Howard Terpning, Movie Poster Illustrator

During his long commercial art career Howard Terpning illustrated over eighty movie posters, creating artwork for some of the most famous movies ever filmed.













Even when the film is perhaps somewhat less well know, Terpning's magnificent, dramatic posters inspire excitement and awe.





Despite being so prolific in this illustration niche, Terpning never received any of the original art back. The originals were owned by the studios that commissioned them and according to a recent article on Terpning in the L.A. Times, "he says most of the originals have been destroyed."

Over the years he has been able to reacquire only one of his movie poster originals; the art he created for yet another classic film, "The Taming of the Shrew."



Last year another Terpning movie poster original that escaped being destroyed sold at auction for nearly $14,000. Below, the original art for the 1961 film, "55 Days at Peking."



What an amazing opportunity to inspect Terpning's every brush stroke in such clear detail!



* Many thanks to Heritage Auctions, where I located nearly all of today's scans, for allowing me to make use of them in this post.

* If you're interested in perusing many more of Howard Terpning's movie posters, drop by The Sand Pebbles website.