Today we are beyond thrilled to have the opportunity to post the first guest blog on Grapefruit Moon Gallery. Jack Raglin, America’s premiere scholar of Enoch Bolles, and an all-around great guy to know, took the time to investigate Meet Your Water Lure the newly posted Film Fun cover we added to the website yesterday. You can find his full treatment of the art on his website enochbolles.blogspot.com and we encourage you to give yourself at least a full day to explore that site. The history and lore Raglin has unearthed about the artist, and his insights about the continuing influence of Bolles on popular culture are not to be missed.

In the meantime, here’s a liberal excerpt from his blog on this beauty.

What a treat! This is the original painting to the July 1940 cover of Film Fun and it was only recently that I learned she was still around. Bolles may well have painted her in Greystone Hospital, where he sometimes enlisted nurses to serve as models. It not only is a fantastically preserved example of his late work but an unusual one on several accounts. The night scene is unique among all Film Fun covers and there are many details evident, including the stars, that were lost in the magazine printing. Bolles said an engraver once strongly encouraged him about using the color red and this advice was taken further here than just about any other cover Bolles did, and to good effect too. He had some great swim suit designs in his 1940s covers but this suit tops them all. How about that red vest-cummerbund detail. And take a gander at those Victory curls! His treatment of hair could be rather loose at times but there is an amazing, almost mathematical precision to her hairdo.

Thanks again to Jack for for taking the time to explore this lady in red with such passion, and for being a friend of the gallery!