Above: A double catch

Above: Detail of red-headed fly fisherwoman

A rare and outstanding situational pin-up painting used as calendar art for The Louis F. Dow Calendar Co., circa 1950. Image is playfully titled A Double Catch.

This was purchased by a gentleman the day he got back from the Viet Nam War in the early 1970’s. The Dow Calendar Company rented a downtown Saint Paul hotel and sold off their paintings and original calendar art at $50.00 a painting!

This is a major find and has never been on the market since it was purchased thirty years ago. Great composition and outdoors man-themed, fly fishing/rainbow trout scene in perfect flawless condition as seen.

Above: Oil on canvas in simple and vintage to painting original painted wood frame

Above: The catch

Here is some additional biographical information on Vaughan Bass from The Pin-Up Files:

Bass appears to have been strongly influenced by the circle of artists that grew up around Haddon Sundblom. He was a Chicago artist who began his pin-up career working for the Louis F. Dow Company in St. Paul during the mid-to-late 1930’s.

Bass created his own pin-ups for for Brown and Bigelow, but he was then employed by the Louis F. Dow Company as a “paint-over’ artist, commissioned to redo the work that Gil Elvgren had previously created for the company. Dow was motivated by economic interests, hoping to earn more money from such “redesigned” Elvgrens.

Fortunately, Bass was a skilled and sensitive artist and strove to leave the faces, hands, skin, and other key areas of the Elvgrens essentially untouched. However, he occasionally had to repaint an arm or hand because it had to be repositioned to accommodate a new over painted image.

Above: The artists signature lower left

Bass’ painting style was often compared to that of Elvgren, Buell, and Ballantyne. He worked in oil on canvas in almost the same sizes as the others. In the 1950’s, the versatile Bass did a series of spectacular oils depicting wrestling scenes that clearly demonstrated his ability to be comfortable with any subject matter. He created the “Wonder Bread Girl” in the 1950’s using his daughter Nancy as his model. His portrait of President Dwight D. Eisenhower is in the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.