Artists Registry

THE BROTHERS HILDEBRANDT
BIOGRAPHY

The year was 1939. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was in the White House. Hitler was waging war on Britain and France. 131 million people lined up to see The Wizard of OZ, the Yankees won the World Series, a loaf of bread cost 8 cents, and, on January 23rd, the Brothers Hildebrandt were born.
Greg and Tim worked together and separately, winning awards and fame. They created everything from their fantasy novel, Urshurak, to the world famous poster for Star Wars, to the best-selling calendars illustrating J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. Together they won the coveted Gold Medal from the Society of Illustrators.
They were strongly influenced by many great comic books and strips, like Terry & the Pirates, Steve Canyon, Prince Valiant, Tarzan, Flash Gordon, Wonder Woman, Bat-Man, and Superman. They were captivated by other forms of fantasy: puppets, especially Charlie McCarthy, Howdy Doody and the Kuklapolitans; science fiction novels/films, including Frankenstein, When Worlds Collide and War of the Worlds; and illustrators, N.C. Wyeth, Norman Rockwell and Maxfield Parrish.
Perhaps their biggest influence was Walt Disney, especially his Snow White, Pinocchio and Fantasia. They dreamed of becoming Disney animators. While they did not work for Disney, they became animators and documentary film-makers, working on a film about Project Hope for the Jam Handy Co., industrial film producers. Jam Handy won the Golden Eagle award for this film.
Shortly after leaving Detroit for New York they worked for Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen making documentary films on world hunger.
They illustrated the Sword of Shannara, painted the movie posters for Barbarella, Clash of the Titans, and the world-famous Star Wars. Then they went on to write and illustrate their own epic fantasy novel, Urshurak. Which was on the New York Times Bestsellers List for 6 weeks.
In 1981 they pursued separate careers. During the 80’s Greg’s art appeared on covers for Omni and Heavy Metal. The Franklin Mint & Lenox issued his work on collector’s plates, figurines, dolls, and swords. His art has been on advertising for ABC and Dr. Pepper and licensed on dozens of additional products.
In l984, Greg illustrated Mary Stewart’s Merlin Trilogy. Lady Stewart wrote to the publisher and said that her words and characters were moving around in Greg’s world.
Greg has illustrated 15 classics. Including: The Wizard of OZ, Aladdin, Robin Hood, Dracula, and Phantom of the Opera. There are over 3,500,000 copies in print of the combined titles. The New York Times has said “Fortunate the child or adult who receives a gift of the classics richly illustrated by Greg Hildebrandt.”
Tim illustrated calendars for TSR, Dungeons & Dragons, Realms of Wonder and The Dragon Riders of Pern. He painted sci-fi/fantasy covers including; Amazing Stories, The Time of Transference and The Byworlder. He was commissioned to paint the cover for The illusion of Life by Disney animators Ollie Johnson and Frank Thomas. Tim’s art has been on advertising for AT&T & Levi’s and on packages for Return of the Jedi.
After 12 years the Brothers reunited in 1993. They worked on Marvel posters, pre-production art for Stan Lee & Michael Uslan, producer of the Batman Films, a King Tut book, the 1994 Marvel Masterpieces card set, X-Men & Spiderman card sets, Terry & The Pirates comic strip and an X-Men 2099 painted Bookshelf edition released in January 1996.
Greg’s art is collected by many famous people, some of whom include: Michael Jackson, Robin Williams, the owner of Word Perfect and Jacqui Lefrak. In 1993, the centerfold painting of The Unexpected Party, from the 1977 Tolkien calendar, sold for $150,000.
In 1999 Greg began to paint a life-long dream. He created his American Beauties series of Retro Pinup art. There are presently 49 amazing paintings in this series and Greg says the possibilities are endless.
In 2003 he began creating art for the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Since Greg loves Rock Opera there could not be a better match than his art and TSO’S music. 2009 marks Greg’s seventh year creating all the art for Paul O’Neill and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.
With his American Beauties Pinup Series Greg has touched on many individual areas. He has painted Noir Pinups, good Girls, bad girls, show girls, tough girls and sad girls. Recently he has focused on girls and cars, mostly antique, the cars not the girls. Greg will be at the Barrett-Jackson automobile auction in Palm Beach Florida from April9-11 for the first time.

Automobile Quarterly Magazine did a feature article on Greg in the 4th Quarter of 2008 and used one of his favorite pinups on their cover. This was a real honor for Greg.
The art of Greg Hildebrandt allows the fantasies and dreams of children of all ages to come true. Come dream with us.

Unfortunately, Tim Hildebrandt passed away in June of 2006. We miss him.

Greg is represented exclusively by the Spiderwebart Gallery. You can see Greg Hildebrandt and Brothers Hildebrandt art and collectibles at:
http://www.spiderwebart.com - or
americanbeautiesart.com or email
jean@spiderwebart.com
or call 973-770-8189