Oil on canvas, signed at lower left, presented in a parcel gilt frame.

Frame dimensions 32 1/2 x 38 1/4 in.

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Joseph Bowler knew early in his career that he wanted to be an illustrator and accomplished it by making his first sale to Cosmopolitan magazine at the age of nineteen. He then become one of the top performers, and for may years his romantic illustrations appeared regularly in McCalls, Good Housekeeping, Redbook, The Ladies Home Journal and other publications.

Born in Forest Hills, New York, Bowler studied under Frank Reilly, Robert Hale, and Howard Trafton. In 1948, he joined the staff of the Charles E. Cooper Studio, noted for developing talented young illustrators, and from there he launched his illustration career.

Among his other activities, he has made recruiting posters for the Air Force and is represented in the permanent collection of the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. He also appeared as a guest lecturer at the Parsons School of Design in New York. In 1958, Bowler was almost completely paralyzed by polio, but through determination and long and intensive physiotherapy was eventually able to resume his career.

In recent years, Bowler has devoted himself almost exclusively to portraiture, working in his studio on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. His sisters have included members of the Eisenhower and Kennedy families and other notables.

His work has won many awards in various annual exhibitions of the New York Art Directors Club and Society of Illustrators, and he was named Artist of the Year by the Artists Guild of New York.

Good estate condition.