Philip R. Goodwin (1881 – 1935)
Goodwin was a part of the heyday of American illustrators on the east coast who created imagery of the American West for the booming magazine and book markets of the early to mid 20th century. He fell in with and was friends with other famous artists doing the same, such as N.C. Wyeth, Charles M. Russell and Charles Livingston Bull. Goodwin and Bull’s illustrations were included in the first edition of Jack London’s, Call of the Wild in 1903. Goodwin was just 22 years old when the book was published.
Goodwin studied art at the Rhode Island School of Design, the Art Students League of New York City and the Drexel Institute of Art under the influential teacher, Howard Pyle. Goodwin became well-known in the print world with illustrations in magazines such as Collier’s Weekly, Outdoor Life, Scribner’s Magazine, and also created a few covers for The Saturday Evening Post. He illustrated Theodore Roosevelt’s, African Game Trails, a book that documents the President and his son’s expedition to Africa to collect specimens for the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum.
Though his studio was in New York City, he went on hunting and fishing trips to get out into nature to sketch, hunt and fish. He often did this with his close friends, the artists Charles M. Russell and Carl Rungius. One such trip with Rungius was into the Canadian Rockies for six weeks to study big game subjects. Some of Goodwin’s well-known clients included companies whose products were in the hunting and fishing world, including Horton Manufacturing Company (fishing rods), Winchester Repeating Arms Company and Marlin Firearms Company. Goodwin designed the Winchester logo.
Like many, Goodwin came into hard times during the Great Depression when his savings were depleted. He had planned to move from the east coast to sunny California but he became ill before the trip and died of pneumonia.
His work is held in the collections of the National Museum of Wildlife Art, the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, the Charles M. Russell Museum and the Cowboy Hall of Fame, among others.