Dear TIME-Reader

IN Manhattan last week some of the nation's top art directors attended a luncheon in honor of 73-year-old Artist William Oberhardt (see self-portrait). That same evening, the Society of Illustrators also saluted the New Jersey- born, Munich-trained portraitist with a dinner and a bronze medal "for a most distinguished career in the art of illustration." TIME was especially pleased to join in the tributes to "Obie," as he is widely and affectionately known, for it was he who drew our first cover 33 years ago (see cut). Obie's "first" for TIME was actually the result of an impromptu loan. TIME'S young founders, Henry R. Luce and Briton Hadden, had asked advertising agency friends for advice on the art layout for their first cover. During this consultation, they decided to use the portrait of a personality outstanding in the current news--a TIME tradition ever since. The figure in the news that week was Joseph Gurney ("Uncle Joe") Cannon, onetime Republican Speaker of the House, who at 86 was retiring after 23 terms in Congress. One of the agency friends knew that Obie had already drawn Cannon. A hurried exchange of phone calls followed, and genial Obie readily agreed to lend the new magazine his Joe Cannon portrait for its cover. Thus, he was the first of some 70 artists of renown (including Diego Rivera and James Thurber, who did their own portraits) who have drawn the parade of world figures on more than 1,600 TIME covers.

Uncle Joe, Obie admits, was one of his most difficult subjects. He was drawn at the end of a crusty era, when the brass cuspidor was still a fixture on Capitol Hill. Cannon had six strategically placed about the Speaker's office and used them all as he received visitors and fretted while Obie drew.

Working swiftly with his charcoal, the artist was nervous and eager, said he wished he had time to do a second one. "Why?" demanded Uncle Joe. He stomped across the office and stared a long time at the portrait. Then he spat and growled: "That's pretty good. You don't want to do that again--that's homely enough."

Recalling the conversation last week, Obie smiled and said: "Most of the men I've portrayed were ones I would have paid to do. I've had a great deal of pleasure and honor meeting and doing the great men of my time."

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