Paul Carl Stahr, Jr. was born August 8, 1883 in New York City, the same year that both of his parents immigrated from Germany. Paul was the oldest of five children. His father was a skilled brewer of beer. The family lived in a crowded tenement building at 221 East 95th Street in the Yorkville district of NYC, a traditionally German neighborhood.
He attended P.S.86 and later graduated from Morris High School. In 1902 he began his art studies at the nearby National Academy of Design, where he won a bronze medal and graduated with honors.
On June 15th, 1904, at the age of 19, Paul Stahr witnessed the infamous burning of the SS General Slocum in the nearby East River. The excursion boat was chartered by the German American Community for the 17th Annual Lutheran Church Picnic Boat Ride, when the ship accidentally caught on fire and burned. The Yorkville community was devastated by the deaths of 1,021 citizens, including many of its most prominent social figures. The SS General Slocum fire was the single most deadly event in New York City's history until the recent 9/11 attack.
In 1905 he studied figure drawing with George Bridgman at the Art Students League.
Paul Stahr first worked for a lithographic company that produced show posters for Broadway theaters. He married Edith Delaney in June of 1907 and moved in with her family at 60 Third Avenue, near East 11th Street, where their daughter Edith was born in May of 1909, and their son Jerry was born in February 1915.
Paul Stahr's art studio was located in the Washington Heights district at 510 West 183rd Street, and later at 362 Audubon Avenue, near West 183rd Street. This area had begun to replace Greenwich Village as New York's most popular "artist colony" in those years.
His career as a magazine illustrator began in 1913 when his drawings for interior stories were published in People's Home Journal. His works soon appeared regularly in Life, Collier's, Judge, Woman's Home Companion, and The Saturday Evening Post.
During the Great War Stahr painted posters for Liberty Loans, Red Cross, National Defense, and the Hoover Food Administration.
Paul Stahr worked extensively as a pulp cover artist for Argosy Magazine from 1924 to 1934. Stahr also llustrated the covers for many books, including The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler and The Saint by Leslie Charteris.
Throughout his life he and his family spent the Summers at Long Beach on Long Island, NY, and in his later years he stayed there year round. Paul Stahr suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and died at the age of 69 in Long Beach Hospital on January 5, 1953.
© David Saunders 2009 |
