The Lighthouse, the Cat, and the Sea. A Tropical Tale. - inscribed book + original artwork

Robert CRAWFORD. Title (on verso) “The Cat, the Lighthouse, and the Sea”. Original artwork for the upper cover illustration of Leigh W. Rutledge’s book “The Lighthouse, the Cat, and the Sea. A Tropical Tale.” (Dutton: 1999). [Undated, but book first published October 1st 1999]. Acrylic on board (visible area: 15 ½ x 17 5/8 in; 393 x 450mm), signed ‘R. Crawford’ (lower right), framed. Provenance: exhibition label & PS Gallery label to backing sheet, both labels with the ‘incorrect’ title as above, the gallery label including asking price $1200.

[with:]

Legh W. RUTLEDGE (b.1957). The Lighthouse, the Cat, and the Sea. A Tropical Tale. [New York:] a Dutton Book,  1999. Small square octavo (6 1/8 x 5 3/8in; 156 x 136mm). Uncoloured frontispiece and decorations after Crawford. Original boards, dust-jacket with a reduced version of Crawford’s painting in colour on the upper cover. Provenance: inscribed twice by the author, one inscription to ‘Tan’ and dated 2002; inscribed by the artist once to ‘Adam’; further inscribed ‘To Tan from Rose’ in December 2002.

First edition, signed by author and artist, with the original artwork used in the book.

“Robert Crawford is an illustrator and fine artist living in the beautiful northwest hills of Connecticut. He works in his own unique style which he says influenced by magic realism and the regionalism of post World War Two artists like Grant Wood and Thomas Hart Benton. 

Robert points to some highlights in his career having worked for Celestial Seasonings and The New York State Lottery recently. He loves to see his work around New York City and on products in the supermarket. His work for Bank of America featured a gigantic mural on three sides of a building facing the Kennedy Expressway where upwards of a half million people a day passed by his work.

He has been on the cover of major magazines such as Fortune, Business Week, The Atlantic and U.S. News and World Report, Newsweek and Rolling Stone. 

He recently finished his fourth children’s book based in Africa.  A previous book, The Legend of the Old Man of the Mountain, reached #1 on the regional best-seller list. Robert Crawford is also pleased to include two LL Bean Christmas covers in his portfolio.

He has also shown in galleries in New York City and as far away as Germany and Japan.

Robert was chosen by the German car maker, Volkswagen, to do six paintings for a book which celebrated Volkswagen's 50th anniversary. 

Robert's work has won numerous awards from the Society of Illustrators, Communication Arts, Graphis and Print. His paintings have been included in many group shows. He participated in the United Nation's sponsored show on the environment in New York City. That painting was featured on CBS's Sunday morning with Charles Osgood. Robert Crawford has also been included in the … SOI show on the environment, " Fragile Earth".” (http://www.rcrawford.com/bio/).

Contemporary pre-publication review of the book: “The author of Diary of a Cat (1995, etc.) returns with a suspense tale. This time, the cat, born on the schooner Estella Gomez as it sailed the straits of Florida in 1899, is the never-betrothed Mrs. Moore, a kindly, dignified feline (now 31 years old!) whose voice is not unlike that of A Passage to India’s Mrs. Moore and who, quite secretly, reads Kipling and Proust. Her ancestry goes back to the pirate Jean Lafitte and even to Shakespeare. Mrs. Moore loves her days and nights at sea, especially after a Caribbean storm sweeps her overboard and she’s washed ashore on an enchanted island (it turns out to be Key West), where her main companions are her frail brother, Fafner (Wagner’s giant?), and the lighthouse keeper’s son, Griffin, an eccentric child with a heart as deep and dark as the sea. Griffin’s widowed mother, Mary, tends the lighthouse. The rest is episodic mini-adventures about palm trees and shrimp, the friendly Revered Neighbor, and the amazing recovery of the frail cook from the sunken Estella Gomez, who is adopted by Fafner. Superior whimsy, nicely told, and perfect for the cat-fancier’s Christmas.” (https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/leigh-w-rutledge/the-lighthouse-the-cat-and-the-sea/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=&utm_campaign=DSA).