Herbert Paus was a native of Minneapolis and got his first job as a cartoonist for the St. Paul Pioneer Press. Ambitious to become an illustrator, he enrolled in the Fine Arts School there, and later found employment in a Chicago art studio.

Eventually, he moved to New York where he became a freelance illustrator. Paus had a strong sense of design, which was ideally suited to posters. He was a member of the Government’s committee on pictorial publicity during World War I, and painted many effective posters to support the war effort.

This approach, combined with a striking use of vivid color, was carried over into his magazine illustrations and cover designs for such magazines as Woman’s Home Companion, American Magazine, ...