Ralph Pallen Coleman (June 27, 1892 – April 3, 1968) was an American painter and illustrator. His career spanned more than half a century during which he illustrated stories for many magazines, and later, religious illustrations and paintings which provided images of Christianity to millions of people during the 1950s–1960s. A native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he grew up and lived there throughout his 75 years.
Early life
Ralph Pallen Coleman was born to William Herr Coleman, a Philadelphia grocer, and Emma Coleman, a saloon keeper. He had one brother, William B. Coleman. Coleman attended grade school at the Camac School in North Philadelphia. Initially, he was athletically inclined and organized baseball teams at his home church, Bethlehem Presbyterian Church. His earliest existing drawing is a pencil sketch of Revolutionary soldiers that he drew in 1901, when he was nine years old. While attending Central High School which specialized in the classic teachings of Latin and Greek, he was awarded a partial scholarship to art school and left high school early. He received his formal art education at the Philadelphia School of Industrial Art which was then part of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It is now an independent university called The University of the Arts. It was here that he learned the formal techniques of draftsmanship under the influence of Walter H.Everett, a teacher of illustration and one of the most highly regarded technicians of his time. Coleman displayed his facility for drawing the human face and figure and won first prize in a life drawing competition. Shortly thereafter, in 1913, he decided to strike out on his own by leaving school and taking a small studio, with two other students at 6th & Walnut Streets just a few blocks from the school and across the street from Curtis Publishing Company. Early assignments were not easy to come by for the illustrator. His first sale — a small line drawing to the American Sunday School Union — brought in $7.50. Sometimes, Coleman turned author so that he would end up both writing and illustrating his own stories.
Magazine illustrations
Coleman formally got his education at the School of Industrial Art in Philadelphia. However, he never completed those studies. In 1917 he entered the commercial field due to financial need and joined the commercial art world of periodical publication that was flourishing in Philadelphia at the time. At this point, much of Coleman's work was for newspapers, including the Philadelphia Inquirer and the now defunct North American; for book jackets; and for religious publishing houses. During the First World War he executed a variety of war-related posters and illustrations including his first cover illustration for Literary Digest. It was a cover in 1917 featuring a doughboy "going over the top" in France. "Going over the top" refers to when a soldier would attempt to cross "no man's land" between two opposing trenches. During World War I he worked in the Marine Camouflage Department where he and several other artists directed the painting of both combat and merchant vessels. In 1915 that Coleman achieved a lifelong ambition when he sold his first illustration to the Saturday Evening Post. "High, Low and Close" was the first story which Ralph Pallen Coleman ever illustrated for The Saturday Evening Post. He delivered the black and white picture to the Post on May 12, 1915. Subsequently, he did scores of paintings for the Post, then the outstanding magazine in the United States and the flagship publication of Curtis Publishing Co.
During the Twenties, magazines and periodicals kept him busy turning out over 100 illustrations a year. He started the decade by illustrating for the popular "pulps" of the period. By the mid-twenties he was a regular contributor to Liberty, Holland's Magazine, Maclean's, Blue Book, Green Book and Short Stories magazines. His illustrations captured the spirit of the times, most notably in 1922 when he was commissioned to do the illustrations for the serial "Flaming Youth," a phrase that became the symbol of that gay and gaudy decade. In 1924, Coleman completed 178 illustrations for various publications. But he would have to wait until the Depression Years to be a regular in the "big leagues" of Curtis, Crowell-Collier and Hearst Publishing Companies. By the end of the decade, he had become a regular contributor to Cosmopolitan, the flagship magazine of the Hearst magazine empire, and its sister publication, Good Housekeeping.