Charles Twelvetrees

Charles Henry Twelvetrees (29 July 1872 – 6 April 1948) was an American artist and illustrator, particularly of postcards, and best known for his chubby-faced cherubic children.

Valentine's card c. 1920 by Twelvetrees

Pictorial Review, 1917, cover by Twelvetrees

Charles Henry Twelvetrees was born on 29 July 1872, in Utica, New York, the son of Henry Turlertnes and Eliza W. Turner. He married Anna Feder on 13 February 1894, in Manhattan, New York City. She died in 1902, and he married Rose Twelvetrees, who died on 14 August 1946.

Charles and Rose had one son, Leroy Clark Twelvetrees (1905–1938), who was married to the actress Helen Twelvetrees (nee Jurgens) from 1927 to 1930.^[1]

Twelvetrees died on 6 April 1948 in the bathtub of his room in the Hotel Le Marquis at 12 East 31st Street, Manhattan due to natural causes.^[2]

His work is in the permanent collection of the Wellcome Collection, London.^[3]