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Illustrator, painter, printmaker and teacher, Dale Nichols was born on a farm in David City, Nebraska. He studied at the Chicago Academy of Fine Art, the Art Institute of Chicago and in the studio of Joseph Binder in Vienna. Best known for his efforts to raise commercial illustration to the level of fine art, Nichols served as Grant Wood's successor as art editor of The Encyclopedia Britannica from 1942 to 1948. Much of Nichols' work drew on his upbringing in the rural Midwest. Works such as Golden Harvest and Company for Supper depict the isolation of farming families and the excitement of much-anticipated social occasions.

Nichols was a member of the Society of Typographic Artists, the Tucson Archaeological Society, and the Chicago Guild Free Lance Artists. He was a Carnegie visiting professor and artist in residence at the University of Illinois from 1939 to 1940. He also served as the art Chairman for the Tucson Regional Plan (1943-1945), authored a book entitled A Philosophy of Esthetics (1938) and illustrated the books, Two Years Before the Mast (1941), and A World History (1940).

Exhibitions that included Nichols' work were held at the Art Institute of Chicago (1935, 1936, 1938, 1939), Dallas Museum of Fine Arts (1936), the Carnegie Institute (1937, 1946), the New York World's Fair (1939), the Golden Gate Exposition (1939), and the Denver Art Museum (1943). The Macbeth Gallery in New York City featured his work annually from 1930 to 1950. Nichols' work is in the collections of numerous museums including: Art Institute of Chicago, Harvard University Art Galleries, Joslyn Art Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Nebraska Art Association, Smithsonian American Art Museum, University of Arizona, Whitney Museum of American Art.


Golden Harvest, 1948, Lithograph.

Edition 250. Signed in pencil.

Image size 7 13/16 x 11 9/16 inches (198 x 294 mm); sheet size 10 1/2 x 16 1/8 inches (267 x 410 mm).

A fine, rich impression, on cream wove paper, with full margins (1 1/4 to 2 1/4 inches), in excellent condition.

Published by Associated American Artists.

Collections: de Young and Legion of Honor museums of San Francisco, Museum of Nebraska Art.

SOLD

New York City, Manhattan, Brooklyn Bridge, Night, Nocturne

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