Monday, April 16, 2012

Elvgren Girls In Photos

Gil Elvgren would frequently work from photographs as opposed to a live model who sat there for long periods of time. Not always, but since he did, we have these great photos to compare with his own works.

Again, we see an artist playing with lines. When created, the fact that some of the lines on the girl have been subtly, and sometimes even wildly, exaggerated isn't very salient. It doesn't stand out as it does with Photoshopped models of today because it hasn't entered the uncanny valley. Every element of the image has been built from the ground up by the artist to match every other element. When the same principles that make these images coherent and sexy are applied to photos of real women, the results are awful.

The below photos were scavenged from multiple websites, and the bulk of them appear to be of a model named Janet Rae; you can see her in the first photo. Compliments of a single collector (her son, I believe), who uploaded them to his Flickr page, the images are available to the net-addicted public. Fans of Elvgren everywhere thank you very much. He is rumored to be working on a book about his mother's work, which would be fantastic. It would be a perfect companion piece for Louis K. Meisel's book on Elvgren.

A Grand Slam - 1961

A Fair Shake - 1960

The Right Touch - 1958

A Lot At Steak - 1955

A Neat Package - 1961

A New Wrinkle - 1961

A Sharp Lookout - 1961

A Surprising Turn - 1960

A Warm Welcome - 1959

All Yours - 1958

Appreciative Audience - 1960

Be My Guest - 1963

Best Foot Forward - 1958

Bewitching - 1956

Charming Trick - 1961

Claws For Alarm - 1958

Cooling Off - 1958

Curving Around - 1960

Ditzler Advertisement

Eye Popper - 1960

Fall Changeover - 1952

Fit To Kill - 1965

Fresh Breeze - 1956

Gina - 1959

Going Places - 1959

Have a Heart - 1964

Help Wanted - 1960

Just For You - 1961

Last Stand - 1961

Lucky Chaps - 1962

Lucky Dog - 1958

Measuring Up - 1961

Mimi - 1956

Modest Maneuver - 1969

Partial Coverage - 1960

Phone-a-Vision - 1969

Plenty Sharp - 1959

Pot Luck - 1961

Pretty Cagey - 1953

Puppy Love - 1957

Real Swinger - 1965

Riding High - 1958

Success! - 1958

Ruffled Feathers - 1967

Screen Test - 1968

Sheer Comfort - 1959

Sitting Pretty - 1953

Skirting the Issue - 1956

Something New - 1957

Swingin' Sweety - 1968

Taking a Chance - 1962

The Right Scale - 1960

The Right Touch - 1958

TV Spectacular - 1959

Unexpected Lift - 1961

Unknown date and title


Up and Cunning - 1955

Upsetting Upset - 1969

Wanted - 1961

Welcome Traveler - 1955

Well Built - 1961

Well Picked - 1965

Wish You Were Near - 1969

With The Greatest of Ease - 1959

Worth Crowing About - 1954

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