
Original Cream Of Wheat advertising art. Provenance Ex: Kraft Food Collection/Morton Grove III.
“During these early years (1903-1928), a national advertising campaign was launched that, considered a daring innovation at the time with its heavy use of four color printing, is today even more remarkable for its rich legacy of illustrative art. Many of the most famous American artists of the “Golden Age of Illustration” were commissioned by the Cream of Wheat Corporation. Happily their paintings remain not only as examples of fine art but as a charming reflection of family life during the early twentieth century.”
Reference: “The Nabisco Brands Collection Of Cream Of Wheat / Advertising Art” (By Dave Stiver)
The following lots, 700-739 will sell on Monday January 1, 2018 in the 38th Annual New Year’s Day Auction
- Edward Vincent Brewer (MN./N.Y. 1883-1971), “Standing Back Of Uncle Sam”
- H.B. Lachman (Ill.Cal. 1886-1975), Cream Of Wheat illustration, oil on canvas
- Harry F. Wireman (American 19th/20th c.), original Cream Of Wheat illustration
- Edward Vincent Brewer (MN./N.Y. 1883-1971), “Starting In The New Year Right”, oil on canvas
- Edward Vincent Brewer (MN./N.Y. 1883-1971), “Well Fortified”, oil on canvas
- Leslie Thrasher (N.Y. 1889-1936), original Cream Of Wheat Illustration. Oil on canvas
- Edward Vincent Brewer (MN./N.Y. 1883-1971), “Keeping Watch”, oil on canvas
- Edward Vincent Brewer (1883-1971). Plaster bust of iconic chef character “Rastus”, Cream Of Wheat artist’s maquette
- Original Cream Of Wheat illustration. Clock with center face and “CREAM OF WHEAT”
- Edward Vincent Brewer (MN./N.Y. 1883-1971), “Putting It Down In Black And White”, oil on canvas
- Edward Vincent Brewer (MN./N.Y. 1883-1971), “Playing Store”, oil on canvas
- Edward Vincent Brewer (MN./N.Y. 1883-1971), original Cream Of Wheat Illustration. Oil on canvas
- Edward Vincent Brewer (MN./N.Y. 1883-1971), original Cream Of Wheat illustration. Oil on canvas
- Edward Vincent Brewer (MN./N.Y. 1883-1971), original Cream Of Wheat illustration. Oil on canvas
- Edward Vincent Brewer (MN./N.Y. 1883-1971), “Financially Embarrassed”, mixed media
- Edward Vincent Brewer (MN./N.Y. 1883-1971), “Counting His Pennies”, oil on canvas
- William Cahill (Cal./N.Y./KS./Ill. 1878-1924), original Cream Of Wheat illustration. Gouache and watercolor
- Edward Vincent Brewer (MN./N.Y. 1883-1971), “Little Engines That Burn”, oil on canvas
- Edward Vincent Brewer (MN./N.Y. 1883-1971), original Cream Of Wheat illustration. Mixed media
- Unknown artist, original Cream Of Wheat illustration. Oil on canvas
- Unkown artist, original Cream Of Wheat illustration, “Santa Claus Christmas Breakfast”. Watercolor
- Unknown artist, original Cream Of Wheat illustration, “Instant Energy”. Oil and mixed media on canvas
- J. A. Cahill (American 20th Century), original Cream Of Wheat illustration. Watercolor and gouache
- Arthur Crisp (N.Y./Ct./ME./Ontario/Canada, 1881-1974), original Cream Of Wheat illustration. Oil on canvas
- Edward Vincent Brewer (MN./N.Y. 1883-1971), original Cream Of Wheat illustration. Oil on canvas
- Edward Vincent Brewer (MN./N.Y. 1883-1971), “NO SAMILAR DON’T WAN’ NO STUBSTUTE AH WAN CREAM O’ WHEAT”. Oil on canvas
- Edward Vincent Brewer (MN./N.Y. 1883-1971), original Cream Of Wheat illustration. Oil on canvas
- Edward Vincent Brewer (MN./N.Y. 1883-1971), original Cream Of Wheat illustration. Oil on canvas
- Edward Vincent Brewer (MN./N.Y. 1883-1971), original Cream Of Wheat illustration. Oil on canvas
- Edward Vincent Brewer (MN./N.Y. 1883-1971), original Cream Of Wheat illustration. Oil on canvas
- Edward Vincent Brewer (MN./N.Y. 1883-1971), original Cream Of Wheat illustration. Oil on canvas
- Edward Vincent Brewer (MN./N.Y. 1883-1971), original Cream Of Wheat illustration. Oil on canvas
- Edward Vincent Brewer (MN./N.Y. 1883-1971), original Cream Of Wheat illustration. Oil on canvas
- Edward Vincent Brewer (MN./N.Y. 1883-1971), original Cream Of Wheat illustration. Artist applied face. Oil on canvas
- Edward Vincent Brewer (MN./N.Y. 1883-1971), “Circus Day”, original Cream Of Wheat illustration
- Edward Vincent Brewer (MN./N.Y. 1883-1971), original Cream Of Wheat illustration. Oil on canvas
- Edward Vincent Brewer (MN./N.Y. 1883-1971), original Cream Of Wheat illustration. Oil on canvas
- William Cahill (Cal./N.Y./KS/Ill. 1878-1924), “LOOK PLEASANT, PLEASE”, original Cream Of Wheat illustration. Oil on canvas
- Edward Vincent Brewer (MN./N.Y. 1883-1971), “Some Like It Hot”, original Cream Of Wheat illustration. Oil on canvas
- Edward Vincent Brewer (MN./N.Y. 1883-1971), original Cream Of Wheat illustration. Oil on canvas

Edward Vincent Brewer (1883-1971). Plaster bust of iconic chef character “Rastus”, Cream Of Wheat artist’s maquette
“The Chef ‘Rastus’ was prominently featured in many of the early Cream of Wheat advertisements. Until Brewer sculpted a bust of the chef, the popular character was depicted only full face. A three dimensional model allowed Brewer to paint the chef in a variety of poses. ”
Reference: “The Nabisco Brands Collection Of Cream Of Wheat / Advertising Art” (By Dave Stivers), page 63
Artist Biographies:
Edward Vincent Brewer (1883 – 1971)
Biography from the Archives of askART
From Saint Paul, Minnesota, Edward Brewer was a commercial artist, muralist and portrait painter whose style is sometimes compared to that of Norman Rockwell. For 15 years beginning in 1911, he was employed by Emery Maples Company to do weekly ads for their major client, Cream of Wheat, and for this assignment, he created the character “Rastus”, making a three dimensional portrait bust, from which he did various angle facial depictions. In total, he is credited with 102 ads for Cream of Wheat.
Brewer grew up in Saint Paul in a family of six boys whose parents were Rose Koempel Brewer and his father was Nicholas Brewer, a noted portrait painter. Edward’s brother, Adrian became a landscape painter.
Prior to working on the Cream of Wheat ads, Edward had commercial art clients including Field and Stream magazine and Abercrombie & Fitch. Starting in the 1940s, after working for Cream of Wheat, Brewer was commissioned by the Jensen Printing Company of Minneapolis to do their annual calendar paintings.
He studied in New York at the Art Students League with Kenyon Cox, Walter Appleton Clark, Frank DuMond, and John Twachtmann, and with his father, Nicholas Brewer.
In the 1930s, Brewer persuaded the Northern Pacific Railroad to pay for transportation and lodging for his family in exchange for painting scenes along the way. One of his subjects was Yellowstone Park with images of Old Faithful geyser.
His work is in the capitol building in St. Paul, the Swedish Institute in Minneapolis and the University of Minnesota.
Sources:
Dave Stivers, Cream of Wheat Advertising Art
Peter Hassrick, Drawn to Yellowstone
Peter Hastings Falk, Editor, Who Was Who in American Art
Arthur Crisp (1881 – 1974)
Biography from the Archives of askART

Arthur Crisp (N.Y./Ct./ME./Ontario/Canada, 1881-1974), original Cream Of Wheat illustration. Oil on canvas
Muralist, painter and designer, Arthur Watkins Crisp, was born April 26, 1881 in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. His art studies were with John S. Gordon, 1898-1899, at the Hamilton Art School, and the Art Students League* in New York City, 1900-1903.
Crisp was a founder of the Allied Artists of America, New York Water Color Club, and American Water Color Society, all in New York City. He also was a member of other New York City groups, including the Architectural League of New York; National Society of Mural Painters*; and the National Academy of Design, where he was elected to Associate in 1920, Academician in 1937. Crisp exhibited at the 1913 Armory Show in New York City.
Crisp created numerous mural decorations for theatres, schools, office buildings, hotels and private homes in New York City and Trenton, New Jersey. He also painted murals of early Essex County in The Crane House Museum, Montclair, one of a handful of remaining northern New Jersey Federal style mansions.
Crisp was a designer of embroidered silk and velvet hangings, as well, that were sewn by his wife, Mary Ellen Crisp. His works for public buildings differed from those in businesses and private homes. Interested in the Italian Renaissance, Crisp’s public paintings stressed formality, while vivacity and richness of color were the keynotes in the private locales.
In 1918, Crisp was commissioned by the Canadian War Memorials Society to paint works helpful to the recruiting of Canadian and British soldiers, to appear on Boston Common. In the early 1920s in Ottawa, Canada, he decorated the Reading Room of the new House of Commons.
Numerous examples of his work may be found in the collection of the Art Gallery of Hamilton, Ontario, which the artist donated in 1963. In his mid-seventies, in 1956, Crisp moved to Biddeford Pool, Maine, where he died at age ninety-three on June 28, 1974.
Sources:
http://www.factscanada.ca/sunday/sunday-2001-16-04-22.shtml
http://www.montclairhistorical.org/collection/collection1.html
Harry Lachman (1886 – 1975)
Biography from the Archives of askART
A onetime magazine illustrator, Harry Lachman, born LaSalle, Indiana June 29, 1886, became one of the leading European Post-Impressionist painters in the teens and twenties. By his late twenties, Lachman had established himself as an artist both in America and Europe. He exhibited in America at the National Academy of Design, New York, as well as the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.
Early on in his career Lachman traveled to Europe to paint and eventually lived at various times in France, Italy, Spain and Switzerland. In Europe, the painter’s works were accepted at the annual Parisian Salons.
Lachman worked as a set designer with the equally artistically-inclined film maker Rex Ingram at the latter’s studio in Nice, France.
At age 42, Lachman put aside his oils to become a film director in England. He came to Hollywood when signed by the Fox Studios in 1933. Lachman’s most impressive American directorial projects included the elaborate Spencer Tracy vehicle “Dante’s Inferno” (1935) and Laurel and Hardy’s “Our Relations” (1936). Both were made in collaboration with Rudolph Mate, Lachman’s favorite cinematographer.
He worked extensively at 20th Century-Fox’s “B” unit, turning out several of the better Charlie Chan movies as well as the atmospheric “The Loves of Edgar Allan Poe” (1942) and horror film, “Dr. Renault’s Secret” (1942).
Harry Lachman returned to painting in 1943; his works both in the field of art and the realm of cinema are still exhibited worldwide. He died on March 19, 1975.
In France, Lachman was elevated to Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, a position held by other Americans, most notably Richard E. Miller. While his “Parisian Spring” is owned by the Petit Palais, Paris, four other paintings by him were acquired by the Musee du Luxembourg. He is represented in the collections of the Art Institute, Chicago and the St. Petersburg Museum of Art, among others.
Source:
http://entertainment.msn.com/celebs/celeb.aspx?mp=b&c=165896
http://www.amctv.com/person/detail/0,,2114-1-EST,00.html
Leslie Thrasher (1889 – 1936)
Biography from the Archives of askART
The editors of Liberty magazine, which first appeared on the newsstand in 1924, prided themselves on innovation – any innovation that would broaden their readership. One of their most successful and appealing ideas was the “continuity cover”, and the artist who took the assignment was Leslie Thrasher.
For six years, Thrasher created a cover a week for $1,000 each, depicting the lives of a middle-class couple and their extended family, from their high school romance to a well-heeled middle age. Entitled For The Love o’ Lil, the series was the prototype for the soap opera and its popularity warranted adaptations to radio and the big screen.
Thrasher was a populist almost in spite of his fine arts training in Philadelphia and Paris; he even used himself as the model for the husband in the “Lil” series. He was certainly one of Howard Pyle’s most commercially successful students.
He did ads for Chesterfield Cigarettes, Cream of Wheat and DuPont, and by the time he left Liberty, he had produced more cover paintings than Norman Rockwell did in his whole career at the Saturday Evening Post.
His pictures are relatively spare, composed around a compelling action or an object rich with meaning – an engagement ring, for instance. Thrasher and Rockwell, while they were opposite numbers in rival publications, did share a view of America as a nation bound by humor, common sense and altruism.
Source:
J. P., Illustration House, New York
William Cahill (1878 – 1924)
Biography from the Archives of askART

William Cahill (Cal./N.Y./KS/Ill. 1878-1924), “LOOK PLEASANT, PLEASE”, original Cream Of Wheat illustration. Oil on canvas
William Cahill was known for his artwork and his involvement in the School for Illustration and Painting in Los Angeles.
Born in Syracuse, New York in 1878, Cahill began his studies of art at the Art Students League in New York, learning from Howard Pyle and Birge Harrison. He then went on to study in Boston, Massachusetts with Edmund Tarbell and Frank Benson. Out of his academic background Cahill developed a style based on Impressionism, and his work includes landscapes and figure studies.
Cahill shared a studio in Boston with John Hubbard Rich and also maintained a studio in Woodstock, New York. In 1914 Cahill and Rich moved to Los Angeles where they founded the School for Illustration and Painting. They sold the school to J. Francis Smith in 1917. Cahill was an active professor in Southern California where he taught at various studios in Laguna Beach, Pasadena and Hollywood.
In 1915 he exhibited one painting at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. He had a solo exhibition in 1917 at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and also exhibited in 1919 at the Phoenix Exhibition, where he won a first prize. He exhibited frequently with the California Art Club. For one school year he taught drawing and painting at the University of Kansas, but soon returned to California.
Cahill and his wife, Katharine moved to San Francisco in 1920 where he worked as a commercial artist for two years and showed his paintings with the San Francisco Art Association. He spent his last two years in Chicago, Illinois where he died of a heart attack in 1924.
Source:
Edan Hughes, Artists in California, 1786-1940
Peter Hastings Falk, Who Was Who in American Art