Welcome to our Cartoon Spotlight: Barbara Shermund, part of our CartoonStock Artist Spotlights series. Barbara Shermund was one of the pioneering female cartoonists of the early 20th century, known for her witty, feminist cartoons that captured the independent spirit of the flapper era. Her work, often featuring bold women challenging social conventions, appeared in publications such as The New Yorker and Esquire. In this spotlight, we celebrate Barbara Shermund’s sharp humor and timeless illustrations, now available in the CartoonStock collection.
The following is an excerpt from the New York Times article: Overlooked No More: Barbara Shermund, Flapper-Era Cartoonist.
In the mid-1920s, Harold Ross, the founder of a new magazine called The New Yorker, was looking for cartoonists who could create sardonic, highbrow illustrations accompanied by witty captions that would function as social critiques.
He found that talent in Barbara Shermund.
For about two decades, until the 1940s, Shermund helped Ross and his first art editor, Rea Irvin, realize their vision by contributing almost 600 cartoons and sassy captions with a fresh, feminist voice.
Her cartoons commented on life with wit, intelligence and irony, using female characters who critiqued the patriarchy and celebrated speakeasies, cafes, spunky women and leisure. They spoke directly to flapper women of the era who defied convention with a new sense of political, social and economic independence.
“Shermund’s women spoke their minds about sex, marriage and society; smoked cigarettes and drank; and poked fun at everything in an era when it was not common to see young women doing so,” Caitlin A. McGurk wrote in 2020 for the Art Students League.”
Here is a collection of Barbara Shermund cartoons available on CartoonStock.com.
MORE BARBARA SHERMUND CARTOONS
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