While we’re on the delicious subject of the great American illustrators (see my previous post about the Kelly Collection of American Illustration, below), allow me to recommend another superb blog. 100 Years of Illustration and Design is a cornucopia of rich, detailed posts about a long roster of great illustrators.

You’ll find fascinating and profusely illustrated (I love that phrase!) posts about Howard Pyle, N.C. Wyeth, Maxfield Parrish, Jessie Wilcox Smith, Charles Dana Gibson and many others. If you can’t get to the Dahesh exhibit, here is a terrific tour of a virtual museum of great golden age illustration.

The real treat is that on this virtual museum tour you have a wonderfully experienced and knowledgeable guide. Author Paul Giambarba is an illustrator, cartoonist and caricaturist in addition to being a designer and former corporate art director for Polaroid. He has lectured on Graphic Design at Cornell and Wellesley.

Most importantly, he has a deep respect and admiration for these artists and their accomplishments, and it shows. His posts are thoughtful, perceptive and endlessly informative; full of rich details and interesting comparisons. He also has a great eye and the posts are chock full of some of best examples of each artist’s work.

I’m sure to be pointing you back to Giambarba’s treasure trove of illustration appreciation in the future as I do my own posts on some of these fantastic artists.

Giambarba also maintains a blog about Cartoons and Caricatures.