Doctor in Bathrobe
Original Beckhoff Illustration Art

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Beckoff Doctor
Beckoff Doctor
Beckoff Doctor
Harry Beckhoff (1901-1979)
Doctor in Bathrobe Answers Patient’s Phone Call
American: 1934
Illustration for In Sickness and In Health
Inscribed verso with title, date and signature
Gouache on illustration board
13.25 x 11.75 inches
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A white-haired physician answers an emergency phone call in the middle of the night wearing a plaid bathrobe, pajamas and slippers.  His black medical bag and umbrella lean against the desk; it was an era when doctors made house calls to patients in urgent need of care.  This original illustration art accompanied an article titled In Sickness and In Health by Kyle Crichton.  It may have been for Scribner’s or Collier’s, where Crichton worked during the 1930s.

Harry Beckhoff was a magazine illustrator who published work in Collier’s and other publications.  He was a member of the Society of Illustrators.

Kyle Crichton (1896-1960) grew up in a coal-mining town in Pennsylvania, graduated from Lehigh University, and came to New York City to pursue his writing in 1929.  He worked as a book editor at Scribner’s before moving on to Collier’s as associate editor.  He made his mark as both an outgoing and outspoken member of the literary scene, known for cleverly written critiques of society from a left wing perspective. In addition to the collections of essays Redder than the Rose (1936) and Reading from Left to Right (1938), he published novels, biographies--including a popular one on the Marx Brothers (1945)--and a Broadway play, The Happiest Millionaire (1956).

Inscribed verso in pencil (in unknown period hand):  In Sickness & In Health by Kyle Crichton.  Ill. By Harry Beckhoff.  Oct. 20, ’34.

References:

Falk, Peter Hastings, ed.  Who Was Who in American Art.  Madison, Connecticut:  Sound View Press, 1985.  p. 43.

Krygier, J.B.  “Kyle Crichton: Peale’s Most Famous Son?”  Peale, Pennsylvania 1883-1912. http://go.owu.edu/~jbkrygie/krygier_html/peale/peale_crichton.html  (17 January 2005).