Richard R. Epperly (1891-1973)-The First Cover Artist

Commercial Artist, Illustrator, Fine Artist, Portraitist, Landscapist, Art Instructor

Born March 21, 1891, Tallula, Illinois

Died December 3, 1973, Oak Park, Illinois

Richard Ruh Epperly, the first cover artist for Weird Tales magazine, was born on March 21, 1891, in Tallula, Illinois. (Some sources give his birth year as 1890.) His parents were Charles Tazewell Epperly, a grocer, and May (Ruh) Epperly. Tallula is a little more than twenty miles from Springfield, Illinois. In his life as an artist, Epperly had his connections to Abraham Lincoln country. These included a portrait that he made of the Great Emancipator and an art exhibition held in the 1940s in the home of Mary Todd Lincoln's sister.

According to Find A Grave, Epperly "first became interested in art when, as a boy, he picked up a correspondence course in art discarded by his brother." He studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago from 1911 to 1914 and graduated with honors. Epperly served in the U.S. Army from May 28, 1918, to May 27, 1919, attaining the rank of corporal. He was stationed in Liverpool, England, and in France. While in France, he visited the Louvre Museum and became "determined to return some day to study."

From 1919 to 1928 or 1929, Epperly worked as a commercial artist in Chicago. When he filled out his draft card in 1919, he was working for Lammers-Shilling Company, a large Chicago firm. It was during this period that Epperly provided cover illustrations for the March 1923 issues of Weird Tales and Detective Tales. Those may have been his only works in the pulp fiction field.

In 1929, Epperly returned to Paris to study at the Académie Moderne under André Lhote (1885-1962) and André Marchand (1877-1951). The Académie Moderne was a free art school that had been founded in 1924 by Fernand Léger (1881-1955) and Amédée Ozenfant (1886-1966).

By 1930, Epperly was back in Chicago and working again as a commercial artist. He had married Cosona or Corona Edith Kleckner on June 2, 1920, in Cook County, Illinois, presumably in Chicago. The Epperlys had a child together, but by the time he was enumerated in the 1930 census--with his wife's family--he was a widower. He married again on April 9, 1936, also in Cook County. His new wife was Rose Verniere (1903-1987), an Italian-American. They also had a child together. An interesting tidbit from the lives of Richard and Rose Epperly: They embarked for Naples, Italy, on June 12, 1956, in New York City. Their ship was the SS Andrea Doria. On a return trip to New York on July 25, 1956, the Andrea Doria collided with the Swedish passenger liner Stockholm. It sank the next day. Fortunately, most of the passengers and crew were rescued. I don't know whether the Epperlys were on the ship when it was struck. I suspect they weren't.

In 1940, Epperly was still in Chicago, but in 1941, he relocated to Oak Park, Illinois, just outside the city. He lived in Oak Park for the rest of his life and was a well-known and active member of the art scene in the Chicago area. His work was in the All Illinois Society of the Fine Arts exhibition in Chicago in 1938, where he won an award for best watercolor by an Illinois-born veteran. He was a member and a board member of the Austin, Oak Park and River Forest Art League. He also taught art with the league and in 1973 received its President's Award.

Epperly was also a member of the Springfield Art Association and had twenty canvases in a two-man show at the home of the sister of Mary Todd Lincoln in 1946. In the 1940s, he traveled and painted in Colorado, Wyoming, California, New Mexico, and other places in the West. He exhibited at the Palette and Chisel Academy in Chicago in 1947; the Austin, Oak Park and River Forest Art League exhibition in 1960; and at the Oak Park National Bank in 1961. His work is in private collections, as well as in the collections of the Springfield Art Association, the Union League Club of Chicago, the Chicago Athletic Club, the Rotary Club of Australia, and at the National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution. He painted portraits of Abraham Lincoln; Pope John XXIII; Carlos Romulo of the Philippines, Mrs. Romulo, and their sons; and Percy L. Julian, among others.

Richard R. Epperly died on December 3, 1973, in Oak Park and was buried at Elm Lawn Memorial Park in Elmhurst, Illinois. He was eighty-two years old.

Richard R. Epperly's Cover Illustration for Weird Tales

March 1923--The First Issue of "The Unique Magazine"

Further Reading

There are entries on Richard R. Epperly on the websites AskArt, Find A Grave, and Worthpoint.

Flamenco Dancer, a nicely made portrait by Epperly. This has a classic 1920s-1930s look. It could easily have made the cover of a popular magazine. The color scheme is about the same as on the first-issue cover of Weird Tales.

Street Scene, Paris, circa 1930, probably more like 1929, if it was painted from life.

The Lammers-Shilling Company building in Chicago, presumably where Epperly worked for at least some time during 1919-1928 or 1929. I wonder if the editor or publisher of Weird Tales could have approached the Lammers-Shilling Company with a job, and that job was then assigned to Epperly, or if Epperly's covers for Weird Tales and Detective Tales were freelance work. As the old commercial says, the world may never know.

Epperly's portrait of Abraham Lincoln, after a photograph by Mathew Brady, published in the Picture Section of the Chicago Sunday Tribune on February 10, 1952. I have recolored this picture from a halftone image of the original.

Finally, Epperly's portrait of American chemist Percy Lavon Julian (1899-1975), from the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, a gift of Eugene V. Epperly, son of the artist. I have reproduced this image here under the doctrine of fair use. Though born in Alabama, Dr. Julian earned his degree and worked at  DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. I'm proud to call him a fellow Hoosier. He was the first black American to earn a doctorate in chemistry and, in 1950, the first black resident, with his family, of Oak Park, Illinois. Richard R. Epperly's portrait of his fellow townsman is a fine and sensitive one. His technique is smooth and accomplished. And to think that Epperly once drew a picture of a giant amoeba with its pseudopodia wrapped around a pulp-fiction heroine . . .

Original text copyright 2023 Terence E. Hanley