Above: Full View of Pastel

Above: The artists signature

An alarmingly beautiful and decorative work by the undisputed king of illustration art Alberto Vargas / Varga. This is a large early (pre Esquire Magazine) pastel by this Peruvian born master.

This art deco era original glamour pin-up pastel was used as calendar art in 1935 by The Joseph Hoover & Sons Calendar Company under the title Summertime. In pristine untouched original condition. An original salesman sample copy of the original published calendar print is included with sale.

Above: Detail

Above: Verso stamp on Illustration Board

Above: Framed View in simple wood frame

Alberto Vargas was born in Peru in 1896, the son of a commercial photographer. After landing at Ellis Island in 1916 he quickly found himself doing illustrations for Florence Ziegfeld’s wildly popular and sexually charged vaudeville era burlesque The Ziegfeld Follies. In 1919 Vargas painted 12 watercolors depicting the erotic, and often nude, art deco jazz age female stars, borrowing from Raphael Kirchner’s stylized illustrations of French Follies showgirls in La Vie Pariisienne.

Later Vargas worked for Paramont Pictures art department, creating glamorous depictions of the era’s early talkie and silent movie film stars. Other 1920s commissions included covers for Tatler & The Dance Magazines, as well as full page color plates for Shadowland Magazine and other risque jazz age magazines which took an interest in his eye for feminine beauty.

The 1930’s found a vast array of clients for the gifted and ambitious artist. He did 2 commissioned calendar works for Joseph C. Hoover & Sons Company one of which Summertime (1935) is being offered for sale exclusively via GrapefruitMoonGallery. In October 1940 the first Varga Girl gatefold calendar was published by Esquire Magazine (upon hiring the artist Esquire dropped the “s” from his last name for copyright reasons) and cemented the artists reputation and created a scenario where his name was synonymous with pin-up and glamour art. We are proud to offer this original pastel work by the most celebrated and prolific glamour artist of all time.

Above: Titled printers text on published salesman sample print included with sale

Above: The artists signature & date on vintage printed sample print included in sale

Above: Printed Joseph Hoover & Sons calendar sample of illustration included in sale

Above: The other Hoover & Sons Vargas commissioned 1930’s work titled ” An Evening Star ”