Joseph Csatari American, b. 1929

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In a career spanning more than 60 years, Joseph Csatari has painted portraits of presidents, world leaders, celebrities and athletes, illustrations for more than 300 book and magazine covers, print advertisements, corporate works, and other paintings depicting the American scene.



Csatari is often described as the “heir to Norman Rockwell,” his mentor and friend with whom he worked for eight years as art director of Rockwell's Scout calendar paintings. Commissioned to be Rockwell’s successor as the official artist for the Boy Scouts of America in 1977, Csatari captures the spirit of hope, honor, and patriotism in his paintings. In recent years, Csatari has produced paintings commemorating the 100th anniversaries of World Scouting, the Boy Scouts of America, the Eagle Scout award, and the Order of the Arrow. During his 60-year association with the BSA, he has created more than 150 Scout-themed paintings and drawings.



Csatari’s illustrations have appeared in the Saturday Evening Post, Time, Reader’s Digest, McCall’s, Field & Stream, and Outdoor Life. He has created book covers for such publishers as Simon & Schuster, Avon and Bantam Doubleday Dell. His corporate and advertising clients includes Merrill Lynch, Nabisco, Roy Rogers Inc., Coleman, State Farm Insurance, Taft Broadcasting, and Scotts Miricle-Gro. His oil painting commemorating the MacArthur Bowl and the first college football game in 1869 between Rutgers and Princeton hangs in the National Collegiate Football Hall of Fame. Csatari also received commissions for two United States Postal Service stamps, “Seeing for Me” (1979), which honors the Seeing Eye Guide Dog Program, and “The Gift of Self” (1981), to commemorate the centennial of the American Red Cross.

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One of America's leading portrait artists who works in oils, watercolor, pastel and charcoal, Csatari has made portraits of hundreds of individuals, including patriot Samuel Adams, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, First Lady Betty Ford, Archbishop Theodore E. McCarrick, Sanford McDonnel, Thomas Watson, and James Whitmore. 



Csatari’s artwork has been recreated on collectible plates, in figurines and medallions. His paintings have toured nationally and his permanent Boy Scout collection of paintings is housed alongside Norman Rockwell’s at the National Scouting Museum in Irving, Texas.

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He has received numerous awards throughout his career, including the Award of Excellence in Editorial Art from the Art Directors Club of NJ, a Gold Medal for Editorial Art Directing from The Society of Illustrators of New York, the Distinguished American Award from the American Hungarian Foundation, and the Boy Scouts of America’s Silver Buffalo and Silver Beaver Awards.

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Csatari is a member of The Society of Illustrators of New York, the Northern Ohio Illustrators Society, the American Hungarian Foundation, and the Bill Denny Chapter of the National Football Foundation.

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Csatari is the author of Norman Rockwell's Boy Scouts of America,  Dorling-Kindersley Books, 2009.

He lives in South River, NJ, with his wife Susan.