Howard Terpning's poster for Cleopatra (1963).

Howard Terpning (born 5 November, 1927 in Oak Park, Illinois) is an American illustrator and realist painter. He is known for many film posters of the 1960s and 1970s, Vietnam war art and Western art.

[edit] Biography

After serving in the United States Marine Corps in China, Terpning studied art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the American Academy of Art University.^[1] After work in Chicago and Milwaukee, Terpning came to New York where he drew for such magazines as Time magazine, Newsweek, McCalls, Ladies Home Journal, Good Housekeeping, and Readers Digest.^[2]

Beginning with The Guns of Navarone in 1961, he became a prolific film poster artist for such films as Cleopatra (1963), that nearly caused a lawsuit when the makers of Carry On Cleo based their original artwork on Terpning's work,^[3] Doctor Zhivago, The Sound of Music, and many others.

In 1967 Terpning went to the Vietnam war to paint for the U.S. Marine Corps. Six of his paintings hang in the National Museum of the Marine Corps.^[1]

In the early 1970s, Terpning reduced his commercial work and gradually began painting Western scenes and painting of Native Americans, eventually moving to Arizona to do it full time in 1976. He is a member of the Cowboy Artists of America.

A 26 August, 2007 New York Times article called Terpning "the most famous American artist you never heard of".^[4]

Terpning was profiled November 30, 2008 on CBS Sunday Morning.

[edit] Awards

Terpning has been honored with an award from the Autry National Center 2005 Masters of the American West Thomas Moran Memorial Award^[2] and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Autry Center.^[5] Terpning has also received the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians & Western Art Award for Excellence.

[edit] Notes

[edit] See also

United States Marine Corps portal

[edit] References

• Kelton, Elmer The Art of Howard Terpning 2001 Workman Publishing
• Terpning, Howard & Dedera, Don Howard Terpning The Storyteller: Paintings of the Native People 1989 Greenwich Workshop

[edit] External links

• Terpning in the US Marine Corps art collection http://www.heritagestudio.com/usmcart11.htm
• Terpning list of film posters http://www.thesandpebbles.com/terpning/terpning_poster_list.txt
• Terpning (The Hollywood Years) http://www.thesandpebbles.com/terpning/terpning.htm
• Terpning Western painting art gallery http://www.firstpeople.us/FP-Html-Pictures/HowardTerpning_pg5.html