Christmas themed paintings as well. The largest painting, in the center, is approximately 5 1/8 x 7 3/8 inches. This collection is approximately 25 1/2 x 31 1/8 inches (including frame.) These individual paintings were likely cut of out of one of Grace Drayton's scrapbooks and mounted on a black matting paper many decades ago. There are no apparent signatures on these works, but since these were likely cut from larger pages of paper, or from a sketchbook, one would not expect to see a signature. The matting has faded from dark black to a dark gray, and there are several old bug bites to the matting. Additionally, some of these drawings have light edge wear, and speckles of soiling (please see photos.) Acquired from an old estate collection in Los Angeles County, California. Priced to Sell. If you like what you see, I encourage you to make an Offer. Please check out my other listings for more wonderful and unique artworks! About the Artist: Grace Drayton Born :  1877 - Philadephia, Pennsylvania
Died :   1936 - New York City Known for :  Illustration-cartoons, portrait, sculpture Name variants :  Grace G Wiederseim Grace Drayton (October 14, 1877 - 1936) .

Viola Grace Gebbie was born October 14, 1877, the third  daughter of George Gebbie, a lithographer,  who was  Philadelphia's first art printer.   She married Theodore E. Wiederseim, Jr., an employee of Ketterlinus Lithographic Manufacturing Company, in Philadelphia  in 1904 and started signing her work "Grace Wiederseim or G G Wiederseim".  She claimed to owe her "funny babies" to Wiederseim, who recognized her potential, but she divorced him in 1911. Divorce in the Catholic Church was forbidden; hers disgraced the whole family ." In 1911, Grace divorced Wiedersheim and married W. Heyward Drayton III, and started signing her work Grace Drayton. She divorced Drayton in 1923 but continued to sign her work "Grace Drayton" or "G G Drayton."

Grace's  early education was in private and church schools including the Convent of Notre Dame, Philadelphia and the Convent of Eden Hall, Torresdale, Pennsylvania.    Despite her father's Presbyterianism, her mother's Catholicism prevailed when she was placed  in the Convent, no doubt to protect her from the temptations of life, but if the Catholic values were not lost on Grace, she had enough free spirit  to work eventually in New York City "where twentieth century painters go" and where she was exposed to the attractions of the big city.

As a child, she drew her image from a mirror, saying that she thought she was funny looking and that her playmates loved them.  At the age of seventeen, she began her commercial art career, and within a year she sold her first magazine illustration.  In 1909, as Grace Wiederseim, she published 'The Terrible Tales of Captain Kiddo', in collaboration with her sister, Margaret G. Hays. And later, 'Toodles' (ca.1911) and 'Dottie Dimple' (1915) appeared in the newspapers. Drayton was known for Fido, Kitty Puss, and other children's books. She also created "Pussy Pumpkins","Dolly Dingle" and "Pussycat Princess." She capitalized on her caricatures, turning them into highly profitable cherubs in unlikely situations for postcards and cartoon strips and paper dolls, which became wildly profitable. Their popularity grew and, as collector items, especially postcards—the "chubby legged kids, with no necks, large widely separated eyes and small H-shaped  mouths", her  "funny babies," as she called them—show no sign of abating after 100 years.  

Petteys (Dictionary of Women Artists) also listed Grace as having studied in the 1890s under Clifford P. Grayson. Grayson taught oil painting  at Drexel Institute of Art, Science and Industry.  He was the Director of the School of Drawing, Painting and Modeling which included, among other subjects,  drawing from geometric solids, cast drawing from simple ornament, free-hand and linear perspective, drawing from still life and interiors, free-hand sketching from objects and drawing from casts of hands and feet.

On April 16, 1922 she gave a showing of her paintings and drawings at the Kingore Galleries (New York Times, 16 April 1922).  Two drawings were humorous exaggerations.  One, of "The Duchess of Devonshire"  a late eighteenth  century painting of the glamorous and notorious Georgiana Spencer by Thomas Gainsborough and  the other of Gainsborough's "The Blue Boy."  She had also done spoofs of George Washington, Napoleon and Mark Twain (Anthony,  p. 328).  Trina Robbins argued that women do have a sense of humor after quoting an infamous statement that women had none (Robbins, 1983).    By this time, Grace was sufficiently famous to make even her canaries newsworthy.  In 1923, she boarded three canaries at "a hotel of their own" for people in the social register (New York Times, 12 August 1923).   She was involved as a judge in a veteran's art contest (New York Times, 21 May 1925), at a country dance  (New York Times, 6 March  1926), at another auction for charity in which she contributed drawings (New York Times, 18 March 1928), at a charity for  disabled servicemen and at an actor's fund charity in which she drew characteristic portraits, and in  a cat show charity in which she made sketches for an auction  (New York Times,  6 November  1927). She and her sister, Margaret Gebbie Hays, created a series of newspaper features with Margaret's verses and Grace's illustrations.

Grace Drayton was the creator of the Campbell Kids used in the ads for Campbell's Soup. She was a member of The Plastic Club, Philadelphia from 1905-1909.

The Campbell Kids were born from a simple sales pitch. In 1904, Philadelphia street car advertising executive, Theodore Wiederseim, asked his artistic wife, Grace Gebbie Drayton, to draw some characters for a sales meeting with Joseph Campbell Company. After viewing the adorable figures, Campbell's quickly embraced the 'Kids', and started using the characters in street car advertising as one of the company's first marketing initiatives in 1905. Known for their rosy puffed cheeks, widely-spaced eyes and plump bodies, the general public adored the Campbell Kids as did their creator who often affectionately referred to them as her 'funny babies'.

Soon after their public introduction the 'Kids' became an integral part of all Campbell's marketing in the States. With this surge in popularity, Campbell Kids memorabilia became all the rage including dolls, souvenir postcards, cooking sets, story books, toy farm trucks, games and even pajamas. In the late 1920's to the mid forties, the 'Kids' were still part of the Campbell's marketing culture, but played a more minor role. It was in the early 1950's, that their characters became revitalized with a fiftieth birthday party and the staring role in Campbell's television advertising that carried through to the 1960's and beyond.

The chunky cherubs have slimmed down a little to match modern notions of health as they celebrate their 100th anniversary.

She is probably best known for her popular Dolly Dingle paper dolls in the women's magazine  Pictorial Review , from 1916-1922.  Wiederseim sometimes worked with her sister, children's author Margaret Gebbie Hays, to illustrate and produce such books as "Kiddie Land ." She created and illustrated popular period comics Dolly Dimples  and The Pussycat Princess .  She and her sister, Margaret Gebbie Hays, also created a series of newspaper features with Margaret's verses and Grace's illustrations.

Grace (as Wiederseim) was a founder of the Philadelphia  Plastic Club, which has endured as the Plastic Club to this day.  It is the oldest art club for women in America (1897) and was limited to "women engaged in the pursuit of art in any of its branches ."  Among the noted past members were Elizabeth Shippen Greene, Jesse Wilcox Smith, and Violet Oakley ("The Red Rose Girls"), Alice Barber Stephens, and Cecilia Beaux.  "Plastic Club" was chosen as a name "since an unfinished work of art is in a plastic state  (Crumb, 1972?)." Another account of the Plastic Club reported that the club was formed " to promote a wider knowledge of art and to advance its interest by means of exhibitions and social intercourse among artists " (MacIlvaine).  Although the Club was originally formed for women only, it later opened its membership to men.

She held a fellowship in the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and she belonged to the Art Alliance of America, the Society of Illustrators, the Artists Guild of the Author's League of America, the Art Alliance of Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Painters Club, Illustration House, National Association of Women Artists and American Illustrators Gallery (Petteys, Mantle Fielding).

Compiled and submitted by Ralph Blunt
Some information included from: W. E. McGrath, 2006

Grace Drayton

Grace Gebbie, Grace Wiederseim

(14 October 1877 - 31 January 1936, USA)

Grace Drayton was one of the first and most successful female cartoonists. Grace Gebbie, her maiden name, was born in 1877 in Philadelphia, the daughter of an art publisher. She began freelancing as an artist in 1895. In 1900, still in her early twenties, she married Theodore Wiederseim, and created the series 'Bobby Blake' and 'Dolly Drake' for the Philadelphia Press.

In 1909, as Grace Wiederseim, she published 'Dolly Drake and Bobby Blake in Storyland' (1905-1906) and 'The Terrible Tales of Captain Kiddo' (1905-1909), in collaboration with her sister, Margaret G. Hays. This series spawned two spin-offs like 'Kaptin Kiddo and Puppo' (1911) and 'Kaptin Kido's 'Speriences' (1913). A year later, 'Dottie Dimple' appeared in the newspapers. In 1911, Grace divorced Wiedersheim and married W. Drayton, and became Grace Drayton. She illustrated children's books and created several comics, such as 'Toodles' (ca.1911), 'Dolly Dimples' (1915) and 'The Campbell Kids'. She created the adventures of Little Miss Muffet, the Man in the Moon, and others with Dolly Dimple and Bobby Bounce.

Grace Drayton was important as the creator of the Campbell Soup Kids, round-faced children with rosy cheeks which were a huge success, yet Grace's name never appeared on the drawings. After she left Campbell, she became well-known for her Dolly Dingle paper dolls in the Pictorial Review, from 1916 to 1922. Drayton also illustrated several books by her sister Margaret: 'Kiddie Land' (1910), 'Kiddie Rhymes' (1911), 'Vegetable Verselets for Humorous Vegetarians' (1911) and 'Babykins Bedtime Book' (1914), 'Little Pets Book' (1914) and 'Rosy Childhood' (1914).  Some poems from 'Vegetable Verselets' were later put to music by composer Daron Hagen. 

Grace divorced Drayton in 1923. She started her most famous series, 'The Pussycat Princess', in 1935, and died a year later. The comic was continued by Ruth Carroll and Ed Anthony until 1947.

Campbell Kids Creator Grace Drayton

The creator of the iconic Campbell Kids was illustrator Grace Drayton (1877-1936), a highly successful artist, illustrator, and cartoonist. The Kids first appeared in 1904 and have been used on and off in advertising throughout Campbell Soup history.

Today dolls based on the characters as well as products featuring the ads are highly sought-after by collectors.

So who was Grace Drayton?

Grace Gebbie Wiederseim Drayton was one of seven children born to a successful art printer in Philadelphia. Grace had five sisters and one brother. While all the sisters had artistic talent, she was the most successful of them.

She made her first art sale when she was only 17. Her first illustrations were of cupids and pretty women and were used to decorate place cards. In 1895, she made her first magazine sale, selling an illustration of a young girl holding a kitten. It was called “Puss.”

After that, she worked steadily drawing for magazines, and greeting card and paper doll companies. She also illustrated children’s books and eventually sold comic strips to newspapers and syndicates.

In these early years, Grace honed her style. She used realism for her domestic settings, and the adult women she pictured were shown as beautiful society women.

Grace’s style became evident in her drawings. Calling them her “funny babies,” she developed a round-faced, rosy-cheeked chubby-legged child that became very popular. Other artists of the day also featured cherubic children, but Grace was among the first to develop the look. (Rose O’Neill’s kewpie dolls were also everywhere, but they did not appear until 1909.)

Women Working as Illustrators

While the turn of the 20th  century seems early for women being employed regularly, the field of art soon needed them. Advances in print technology made it easier to produce general and special interest magazines, so there was a growing need for illustrators.  The era, 1880-1914, became known as the Golden Age of Illustration, and there simply weren’t enough men for the jobs.

Women also had the skills. As more people moved to cities, women had less to do around the house. Studying art became socially acceptable. Illustrators often worked freelance, and this offered additional opportunity to women. During this era, some companies like Tiffany Studios employed women, but those women had to leave the workforce when they married. Freelance work helped women skirt that issue.

Grace Drayton Background

Two factors favored Grace Drayton’s entrance into the art world. Her father, George Gebbie, was a well-respected fine art publisher who was known throughout the art field. The Gebbie family also lived in Philadelphia where there were several excellent art schools that accepted women. Grace studied at the Philadelphia School of Design for Women. She also took some drawing classes at Drexel Institute (now Philadelphia’s Drexel University) where many well-regarded illustrators taught.

The supportive atmosphere for women illustrators in Philadelphia led to community-building. Grace Drayton was among the founders of the Philadelphia Plastic Club , which functioned as both a community and a collective for women artists.

Campbell Kids for Campbell Company Grace Drayton (then Grace Wiederseim) and her work were brought to the attention of the Campbell marketing staff by her first husband, a lithographer named Theodore Wiederseim. Wiederseim did the printing of the street car signs used by Joseph Campbell Company (later to become the Campbell Soup Company).

In 1904, Wiederseim took a sample of his wife’s work with him for an account meeting. He suggested the healthy-looking children might be a good addition to the streetcar advertising for Campbell’s new condensed soup product. (The Campbell Company was initially a fruit and vegetable purveyor, but in 1897, they turned their focus to condensed soup invented by one of their chemists.)

Soon Grace Wiederseim’s children were cavorting across the sides of streetcars. The original ads were black and white, but the ads soon began to print in color. Grace created about 16 variations of children that Campbell could draw upon for their ads. Campbell advertising people saw that the children were perfect to promote the health benefits of eating soup. Their ads read in part:

“The main object in life of these rollicking youngsters is to remind you of Campbell’s soup…[It] adds to enjoyment of life just as its wholesome equality helps you to promote good digestion and robust health.”

As the company grew, they not only used the Kids in ads and on paper products, but they licensed the right to use the Kids on everything from cooking sets to children’s pajamas.

Licensed Campbell Kids for Dolls The Joseph Campbell Company licensed the rights to make Campbell Kid dolls to E.I. Horsman Company, a well-respected doll company. The dolls were a huge success and sold by mail order through Montgomery Ward and Sears but also in the mom-and-pop toy stores that proliferated at the time. There is no information on whether Grace Drayton benefited financially from the licensing. She probably received a small fee but maybe nothing grand. She continued to draw children that were very similar to the Kids, and she sold them to become paper dolls or characters in children’s books. If the company had paid her well for their rights to the kids, Grace Drayton would have had to limit her character likenesses.

Out of Favor in the Mid-1920s

From the mid-20s to the mid-40s, the Kids were not used in Campbell advertising. But in the early 1950s, the advertising department decided the Kids needed to be brought back for their 50th  anniversary. In 1954, 500,000 dolls were released. (This was also the year that Campbell Soup Company went public.) Since that time, the Kids have continued to appear occasionally.

The dolls and products that feature them have become a popular item for the collectible market.

Personal Life

Grace’s marriage to Theodore Wiederseim (1900) ended in 1911. There is no information on what led to the divorce, but later that year, Grace married William Heyward Drayton III, the head of a brokerage firm. This may have had something to do with it.

Divorce at this time would have reflected badly on a family, but society seemed to forgive. Grace and William Drayton lived at fine addresses and were included in New York society’s Blue Book. They also frequently took part in high society events in Philadelphia. (In reading about other female illustrators of this era, Grace Drayton was not alone in having multiple marriages. Because they were earning money, the women may have felt empowered to break with the norms.)

Her second husband, William Drayton, had also previously been married and perhaps that should have been a warning to Grace. By 1923, The New York Times reported that Grace Drayton was granted a divorce. In court in White Plains, New York, a witness testified to Drayton being seen in the company of a young woman on a night boat bound for Albany and at a hotel in Saratoga Springs, New York. Another witness said Drayton was sharing a cottage with a woman in Long Beach.

Grace was awarded legal fees and $333.33 per month in alimony. The judge also granted her the right to use her maiden name again—a choice she ultimately did not take.

Selling Comic Strips

Grace Drayton was very successful in the comic strip world.  The first strip she sold was in 1903. It featured Toodles, a little girl who was always getting in trouble. Each strip outlined the mess Toodles found herself in, followed by some type of resolve where she was aided by her mother or her nanny.

She and her sister, Margaret G. Hays, collaborated on several comic strips. Their first was called The Adventures of Dolly Drake and Bobby Blake in Storyland (1905).  Later, they sold The Turr’ble Tales of Kaptin Kiddo to an early syndicate, The Philadelphia North American Company.

In 1908, she became the first female cartoonist to sell to Hearst. Her strip, Dottie Dimple, ran for three years.

Her comic strips were well enough thought of that they brought her success in other mediums. In 1926, The New York Times printed an article about a dinner being held in honor of Drayton. Her comic strip of Anthony and Cleopatra was the first among several of her cartoons that were made into a motion picture.

Pussycat Princess, about a fabulously rich but sweet royal family of Tabbyland and their adventures, was the last strip she sold (1935).  She did not live long enough to finish its run. Grace Drayton died of heart disease in 1936.

The strip was created with Ed Anthony. He brought in Ruth Carroll to fill Grace’s role. The comic strip continued until 1947.

Fine Art

Probably every illustrator aspires to also be considered a fine artist, and Grace Drayton was no different. She produced and sold paintings of fashionable young women. These, however, were note the money-maker.

Her income-producers were the comic strips, the children’s books (Chicken Cheepie, Tiny Tots, and Bunny’s Birthday, among them), paper dolls (Dolly Dingle Cut-Outs), and the Campbell’s Kids. She did very well.

Extremely Prolfic

In The New York Times obituary, the reporter quoted a previously-published article where Grace Drayton was asked about how she produced so much so quickly.

She answered: “I work all the time because I love what I am doing, and I draw fast because I can’t wait to see the picture myself.”

  • Condition: Used
  • Artist: Grace Drayton
  • Size: Large
  • Material: Paper, Watercolor
  • Region of Origin: California, USA
  • Framing: Framed
  • Subject: Baby, Boys, Cartoons & Caricatures, Cats, Children & Infants, Christmas, Costumes, Family, Figures, Halloween, Holidays, Humor, Toys & Games, USA
  • Type: Painting
  • Original/Licensed Reproduction: Original
  • Item Height: 31 1/8 in
  • Style: Americana, Cartoon, Fantasy, Figurative Art, Illustration Art
  • Theme: Advertising, Americana, Animals, Animation, Art, Domestic & Family Life, Fashion, Food & Drink, People, Portrait
  • Production Technique: Watercolor Painting
  • Item Width: 25 1/2 in
  • Time Period Produced: 1900-1924

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