Elmer Stanley Hader  (American, 1886 - 1973)
 
This whimsical forest landscape painting, oil on artist board panel, measures 14-1/2" x 19-1/8" or in the frame dimensions of 22" x 28" and is signed lower right Elmer Hader.  The painting is in good overall condition with no visible defects.  
 
Biography:
Born in Pajaro, CA on Sept. 7,1889, Hader grew up in San Francisco.  Having survived the earthquake and fire of 1906, Hader began his art studies at the San Francisco Institute of Art from 1907-1909. He was awarded the Julian Award which allowed him to study at Academie Julian in Paris from 1912-14. After his studies abroad, he settled in San Francisco and devoted the next years to easel painting becoming a recognized artist in the California Impressionism style. After his Army duty, he and his new wife, Berta Hoerner (1891–1976) a talented artist in her own right, settled in Grand View, New York.  He painted the Northeastern states from 1920-23. Over the next 20 years, Hader and his wife wrote and illustrated over 100 children's books. He won the Caldecott Prize in 1949, for the children's book “The Big Snow”.
 
From 1942-1959, Hader produced many easel paintings of the Catskills, Maine,and Haiti.In 1989, the Bergen Museum of Art & Science in New Jersey had a retrospective show of his paintings. Hader's bold, impressionistic style sometimes borders on the strong color techniques similar to the Fauvres.
 
Berta and Elmer Hader were a husband-and-wife team that illustrated more than 70 children's books, about half of which they also wrote.  Among Elmer Stanley Hader’s many accomplishments were bookcovers that he did for author John Steinbeck’s, “The Grapes of Wrath (1939), East of Eden (1952) and The Winter of Our Discontent (1961).