Vogue’s Great Illustrators

Vogue. The title evokes glamour and excellence in visual storytelling. It also brings to mind the magazine’s famous covers—from Beyoncé in a glorious flower crown (September 2018) to Rihanna in a red wig (April 2011) and the “supers” stacked on a ladder for the 100th anniversary issue (April 1992).

Great photographers producing stop-in-your-tracks covers is part of the publication’s legacy; by hiring and developing great talents, Vogue and its publisher, Condé Nast, can be credited with helping fashion photography emerge as a genre.

The magazine’s first cover to use a color photograph, for the July 1, 1932, issue, was created by Edward Steichen. It marked the beginning of a sea change away from drawing and toward this advancing technological art. Illustrated covers still appeared throughout the 1950s, but with less frequency.

Foremost among them was Georges Lepape, whose impressive résumé included collaborations with couturier Paul Poiret, the “King of Fashion,” and the Ballets Russes. There is a great dynamism to Lepape’s work: Lovelies might float on clouds or practice calligraphy.

Spaniard Eduardo García Benito was one of Nast’s right-hand men and a cover artist. His work represents the Deco style at its most pure and reduced. There’s a distinctive Cubist aspect to his art as well.

Carl Erickson, known as Eric, is among the last of the magazine’s great illustrators. A Midwesterner based in Paris, he had a quick line that produced informative, elegant drawings. A dapper fellow who had access to the hot spots of Paris and to designers’ ateliers, Erickson gives the viewer a glimpse behind closed doors and a peek at fashion in the making.