John La Gatta

John La Gatta (May 26, 1894 – January 21, 1977), also spelled LaGatta, was an advertising illustrator active during the first half of the 20th century.

John La Gatta was born in Naples, Italy, the son of an educated father and a mother from an old and well-connected family which traced their origins back to the Count of Anjou, brother of King Louis IX of France.

[3] They had two children, son John Hawley Olds La Gatta, and daughter Jeanne Mehit (ne LaGatta).

An assignment from N. W. Ayer advertising agency of Philadelphia brought La Gatta back to New York City in 1918.

He did illustrations for Society Brand men's work clothes, Blue Buckle overalls, and General Motors.

His advertising clients included Resinol soap, International Silver Company, Ajax Rubber Company, Laros Lingerie, Hoover vacuum cleaners, Paramount Pictures, Campbell's Soup, Ivory Soap, Kellogg's, Johnson & Johnson, Spaulding Swimwear, and Chase and Sanborn Coffee.

[7] In 1937 John La Gatta appeared in the Jack Benny movie Artists & Models along with fellow illustrators McClelland Barclay and Arthur William Brown, and cartoonists Peter Arno and Rube Goldberg.

W. Thornton "Pete" Martin, editor of The Saturday Evening Post, once commented, "I don't see how it is humanly possible for you to deliver six pictures at once and still keep the quality of your work at its stratospheric La Gatta high, but it is a neat trick if you can do it.

He then sprayed the drawing with fixative and over-painted with thin oil paint which allowed the charcoal lines to show through.

By the 1940s, La Gatta's illustrations were no longer in demand as National magazines and advertisers began to use more photography.

"Tink" Adams, the founder of what is now the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, hired La Gatta as an instructor.

He moved to San Francisco, California, in 1990, then to Reno, Nevada, in 1996; where he founded the non-profit Catamount Fund the following year.

[11][12] Bossert, Jill, John La Gatta : An Artist's Life, Madison Square Press, 2000, ISBN 978-0942604825