Artist Feature: Helen Dryden

Helen Dryden was a successful woman artist of the 1920s and 1930s, doing fashion illustration for Vogue under contract from 1909-1922 and in the later 1920s also doing some industrial design. I just like the bright colors and whimsy of her illustrations - aren't they fun?

Art Feature: The Queenslander

Unlike like Emily, I do not put in too much effort to find out the artist of the illustrations I like. This is wrong of me, I know, but I'm lazy. That being said, all I know of these illustrated covers of The Queenslander is that many of them were done by either Esther Paterson, Garnet Agnew, Betty Paterson, Mcbain, and Lance Bressow. I found these wonderful images through  the State Library of Queensland, Australia on flickr. Please indulge in their glory.

About That Rain...

So, you know how I said how much I looooooove rain? Okay well maybe I exaggerated... Like a whole lot. Don't get me wrong, I really do enjoy a good downpour, however I overlooked one teeny-tiny aspect... MY STUFF IS NOT WATER PROOF. Oh and those "super awesome" galoshes I was bragging about? Yeah, they don't do shit in the type of rain I just encountered. And now my suede 30s heels are soaked. As are all of the clothes I was wearing. Also I forgot how scared of lightening I am... Yeah. So, rain is great and all but from now on I'm going to try to only appreciate it from a dry place unless I happen to be wearing water-safe clothes/swimwear.

So that's my little unnecessary update plus the few pictures I completely forgot to add last time.

I could have benefited from an outfit like this, today....

In other news, today a dead man was found in the river near my building. Cool, huh?

xxGracie

Artist Feature: Enoch Bolles

My blogging may be rather sparse over the next two weeks as I'll be moving back to Atlanta and then immediately heading out to Oregon for a few days for my cousin's wedding... 

So - I'll leave you with some eye-candy: the gorgeous and, ahem, very naughty artwork of Enoch Bolles! One of the most successful earlier glamour artists, he did cover art for tons of magazines in his heyday (the nineteen-teens through the 1940s), but he also did a lot of advertising work - an interesting and unfortunate little piece of trivia is that his "Windy Girl" work for Zippo lighters is often mis-credited to Alberto Vargas (who was in fact very influenced by Bolles).

While gathering up some pictures from around the web for this post, I happened across a fabulous blog dedicated to his artwork! Check it out if you like his images, there is a lot of good information (and tons of rare images) there. 

I just love the utter richness of his work: the jewel-toned color palates, the "overripe girls" (a perfect description from the folks at the Bolles blog), the impossible/ridiculous but wonderfully fantastical poses and situations of the Bolles girls. And as it is with any pinup work, his portrayals of the female figure are unrealistic: the girls have cartoonishly beautiful faces and impossible curves that could make Rita Hayworth look boyish, but that doesn't spoil it for me - in fact, its part of what I enjoy about his work, and good pinup art in general. It's not supposed to be realistic, its idealized and over-the-top and it doesn't take itself too seriously. 

But enough talk, here are just a few of the many beautiful illustrations done by Bolles. Believe it or not, I actually tried to choose his less-naughty/suggestive pieces - Google his name and there is some much more blush-inducing work of his out there! 

Enjoy!

1941. This gorgeous lady reminds me a bit of an inflated Hedy Lamarr... inflated boobs, inflated lips..

1916. "Look before you leap this year!"
This is definitely one of my top favorites! Because the first time I saw this I laughed out loud, very loud. And I still audibly chuckle most times I look at this. The guy's face is priceless, and it's a moment perfectly suspended in time, both sentimentally beautiful and genuinely humorous, something that I think is very difficult to pull off in images and is thus very impressive to me. I know the feeling of the guy in the water - I always get afraid of getting accidentally jumped on by friends at the pool, and I also always check the water before I jump off a diving board!

Artist Feature: Chéri Hérouard

Chéri Hérouard (1881-1961) was a French artist known for his numerous illustrations for the magazine La Vie Parisienne. Here are some of my favorite of his works - they're sometimes humorous, often sentimental, and always whimsical!

Artist Feature: Charles Dana Gibson

Charles Dana Gibson was an illustrator whose work was prominent from the 1880s to the end of WWI. I love his images for their humor, wry wit, and aesthetic loveliness (I do love the Gibson Girl look!), and I hope you enjoy them too!

Artist Feature: J. C. Leyendecker

Here are some beautiful illustrations from J. C. Leyendecker, the man responsible for creating the Arrow Collar Man and over 400 magazine covers from 1896-1950. The peak of his career was in the 1920s, and he would become a chief source of inspiration for (and friend of) Norman Rockwell. Unlike the other artists we've featured so far, there is considerably more information available on Leyendecker. I just used his Wikipedia page for the brief little introduction above.

I just love this one! 

Artist Feature: Leo Fontan

Leo Fontan, a French painter, is an artist I've recently discovered and am quite mad about. His illustrations/paintings are just gorgeous, simple yet full of eye-catching details, and have a whimsy and often a sense of mischief that I love. If you look him up on Google images, you will find that he appears to be a "leg man" - I swear about 1/3 of the images were these stocking-clad leg portraits he's done! Anyway, I gathered up some other ones because his people portraits are his best, I think! From what I could find, he was born in France in 1883, and died in 1965. Apparently he started losing his eyesight towards the end of his life, but he continued painting. And no wonder! This was pretty much all I could discover, there was only a French Wikipedia page on him.
Enjoy!

Subtitle translated reads "Queen for a Day".

Okay, I took French for 8 years but I'm not sure about this translation - Title: "Honeymoon".
Subtitle/caption:
- "I am sure that you don't love me anymore"
- "But why, my dear?"
- "Ah well... one couldn't dispute this since this morning!"
... this is all with high-school level training in French, so take it with a grain of salt. 

Translated, the title and caption read "Blue, White, Red" - "The Cockade of Mimi Pinson".

Artist Feature: Harrison Fisher

Born in New York in 1877, Harrison Fisher worked from the turn of the century until his death in 1934. And that's pretty much all I know about him. I'm not too interested in doing a bunch of research, I'm content to just admire his illustrations. Here are a few favorites:

"The Evening Hour" - I'm pretty sure this is my favorite of all. The best part? This was done for Cosmopolitan. Now I know this would never happen today, but come on, isn't this so much better than the stock photos of pretty but forgettable-looking people straddling each other in their underwear (Cosmo's illustration of choice nowadays)? This illustration leaves more to the imagination, but I wouldn't say it's prudishly subtle - I mean, with that image, and that caption, you get the idea. But its lovely to look at at the same time!

I just love this - I can't settle on what adjective describes it best, it can be two totally different things, depending on how you look at it. Romantic or humorous? Dark or whimsical? Beautiful or beautiful? 

Artist Feature: Charles Gates Sheldon

Greetings Blogoverse!

We’ve decided to start a series on illustrators and painters and photographers whose work we really love and admire. Most of them will be posted over the next few weeks, but from time to time as we discover/are reminded of new artists, we’ll add more. Hopefully this doesn’t bore you – but I think these artists will have wide appeal to the vintage crowd, after all, all the ones we’re featuring are vintage aged or antique! 

So here’s the first artist: Charles Gates Sheldon. I don’t know much about him (he hasn’t a Wikipedia page! Gasp!)… He was born in 1889 (one site says 1894?), died in 1960 (another says 1961!). The height of his fame as an illustrator was around the 20s and 30s, and he painted a lot of female celebrities and magazines covers, but he did work before and after those times. And that’s about all I know, besides that his portrait illustrations were stunning. Here are a few of my favorites, below. 

Enjoy!

The wonderful Katherine Hepburn.

Gorgeous Jean Harlow.

Whaddya know! The illustrator of our blog header! (Not specifically for us - I wish! - but you know what I mean.)

Yet Another Feast (For the Eyes)

Hello Blogoverse!

I’m just popping in to say hello, and to share some more lovely images with you. These are all from Silverbluestar's photostream (the same place I sourced these early 20^th century images). These are mostly from the 20s and 30s, and once again, I just don’t get tired of looking at these. I didn’t even notice the lady bits in one image until about the fifth time I looked at it, I was so distracted with the vivid and enchanting colors and scenery!

I just love this one. If I had a place to decorate, I would frame it. 

By Brunelleschi, 1925.

By Brunelleschi, 1926.

By Brunelleschi, 1927.

By Coppa, 1923.

By Corbella, 1925.

By Meschini, 1916.

By Meschini, 1928. A lovely scene, but after looking at it for awhile I realized that it's kind of amusing that this lady is being wooed/serenaded by, quite literally, a clown. Who knows, maybe she's actually leaning over that wall thinking how to best give him the ol' brush off politely. But I doubt that, it wouldn't fit what seems to be Meschini's characteristic romance in his images. Perhaps the clown has a voice like Dick Powell, or he is actually in a disguise because of some complicated, slap stick comedy-like circumstances. Ah well. It's better to imagine, I think. 

By Meschini, 1930. I want that coat. 

By Meschini, 1938.

Hope you all are having a wonderful weekend!

- Emily

A Feast for the Eyes

Recently I’ve become rather smitten with early 20^th century illustration. For awhile I pretty much exclusively paid attention to photographs (film stills, studio portraits, personal photos, etc) in my quest to satiate my aesthetic appetite, but (to continue the metaphor) I feel as if I’ve discovered a new and exotic cuisine in illustration.

Below are some images I gathered the other day from Silverbluestar's Flickr stream. I just love the colors and whimsy and romance – in both senses of the word. I hope you enjoy them too!

by Barbier, 1919

by Brunelleschi, 1912

by Barbier, 1914

by Lepape... I forgot to mark the year.

by Martin, 1913

by Romme, 1919

Maybe my favorite of the bunch! I forgot to get the artist's name though.

by Brunelleschi, 1914

by Wegener, 1914

- Emily