Friday, December 19, 2008

Spreading Some Holiday Cheer


I'm just offering a little holiday eye candy today, all the covers I've picked out have similar poses. Bolles did a lot of Christmas themed paintings along and others with winter settings, and you'll be seeing more of these in the coming days. I'm also working on a post about a Bolles painting that I've been on the trail of for the past two years and thought lost, only to get news two days ago that it mysteriously resurfaced. The story is so convoluted that it will take me a while to piece it together for you.
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On our right we have a charming example of Bolles in his mid-20s period. Despite how relaxed his painting is he still invests it with telling details. I especially like the greenery that adds a diagonal sweep to what would otherwise be a rather static composition. See how he deals with this problem with this Film Fun cover from 1930 which is supposed to be Nancy Carroll. About all Bolles got right was the hair color but he did do a few of these "specially posed" covers that were pretty good likenesses and I have a really great portrait he did of her a year later. My guess is that the editors thought these would sell magazines, but it really works against Bolles' strengths. With the possible exception of the Lupe Velez Film Fun cover (which is the best of the lot) I'm sure Bolles used photos, but his daughter told me that she had heard that Lupe actually posed for him. A few years ago the original to the Nancy Carroll painting was sold on eBay and I sure wish I could get a good scan of it. Speaking of scans I've left the first two covers unaltered but have included yet another similar example below from 1929 that I've cleaned up. Let me know what you think. Last I finally have gotten my Google analytics up and working so now I'll be able to see if anybody's reading these other than me.

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