A spectacular original oil painting on canvas-board of a pretty pin-up girl which was created by the Chicago-based female illustrator Pearl Frush for Grapette Soda,  a brand with which the artist was closely associated. The luminous, all-American allure of the model provokes comparison to the Coca-Cola advertising illustrations being created by Haddon Sundblom, a colleague and mentor of the artist. This dates to the 1940s, when the advertising works and pin up calendar images by the talented Frush were in high demand. Handsomely matted and framed under glass in a period wide profile gold frame.

Pearl Frush was one the twentieth century’s leading female pin-up illustrators, and worked steadily with many of the USA’s premiere calendar companies. She was adept at creating life-like illustrations using pastel, gouache and watercolors.

Born in Iowa, she initially enrolled in art classes in New Orleans, with further training in Philadelphia and New York, Before eventually studying at the Chicago Art institute under Charles Schroeder. Her first studio was opened in the early 40s, at a time when Vargas was only just reaching the masses through Esquire. The attention to detail on Frush’s artwork was often much more intricate than that of similar artists, lending an almost photo-realist quality to some of her work.

By the 50s, she was one of the top female pinup artists, and as often seems to be the case when an artist excelled during this period, she came to the attention of Brown and Bigelow. During her time working for them, she created a hanger calendar for release in 1956.