John H. Fyfe (1893-1954)

Biography

John Hamilton Fyfe was born in Gilby, ND in 1893. He studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, after which he went to New York for further education. There he attended classes at the Art Students League and the Society of Illustrators School, working with teachers C.B. Falls and Dean Cornwall.

He did commercial work as an illustrator, producing covers for The New Yorker and the Saturday Evening Post and publishing illustrations in Colliers and the Saturday Evening Post. In 1929 Fyfe married Ray (Rachel) Gibbs Buchanan. They had two children: John Hamilton (b.1933) and Ellen (b.1937). He received his first Post Office mural commission in 1938, "Mail Delivery to Tranquility - The First Post Office in Benton County," for Camden, TN. Another commission followed in 1939, this one to create three murals for the Magnolia, MS Post Office. They were entitled "Cotton Harvest," "July 4th Celebration," and "Magnolia in 1880."

In addition to his work as a painter, illustrator, cartoonist and lithographer, Fyfe had a significant teaching career. From 1937-1954 he taught art in the Whitehaven, TN High School. And from 1939-1946 he was the Supervisor of Art for the Shelby County, TN High Schools. In 1951 he served as Chairman of the Art Section of the West Tennessee Education Association.

He continued creating art while he was teaching. In 1952 he was awarded a prize by the Brooks Memorial Art Gallery in Memphis, TN. Fyfe died in Memphis in 1954. The Brooks Memorial Art Gallery put on an exhibit "Memorial Exhibition: Oils, Drawings and Cartoons by John Hamilton Fyfe" in his honor the same year.

Give Me the Chanel (1927)

Critical Analysis

John H. Fyfe's murals are the examples his artwork that are most readily available. They reveal a style in which the artist would first outline his figures and then apply his selected colors. This approach likely followed from Fyfe's broad experience in magazine illustration. The most striking features of these murals, aside from their pleasantly simple compositions, is how bright their colors are today. This is probably more a testament to the skills of restorers who have worked on the murals, although one assumes that the murals were equally brilliant in their original presentation.

One of Fyfe's New Yorker cartoons is also available. Dated 1927, it's from the era that produced "I say it's spinach" and other unforgettable cartoons. Fyfe's isn't on that level, but to publish in the New Yorker has always had some cachet, particularly in that era.

Murals