Albert Neville’s Flapper Girls

This opulent and provocative pastel on board is one of the many art deco glamour girl illustrations Albert Neville created during his career as a movie magazine cover artist, and freelance calendar illustrator.

Heavily inspired by the floating head flapper girls Rolf Armstrong specialized in during the 1920s, this shows a red headed flapper girl with lips to match, looking away from the viewer while teasingly playing with the edge of her low cut robe. While we do not have a copy of the calendar print, we have every confidence this was a published piece, likely created for the Mexican market.

This comes from the collection of Norm Platnick.

 

The Legacy of Norman Platnick

In his New York Times obituary, Norman Platnick’s son Will said that his father had three passions in life, his wife Nancy, spiders, and collecting.

Few individuals have the chance to leave a mark like Norm’s in even one field, let alone two. But Norm managed to be both a celebrated scientist, and one of the most influential lay historians of illustration art.

Under his imprint Enchantment Ink, Norm researched, wrote, and published collectors guides to artists like Rolf Armstrong and Earl Christy. We at Grapefruit Moon Gallery rely on these books in our work, and they are now all freely available as PDFs through the Enchantment Ink website.

Norm’s expertise was a gift, his friendship was a treasure, and his legacy is immeasurable. He is missed.