On Tap: National Beer Drinking Day

Our man Bolles pulls a pint for us to celebrate this effervescent occasion.  The subject matter was as far removed from his speciality as could be, but he still really nailed it. It should be no surprise that at the same time he painted this cover in 1922 he was busy working as a food product illustrator for one of the largest advertising companies in the U.S.  Bolles himself was only a modest imbiber who never would be found in any of the gin mills his fellow "picture-makers" frequented such as the Kit Kat club.  His grandson once told me he went rediscovered a taste for beer late in his late 80s!  A decade later this cover reappeared, the editors of Judge had another artist duplicate this image (or try to) and they were equally lazy to the point of recycling the exact same copy line.  Bolles was long gone from Judge by then, but he was prideful enough about his work that if he happened to have passed it on the newsstands he wouldn't have been any too pleased.