Pin-Up Girls Before & After, 1950s
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Very nice pin-up, with stocking
It’s very nice to see evidence of how Gil Elvgren respected his models artistically, in that his images weren’t just libido-induced fantasy figures but (slightly enhanced) real women. Indeed, in an Elvgren pin-up it’s usually the woman who’s the most interesting thing, and not the ‘naughty bits’ at all.
In the dog and puppy “before” picture, can you see the bulldog clip holding her sweater tight?
The 50′s version of photoshop
So…apparently the models’ bodies were good enough, but not their faces?
In at least half of these, if not all of them, the models look better than the women in the paintings. The paintings just add a feel of the fantastical.
Karen-
The models were actually his wife (just with different haircuts at different times obviously) so he had to change up the face and characteristics like hair between paintings so that he wasn’t painting the same thing over and over.
The photos of her are meant more as stock reference for the artist than a “before” image. It’s what a lot of famous painters and artists have done over the years (used human models for reference) because it is extremely difficult to draw human anatomy without reference.
Lo’s post says all the models are the same woman and that it’s Elvgren’s wife. Not true.
The first 8 pictures are of Janet Rae, who was never married to Elvgren. She was his next-door neighbor, and did pose for many of Elvgren’s famous works, but his wife was Janet Cummins, who never modeled for Gil.
The last picture is of Myrna Hansen, who was Miss USA in 1953, and went on to a moderately successful career in movies and TV. She was never married to Elvgren, either.
Chris, it’s an old trick that’s still used these days, especially in fashion photography when an outfit wasn’t tailor made for a model and cannot be altered.
Terrific! (The models and the paintings.) Love Elvgren.
Bigger eyes, mostly.
The real models were super-attractive! Love those nose-cone bras and the gals who had the figures to wear them.
This article should be labelled “50′s pin up girl paintings and reference photos” The current title is incorrect.
fter shots, shades of Norman Rockwell.
He was superb.
Auckland beat me to it — Rockwell occasionally took pictures of his models and then worked from the photo as well. And of course Disney, in his attempts to achieve realistic detail and motions in his early animated films like “Snow White” and “Bambi”, had his animators work from photos, sketches, and films of live animals and actors.
And I rotate various Elvgren images as the wallpaper on my computer and cellphone. There’s something undefinable but still appealing in the slightly ‘naughty’ pictures from the ’50s that is lacking in the ‘let it all hang out’ images of today.
-”BB”-
those are AMAZING. And I love all the background information that your Commenters have made. so educational!!
Thank you for this post – great pictures! Great insight into Elvgreens work! Also: so much art got lost at Photoshop nowadays …
Awesome! Great to know women were “photoshopped” back then too…pffft.
Dear Retronauts, I’m a chilean free lance journalist and saw in http://www.businessinsider.com an article about this pin ups and the old fashion photoshop. So I ended here in your website and wanted to ask you if is it possible to use these images for an article in Las Últimas Noticias (www.lun.com), putting your credits in the photos and also in the text.
Thanks
oh funny