Monday, June 26, 2023

Pierre Mourgue, Fashion Illustrator

Pierre Mourgue (1890-1969) was an important French fashion illustrator.   Some biographical information is here.

Much of his work was published in Condé Nast's Vogue Magazine's French, British, American and German versions.  Examples are shown below along with other illustrations whose sources were not clear from Internet sources.

It seems that fashion illustration, along with its subject matter, follows its own set of fashions.  1920s illustrations tended to simplify human figures and clothing, creating flattening to various degrees depending on the artist or perhaps the art director.  In the 1930s fashion changed to free-style wash drawings, this persisting into the 1950s and beyond.  There also seem to have been some national differences, as Mourgue's 1920s cover illustration for German Vogue are more simplified than those he did for other editions.

In two words, Mourgue was both fashionable and versatile.

Gallery

Monsieur magazine cover - February 1921
Some of his comparatively early work was for a men's magazine.  Doesn't look like that guy on the right spent much time in the trenches around Verdun.

Illustration - 1927
Mourgue's illustrations sometimes used more shape modeling than was common at the time.

Illustration - 1928
Not a fashion illustration.

Vogue (Germany) cover - May 1928
An example of his simplified German style.

Vogue (USA) cover - 15 September 1928
Mourgue traveled to the USA a lot, according to the link above.  The background of this illustration seems to be a greatly enlarged New York Central Park lake.

Vogue (UK) cover - March 1929
All is flatly done save the car's steering wheel.

Vogue illustration - 1932
New decade, new fashion trend.

Patou dresses - c.1934
Original publication illustration, probably for French Vogue.

Vogue (USA) cover - 1 March 1935
The new fashion illustration style.

Vogue cover illustration - 1935
Another example.

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