Filed Under: "Fortune magazine"

The above tempera on illustration board by Flora was recently purchased by a fabulous financial blogger. The Rube Goldberg-like catalytic pipeline originally appeared in the December 1964 issue of Fortune magazine accompanying an article entitled “A New Turn in Taxes.” Most of Flora’s work-for-hire illustrations from the 1940s and 1950s cannot be located, having been kept (or disposed of) by client art directors. Judging by what’s in the Flora family collection, starting in the late…

“The Great U.S. Freight Cartel” (detail), Fortune magazine, January 1957. The full original 14″ x 5-1/2″ tempera work was preserved by the artist and is stored—in great condition–in the Flora archives. It’s one of the earliest extant original commercial illustrations in the collection. Of the hundreds of works-for-hire rendered by Flora for dozens of magazines during the 1940s and early 1950s, all that remain are periodical reproductions. From the late 1950s on, a sizable number…