I'm back to using Bolles covers to celebrate national or not so national holidays, and here's a fun example from a 1930 issue of Spicy Stories published during a period when Bolles was conducting a lot of fruitful experiments cross pollinating compositions and themes. I'm not quite sure of the intended storyline but I bet you could come up with several convincing scenarios.Many of Bolles' best covers for Spicy were done during this brief period. Unfortunately it didn't last long. By the end of 1930 Bolles was entering what might be called his bobble head phase, with the product being disconcertingly young looking girls. The most troublesome examples appeared on the covers of Spicy, largely given the content and underground market for the magazine. A couple years later his girls were reproportioned, heads smaller and other parts larger. Theories abound, but perhaps it was simply a change in diet.
P.S., I've felt obliged to add word verification for comments. This is not intended to in any way constrain feedback or comments, which I am always interested in. It's just that this blog has become a target of a lot of spam and junk comments. Sorry for the added step this will require.
4 comments:
Jack, Definitely one of the more complex SPICY covers, very nice. I just noticed that Enoch painted the same girl in a tree for his FILM FUN cover that month, JUNE 1930.
Oh what a beauty! Thanks Jack. I'd not seen that one before. Gary's right about the great 'Bough Wow!' Film Fun cover, one of my all-time favorites, the same month. Gil Elvgren said the perfect pinup model has a 14 year old's face on an 18 year old's body, but he didn't paint skinny flapper girl bodies. So I think our man had the right idea; the girl's just weren't 'healthy' enough yet!
There are more great Spicy covers from this era,and fortunately I have great scans of them if not actual copies of them all. I'd never heard that quote from Elvgren. Very curious because I always thought the faces on his models were more womenly and girlish.
The great thing about figure art is... You are not limited by the model or your photo reference... If the the model's face is not pretty enough... change it. Her legs are too short... Make them longer and more slender. Renoir said he always knew when a nude painting was finished... When the image started to arouse him. I'm sure Bolles would agree with that good natured Frenchman.
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