Sold at Auction: Tom Lovell

Tom Lovell (5 February 1909 – 29 June 1997) was an American illustrator and painter. He was a creator of pulp fiction magazine covers and illustrations, and of visual art of the American West. He produced illustrations for National Geographic magazine and many others, and painted many historical Western subjects such as interactions between Indians and white settlers and traders. He was inducted into the Society of Illustrators' Hall of Fame in 1974.

Lovell was born in New York City on 5 February 1909 to Henry S. Lovell Jr, a telephone engineer, and Edith Scott (Russell) Lovell. He was the second of three children.[4] He was a keen reader as a child, and although he received no early training in art he often visited the Museum of Natural History in New York, beginning a fascination with Native American objects and weapons. In 1927 he was the valedictorian of his high school, and at graduation he spoke on "the ill treatment of the American Indian by the U. S. Government." He attended Syracuse University from 1927 to 1931.

Lovell married Gloyd "Pink" Simmons in 1934 and moved to Norwalk, Connecticut. They had two children, David and Deborah.[5] In 1940 Lovell and his family moved to an artists colony at Westport, Connecticut, where he became close friends with Harold Von Schmidt, John Clymer and Robert Lougheed. In 1972 he moved to Santa Fe New Mexico. In 1977 he moved to a seven-acre site in Santa Fe and built an adobe house and studio.

Lovell died in a car crash in New Mexico on 29 June 1997, aged 88. His 48-year-old daughter Deborah was also killed in the accident