Robert B. Tallon (September 21, 1932 – December 1, 2015) was an American painter, illustrator, writer, and singer. Between the late 1960s and mid-1980s, Tallon wrote and/or illustrated 18 books, most of which were picture books and alphabet books for children. He is also known for his magazine illustrations, especially his cover art for The New Yorker during the same period.
Tallon turned to painting and drawing after polio deprived him of his singing voice when he was a teenager. His work has been exhibited in the National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution, and in the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. He continued to paint until his death in 2015.
Early life and education Tallon was born in Astoria, Queens during the Great Depression. He and his family—which included his mother Anna and father Charles, brothers Charles Jr. and Bill, and sister Anne—moved house several times when he was growing up. Such was the economic climate of New York City during the Depression and wartime that the Tallon children helped earn money for the household by performing. Young Robert had a budding career as a singer, which led to an offer of a two-year scholarship at the Metropolitan Opera Studio. This opportunity was never realized, however, for Tallon contracted polio before he could attend. The infection developed into bulbar polio, a rare form of paralytic polio in which the polio virus spreads within the brain stem and damages nerves in the medulla. Because of this nerve damage, Tallon did not have enough control of muscles in his throat to sing as he could before. It was during his recovery that drawing and painting became his artistic outlet.
Tallon graduated from Franklin K. Lane High School in Brooklyn.Goffman, 2024. p. 46 He was drafted into the United States Army at age 20, but received a medical discharge less than nine months later due to post-polio syndrome. His service ended on October 31, 1953. He returned to New York and enrolled in the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. This, too, was cut short by illness—this time, his father Charles'. Charles never recovered; he died in 1954.
Career Because of his father's illness and death, Tallon left the School of Visual Arts in order to help support his family financially. He went to work at an advertising agency, while also hustling as a freelance illustrator and making a name for himself as a painter.
Books Through Holt, Rinehart and Winston (HRW), he published his first book in 1963: Conversations: Cries, Croaks, and Calls was an artist's book with cursive handwriting, full-page illustrations, and a satirical tone. This led to a commission from HRW to illustrate a new edition of Fables for the Fair, a fin de siècle collection of fables about European American women's lives in contemporary American (or, perhaps more specifically, New England) society. American writer/poet Josephine Daskam Bacon published the first edition circa 1901. Daskam Bacon died in 1961, a few years before the 1967 publication of the edition that Tallon illustrated.
Tallon's first picture book with a story was The Thing in Dolores’ Piano, which Bobbs-Merrill Company published in 1970. Picture books for children became a new direction for Tallon, who was then in his late thirties, and had never read any children's books as a child. He went on to write and/or illustrate more than a dozen picture books and alphabet books. The Brooklyn Museum awarded his book Rhoda's Restaurant (1973) the Brooklyn Art Books for Children Citation for 1975. His last picture book, Mooseberry and the Fuzzo Makers was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1984.
Tallon's career in children's literature was aided by Miriam Chaikin, an editor at Bobbs-Merrill who was herself an accomplished children's writer. Chaikin edited Tallon's 1971 alphabet book Zoophabets, which was one of his first books for children. He dedicated his next alphabet book, Rotten Kidphabets (1975) to Chaikin, describing her as "a true friend".
Magazine illustration In the mean time, Tallon's work in magazine illustration continued. He provided the cover of the 17 September 1973 issue of Time, for the cover story "Hamburger Empire" (about the McDonald's Corporation). (The original painting, titled McDonald's Hamburger, is now held by the US's National Portrait Gallery.) But, he is probably best known for his covers of The New Yorker. 33 were published in all, in the period 1974 through 1988. The first of these, The Boy with the Flute (9 December 1974), is a portrayal of Georgie Freewall, a boy who lived in the apartment next door to the Tallons in Rockaway, Queens. The Tallon family often heard the sound of Georgie's playing through the apartment wall. They felt great sympathy for him because a fall had left him brain-damaged.Goffman, 2024. p. 42
After the magazine accepted and published the illustration, the editorial staff were surprised that Tallon did not promptly submit more artwork. They phoned him in January 1975 and explained that, as an approved contributor, he could start start bringing in new work every week. This began a relationship with the magazine that lasted for more than 13 years. What eventually brought it to a close was the replacement of editor William Shawn.Lorenz, 1995. p. 156
Shawn had been editor-in-chief of The New Yorker ever since he succeeded the magazine's late founder, Harold Ross, in 1951. The magazine flourished under Shawn's leadership. By 1985, however, the board of directors were worried about diminishing ad revenue despite high circulation. They sold the magazine to Advance Publications. In 1987, Advance Publications owner S. I. Newhouse Jr. hired Robert Gottlieb to replace Shawn as editor.Lorenz, 1995. pp. 138–140
Gottlieb started publishing humorous cover art. Whereas Shawn used to prefer covers that were (as New Yorker art editor and cartoonist Lee Lorenz put it) "delicate and quietly amusing", Gottlieb had a fondness for jokes and visual puns. Along with Charlie Martin, Lonnie Sue Johnson, and Arthur Getz, Tallon was one of the long-time cover artists who were unable or unwilling to accommodate Gottlieb's taste. 1987 was the first year in Tallon's history with the magazine that The New Yorker did not publish one of his covers. Tallon did, however, publish one final New Yorker cover: the 28 March 1988 issue. It depicts three identical women (dressed in leotards and leg warmers) dancing with ribbons in an empty room. The final cover by Arthur Getz, the most prolific New Yorker cover artist of the 20th century, was published the following August.
Chronology of The New Yorker covers Of the 33 issues of The New Yorker with cover art by Robert Tallon, one was published in 1974, three were published in 1975, three in 1976, six in 1977, two in 1978, one in 1979, four in 1980, three in 1981, and one in 1982. There were two per year from 1983 through 1986, none in 1987 (due to editorial changes at the magazine), and one in 1988.
Art media and style Tallon painted variously in tempera, watercolor, and acrylics, but he was also noted for combining watercolor and acrylic.Goffman, 2024. p. 43 He drew in ink, graphite pencil, colored pencil, pastel, and charcoal. A technique he used on a number of works was to rub the back of his drawing paper or canvas in order to give it a visible texture. The effect can be seen in The Boy with the Flute, which decorates the cover of the 9 December 1974 issue of The New Yorker.
Tallon's work had a distinctive character. Among the artists who inspired him were fellow New Yorker illustrator Julian de Miskey (1898–1976), painter/illustrator Constantin Alajalov (1900–1987), and painter Paul Klee (1879–1940).Goffman, 2024. Although his illustration work is representational, later in life he turned to abstract painting. Tallon died in 2015.
Bibliography As writer and illustrator
+ Books written and illustrated by Robert Tallon Title Form Publication date Location Publisher Conversations: Cries, Croaks, and Calls Artist's book New York Holt, Rinehart and Winston ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ in English and Spanish Alphabet book New York Lion Press The Thing in Dolores’ Piano Picture book New York Bobbs-Merrill Zoophabets Alphabet book New York Bobbs-Merrill Handella Picture book New York Holt, Rinehart and Winston Rhoda’s Restaurant Picture book New York Bobbs-Merrill Rotten Kidphabets Alphabet book New York Holt, Rinehart and Winston Zag: A Search Through the Alphabet Alphabet book New York Holt, Rinehart and Winston Fish Story Picture book New York Holt, Rinehart and Winston Flea Story Picture book New York Holt, Rinehart and Winston Worm Story Picture book New York Holt, Rinehart and Winston Little Cloud Picture book New York Parents' Magazine Press The Alligator’s Song Picture book New York Parents' Magazine Press Latouse My Moose Picture book New York Alfred A. Knopf Mooseberry and the Fuzzo Makers Picture book New York Alfred A. Knopf
Conversations: Cries, Croaks, and Calls (1963) Conversations contains a series of vignettes from conversations in progress. Each conversation is distinct and narratively unrelated to the others. The text for each piece is a monologue delivered by one of the interlocutors. In some cases the speaker's statement is cohesive and confined to a single topic, while in others it is more reflective of the stream of consciousness.
The "conversations" are handwritten in cursive with ink on the verso, and illustrated with a full-page ink drawing on the recto. The cover, which is also hand-lettered in cursive, is decorated with a color drawing in oil pastel.
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ in English and Spanish (1969) This alphabet book has 25 single-page illustrations, one double-page illustration (for the letter A), and an illustrated title page. All illustrations are watercolor paintings. The letters are from the English alphabet. Each letter's painting illustrates a word that begins with the letter in both American English and Spanish. The English and Spanish words are printed on the opposite page in both minuscule and majuscule (e.g., BOAT boat / BARCO barco). The English and Spanish words translate to the same meaning. The illustration of the word for the letter W (wigwam, which is used in Spanish only as a loanword) has a note advising readers that "in Spanish, w is never used to begin a word."
A "Note to Parents and Teachers" (in English and Spanish) at the beginning of the book explains the editors' decision to include a word that begins with the English letter w but exclude words that begin with the Spanish letters ch, ll, and ñ. The book concludes with a pronunciation guide to each Spanish letter and word for English speakers, and a pronunciation guide to each English letter and word for Spanish speakers.
The Thing in Dolores' Piano (1970) Just about everyone agrees that Dolores is a terrible pianist: her mother, her neighbors, the flowers and trees—even the notes who live inside her piano. When the musical notes themselves rebel and lock her piano keys, Dolores enters a secret door that takes her inside the piano. Her loyal dog Rover Rex comes too; since he is tone deaf, he is her only fan.
The book has a total of 28 illustrations, including the front cover and title page. Drawn in pencil and painted in tempera. The dedication reads, "For Maureen Anne, Jennifer and Bryan, who have a thing in their piano".
Zoophabets (1971) Zoophabets is an A to Z bestiary of creatures like the blotz, who lives in basements and eats broken banjos, bent bugles, banged-up bazookas, and bedraggled bagpipes. And then there's the juga, who lives in jungle gyms and eats jump ropes, jigsaw puzzles, jugglers' pins, jokes, and jujubes.
Zoophabets contains illustrations of 26 named beasts, plus an anonymous one on the cover and one more on the title page. All 28 paintings are acrylic on masonite.
Handella (1972)