Wednesday, April 4, 2012

In the Beginning: Jean-Gabriel Domergue



Jean-Garbiel Domergue (1889-1962) claimed to be the inventor of the pinup illustration. Apparently he never saw covers of American girlie magazines of the late 1920s, but maybe he had another criterion for staking his claim. In any case, the image above shows his version of a pretty girl that had evolved by the 1940s; by that point, nearly every female face he painted looked pretty much like what you see. Skeptics can Google on his name and then select Images if you need more evidence.

If I'm sounding grouchy it's because I do not like Domergue's evolved, standardized image. What makes me even more grouchy is that some of his earlier work was pretty nice -- very 1920s. Shall we take a look?

Gallery

La danseuse du corde - 1925

Emmy Magliani poster

Pierrette au masque - 1928

Woman with Greyhounds - 1930

Germaine-Yvonne Frank, ballet dancer - 1931

Femme assoupie

Femme en noir a Venice

Cannes poster - 1939
Here Domergue's ultimate style can be seen emerging.

1 comment:

Alana Morgana said...

Gostei muito do seu blog! Parabéns!
Alana Morgana