Symeon Shimin

Symeon Shimin (1902 in Astrakhan, Russia-1984 in New York City) was a Russian born American artist and illustrator of Russian Jewish descent.

He was principally known as an artist of Hollywood Film Posters and as an award-winning illustrator of 57 children's books including two that he authored himself, I wish there were two of me and A special birthday.

Shimin was born in Astrakhan, Russia, on the Caspian Sea, in 1902.

In 1912 his Jewish family immigrated to the United States, settling in Brooklyn, N.Y.

They opened a delicatessen and lived in two small rooms behind their shop.

In 1918, at 16 years old, Shimin apprenticed himself to a commercial artist to help support his family.

He attended art classes at Cooper Union School of Art at night and spent a brief period at the studio of George Luks.

In his early career, Shimin worked as a freelance commercial artist.

In 1929 he illustrated the January cover of Vanity Fair Magazine, among others.

In 1929 he embarked on a trip of 1 1/2 years to Spain and France, where he studied the works of the master artists.

His fine art, developed throughout his life, includes the highly acclaimed mural Contemporary Justice and The Child created in 1936, that took four years to complete.

In 1936, Shimin was awarded a contract by the PWAP, Public Works of Art Project, to paint the mural Contemporary Justice and the Child for the Department of Justice Building, Washington, DC

Shimin became a highly sought after artist painting large-scale murals for Hollywood films, creating the original poster for Gone with the Wind in 1939.

Shimin’s work in children's books began in 1950 when friends Hermann and Nina Schneider asked him to illustrate a revised edition of their How Big is Big?.

He discovered that he could channel some of his feeling for the heightened state of imagination in childhood into his work.

Shimin subsequently illustrated 57 books for children over three decades,  including two that he also authored.

In 1956, following many years of intense work on film posters and children’s books, Shimin spent six months in Italy In 1959 his painting, Discussion Groups – Rome, won second prize in the Provincetown Art Competition and is presently in the collection of the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia.

Time Magazine dubbed Symeon Shimin, a “social realist painter”.

Other notable work includes the painting The Pack that he completed in 1959.

One of the boldest artworks of Shimin’s oeuvre is his masterful large-scale painting titled The Pack, which was exhibited at the Whitney Museum of American Art  —Annual Exhibition of American Art in 1959.

In 1959 he also painted the 40 ft. canvas for the Hollywood film Solomon and Sheba for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

In other peripheral connections to the cinema world, he also worked on drawings and paintings for the promotional campaign of the 1960s The Magnificent Seven and had a brief stint in the early 1940s as Howard Hughes’ personal artist.

I Wish There Were Two Of Me and Special Birthday. In 1974 Shimin was awarded a pair of prestigious Christopher Awards for Gorilla, Gorilla, and A New Baby A New Life, given to artists and producers whose works "affirm the highest values of the human spirit.

Shimin was twice invited to speak at Appalachian University, which later became the site of the Symeon Shimin Papers, de Grummond Children's Literature Collection at The University of Southern Mississippi.