Behind the Cover: Bernard Barton

[reviews_and_ramblings]

Bernard Barton was a noted magazine and advertising illustrator.

Barton began his career after leaving his poster art duties for the Army Signal Corps at the end of World War II. His first paperback covers were for Bantam, in 1948 and 1949. His next assignments in the field included covers for the outstanding lines of Avon and Popular Library (1949-1952), before he departed for the newly formed house of Ace (1952-1958).





Most of Barton's cover work was executed in gouache on board. It clearly demonstrated Barton's mastery of his medium, he used pastels to achieve the velvety softness of the various fabrics.

Comments

Re: Bernard Barton, illustrator, my father.

[reviews_and_ramblings]

Thank you for your comment. Unfortunately, as you can see in the post, I didn't have many info about your father, aside from some covers he did, and that I found in various blog online (there are many tagging the pulp covers to their artists). I only collected them together, but more than that I don't have. So thank you for the comment, I'm sure it will be very useful to fans of the genre that will love to know more about the man behind the artist.

Re: Bernard Barton, illustrator, my father.

[marinman39]

Thank you for your response. Since your post was 3 years ago, I don't expect you would remember your specific sources, but it is fascinating to us that somebody who knew some key details about his painting/drawing technique in the 1950's recorded that information. And that person is likely now deceased-even my brother didn't know of some of these techniques he used. Can you suggest some search key words that you might have used at the time (2011) to get this artist information?

Re: Bernard Barton, illustrator, my father.

[reviews_and_ramblings]

You can find some searching for "Bernard Barton" pulp covers and the first risults his:

http://pulpcovers.com/tag/bernardbarton/

if I remember well, the comments about his technique were related to the two paitings you see at the beginning of the post which were sold to an auction:

http://www.legendaryauctions.com/lot-35630.aspx

hope it helps.