Era IV · 1950–1963
War was over. It was the 1950s in New York, the era of "Mad Men," in which a new marketing and advertising industry flourished on Madison Avenue. With a portfolio under his arm, a bearded and sandaled painter returning from Paris literally walked from one studio to another looking for work. After a year an agent was willing to represent him, and art directors finally gave Richard a break which became lucrative freelance assignments.
The scribbler from the Lower East Side earned a soaring reputation. His work started appearing on billboards, the covers of the day's top magazines like Collier's, and for glamorous consumer brands such as Revlon.
Richard was a perfectionist. Each hair on the subject's head and wrinkle on the dress fabric appeared real. For cosmetics companies, the glossy red of the model's nails reflected light perfectly. In whiskey ads, sun glared through bottles distorting and diffusing the rays. His assignments would keep him up at night, but they were rarely if ever rejected.
By the 1960s, the attentive freelancer's eye started getting replaced by the focused camera lens. Richard enjoyed photography but considered painting a labor of love — and his paintings, his children.
Personal Photographs — The Madison Avenue Years
Magazine Covers & Editorial
Possibly Richard's most beloved cover — a deeply realistic portrait of Churchill before the Union Jack. Churchill (1874–1965) led Britain through WWII and received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1953. Boris Johnson later posed with a book featuring this portrait.
Britain's Princess Margaret (1930–2002) and America's Margaret Truman (1924–2008), both media darlings, depicted in companion busts for this landmark Collier's cover.
The 31st President alongside four government seals representing his decades of public service. Richard's Hoover portrait is held in the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery.
A map of Central Europe marked "Occupied" across Poland, Ukraine, Romania and Czechoslovakia, with a U.N. occupation forces soldier in the foreground. One of Richard's most powerful Cold War editorial images.
The 1956 presidential candidates: Republican Dwight Eisenhower and Democrat Adlai Stevenson II, with the presidential seal and small illustrations of each man's hobbies.
Painted for the March 5, 1962 Newsweek cover — replaced at the last minute by coverage of John Glenn's historic orbital spaceflight of February 20, 1962.
Hiram Walker Imperial Whiskey Campaign
Hiram Walker commissioned Richard to capture the likeness of the iconic Western novelist. Both were WWII veterans whose work appeared in the same magazines. L'Amour's cowboys would later be personified on screen by John Wayne.
Miami-born spearfishing legend Art Pinder, depicted enjoying Imperial whiskey while wearing diving goggles. Pinder and his brothers were pioneers and champions of spearfishing — also a Coast Guard veteran and swimsuit model.
Sailing-canoe builder and designer internationally renowned for bringing the International Challenge Cup back to the United States in 1952 and again in 1955.
Florida big-game fishing legend, depicted with his 136-pound Wahoo tournament catch.
Part of the Hiram Walker "men among men" sportsmen campaign.
Part of the Hiram Walker sportsmen series.
Part of the Hiram Walker sportsmen series.
Part of the Hiram Walker sportsmen series.
Part of the Hiram Walker sportsmen series.
Part of the Hiram Walker sportsmen series.
Dewar's Scotch Whisky Campaign
Part of Richard's Dewar's Scotch campaign featuring Scottish clans and landmark European locations.
Part of the Dewar's Scottish clan heritage series.
Part of the Dewar's European landmarks series.
Dewar's European landmarks — Richard's own Paris experience lending authentic atmosphere to this illustration.
Part of the Dewar's European landmarks series.
Big Ben and the Palace of Westminster for the Dewar's European landmarks series.
Portraits & Personalities
Jack Kearns (1882–1963), flamboyant boxing manager of Jack Dempsey, is most remembered for engineering the first "million dollar gate" in boxing: the Dempsey vs. Carpentier bout with $1,789,238 in ticket sales.
Albert Fielding Lang (1870–1960), mayor of St. Petersburg, Florida, best known for bringing Major League Baseball spring training to the St. Petersburg area.
A portrait study of the Yugoslav general Dragoljub "Draža" Mihailovic.
A patriotic double portrait of Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, referencing Adams' famous last words on July 4, 1826.
A portrait of the 16th President of the United States demonstrating the photorealistic portrait technique Richard applied to both editorial and advertising work.
Consumer Advertising
A sweepstakes advertisement for National Biscuit Company's Shredded Wheat.
Richard contributed artwork to the iconic Yellow Pages campaign — one of the most recognized advertising slogans in American history.
An advertisement for Folgers Coffee — Richard's precise rendering of steam and reflections demonstrating the photorealist technique applied to every assignment.
A cigarette advertisement in the glamorous style of 1950s tobacco advertising.
A White Owl Cigars advertisement — one of the leading cigar brands of the era.
A pharmaceutical advertisement demonstrating Richard's range across consumer, medical, and lifestyle categories.
A companion piece to the first arthritis medication advertisement.
Esso (now ExxonMobil) gasoline advertisements during the great postwar American car boom.
A Revlon cosmetics advertisement — the glossy red nails and perfectly lit skin reflecting Richard's mastery of the photorealist technique for beauty advertising.
A Johnson & Johnson Band-Aid advertisement — one of the iconic American consumer brands Richard worked with throughout his commercial career.
A companion Band-Aid advertisement from the Johnson & Johnson campaign.
A Red Cross medical products advertisement — part of the Johnson & Johnson healthcare portfolio Richard illustrated.
A Red Cross adhesive tape advertisement from the Johnson & Johnson campaign series.
A Band-Aid elastic bandages advertisement from the Johnson & Johnson series.
Air France Campaign
A landmark Air France campaign — Richard's deep familiarity with Paris giving these illustrations an insider's authenticity. The campaign spanned five related advertisements.
A regional France travel advertisement for Air France, part of a series promoting French provinces.
