This small gouache (ca 1950) painted by Lyman Matthew Anderson (1907 – 1993) is part of a series the Coca Cola Co. commissioned from the artist for a planned advertising campaign to honor the American working man. The image reflects the bold, clean-lined geometry of the Mid-century Modern style executed in a slightly lurid pulp magazine palette. By the time of this commission, Anderson worked for premier magazines such as Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping and the Saturday Evening Post as well as brand-name companies, such as General Electric, Goodyear, Mobil Oil, and Pan-American Airlines. However, he started his career in 1929 illustrating for the pulps and is known to have painted magazine covers for Action Stories, Alibi, All Detective, All Western, Western Romances, and Underworld Detective Magazine. From April 1935 to July 1938, he drew the Inspector Wade comic strip for King Features Syndicate. Anderson’s skill with the brush and his ability to mythologize the American masculine ideal seemed to sync perfectly with the optimism and muscular, trim-cut ethos of the country’s post-World War II economic boom. Condition: Excellent. Dimensions: Frame, 13.5" x 13.5", Image 4" x 4".