Carl Ahrens (1862-1936)

From the 1890s onward, Ahrens occasionally did commercial illustrations and advertisements for periodicals in both Toronto and New York City. Only a handful of examples have been found so far. It appears he sometimes signed his work with a small arrowhead symbol with his initials enclosed. I have also seen a capital C surrounding a capital A. Currently seeking a January 1908 issue of Home Journal (Toronto) as it features a continuation of the story Ahrens illustrated in the December 1907 issue. He also illustrated several stories in the Christmas 1899 issue of Saturday Night (Toronto), but an original copy has not been located.

The image above is the cover illustration for the December 1907 issue of Home Journal (Toronto).

This illustration is from a story in the December 1907 issue of Home Journal (Toronto),

This illustration is from a story within the December 1907 issue of Home Journal (Toronto.)

This painting, called Hailing the Camp, was commissioned by Outing Magazine in 1900.

This illustration was featured on the last page of the July 1908 issue of The Canadian Magazine.

This sketch was an illustration for a poem called “An Old Tune” by Laura Skaats Cunningham in a late 1907 issue of Sunset Magazine, published in San Francisco, CA.

This illustration was from the 1899 Christmas magazine for Saturday Night, a Toronto paper. Carl illustrated three stories in this issue, including one by his friend, poet and recitalist Pauline Johnson. It is possible that he used his first wife, Emily, as a model for the woman.

Commercial Illustrations