Orson Lowell

Orson B. Lowell (1871-1956) was an American artist and illustrator, and the son of landscapist Milton H. Lowell.

Lowell was born in Wyoming, Iowa, in 1871. In 1882, the family moved to Chicago, where Lowell attended public school until 1887, when he began taking classes at the prestigious Art Institute of Chicago. There Lowell studied with J.H. Vanderpoel and Oliver Dennett Grover.

In November of 1893, Lowell moved to New York City to build his career. By 1905 Lowell's work was in high enough demand to allow him to buy a house in New Rochelle, New York while maintaining his studio in New York. New Rochelle came to be a well known artist colony and illustrator's community soon after his arrival. Residents there included Norman Rockwell, Edward Penfield, J.C. Leyendecker, Franklin Booth, and Coles Phillips.

By 1907 he was employed at Life magazine, at that time a humor publication, and he became known for his cartoons with a social message. Lowell was a contemporary of the famous illustrator Charles Dana Gibson. He illustrated for a number of other major magazines during his career including Scribner's, Century, Saturday Evening Post, McClure's, Cosmopolitan, Metropolitan Life, Ladies Home Journal, Judge, Woman's Home Journal, Leslie's Weekly, Puck, Vogue, Delineator, McCalls, Life, Judge, American Girl, and Redbook.

Lowell was a very social individual and joined most of the arts clubs in New York and held positions in many of them. Among these were The Players Club, the Society of Illustrators (where he was among the first group of non-founding members), The Guild of Free Lance Artists (where he served as president 1924-25), The New Rochelle Art Association, and The New Rochelle Public Library (where he was a trustee from 1930-1944).

Lowell died in 1956.