More cute dogs with famous owners painted by York native H. R. Hildebrand
Ready for some more really cute dogs? As promised in my last post about the extremely prolific artist H. Robert Hildebrand, who specialized in dog portraits, I’ll list a few of his celebrity clients. These were listed in the brochure I found at the York County Heritage Trust Library/Archives concerning Hildebrand’s work, perhaps dating from the 1950s.
When the brochure was printed his studio was in Washington, D.C. When his father died in 1945, H. R. was as living in Pasadena, Cal. The hundreds of clients listed in the brochure were from all over the country. I’ve picked out a few names that sound familiar. They range from politicians to actors, and included military leaders, royalty, industrialists and socialites.
New York clients included Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte, Thomas Carnegie, Count Tolstoi and F. N. Doubleday. There were George Strawbridge and Rodman Wanamaker from Philadelphia. No less than six duPonts from Wilmington had their pets’ likenesses captured by Hildebrand.
Some Los Angeles patrons were Dennis Morgan, Harold Lloyd, Harold Arlen, H. B. Warner, Lou Costello, Bob Crosby, Margaret O’Brien and Phil Harris. Gen. A. Maxwell Murray and Adm. Ralston Holmes (and their pets) lived in Pasadena.
Then there were two Mellons in Pittsburgh as well as a Carnegie. George Gallup was in Princeton and Sen. Millard Tydings in Baltimore. Washingtonians included Christian Herter (Secretary of State), Mm. Rajamaitri (Thai Legation), Francisco Najara (Mexican Embassy), D’Lavinge (French Embassy) and Melville B. Grosvenor (National Geographic). Senator Harry Hawes was from St. Louis, entertainer Victor Borge from Connecticut and Senator and future presidential candidate Barry Goldwater’s home was Phoenix.
Hildebrand seems to have worked mostly with pastels, which seems to give a soft texture to the fur of his subjects. All I have seen have that direct, appealing gaze; you can see why Hildebrand had no shortage of clients. These black and white illustrations are from the brochure; the originals would have been full color.
