Robert Andrew Parker was born in Norfolk, Virginia, in 1927. He began drawing while sick at home as a child with tuberculosis.
He worked as an airplane mechanic during WWII. After being honorably discharged from service in 1949, he studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, beginning a long and prolific career as a painter and illustrator.
His work was expressive, often witty, with implied narratives that reflected his wry sense of humor. Some of his favorite subjects were war scenes, battleships, airplanes, dogs, monkeys, insects, landscapes, portraits, and lingerie-clad women. Known for his vibrant watercolors and spirited prints, he had a loose, irreverent style of drawing. Print Magazine described him as, “One of the great masters of 20th century illustration.”
In 1952, he was the youngest artist to show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He was hired to play the hands of Vincent van Gough in the 1956 film Lust for Life, starring Kirk Douglas. After the film’s release, he was able to work as a full-time artist. Indeed, he described it as “the end of my life as a teacher of the deaf, or as the teacher of annoying teenagers.” He wrote about the experience in an article for American Film magazine, republished by Artnet.com.
Parker went on to create illustrations for the New Yorker, Playboy, Penthouse, Sports Illustrated, Esquire, Time, and Fortune Magazine, which sent him on assignments around the world.
He painted album covers for Columbia Records musicians, from Duke Ellington to Thelonious Monk, and penned scores of alphabet books.
Parker illustrated dozens of children’s books, earning a Schneider Family Book Award and a Randolph Caldecott Medal, among many awards. He taught art at the New York School for the Deaf, Parsons School of Design, Rhode Island School of Design, Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam, and the School of Visual Arts in New York. In his later years, he would lose his sight to macular degeneration.
He passed away at home in 2023, surrounded by his loving family and friends in West Cornwall, Connecticut. (Read more about his life and career in the New York Times.)
His work appears in permanent collections of the Guggenheim, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Parker was inducted into the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame in 2004.
The Robert Andrew Parker portfolio is now represented by Paul Thiebaud Gallery.
“A” is for Artist - A short documentary by the Vision & Art Project
Lust for Life trailer - Warner Archive
UPCOMING EXHIBITS
Paul Thiebaud Gallery 25th Anniversary exhibit
Sept. 19 - Nov. 7, 2026
645 Chestnut Street
San Francisco, CA 94133
Tel: 415-434-3055
info@paulthiebaudgallery.com
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RECENT EXHIBITS
Four Friends: Works by David Fertig, Robert M. Kulicke, Robert Andrew Parker, and Pam Sheehan
Jan. 17 - March 14, 2026
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Robert Andrew Parker
Curriculum Vitae
EDUCATION
1948-52 School of the Art Institute of Chicago, IL
1952 Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, ME
1952-53 Atelier 17, New York, NY
AWARDS AND HONORS
2004 Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame
1979 Connecticut Commission on the Arts grant
1970 Randolph Caldecott Medal
1969-70 Guggenheim fellow
1967 Fellowship, Tamarind Lithography Workshop, Los Angeles, CA
1962 Richard & Hinda Rosenthal Foundation Grant, Institute of Arts & Letters, New York, NY
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
1985 Gerit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
1980-92 Parsons School of Design, New York, NY
1984 Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI
1975 Syracuse University, NY
1960-70 School of Visual Arts, New York, NY
1965 Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, ME
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2009 Illustrated Books, Davis & Langdale Company, New York, NY
2007 Flight, Davis & Langdale Company, New York, NY
2005 Artist’s Books, Davis & Langdale Company, New York, NY
2003 Authors of Today, 1933: 100 Watercolors, Davis & Langdale Company, New York, NY
2002 Illustrated Books and Other Works, Davis & Langdale Company, New York, NY
2001 Illustrated Books and Other Works, Davis & Langdale Company, New York, NY Tremaine Gallery at Hotchkiss, Lakeville, CT
2000 The Century Association, New York, NY
1999 Works on Paper, Davis & Langdale Company, New York, NY
1998 25 Years of Arts Week, Butler Gallery, Kilkenny Castle, Ireland
1995 Words and Pictures, Terry Ditenfass Gallery, New York, NY
1993 Four Decades of Etchings, Terry Ditenfass Gallery, New York, NY
1991 25 Year Retrospective, Terry Ditenfass Gallery, New York, NY
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2026 Four Friends: Works by David Fertig, Robert M. Kulicke, Robert Andrew Parker and Pam Sheehan, Paul Thiebaud Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2004 Works on Wood, James Graham & Sons, New York, NY
2002 Works on Paper, Davis & Langdale Company, New York, NY
2000 Erotic Art, Kilkenny Arts Festival, Ireland, Luise Ross Gallery, New York, NY
1987-91 Annual Exhibition, National Academy of Design, New York, NY
1987 State of the Artists, Aldrich Museum, Ridgefield, CT and the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN
1986 Public and Private: American Prints Today, Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, PA, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI, Brooklyn Museum, New York, NY
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Amerada Hess Corporation
Arkansas Fine Arts Center, Little Rock, AR
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Brooklyn Museum, New York, NY
Dublin Museum, Ireland
Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts Foundation, Los Angeles, CA
Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, IN
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ
Morgan Library, New York, NY
Museum of Fine Arts, Raleigh, NC
Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
National Academy of Design, New York, NY
New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT
New York Public Library, New York, NY
Newark Museum, Newark, NJ
St. Paul Gallery & School of Art, Minnesota Museum of American Art, St. Paul, MN
Sara Roby Foundation
Smith College, Northampton, MA
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC
University of California, Los Angeles
University of Massachusetts, Amherst, mA
University Museum, Ann Arbor, MI
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY