Robert designed many of the
Cleveland Plain Dealer Sunday Magazine Covers
from the year 1960 through 1978.
 No date The Cleveland Ohio Home and Flower show was featuring a Ferris Wheel that was erected in the main arena of Public Hall. Robert Laessig presents his conception of what one of the gondolas will look like when it is filled with roses. |
 Feb 25, 1962 Artist Robert Laessig, who has won so many art show awards that merely listing them would fill all this space, Painted the gay garden cover for this flower show issue. Mr. Laessig is no stranger to Sunday Magazine readers. His work has appeared on our covers twice before. He is recognized as one of the foremost floral artists in the country. |
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 November 22, 1970 Robert wandered into his peninsula woods to collect the flora for today’s cover. He insists milkweed pods are still popping open and shedding their seeds, even at this late date. Who are we to argue? |
 October 31, 1971 Robert Laessig, that splendid painter of flowers, woods, and other nice things, has given us his version of a dark autumn forestscape. We used to complain that he liked milkweed so much he puts it into all of his paintings. But we have become reconciled to his view. Artists should not be pushed around. |
 April 6, 1969 Christians throughout the world are rejoicing today in the fulfillment of the Easter promise. - life after death. Robert Laessig, master of watercolor and distinguished artist for American Greetings corp., has captured much of that promise in the cover painting. At the base of a weathered tree trunk, among its gnarled roots, are spring and fall, life and death, Good Friday and Easter Sunday. White trilliums and violets are beauties of the fleeting moment known as spring. Their roots are nourished by the fallen leaves of many seasons past. |
 November 18, 1973 We asked Robert Laessig to paint a mid-start-of-winter cover,”with a slight dusting of snow”. That proves you should never push an artist around. Laessig painted in the dusting of snow, didn’t like it and removed it. Which is OK by us, because by the time this appears we might have enough of the real thing lying around. Laessigs in this form are very popular with the decoupage set. |
 June 26, 1966 The riotous midsummer garden bouquet on the cover was put on canvas by Robert Laessig, whom the Sunday magazine is privileged to list among its occasional contributors. The horticultural literate will recognize Oriental Poppies, daisies, and rudbeckia. They will also notice that Laessig has a way of capturing all of Nature. The lacework on the leaves probably was accomplished by a hungry Japanese beetle. |
 November 19, 1967 Several Centuries ago, John Donne said it this way---- No spring nor summer beauty Hath such grace As I have seen in one autumnal face. Robert Laessig has a similar message to deliver on the cover--with a brush. This artist depicts the flight time for milkweed and burnished autumn leaves. Snowberries and rudbeckias are there to see them off, and Laessig shows how beautiful Nature’s imperfections can be, even in the lacework of deteriorating foliage. |
 February 2, 1975 Months and even years after we run a Robert Laessig painting on our cover we get requests for reprints. This is just a warning to tell you to save today’s cover if you want to frame it or use it for decoupage, or whatever. One person we know bought extra copies of a Laessig magazine and papered his bathroom cupboard with them. |
 May 21, 1967 Why the dried maple leaves among the spring burst of pink peonies? “Just for a change of pace,” said Robert Laessig, todays cover artist. “I like to mix the old with the new, and am noted for including rather drab, weathered things in my paintings. Also, the dried leaves soften and set off the pink”. We are approaching that part of the garden calendar reserved for the sweet period of peony bloom, so dependent on the whim of weather. But Laessig, always captures his garden and roadside subjects at just the right moment. |
 November 17, 1968 To Robert Laessig there is always something new under the November sun. This widely known star of the American Greeting staff (and creator of White House Christmas cards) takes nature apart and puts it together again more beautiful than ever in his eagerly-sought-after paintings. These have been appearing twice a year on the cover of the Sunday Magazine. The knowing will recognize milkweed pods, sunflower seed heads, Chinese lantern, teasel and lunaria, along with the usual autumn leaves, in this cover assemblage. Laessig sees more around him than did Thomas Hood, who wrote-- “No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees, No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds, November!” |
