{ feuilleton }

The American Magazine, May 1933.

An atypical piece by Wladyslaw Theodor Benda (1873–1948), a Pole who moved to the US to work for the magazines. His illustrations are rarely this splendid but he gained a later reputation as a mask-maker, a talent that would have helped with his cover depicting the Mask of Fu Manchu for Collier’s.

Collier’s, May 7th 1932.

This page has a great succession of images showing how Benda’s original mask design managed to survive reinterpretation by subsequent Rohmer illustrators—what you might call a case of visual Chinese whispers.

Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The illustrators archive

Previously on { feuilleton }
• Vintage magazine art II
• Vintage magazine art