Howard Terpning - Legends of Movie Poster Art vol.5

A tribute to Howard Terpning, one of the great movie poster artists.

Howard Terpning was born in Oak Park, Illinois in 1927. He was interested in art from a very early age. He had a particular love for the Old West and the Native Americans.

He enrolled in the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts after leaving the Marines in 1946, he than studied life drawing and painting at Chicago’s American Academy of Art.

After graduating from art school he worked as a freelance artist for a number of years. He started producing artwork for magazine covers and illustrated stories and provide art for advertising firms.

Some of the magazines he worked on include – McCall’s, Field & Stream, Reader’s Digest, Newsweek, Ladies Home Journal, Good Housekeeping and Time Magazine.

In 1961 he painted the first of over 80 movie posters, The Guns of Navarone. Other movie posters included – The Sand Pebbles, The War Wagon, Gone With The Wind (reissue), Ice Station Zebra, Doctor Zhivago, Cleopatra, Grand Prix, 55 Days at Peking and Lawrence of Arabia.

In the late 60’s he went to South Vietnam as a civilian combat artist, going out on patrol with combat troops. He created six paintings which hang on the walls of the National Museum of the Marine Corps.

In the 70’s Terpning returned to his first love the American West, his paintings mostly depicted the Native American Indians but also included cowboys, saloons, trading posts and landscapes.

He is among a very small group of painters of the West in the late 20th century whose art will still be hanging in museums and appreciated a hundred years from now." Fred A. Myers, museum director of The Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art.

Terpning’s artwork has been displayed in galleries all over the world.

Books showcasing his artwork include – Paintings of the Native People of the West (1989 Greenwich Workshop Press), The Art of Howard Terpning (1992 Greenwich Workshop Press), and Spirit of the Plains People (2001 Greenwich Workshop Press)

Selected Movie Posters by Howard Terpning –

1961 – The Guns of Navarone

1961 – The Devil at 4 O’Clock

1962 – Lawrence of Arabia

1962 – Ride the High Country

1963 - Cleopatra

1963 – 55 Days at Peking

1963 – The Victors

1963 – Jason and the Argonauts

1963 – The Prize

1964 – My Fair Lady

1964 – Night of the Iguana

1964 – Behold a Pale Horse

1965 – The Sound of Music

1965 – Lord Jim

1965 – Doctor Zhivago

1965 – A High Wind in Jamaica

1965 – The Agony and the Ecstacy

1965 – The War Lord

1966 – The Oscar

1966 – The Chase

1966 – Cast a Giant Shadow

1966 – The Professionals

1966 – Torn Curtain

1966 – Grand Prix

1966 – A Man for all Seasons

1966 – The Sand Pebbles

1966 – El Dorado

1967 – Gone With the Wind (Reissue)

1967 – The War Wagon

1967 – The Taming of the Shrew

1968 – Funny Girl

1968 – Oliver!

1968 – Ice Station Zebra

1968 – Where Eagles Dare

1969 – Mackenna’s Gold

1969 – The Wild Bunch

1969 – Marooned

1970 – Cromwell

1970 – Ryan’s Daughter

1972 – Young Winston

1973 – Lost Horizon

1974 – The Odessa File