Ok, so it was yesterday, but I'm not about to wait another year, simply to be calendarically correct. The Breezy Stories is a 1944 reprint from an issue I would bet was published in 1937 or '38. For whatever reason a very large proportion of Bolles originals that survive were painted during this two year period. It's too bad this cover suffers from such lousy printing but below I have reprinted the original painting, or what became of it. Bolles reworked a number of his paintings a 
nd again, most were originally done in 1937 or 1938. In my estimation the original is preferable to the repaint, but it does show how richer his palette was than what appeared in the printed version. I also think the repainting may have been a sort of warm-
up for his cover for the April, 1942 cover of Film Fun which could well be considered his most
brazen. I'll do an entire post on her soon and so you can judge for yourself.
8 comments:
i would say the orignal had much more of a sense of fun and sexy silliness to it but as you noted that repaint has a richer pallette and i think painted more skillfully. thanks for posting that nice big scan too!
I like the original version too, but I wonder how much of what looks to be a deeper pallette simply appears that way because of how badly the magazine cover was printed.
that's certainly a valid thought. one has to also wonder how much fading has occured to that mag cover in the decades it's been around.
I bet if I had the 1937 issue it would look better. There is perceptable drop-off in printing quality in the 1940s reprints of Breezy.
Greetings Jack, According to my image files the original publication was from December 1939.The image I have has been photoshoped, but looked nearly identical to the 1944 issue. The richness of the colors in the paint-over are a vast improvement over the earlier work, even taking into account the printing process.The Bolles Girl has taken on a new persona in the do over, a sullen , sultry mystique, very confident in her sexuality. Excuse me for going overboard, but a very nice painting. Jack, Can you tell us how many original Bolles paintings exist, that you are aware of?
Hi Gary,
Thanks for the info on this. I had no previous knowledge that Bolles did any Breezy's in 1939 and am surprised because he was hospitalized most of that year. He did several Film Fun covers from 1940-42 where the girl looks very similar to this painting and it almost seems he was going completely for hte Rita Hayworth look. I have a tally of Bolles originals that I know still exist but I'd have to pull some files together and count them up. What I'd like to do is post all the magazines year by year, and I'll put this information up soon.
Jack
Hi Jack, The BREEZY DECEMBER 1939 image I have was pulled off the internet, so there is no way to verify the date of publish, without having the magazine in hand. Do you still have your bollesfan1 email address? I can send you the image.
Hi Gary,
Yes I still have that email and use it (but I'm terrible at checking it). I'd be grateful for it. Thanks!!!
Jack
P.S., Thanks also for the idea for this post.
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