William Henry Bradley (Will Bradley) was an American Art Nouveau illustrator and artist. Nicknamed the "Dean of American Designers" by The Saturday Evening Post, he was the highest paid American artist of the early 20th century.
As an art director for William Randolph Hearst’s publications, he got to know and commissioned works from many illustrators such as Edward Penfield and Maxfield Parrish. His own illustrative style was influenced by Parrish’s. He remained an active and important member of the graphic arts world for the rest of his long life.
Born in Boston, Will Bradley was largely self-taught as an artist. He began working in a printer's shop at the age of twelve in Ishpeming, Michigan, where his mother had moved in 1874 after the death of his father. This work experience would be important in introducing the young man to the many issues of typesetting, advertisements, and layout that would occupy him in the years to come.
Bradley executed a number of designs to promote The Chap-Book, a short-lived but important publication based in Chicago. His 1894 design for Chap-Book,titled The Twins, has been called the first American Art Nouveau poster; this and other posters for the magazine brought him widespread recognition and popularity. In 1895 Bradley founded the Wayside Press in Springfield, Massachusetts, and published a monthly arts periodical, Bradley: His Book. He remained an active and important member of the graphic arts world for the rest of his long life.
Bradley was well acquainted with the stylistic innovations of his European counterparts. Like many French artists, he borrowed stylistic elements from Japanese prints, working in flat, broad colour planes and cropped forms. He appropriated the whiplash curves of the Art Nouveau movement so dominant in Europe at the turn of the century and was influenced by the work of the English illustrator Aubrey Beardsley.
This is part 1 of a 2-part post on the works of Will Bradley:
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| 1894 Contributors' Magazine Vol.1 No.3 Privately printed for members of the Contributors' Club |
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| 1894 In Russet and Silver by Edmund Gosse book cover published by Stone & Kimball, Chicago, IL |
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| 1894 The Chap-Book |
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| 1894 The Chap-Book |
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| 1894 The Inland Printer July 1894 |
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| 1894 The Inland Printer June 1894 |
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| 1894 The Inland Printer Volume 14 Number 3 |
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| 1895 Cape of Storms by Percival Pollard |
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| 1897 The Anti-Philistine published by J & H Cowley, London |
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| 1895 Catalogue for Columbia Bicycles Hartford, Conn. Pope Manufacturing Co. |
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| 1895 Charles Scribner's Sons The Modern Poster Book Cover |
1895 Fringilla, or, Tales in Verse by Rochard Doddridge Blackmore
The Burrow Brothers Company
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| 1895 Narcoti-Cure Poster |
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| 1895 Programme for Gilmore’s Court Square Theatre and Opera House ( Springfield, Massachusetts ) August 1895 |
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| 1895 Springfield Bicycle Club Tournament poster |
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| 1895 The Chap Book |
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| 1895 The Chap-Book August 1895 |
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| 1895 The Chap-Book August 1895 |
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| 1895 The Chap-Book September 1895 |
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| 1895 The Chap-Book Thanksgiving number |
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| 1895 The Echo |
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| 1895 The Inland Printer St. Valentine Number February 1895 |
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| 1895 The Inland Printer November 1895 |
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| 1895 The Inland Printer Christmas 1895 |
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| 1895 The Modern Poster 48 x 29 cm |
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| 1895 (Unknown) |
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| 1896 Bradley His Book May 1896 Vol.1 No.1 |
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| 1896 Bradley His Book |
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| 1896 Bradley His Book Christmas |
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| 1896 Bradley His Book June |
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| 1896 Bradley His Book Prospectus |
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| 1896 Bradley His Book |
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| 1896 Harper's Bazar Easter AD 1896 |
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| 1896 La Belle et la Bëte |
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| 1896 The Ault & Wiborg Company |
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| 1896 The Children Book Cover published by The Bodley Head |
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| 1896 The Inland Printer March 1896 |
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| 1896 The Kiss |
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| 1896 The Queen |
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| 1896 The Quest of the Golden Girl by Richard Le Gallienne published by The Bodley Head Book Cover |
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| 1896 Victor Bicycles advertisement |
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| 1896 Victor Bicycles Overman Wheel Company |
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| 1896 Victor VictoriaOverman Wheel Company |
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| 1896 When Hearts are Trumps by Tom Hall published by Stone & Kimball Book Cover |
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| 1896 When Hearts are Trumps by Tom Hall published by Stone & Kimball |
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| 1897 Lucille published by Frederick A. Stokes Co., New York Book Cover |
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| 1897 Rip Van Winkle from the Sketch Book of Washington Irving published for University Press by Harper & Brothers Book Cover |
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| 1897 Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam, the Astronomer Poet of Persia Published for Will Bradley by R. H. Russell Book Cover |