ROY F. SPRETER (1899-1967)
Woman at toilette. Standard Sanitary Co. advertisement. Illustration used for print ads for Standard Sanitary Manufacturing Company of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1920s. Oil on canvas 712x610 mm; 28x24 inches, framed to 32¼x27¼ inches. Signed "Spreter" in lower right corner and with remnants of original Standard label loose but kept with frame.Roy F. Spreter, an artist, portrait painter, and illustrator, was born in Chicago in 1899. By the time he was 20, he had become a commercial artist at Grauman & Company in Chicago. There, he was a member of the Palette & Chisel Club where he participated in his first exhibition in 1922. In the early 1920s, he moved to the Philadelphia area, participated in the notable exhibition “Seven Men” at the Philadelphia Art Club, and maintained his home and studio in the suburb of Gladwyne, which had the distinction of being designed by the renowned architect, William Lescaze (of the famous first international modern skyscraper, 1932’s PSFS Building, in Philadelphia). Spreter's commercial clients included Cream of Wheat, Look Magazine, Women’s Home Companion, The American Magazine, Ladies’ Home Journal, Liberty magazine, Standard Sanitary Mfg., and several others. He also was well-regarded as a portrait painter.