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Alberto VargasGlorifying The American Girl1926
1926
About the Item
Medium: Watercolor, Ink and Appliqués on Board
Signature: Signed Lower Right
Sight Size 16.00" x 12.00", Framed 26.00" x 22.00"
Glorifying The American Girl. Four young fashionable women dressed up in gowns.
Preliminary Press Book Poster Illustration
Original preliminary Paramount Pictures exhibitors press book poster for the unfinished 1926 version of Florenz Ziegfeld's Glorifying the American Girl.
This painting was reproduced as figure 20 in The Great American Pin-Up by Charles G. Martignette and Louis K. Meisel, Taschen, 1996
Born Joaquin Alberto Vargas y Chavez, Alberto Vargas was a native of Arequipa, Peru, where his father was a professional photographer. After a few months of art training in Paris and his discovery of the nudes of Ingres and the sensual illustrations of the Austrian artist Raphael Kirchner, Vargas found his own direction. Simply put, it was not to make drawings and paintings of “perfect” women, clothed or not. Rather than returning to Peru, he came to New York in 1916 where he found work in a variety of low-paying art jobs. Meanwhile, he made samples of his dream girls. These were shown to the theatrical producer Florenz Ziegfeld, and resulted in his twelve-year association with the “Ziegfeld Follies,” drawing glamorized portraits of the show girls. This was followed in 1934 with similar contracts in Hollywood with Fox Studios and then Warner Brothers.
With the Depression still on and work becoming scarce, Vargas returned to New York and was signed up by Esquire magazine to replace the famous George Petty, then having a contract dispute with publisher David Smart. Vargas became an instant hit and Smart, determined to avoid another dispute with a prima-donna artist, induced the naïve Peruvian to sign a long-term contract that made him a virtual art slave, in which he even ceded the copyright of his name (Americanized by Esquire to “Varga”). A decade after the contract finally expired, Vargas found a haven with Playboy, and an amicable sixteen-year relationship which made Vargas famous with a new generation of readers. Over his lifetime, Vargas’s pin-up pictures were reproduced in uncountable millions. During World War II, they were a favorite with GIs, and his picture adorned innumerable footlockers, ships and planes as well as playing cards and calendars.
An excellent biography of the artist by Reid Austin was published in 1978.
Watercolor, Ink and Appliqués on Board
Signed Lower Right
- Creator:Alberto Vargas (1896 - 1982, Peruvian)
- Creation Year:1926
- Dimensions:Height: 16 in (40.64 cm)Width: 12 in (30.48 cm)
- Medium:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:Fort Washington, PA
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU38431028683
Alberto Vargas
Alberto Vargas (1896-1982) was born in Arequipa, Peru, in 1896, the son of a successful photographer, and was educated in Switzerland. Arriving in New York in 1916, he was determined to stay in America and pursue what became an illustrious career. His name has become synonymous with pin-up girls, but in the early 1940s, he was just a guy hired by Esquire magazine to imitate departed star George Petty, who bolted over pay. Vargas initially aped Petty's sleek women with their telephone posing and large-hat lounging; soon, however, his own distinctive, delicate watercolor style emerged. His wide-eyed wonder- women rivaled Betty Grable as the ultimate pin-up girl of World War II. Vargas, who signed his Esquire work "Varga", had already achieved some notoriety for his Ziegfeld Follies and movie poster art. But Esquire made him famous, though he was paid poorly and, like Petty, eventually quit. Legal problems over ownership of his work, even of his own signature, plagued him. But late in his life, Vargas was given a second shot at fame and fortune by longtime fan Hugh Hefner. His regular Playboy slot in the 1960s and '70s elevated Vargas to a pinnacle eclipsing Petty. One of the true giants of American illustration, Alberto Vargas has created an art style so sensuous, so exquisite, that for the past six decades his magnificent paintings of women have come to embody the fantasies of three generations of women and men around the world. His work also appeared in Harper's Bazaar, Theatre Magazine, and Tattler. He died in December 1982.
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