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Rose Cecil O'Neill
(American, 1874 - 1944)
A Good Thing in Certain Cases
1900
15 3/8 × 22 1/4 in. (39.1 × 56.5 cm)
2020.1.2
Gift of the Rose O'Neill Foundation, 2020
Not on view
Rose O’Neill achieved perhaps greater recognition than any female illustrator in the early twentieth century. Entirely self-taught, she began a professional career as an illustrator while still a teenager. She moved to New York City from her family home in Omaha, Nebraska, to work with major publishers, such as Cosmopolitan and Life. Her work among the predominantly male staff at Puck, the leading satirical magazine, was unprecedented at the time. She gained prominence as a cartoonist and for her work in advertising, book illustration, and fine art. O’Neill was also the creator of the wildly popular Kewpie comics, and later the iconic Kewpie doll.