Fairy Lust

Here we have what is, to the best of my knowledge, Enoch's first cover for Film Fun, from 1922. I've photoshopped it but did so with my best approximation of how the chromatics of the original painting would have appeared, perfect printing permitting. There are several interesting aspect of the cover, first I admire the care put into depicting the moving picture camera, which looks to my naïve eye to be an accurate rendition of a particular model, and getting that detail right would certainly have been important to Bolles. Then there's that rainbow, which at first blush would seem to have been crudely rendered, with loose brushwork not at all evident in any of the rest of the composition. But Bolles didn't hurry over it. From examples I've seen by other artists of his era this blotchy sort of treatment was the standard method for depicting rainbows, far removed from the airbrushed look we now expect. I have no idea why this was or when illustrators made the change to the more homogenized effect. And of course the the most obvious points of interest are those iridescent fairy wings. My guess is the transparent effect with the title is courtesy of Bolles. Enoch was a master at lettering and could easily have done the lettering for this cover, which would have vexed even the best engraver.
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Next we jump ahead a few years 1929 and the inaugural cover of Ginger. I need not point out the differences which are obvious even to the most casual observer. In this case our Bolles girls is not only more assertively entwined (a Bolles theme we've dealt with in the past) but also essentially undressed, aside than the nondescript foot ware which qualifies as the most boring pair of pumps that ever graced a Bolles cover. But then, who would have bought this magazine for the shoes. Ginger lingered a couple years on the newsstands but this was the only cover graced by Bolles.

And finally we turn to our third bewinged maiden, from 1934, and once again, as best as I can tell, this is the first cover Bolles painted for this particular periodical. Gay Parisienne was a magazine that was in the eye of the decency squads the day it first hit the newsstands, no thanks to Bolles' smoking fairy (check out those hand poses!). Unlike Ginger, in this case he painted every subsequent cover of Gay Parisienne until the middle of 1938 (the magazine may have folded then, but
Bolles' health also took a turn downwards at the same time). And right at this very second it suddenly strikes me that this might be some sort of trend or signal by Bolles. Here we have examples of his inaugural covers for three different magazines, all featuring wings. Perhaps the editors were hoping the magazines would fly off the newsstands?

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Note: I'll be off for the next two weeks, but stay tuned. I'm working on a series about the girls who modeled for Bolles and will feature a previously unpublished painting!