George William Gage was born on November 14, 1887 in Lawrence, Massachusetts. His father, William Gage, was born in 1843 in New Hampshire. His mother, Grace Bartlett, was born in 1861 in NH. His parents married in 1885, and had two children, George (b.1887), and Frank (b.1889). The family lived at 453 Canal Street in Lawrence, MA, where the father worked as a boarding house keeper.
In 1903 George W. Gage completed the tenth grade of high school after which he entered the work force at the age of sixteen. His first work was at a printing shop that produced circulars for local advertisers. Print shops typically employed young boys as "ink devils" to nimbly guide paper through the complex mechanized process. While working at the shop he was encouraged to pursue a career as a commercial artist.
By 1910 his family had moved to 21 Belmont Street in Lawrence, MA, and the father worked as a broker at a brokerage firm.
He was eventually hired as a sketch artist at The Boston Globe, and he later worked on the art staff at The Boston Herald.
In 1916 he illustrated several hardcover novels, such as "Mountain Madness" by Anna Alice Chapin from W. J. Watt and Company, publishers in New York City.
In 1916 George W. Gage lived at 16 Oxford Street in Cambridge , MA, where he attended classes at the Boston Museum School of Fine Arts.
On June 5, 1917 he registered with his local draft board during the Great War. He was recorded at the time to have been six feet, slender build, with blue grey eyes, medium brown hair, and "not much bald." He requested exemption from military service because he was "physically disabled (feet)" and clarified his condition as "crippled feet."
In August of 1917 George W. Gage married Llewella Quarrie, who was an actress and also a student living in Cambridge, MA. She was born in 1898 in NYC. As a married man, age thirty, he was not selected for military service.
The married couple had one child, daughter Eleanore Gage, who was born on October 15, 1918. By that time the marriage had dissolved and the wife had sued for divorce.
Seven months later, on May 15, 1919, George W Gage's ex-wife married the artist Walter Louderback (1887-1941) in Philadelphia, PA. Her second husband was a much more successful illustrator of Cosmopolitan Magazine and Hearst's International. Soon after the marriage the artist and his new wife and step-daughter left America and moved to Paris, France, where they eventually had a son, Llewellyn Jerome Louderback (b.1930). The family lived at 4 rue Croix des Petits Champs.
In 1920 George W. Gage moved to New York City where he lived at 61 Poplar Street, Brooklyn. This building was renowned as a residence for artists, including William Robinson Leigh (1866-1955), William Ewart Willner (1898-1987), and Sigvald Mohn (1891-1972).
In 1925 George W. Gage studied at the Howard Pyle School of Art in Wilmington, Delaware. Although that artist had died in 1911, the school was perpetuated by the Wilmington Society of the Fine Arts, where Frank Schoonover was the most renowned teacher.
On June 30 1922 The Brooklyn Eagle reported a license to teach book illustration in Evening Classes at Brooklyn High Schools had been granted to George W. Gage.
In 1924 the artist's father died in Massachusetts. After this tragic loss, the artist's mother came to live with him in Brooklyn.
In 1925 he began to teach evening classes at the Industrial Art School of New York City.
In the 1930s he painted covers and story illustrations for The Saturday Evening Post.
In 1935 George W. Gage married his second wife, Muriel E. Burton. She was born on December 30, 1900 in Salem, Indiana. She worked in NYC as an interior decorator as well as a hair dresser at a beauty parlor. They never had any children.
In 1936 he designed the Christmas billboard of the Borden's Milk Company, which he was continuously re-assigned for the next ten years.
By 1938 the artist had begun to specialize in commissioned portraits. He was represented by Portraits Incorporated Gallery at 460 Park Avenue in NYC.
In 1939 he began to teach a summer school class in figure-drawing at the Ethel Traphagen School of New York. He remained at this school for another ten years.
The 1940 U.S. Census listed George W. Gage as a resident at 61 Poplar Street in Brooklyn, where he lived with his wife and his widowed mother, Grace Gage, who was age seventy-nine. This was the same building he had lived in since 1920, and it was still known for its artists in residence, who by that time included the pulp artist Robert Todd. The artist Rafael Astarita lived next door at 51 Poplar Street.
During WW2 the artist again registered with the Selective service as required by law for all men between the ages of 18 and 65. He was recorded at this time to have been fifty-three, and to have no notable physical disabilities, despite his having claimed in the first world war to have suffered from "crippled feet."
In 1941 the artist and his wife moved to 221 Franklin Avenue in New Rochelle, New York, a prosperous town known for its community of artists, such as Franklin Booth (1874-1948), Walter Biggs (1886-1968), Howard Chandler Christy (1872-1952), Dean Cornwell, Charles Dana Gibson (1867-1944), John Falter, Orson Lowell (1871-1956), Coles Phillips (1880-1927), Norman Rockwell, Harold Von Schmidt (1893-1982), and Frank Leyendecker.
At that same time, his first wife, Llewella "Quarrie) Gage Louderback, who had recently been widowed by the death of her second husband, Walter Louderback. She left war-torn France and moved nearby to North Pelham, NY, where she lived at 305 Sixth Avenue with her twenty-two year old daughter Eleanore Gage Louderback and her son Llewellyn Jerome Louderback, age ten.
On August 7, 1957, George W. Gage died at the age of sixty in New Rochelle, NY.
© David Saunders 2023 |
