J. Hyde Crawford (born October 16, 1930, Jacksonville, Florida - died May 11, 2013, Fort Lauderdale, Florida) was an American fashion illustrator known for his work on behalf of the department store Bonwit Teller. Born John Hyde Crawford, Jr., he was never known as John during his professional career, but was instead frequently referred to as “Jay.” Crawford’s father was a traveling salesman for the Continental Can Company, and during Crawford’s childhood, the family moved from Jacksonville to Houston, Texas, and later to Orlando, Florida, where Crawford attended high school. According to an interview with Crawford’s spouse, Charles Andrews, Crawford aspired to become an illustrator for Bonwit Teller as a boy, drawing Bonwit Teller advertisements of his own creation.

Crawford studied fashion illustration at Parsons School of Design and was awarded a European art tour with the president of Parsons, Van Day Truex, which was granted to outstanding students, in 1953. In 1954, shortly after graduating Parsons, Crawford was hired as a freelance artist by Bonwit Teller, drawing newspaper advertisements featuring current fashions sold at the store. During those early years at Bonwit Teller, Crawford came to know the artist Andy Warhol, who worked on window displays at the store.

In 1965, Bonwit Teller asked Crawford to recreate its longtime logo: a bouquet of violets. The artwork that Crawford created in twenty-five minutes was immediately adopted as the company’s signature image, and was to be featured on shopping bags and advertisements for the next twenty years. Crawford was celebrated in 1986 for his work on the logo.

In 1968, Crawford co-founded a fabric and wallpaper company, Quadrille, with abstract artist Anthony Tortora, while continuing to create advertisements for Bonwit Teller. The company became known for its original designs, influenced by current trends in fashion as well as traditional decor concepts. Quadrille is still in operation as of 2022.

In the period of time between the closing of Bonwit Teller’s Fifth Avenue store and its reopening on 57th street, from 1979 to 1981, Crawford freelanced with other department stores, including Lord & Taylor and Bloomingdale’s, but he returned to exclusive work for Bonwit Teller upon its reopening. Bonwit Teller ultimately filed for bankruptcy in 1989 and closed its Manhattan flagship store that same year.

In addition to his art and design careers, Crawford was also a collector of art, a pursuit he initiated in the 1960s, acquiring over the years an eclectic mix of works by artists such as Helen Frankenthaler, John Singer Sargent, Robert Motherwell, and Jean-Léon Gérôme. After Crawford’s death in 2013, nine paintings from his collection were bequeathed to the Orlando Museum of Art, a gift valued at $8.3 million, the largest in the museum’s history. In 1990, the museum hosted an exhibition of Crawford’s fashion illustrations entitled, “J. Hyde Crawford: Fashion Illustration, 1960-1990,” covering his long career as a freelance artist for Bonwit Teller.

References

Andrews, Charles (husband of J. Hyde Crawford), in discussion with Wendy Scheir, Archivist, The New School. September 2022.

Berman, Ann E. “Designing Man.” Art and Auction Magazine, November 1991, 140-145.

Golberger, Paul. “Design Notebook: Bonwit Teller: Lively Interior on 57th Street.” New York Times, April 23, 1981, C10. https://www.nytimes.com/1981/04/23/garden/design-notebook-bonwit-teller-lively-interior-on-57th-street.html.

“J. Crawford Obituary.” New York Times, May 19, 2013. https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/nytimes/name/j-crawford-obituary?id=24309936.

Kokkino, Andreas. “At Home: A Chat with Jay Hyde Crawford.” New York Times Magazine, July 8, 2009. https://archive.nytimes.com/tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/08/at-home-a-chat-with-jay-hyde-crawford/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0.

Morris, Bernadine. “Fashion Moods Inspire Wallpapers.” New York Times, November 17, 1969, 62. https://www.proquest.com/docview/118612272/67B8F80DE7384D25PQ/13.

Palm, Matthew J. ”Museum Unveils $8.3M Gift of Paintings.” Orlando Sentinel, October 9, 2014, A1. https://www.proquest.com/docview/1609305639/B78A38C3E2E4528PQ/12.

Salvaggio, Denise. “Crawford: Not Off-the-Wall.” Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel, September 28, 1990, 5E. https://www.proquest.com/docview/389189002/BFE3950688F248DFPQ/5?accountid=12261.

Yardley, William. “J. Hyde Crawford, Fashion Illustrator, Dies at 82.” New York Times, May 20, 2013. https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/20/nyregion/j-hyde-crawford-fashion-illustrator-dies-at-82.html.