Three Kennedys. Or, Three Bernie Fuchs.

I've mentioned before that Mark Korsak is putting together a 50 year retrospective of the Society of Illustrators' annual. Seeing Phil's Tony Blair prompted me to ask Mark if he could send me a few of the John F. Kennedy portraits that are in strong consideration for the book, including these three by Bernie Fuchs. (Thanks, Mark. I'm dying to see the second one in color!) Fuchs, of course, belongs in the pantheon with the greatest American illustrators.

Check out David Apatoff's interesting post comparing Fuchs with Robert Motherwell, Robert Rauschenberg, and Franz Kline. "Like Motherwell, Rauschenberg and Kline, Fuchs rejected the realistic painting of his predecessors (such as Norman Rockwell) and focused on broader qualities of abstract design and composition."

Stephen Kroninger's recently featured the third painting and other great presidential portraits by Fuchs and Robert Fawcett on his blog.