Bare-chested sailors haul the line as an officer scans the horizon

Edward Penfield's 1917 Collier's sailor cover — a boldly masculine image that carries an unmistakable charge — has become a touchstone of LGBTQ+ vintage art collecting. Edward Penfield (1866–1925) was the art director of Harper's Monthly and one of the founding figures of American poster design. His clean flat colours, bold silhouettes, and stripped-back compositions anticipated Art Deco by a generation. A champion of the bicycle, the sporting life, and the New Woman, Penfield made magazine covers as sophisticated as anything published in Paris. His work is collected today as essential American graphic design of the Gilded Age.Printed on Hahnemühle German Etching paper — the same stock museum studios use — through a twelve-ink archival pigment process that holds colour the way memory holds detail: precisely, completely. Frames are solid ash and oak, hand-made to order. Nothing between you and the image.

Printed on Hahnemühle German Etching paper — the same stock museum studios use — through a twelve-ink archival pigment process that holds colour the way memory holds detail: precisely, completely. Frames are solid ash and oak, hand-made to order. Nothing between you and the image.