View source for John Held Jr.

{{Short description|American cartoonist (1889–1958)}}
{{for|the American mailartist|John Held Jr. (mailartist)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2023}}
{{Infobox person
|image= Portrait of John Held Jr.jpg
|caption= Portrait by [[Pirie MacDonald]] ({{circa|1923}})
|birth_date= {{birth date|1889|01|10}} 
|birth_place= [[Salt Lake City]], Utah, U.S.
|death_place= [[Belmar, New Jersey|Belmar]], New Jersey, U.S.
|death_date= {{death date and age|1958|03|02|1889|1|10}}
|spouse=  
}}
'''John James Held Jr.''' (January 10, 1889 &ndash; March 2, 1958) was an American [[cartoonist]], [[printmaking|printmaker]], illustrator, sculptor, and author. One of the best-known [[magazine]] illustrators of the 1920s, his most popular works were his uniquely styled cartoons which depicted people dancing, driving, playing sports, and engaging in other popular activities of the era.

Held grew up in an artistic family that encouraged his pursuit of arts from the beginning. He began selling pieces of art by the age of nine. He never graduated from high school, finding his time was better spent honing his skills which he began at ''[[The Salt Lake Tribune]]'' as a sports illustrator during his late teenage years. His friendship with Harold Ross, creator of ''[[The New Yorker]],'' served him well in his career, as his cartoons were featured in many prominent magazines including ''The New Yorker'', ''[[Vanity Fair (magazine)|Vanity Fair]]'', ''[[Harper's Bazaar]]'', and ''[[Life (magazine)|Life]]'' magazine.

Held was praised for his cartoon depictions of the cultural paradigm shift in the 1920s. The drawings depicted the [[flapper]] era in a way that both [[Satire|satirized]] and influenced the styles and mores of the time, and his images have continued to define the [[jazz age|Jazz Age]] for subsequent generations.

==Youth==
The oldest of six children, John Held Jr. was born in [[Salt Lake City]], to Annie Evans and John Lyman Held, who met at a church social.<ref name=":2" /> His father was born in [[Geneva, Switzerland]] to Jacques Held, a watchmaker, and was noticed by [[Mormon]] educator [[John R. Park]] who was scouting Europe for talented young people. He adopted Held Sr. and brought him back to Salt Lake City.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=http://historytogo.utah.gov/utah_chapters/from_war_to_war/artistjohnheldjr.html|title=Artist John Held, Jr. Created Cultural Icons, 1920s|website=historytogo.utah.gov|access-date=2018-01-19}}</ref><ref name=":2" /> He decide not to pursue a career as an educator like his mentor, but instead pursued a diverse career in copperplate engraving, manufacturing fountain pens, and operating a stationery shop. He privately developed his musical abilities on the cornet and organized Held's Band, which performed at all major Utah events for about fifty years.<ref name=":2" /> John Held Sr. contributed illustrations to the 1888 ''The Story of the Book of Mormon''.<ref name="Nelson">{{cite journal|last1=Nelson|first1=Glen|date=September 2010|title=Jazz-Age Cartoonery: John Held, Jr. and the ''New Yorker''|url=https://www.sunstonemagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/sbi/articles/160-30-31.pdf|journal=Sunstone|issue=160|pages=2–5|access-date=20 July 2016}}</ref> Annie Evans, his mother, acted in the local theater.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/johnheldjrillust00armi|title=John Held, Jr., Illustrator of the Jazz Age|last=Armitage|first=Shelley|date=1987|publisher=Syracuse University Press|isbn=0815602154|edition=1st|location=Syracuse, NY|oclc=15860593|url-access=registration}}</ref> John Held Jr.'s maternal grandfather, James Evans, was an [[English people|English]] convert to the [[The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints|Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]] who traveled to Salt Lake City with the [[Mormon handcart pioneers]].<ref name=":3" />

Thriving in a home where the arts were appreciated and encouraged, Held showed a talent for the arts at a young age. He learned woodcutting and engraving from his father, and sold a drawing to a local newspaper at the age of nine.<ref name="Held_16">Held, John. 1972. ''The Most of John Held, Jr.'' Brattleboro, Vt: S. Greene Press. p. 16. {{ISBN|0828901678}}.</ref> The wood block was his preferred medium in his youth and he would return to it several times throughout his career. He loved [[American Frontier|Western culture]] including horses, deserts, and cowboys, and this was a recurring theme in his art, both as a child and as an adult.<ref name=":3" /> He sold his first cartoon, a Western-themed one, to ''Life'' magazine at the age of 15.<ref name="Held_16"/>

In 1905, he began working as a sports illustrator and cartoonist at the ''Salt Lake City Tribune'' with his fellow West High School classmate [[Harold Ross]].<ref name="Held_16" /> During his years at the ''Tribune'', he obtained no formal art instruction claiming that his only teachers were his father and the sculptor [[Mahonri M. Young]], a grandson of [[Brigham Young]].<ref name="Held_16" /> In 1910 Held married Myrtle Jennings, the ''Tribune'''s society editor. In 1912 he relocated to New York, without his wife, to find a good job.<ref name="Held_144">Held, John. 1972. ''The Most of John Held, Jr.'' Brattleboro, Vt: S. Greene Press. p. 144. {{ISBN|0828901678}}.</ref> While living in a flat with Hal Burrows and Mahonri Young, he drew posters for Collier's Street Railway Advertising Company and ads for [[Wanamaker's|Wanamaker's Department Store]], and designed costumes and sets for the theater to make ends meet. In 1914, he returned to his [[linoleum block print]] style.<ref name=":2" />

==Cartoons and covers==
[[Image:JohnHeld VanityFair 1921 edit.jpg|thumb|upright|right|John Held, Jr. cover for ''[[Vanity Fair (magazine)|Vanity Fair]]'' (April 1921)]]
In 1915 ''Vanity Fair'' began publishing his drawings, for which he used the pseudonym "Myrtle Held", because he was too shy to use his own name.<ref name="Held_144"/> He also began doing [[woodcut]]s for his "Frankie and Johnny" series, which would be published in limited quantity in 1930 and greater quantity in 1971.<ref name=":2" />

During [[World War I]], Held worked for US Naval Intelligence in Central America as an artist and [[Cartography|cartographer]]. During this commission, he participated in an expedition co-sponsored by the [[American Museum of Natural History]] and the Carnegie Foundation with archaeologists [[Sylvanus Morley|Sylanus Morley]] and [[Herbert Spinden]]. His duties were to look for German submarine activity off-shore, make coastal maps, sketch any signs of military operation, and record the [[Maya script|Mayan hieroglyphics]] and sketch any finds in the expedition.<ref name="Held_16" /><ref name=":2" /> His friend and roommate [[Marc Connelly]], a famous American playwright, later wrote of Held's distinct humor, recounting that he teased friend Ernest Haskell for wearing a terrible homemade camouflage costume by crying out, "My God! Where's Ernie?"<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=http://www.bpib.com/illustrat/johnheld.html|title=John Held, Jr.|website=www.bpib.com|access-date=2018-01-19|archive-date=2017-04-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170419183422/http://www.bpib.com/illustrat/johnheld.html|url-status=usurped}}</ref>

[[Image:JohnHeld Tales of the Jazz Age 1922.jpg|thumb|upright|left|John Held, Jr.'s 1922 cover for an [[F. Scott Fitzgerald]] collection]]
In 1925, his old high school friend [[Harold Ross]] started ''The New Yorker''. By 1927, Held's work had appeared in ''Life'', ''Vanity Fair'', ''Harper's Bazaar'', and ''The New Yorker'', and he had also contributed illustrations for other influential magazines, including ''[[Judge (magazine)|Judge]]'' and ''[[The Smart Set]]''.<ref name="Held_144" /> His work, which quickly became popular, defined the "funny, stylish image of the flapper with her cigarette holder, shingle bob and turned-down hose and of her slick-haired boyfriend in puffy pants and raccoon coat," whom he named Betty Co-ed and Joe College; the perfect archetypes for the generation.<ref>Bowen, Ezra. 1974. ''This Fabulous Century: 1920–1930''. New York: Time-Life Books. p. 51. {{OCLC|923191208}}.</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.lib.utah.edu/collections/utah-artists/UAP-John-Held.php|title=John Held Jr. - Marriott Library - The University of Utah|website=www.lib.utah.edu|language=en|access-date=2018-01-23}}</ref>  According to Held, he didn't really intend to create the flapper ideal; he just drew what was around him, and it became popular so he kept drawing.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|title=The most of John Held, Jr.|last=Weidhardt|first=Carl J.|publisher=Stephen Greene Press|year=1972|isbn=0828901678|location=Brattlboro, Vt|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/mostofjohnheldjr0000held_i5j7}}</ref> He was reportedly becoming so popular that people were sending him blank checks, offering anything for an original piece.<ref name=":0" /> From a 1957 interview with the ''[[New York Post]],'' an editor explained that Held was seen as a man who could pull a magazine out of trouble, which made his cartoons valuable and coveted.<ref name=":2" />

He wrote and drew two newspaper comic strips, ''Oh! Margy'' and its sequel ''Merely Margy'' and ''Rah Rah Rosalie''.<ref name="Held_144" /> After [[F. Scott Fitzgerald]] complained that William Hill designed the characters on his covers to look too much like himself and his wife [[Zelda Fitzgerald|Zelda]], Fitzgerald hired Held to illustrate his book covers, after taking a liking to his cartoon style. This represented the stylistic shift of the period from realism to abstraction which influenced the [[Art Deco in the United States|Art-Deco]] style of the decade. Held's first cover for Fitzgerald was a companion book of short stories for ''[[The Beautiful and Damned]]'', and he subsequently illustrated ''[[Tales of the Jazz Age]]'' (1922) and ''[[The Vegetable, or From President to Postman|The Vegetable]]'' (1923).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.abaa.org/blog/post/the-artists-behind-f.-scott-fitzgeralds-dust-jackets-part-i-1920-1923|title=The Artists Behind F. Scott Fitzgerald's Dust Jackets: Part I (1920-1923) {{!}} The New Antiquarian {{!}} The Blog of The Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America|website=www.abaa.org|access-date=2018-01-23}}</ref> Held also designed the cover for [[Pulitzer Prize for Fiction|Pulitzer Prize]]-winning novel, ''[[So Big (novel)|So Big]].''<ref name=":3" />

In addition to his archetypical flapper illustrations, Held also made [[linocut]]s and drew cartoons in a 19th-century woodcut style, as he had started getting bored with the flapper girls. During this time period, his art often depicted the "[[Gay Nineties]]".<ref>Sayle, Joel. [https://books.google.com/books?id=3FQEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA20&dq= "Michelangelo of the Flapper"]. ''Life''. November 4, 1972.  p. 20.</ref> From 1925 to 1932, his woodcut-style cartoons and faux maps were published frequently in ''The New Yorker.'' Held Jr slipped occasional imagery alluding to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints such as [[Temple (Latter Day Saints)|temples]], the acronym [[ZCMI]], the [[Angel Moroni]], and [[Brigham Young]], and though some people believe he sneaked them in, Ross was fully aware of it and actually encouraged it. Held portrayed a satirical view of the [[Roaring Twenties]], often criticizing the drinking, gambling, and rampant sexuality that often characterized the decade. This contrasted his counterparts in Jazz-Age cartoons such as [[Peter Arno]] who seemed to celebrate it.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Everything you've ever wanted to know about Jazz-Age Cartoonery, John Held, Jr., and the New Yorker|last=Nelson|first=Glen|date=September 2010|work=Sunstone}}</ref> Held also created the iconic "Wise Men Fish Here" sign which hung above the door of the [[Gotham Book Mart]] for the life of the store.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.goreyography.com/west/articles/gbm2005.html|title=Goreyography: The New Gotham|website=www.goreyography.com|access-date=2018-01-25}}</ref>

During the [[Great Depression]] Held lost much of his money in the [[Ivar Kreuger]] fraud scheme. His last ''New Yorker'' illustration appeared in 1932. Held wrote and illustrated several novels, such as ''Grim Youth'' (1930) and ''The Flesh Is Weak'' (1931). The reduced demand for his cartoons in the 1930s gave him more time to paint. During this time, he painted somber landscapes and cityscapes, while also illustrating children's books and animal fantasies.<ref name=":2" /> He loved animals and depicted them frequently, but rarely used them for satire, because he found humans more strange and amusing.<ref name=":2" /> He also published ''The Works of John Held Jr.'' in 1931.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/worksjoh00held|title=The works of John Held, Jr.|last=Held|first=John|date=1931|publisher=Washburn|others=Frances Mulhall Achilles Library Whitney Museum of American Art|language=en}}</ref>

In 1937, he designed sets for the Broadway comedy revue ''[[Hellzapoppin (musical)|Hellzapoppin]]'', and produced the ''Tops Variety Show'' which showcased young talent. He exhibited his bronze sculptures of horses in New York in 1939 at Bland Gallery.<ref name="Held_144" /> He was named artist-in residence at [[Harvard University|Harvard]] and the [[University of Georgia]] by the [[Carnegie Corporation of New York|Carnegie Corporation]] where he taught students and focused on sculpting.<ref name=":1" /> He moved to a dairy farm in [[Wall Township, New Jersey|Wall, New Jersey]] in 1943 working as a free-lance artist and illustrating children's books, after serving with his wife in the area during [[World War II]] in the [[Signal Corps (United States Army)|U.S. Army Signal Corps]], painting pictures of radar apparatus.<ref name="Nelson" /><ref name=":2" /> In the 1950s, popular nostalgia for the 1920s resulted in a revival of interest in Held's earlier works, as the first edition of ''[[Playboy]]'' featured a reprint of Held's "Frankie and Johnny" cartoons.<ref>Held, John. 1972. ''The Most of John Held, Jr.'' Brattleboro, Vt: S. Greene Press. p. 12. {{ISBN|0828901678}}.</ref>

==Style==
Held was unorthodox among the artists of the decade, as he was uninterested in copying European art and made his own way stylistically. [[Pointillism]] was the only exception as he occasionally painted in this style up until 1931, taking inspiration from [[Georges Seurat]].<ref name=":2" /> He claimed to be influenced by the [[Ashcan School]] early on in his career.<ref name=":2" /> Held admired the caricatural quality of [[Pottery of ancient Greece|Greek vase painting]].<ref>Held, John. 1972. ''The Most of John Held, Jr.'' Brattleboro, Vt: S. Greene Press. p. 13. {{ISBN|0828901678}}.</ref> He was also inspired by the Mayan geometric designs he saw during his time in Central America in 1917, using them as elements of his art rather than the foundation of it.<ref name="Held_18">Held, John. 1972. ''The Most of John Held, Jr.'' Brattleboro, Vt: S. Greene Press. p. 18. {{ISBN|0828901678}}.</ref><ref name=":2" />

The angular style of Held's drawings depicting the Roaring Twenties has sometimes been incorrectly defined as Art Deco, according to art historian Carl Weidhardt.<ref name="Held_18" /><ref name=":2" /> His classic style is represented by the exaggeratedly tall and skinny, yet [[anatomically correct]] [[flapper|flapper women]] that made him famous, shown in minimal detail with a high influence of angle and diagonal lines and a comedic use of color.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://library.wustl.edu/happy-birthday-john-held-jr/|title=Happy Birthday John Held Jr. - University Libraries|date=2014-01-09|work=University Libraries|access-date=2018-01-23|language=en-US}}</ref><ref name=":2" /> In the midst of his long career, he began to loathe the characters he created, but looking back towards the end of his life, he was amazed by the uproar and social criticism that those women evoked.<ref name=":2" /> Having stated that he wasn't sure whether religion created his interest in geography or vice versa, he was also known for his satirical cartography, which contained cartoons and purposefully unrealistic geographical proportions.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~288925~90060530:Guide-to-America--A-comprehensive-R|title=Guide to America. A comprehensive Revised Map-Amended. John Held Jr. - David Rumsey Historical Map Collection|website=www.davidrumsey.com|access-date=2018-01-23}}</ref><ref name=":2" />

Throughout his career, Held used woodblock, linocut, bronze, pen, and paint and he painted everything from maps to cartoons, to scenery and accurate animal portraits. Even though his art was so varied in style, there was unity in effect.<ref name=":2" />

[[Corey Ford]] described Held as both the recorder and the setter of popular styles and manners of the Jazz Age:<blockquote>His angular and scantily clad flapper was accepted by scandalized elders as the prototype of modern youth, the symbol of our moral revolution ... Week after week in ''Life'' and ''Judge'' and ''[[College Humor (magazine)|College Humor]]'', they danced the Charleston with ropes of beads swinging and bracelets clanking and legs kicking at right angles ... So sedulously did we ape his caricatures that they lost their satiric point and came to be a documentary record of our time.<ref>Held, John. 1972. ''The Most of John Held, Jr.'' Brattleboro, Vt: S. Greene Press. p. 19. {{ISBN|0828901678}}.</ref></blockquote>

<gallery mode="packed" heights=300px>
File:The Forum (1919) (14801550803).jpg|alt=The Forum illustration.|Held's illustration for "When the Criminal Takes to Science", ''The Forum'' (July 1919).<ref name="forum">{{Cite book |url=http://archive.org/details/theforum62newy |title=The Forum |publisher=The Forum |year=1919}}</ref>
File:The Forum (1919) (14594998820).jpg|alt=The Forum illustration.|Held's illustration for "Any Fool Could Do It!", ''The Forum'' (September 1919).<ref name="forum" />
</gallery>

==Personal life==
Held made an enormous fortune in the 1920s and became a part of the high-society life that he depicted in his art.{{Citation needed|reason=statement\paragraph should be supported by citation to a reliable source. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reliable_sources| date=April 2021}}

Held was married four times. He married Myrtle Jennings in 1910. After a divorce, he married Ada Johnson in 1918. During the 1920s the couple adopted three children. He served as constable of [[Weston, Connecticut]] and ran for Congress as a Democrat. The campaign was unsuccessful, much to his relief, because he never left his house nor gave a speech.<ref name=":2" />

After the stock market crash, he suffered a nervous breakdown, selling his home in Connecticut, which led to his divorce from his second wife. In 1932, Held married Miss New Orleans Gladys Moore, and had a daughter named Judy.<ref name=":3" /> In 1942, he married Margaret Schuyler James, with whom he had a happy marriage. He spent the last years of his life on Old Schuyler Farm in [[Belmar, New Jersey]], with animals and a new family. He died in 1958, aged 69, from [[Head and neck cancer|throat cancer]].<ref name="Held_144" /><ref name=":1" />

== Legacy ==
In 1927, Held was nominated for the ''Vanity Fair'' Hall of Fame: "Because as a caricaturist, he invented the modern flapper; because last year he was almost elected a member of Congress from Connecticut; because he is a syndicated artist who has not lost his flair for drawing and satire; because he is a born comedian."<ref name=":2" /> Even after his death he has been the subject of many galleries and exhibitions. In 1967, his work was showcased from October to November at the Art Association of Indianapolis in an exhibition titled, "John Held, Jr.". The next year, from November to December, the [[Rhode Island School of Design Museum|Rhode Island School of Design]] presented "The Jazz Age", featuring Held and two other artists. The [[Smithsonian Institution]] featured a nationwide traveling exhibition from 1969 to 1972 called "The Art of John Held, Jr."<ref name=":2" />

== References ==
<references />

==External links==
{{Commons category|John Held, Jr.}} 
*{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20170419183422/http://www.bpib.com/illustrat/johnheld.html John Held Jr. biography]}}
*[http://www.anb.org/articles/17/17-00396.html American National biography: John Held Jr.]
*{{Internet Archive author|sname=John Held Jr.|sopt=t}}

{{Society of Illustrators' Hall of Fame}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Held, John, Jr.}}
[[Category:1889 births]]
[[Category:1958 deaths]]
[[Category:American cartoonists]]
[[Category:American wood engravers]]
[[Category:Latter Day Saints from Utah]]
[[Category:Deaths from esophageal cancer in the United States]]
[[Category:The New Yorker cartoonists]]
[[Category:Artists from New Rochelle, New York]]
[[Category:Latter Day Saints from New York (state)]]
[[Category:American magazine illustrators]]
[[Category:Artists from Utah]]
[[Category:20th-century American artists]]
[[Category:Burials at Woodlawn Cemetery (Bronx, New York)]]