Goodwin, Philip 1882-1935
Philip Goodwin was born in Norwich, Connecticut in 1881. Sketching was a consuming childhood pastime. He was eleven when he sold his first illustrated story to "Collier's" magazine. At seventeen he was a promising student of Howard Pyle at the Brandywine School at Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, and a classmate of N.C. Wyeth and Frank Schoonover. He later attended the Rhode Island School of Design. Goodwin was also a member of the Art Students League in New York.
While still in his twenties, he became friends with Carl Rungius and Charles Russell, when all three artists maintained studios in close proximity in New York City. Thereafter, whenever possible, Goodwin spent his summers in the West. Probably influenced by Russell, Goodwin became adept at sculpting. After Russell's death, Goodwin helped Nancy Russell assemble the book of her husband's letters, "Good Medicine", which contains three of Russell's illustrations to Goodwin.
Sportsmen remember Philip Goodwin's large calendar prints, usually "predicament" paintings, which hung in mercantile establishments across the country during the twenties and thirties. There were also covers for "Outdoor Life" and "Saturday Evening Post" and advertising posters for Remington Arms and Winchester Arms. A very special painting, "Horse and Rider", became the trademark of the Winchester Company.
Goodwin never married; his lifelong commitment was to the field of illustration. In addition to commercial advertising commissions, he painted for a goodly number of leading authors. Notable among the many books that he illustrated were "Call of the Wild" by Jack London and "African Game Trails" by Theodore Roosevelt.