The first edition of THE JOY OF COOKING (1931), self-published by Irma Rombauer, is America’s most popular cookbook, having sold more than 18,000,000 copies. On the original cover, the book featured a silhouette cutout illustration by Rombauer’s daughter, Marion Rombauer Becker, who was director of the art department at John Burroughs School in St. Louis. Her design depicts Saint Martha of Bethany, the patron saint of cooking (representing here the chore’s drudgery), beating a dragon with a mop.
The Joy of Cooking by Irma S. Rombauerfrom a Hoover vacuum cleaner ad in the March 27, 1950 issue of Life magazineSoilax Cleaner for floors, walls and woodwork. From the May 1957 issue of Good Housekeeping magazine. I’m thankful marketers have gotten a bit more savvy. This sounds like laxative that makes you soil your daks.This illustration is by John Falter, for an edition of the Saturday Evening Post. Clearly humorous in intent, I find this intensely irritating. I’m not sure a mother of young children would have illustrated a ‘humorous’ scene quite like this one.Cover of the July 1938 issue of Home Arts Needlecraft Magazine. Illustration by Ralph Pallen ColemanNeedlecraft magazine October 1927. It is very clear who is supposed to be learning housework and who is supposed to consider it beneath him.Jean Fleming (1937 – 1988) self portrait 1958Stevan Dahanos After Dinner Dishes, Saturday Evening, January 8, 1949Rinso soap advertisement published in the March 1935 issue of Woman’s Home Companion magazineInterior with Maid c.1913 Douglas Fox Pitt 1864-1922William Harris Weatherhead – Peeling Apples for a Pie 1886George Hughes More Clothes To CleanPublished in the May 1959 issue of Family Circle magazine. Illustration by Richard HookBon Ami advertisement published in the October 1943 issue of American Home magazineMarianne Stokes – Polishing Pans 1887Hakon Bjarke Thorsen (1866-1925) Farm Interior With A Woman Washing Clothes, DanishLeo Whelan domestic interior c 1912‘Serviceman’s Wife’,ca.1942 Ivan G. OlinskyJakub Schikaneder (Czech, 1855-1924)‘Down and Out in London.’ (1937) Nora HeysenHarold Harvey painted this during WW 1‘The French Kitchen.’ (c1930) Weaver HawkinsRalph Hedley – The Butter ChurnYuri Ivanovich Pimenov (1903-1977) washing windowsJill Barklem (1951 – 2017) spring cleaningOlga Kondakova – Tales of the Brothers Grimm The Blue LightFrank Holl – Peeling Potatoes ca. 1880 kitchenNorman-Rockwell-1894-1978-Home-for-Thanksgiving-Mother-and-Son-Peeling-Potatoes-1945Peeling-Potatoes-by-Joaquin-Sorolla-1891van Gogh’s ‘Woman Seated Before an Open Door, Peeling Potatoes,’ from 1885Eugenio Edouardo Zampighi (Italian, 1855-1944) Spinning In The KitchenÉdouard Vuillard (1868-1940) The sweeper, 346 rue Saint-Honoré, 1895Portrait of Mademoiselle Boissiere Knitting by Gustave Caillebotte 1877Mr. Fix-It 1956 Art by Stevan Dohanos Suffolk author & illustrator Kathleen Hale, Orlando the Marmalade Cat The Wood Street Helpers by Mabel Esther AllanFritz Sonderland (1830-1896) La petite mésaventure, 1868François Bonvin (1817-1887, French) Woman Ironing 1858. A dark and dingy place to iron. Here’s hoping she’s at least warm.Georges Antoine van Zevenberghen Belgian artist (1877-1968). If you must iron, better to do it with a good view out the window.Robert Spencer (1879-1931)Kinuko Craft – Baba Yaga and Vasilisa the Brave
Header painting: Garnet Ruskin Wolseley (1884-1967) British
