Sale 2459 - Rare & Important Travel Posters, October 26, 2017

BERN HILL (1911-1977) 211 c SMOOTH GOING / CHICAGO AND NORTHWESTERN SYSTEM. Circa 1950s. 22x17 inches, 56x43 1 / 4 cm. Condition A. Paper. Bern Hill was a graphic designer and painter. “At the end of 1949, General Motors’ Electro-Motive Division embarked on a rather radical advertising campaign which included vertical format streamline style paintings for the covers of Railway Age [Magazine]” ( Vintage Rails , January / February 1998, p. 64). Between 1950 and 1956, Hill painted 65 paintings for this series. “Electro-Motive also produced a series of very high-grade posters of Hill’s paintings that were overwritten by the marketing theme for that particular railroad . . . it is unknown if all 65 paintings were turned into posters . . . Hill’s assignment was to portray the ‘feel’ of each railroad in a scene that often captured the landscape of the individual road and gave the viewer the sense of that road’s missions - freight, passenger or switching” ( Railroad Heritage , No. 6, 2002, p. 10). [800/1,200] BERN HILL (1911-1977) 212 c DEPENDABLE FREIGHT AND PASSENGER SERVICE. Circa 1950s. 23 3 / 4 x18 inches, 60 1 / 4 x45 3 / 4 cm. Condition A- / B+: minor losses at upper right and bottom left corners; minor tears, creases and abrasions at edges. Paper. The Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad was founded in 1877. Hill provides an aerial view of one the line’s railway yards. [800/1,200] 211 212