Above: Full view of large pastel

Above: The artist’s distinctive signature

A large and radiant calendar girl pin up pastel by Billy DeVorss created for The Thomas D. Murphy Calendar Company of Red Oak, Iowa. DeVorss had a studio in New York City in the Beaux Arts Building and worked for many Calendar Companies of the day creating large format pastel illustrations of modernist fashionable attired heart-breakers in an inventive art deco manner.

Above: Detail

Above: Verso label with artists NYC studio address

Above: Thos. D. Murphy verso label

DeVorss was a self taught artist who also created pin ups for The Louis F. Dow Calendar Company of Saint Paul, MN. He also created numerous covers for the early girlie magazine titles of the day such as Titter, Flirt, and Whisper. The “DeVorss Girl” was often times dressed to the nines in the over the top trappings of current fashion and art deco style. We rarely come across his original pastels, this retains a verso label from The Thos. D. Calendar Company and was a published calendar printed commissioned work and thus a prized surviving example.

Above: Framed and lined behind glass

Above: Frame profile and detail

Below is a WWII-era photograph of the 487th squadron and a Billy Devorss image titled “Honey-Moon” as wing-art on their B-25 combat plane, showing the far reaching impact of Devorss’ imagery within the pin-up art genre.

Above: The 487 Squadron alongside the Devorss adorned B-25 bomber plane