Bessie Pease Gutmann

There were many famous artists during the “Golden Age” of illustration, which ran from the late 1800s into the early 1900s. Due to the new technologies available at the time, some beautiful lithographs and engravings were mass-produced for the public and color advertising was quite prolific. This was a time when women artists were able to actually make a living with their pens and paint brushes.

One of my favorite artists of this time was Bessie Pease Gutmann. She was one of the main artists of her time that specialized in pictures of babies and children. Born in Philadelphia in 1876, young Bessie Collins showed an early interest in art. Her parents picked up on this and encouraged her to study formally. After graduation from high school at the tender age of 16, the Collins’ sent their daughter to the Philadelphia School of Design for Women, The New York School of Art and the Arts Students League.

After graduation, Bessie barely got by on commissions earned by doing portrait sketches and doing illustrations for the local newspapers. Bessie felt that she was wasting her talent and began to search for more steady employment as a commercial artist. In 1903, Miss Collins finally found the job of her dreams at a company called Gutmann and Gutmann, which was run by two immigrant brothers, Hellmuth and Bernhard. This relationship worked so well that Bessie married Hellmuth in 1906 at the ripe old age of 30! This was considered spinsterhood back then!

Her big illustration break came with A Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson in 1905. More books followed with an especially beautiful 1907 edition of Carroll Lewis’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. She also had a series of prints called the Colonial series, which were hand-tinted pictures that were made to compete with Wallace Nutting’s tinted prints of that time. In 1912, Bessie and Hellmuth began to be blessed with children. Bessie found great inspiration in the faces of her babies. Alice, Lucille and John Gutmann were born and their mother’s career really blossomed.

The public and art critics soon found her illustrations of children and babies captivating and her prints began to grace the walls of nurseries around the country and abroad. Her work also began to appear on calendars and post cards as well as famous paper and magazines of the time such as McCall’s, The Chicago Tribune and the Washington Post.

Gutmann and Gutmann prospered greatly in the 1920’s and 1930’s but with the world at war in the early 1940’s, the age innocence in print was waning. The lack of quality paper and labor for prints also hurt the company. Hellmuth sold the company in 1947 due to these problems along with his declining eyesight and health. After nearly 50 years and over 600 prints to her credit, Bessie stopped painting and drawing for the public. She passed away in 1960.

Bessie Pease Gutmann’s art is still very popular, collectible and available to the public. There are collectors clubs and her family descendents license her works for collector’s plates and figurines. One of my favorite prints called The Message of the Roses, which I purchased ten years ago for $80, is now worth $400. It is a picture of a young flapper in a yellow dress sitting on the floor admiring a huge box of red roses sent by a suitor.

You can still find beautiful framed original baby prints such as The Awakening for about $50-$75. The Colonial series and her other prints of young ladies and brides can be hundreds of dollars depending on rarity and condition. For more information, check out your favorite search engine online. Happy Collecting!

Jillinda Falen has been buying and collecting antiques for over 31 years. She is a licensed REALTOR and estate liquidation specialist. You can contact her through The Houston Home Journal or via email at jcfalen@gmail.com.

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