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Home > Artists > Stan Galli

Stan Galli

Born: January 18, 1912 | Died: April 25, 2009

Stan Galli

Biography

Stan Galli (1912-2009) was a prolific illustrator whose work crossed many genres—magazine illustration, postage stamp design, travel posters, Navy training manuals, advertising posters, and landscape paintings of the Italian countryside.

Born in San Francisco, California, Galli attended the California Art Institute (now the San Francisco Art Institute) before becoming an advertising artist. During World War II, he contributed to the war effort by drawing images of battleships to be included in Navy training manuals. 

From the 1950s through the 1960s, Galli's work appeared in such publications as Country Gentleman, The Saturday Evening Post, Ladies' Home Journal, and Reader's Digest. Beginning in 1952, Galli, along with friend and fellow illustrator Fred Ludekens, began painting images of wildlife for Weyerhauser Timber advertisements. Galli's images of foxes, ducks, bobcats, raccoons, deer, bear cubs, pheasant, and numerous other animals enjoying taking advantage of Weyerhauser's forestry help to soften the image of the timber industry. Within the advertisements, Galli's paintings were often accompanied by text describing the benefits of harvesting timber with titles like "Good forestry converts wild land into productive tree farms..., "Meeting America's demand for wood by tree farming...," and "After the harvest, new tree crops grow to replace the old..."

During this time, Galli was commissioned to paint advertising posters for United Airlines. These now iconic posters featured delighted tourists in Hawaii sailing in outrigger canoes, couples enjoying horse carriage rides in New York City, cable car rides in San Francisco, and jungle cruises in Disneyland.

In addition to his advertisting work, Galli also painted a series of twenty-six U.S. postage stamps promoting wildlife conservation, for which he received two awards.

From the 1970s onward, Galli moved away from commercial illustration to focus on painting Italian landscapes at his summer home in Tuscany, and historic sites from Spanish Colonial California.

Galli was inducted into the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame in 1981.

 

Photograph by Suzanne Riess

Illustrations by Stan Galli

Postage StampsUnknownhttps://www.illustrationhistory.org/illustrations/postage-stamps
The StudentUnknownhttps://www.illustrationhistory.org/illustrations/the-student
United Airlines travel posterUnited Airlineshttps://www.illustrationhistory.org/illustrations/united-airlines-travel-poster
United Airlines New York travel advertising posterUnited Airlineshttps://www.illustrationhistory.org/illustrations/united-airlines-new-york-travel-advertising-poster
Weyerhaeuser Timber Company advertisementWeyerhaeuser Timber Companyhttps://www.illustrationhistory.org/illustrations/weyerhaeuser-timber-company-advertisement
United Airlines Las Vegas advertising posterUnited Airlineshttps://www.illustrationhistory.org/illustrations/united-airlines-las-vegas-advertising-poster
Last ScoreCurtis Publishinghttps://www.illustrationhistory.org/illustrations/last-score

Additional Resources

  • Yesterday’s Papers
  • “The Illustrator in America, 1860-2000,” by Walt Reed

Bibliography

Ermoyan, Arpi. Famous American Illustrators. Edison, NJ: Chartwell Books, 2002.

Reed, Walt. The Illustrator in America, 1860-2000. New York: Society of Illustrators, 2001.

Riess, Suzanne B. "Solving Visual Problems—An Artist's Life." Archive.org. 2002. Accessed January 24, 2018. https://archive.org/details/solvingvisualpro00gallrich

Genres
  • Advertising
    • Corporate
    • Political and Public Service
    • Product
    • Self-Promotion
  • Books
    • Children’s Books
    • Cover Art
    • Interior Illustration
  • Cartooning
    • Advertising
    • Caricature
    • Political and Editorial
    • Sports
    • Spot
  • Comics
    • Comic Books
      • Manga
    • Comic Strips
  • Decorative & Applied Illustration
    • Info Graphics
    • Murals
    • Portraiture
  • Fantasy
    • Adventure
    • Fairy Tales and Fables
    • Mythology
  • Fashion
    • Advertising
    • Design
  • Graphic Novels
    • Fiction
    • Non-Fiction
    • Visual Memoir and Autobiography
  • Internet Illustration
    • Web Comics
    • Website Illustration
  • Magazine
    • Cover Art
    • Story Illustration
  • Moving Image
    • Animation
    • Concept Art
    • Storyboard
    • Video Game Design
  • Newspaper
  • Non-Commissioned Work
  • Poster
    • Event (Promotional)
    • Film
    • Political
    • Propaganda
    • Travel
  • Product Illustration
    • Album/CD
    • Calendars
    • DVD/VHS/Videogame
    • Greeting Cards
    • Packaging
    • Paper Dolls
    • Postage Stamps
  • Pulp Illustration
    • Pinup Art
    • Pulp Magazines
  • Science Fiction
    • Creatures
    • Outer Space
    • Technology
  • Technical
    • Anatomy
    • Archaeological
    • Architecture
    • Courtroom Drawings
    • Horticulture
    • Mechanical
    • Natural History
Global Perspectives
  • North America
  • Europe
  • Asia
RELATED ARTISTS
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  • Stevan Dohanos Stevan Dohanos
  • Albert Dorne Albert Dorne
  • Fred Ludekens Fred Ludekens
  • Joseph Pennell Joseph Pennell
  • Norman Rockwell Norman Rockwell
  • Ezra Tucker Ezra Tucker
  • Harold von Schmidt Harold von Schmidt
Related Time Periods
  • The Decade 1930-1940 The Decade 1930-1940
  • The Decade 1940-1950 The Decade 1940-1950
  • The Decade 1950-1960 The Decade 1950-1960
  • The Decade 1960-1970 The Decade 1960-1970
  • The Decade 1970-1980 The Decade 1970-1980
  • The Decade 1980-1990 The Decade 1980-1990
  • The Decade 1990-2000 The Decade 1990-2000

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