André Edouard Marty, Pochoir Illustrator and More

André Edouard Marty (1882-1974) was an École des Beaux-Arts graduate best known for fashion illustration. Two brief biographies are here and here. They both note that Marty was one of four artists whose work appeared every year of the existence of leading fashion journal Gazette du Bon Ton (1912 to 1925).

The Bon Ton featured color illustrations produced by the pochoir (stencil) method. A description is here. Below are examples of Marty's work, some in pochoir, others using more conventional, less tedious methods.

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Fashion illustration - 1913

Les ailes dans le vent - 1919

À l'Oasis La Jupe Lumineuse - 1919

Escaped bird

From Gazette du Bon Ton

La porte du salon ouvrit

La douce nuit - Gazette du Bon Ton - March, 1920

Le pouf

Vogue cover - 1 April, 1925

Vogue cover - 12 March, 1926

Vogue cover - Late January, 1926

Vogue cover - Late August, c.1925
The covers shown here are from French, British and American editions of Vogue. Haute couture was and is quite international.

London Underground Poster - 1933
Marty did posters for the Underground for a few years in the early 1930s.

Léon Benigni: 'Tween-Wars Fashion Illustrator

Léon Benigni (1892-1948) was one of several fashion-related illustrators whose similar styles helped to visually define the years between the two world wars.

Unfortunately, aside from his dates and the names of many of his clients, there seems to be next to no biographical information about him on the Internet. One example of this paucity is here.

Here are some images of Benigni's work for clients in France and elsewhere.

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This seems to be considered his most famous poster design.

Some fashion illustrations, some perhaps for magazine covers.

No signature, by credited to Benigni on the Web.

A 1936 illustration showing a style adjustment to keep up with illustration fashions of the 30s.

From 1935, a minimalist fashion illustration.

Below are four examples of illustrations Benigni made for 1931 Cadillacs and LaSalles. Click on them to enlarge.

Ernst Deutsch-Dryden: Elegant Illustrator

Ernst Deutsch-Dryden (1887-1938), born in Vienna, died in Los Angeles, changed his last name from Deutsch to Dryden following some sort of plagiarism scandal. A German-text Wikipedia entry for him is here, but the automated translation is awkward. This is often the case, given German syntax. Also, his last name (Deutsch) is translated as "German" which is what Deutsch means in English, and this might add confusion for some readers. Much of the same ground is covered in English here.

Apparently Deutsch-Dryden (I decided to use both last names) was personally elegant as were the elegant subjects he depicted so elegantly.

His subjects were usually ladies and automobiles -- especially Bugattis.

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No, not radios: this Blaupunkt (Blue Dot) was a brand of cigarettes.

Poster for Bugatti Automobiles featuring a Type 35.

Cover art for Die Dame (The Lady) magazine. Yes, that's a Bugatti in the background.

Die Dame automobile number cover, November 1928.

Perhaps Die Dame cover art for its 1926 Christmas number.

Die Dame cover illustration.

Elegant scene.

Fashion illustration with a Bugatti-like car.

Fashion art with Venice as setting.

More elegance, but casual here.

Jane Régny was the pseudonym for a Parisian fashion designer specializing in sportswear.

John C. Wenrich: Forgotten Architectural Delineator

John C. Wenrich (1894-1970) was a fine architectural delineator. While he wasn't as famous as his near-contemporary Hugh Ferris, he was involved in some important projects, one of which was Rockefeller Center.

Biographical information on Wenrich is scanty. This link is the best I could find using Google. And here is a blog dealing with Wenrich at a site featuring architectural illustration. It was the source of some of the images below.

The current post presents some of Wenrich's Rockefeller Center work. He had a nice, effective touch that wasn't as dramatic or impressionistic as Ferris' renderings often were.

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This features the Maison Française (left) and British Empire Building (right) separated by the "channel." The buildings as completed feature less ornamentation than shown in the rendering.

Rendering of 30 Rockefeller Plaza, best known to me as the RCA Building.

An earlier rendering showing the RCA Building. The two tall buildings to the left were conjectural. The left-hand one was never built, but a building somewhat similar to the one to the right exists, though it lacks the tower and other details vary. Wenrich included the Empire State Building (3/4 of a mile -- about one kilometer -- south on Fifth Avenue) at the far left.

Another rendering done at about the same time as the previous one. Those two tall buildings on Fifth Avenue appear, as do the low-lying Maison Française and British Empire Building nestled between them.

Showing rooftop gardens on the Maison Française and British Empire Building. These buildings actually received such gardens. The orientation of Wenrich's image is a view from the southwest, where St. Patrick's Cathedral is shown at the top of the image on the other side of Fifth Avenue.

This 1932 rendering depicts a proposed rooftop garden on the Radio City Music Hall theatre. It was never made, the same being the case for the skybridge shown crossing West 50th Street.

This later rendering is of Rockefeller Center's essentially completed first phase planning. It doesn't quite agree with what was actually built. For instance, a Music Hall rooftop garden is still included.

Up Close: Maxfield Parrish's King Cole Bar Mural

Maxfield Parrish (1870-1966) was famed in his day as an illustrator and painter. The advent of modernism forced him towards eclipse, but his reputation has grown considerably in recent decades. His Wikipedia entry is here.

Parrish's works seem to be mostly in private collections along with a few scattered museums. For many of us, the most conveniently seen examples are murals in two bars. The west coast example is his Pied Piper mural at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco. The other is the King Cole mural in New York City's St. Regis Hotel. The locale is the King Cole Bar that I briefly visited last September.

The mural dates to 1906 and has been in the St. Regis since 1932. Happily, it was given a cleaning a few years ago, as this New York Times article mentions.

Here are some photos from our visit.

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Here it the whole huge thing. It is comprised of three joined canvas panels, the joins being clearly visible.

The left-hand section showing the fiddlers three.

The central section where King Cole occupies his throne.

The right hand section showing the arrival of his pipe and bowl (that seems to be a jug here).

A close-up of Cole taken by my wife who seems to have had her camera's flash activated, to judge by the colors compared to my non-flash photos. King Cole is wearing glasses that fog over his right eye. Moreover, he doesn't seem to be "a merry old soul," as the poem would have it. Elsewhere on the Internet can be found a possible explanation, and I leave it to any interested Constant Readers to discover this on your own.

Larry Stults' Hupmobile Illustrations

Elwin Martin (Larry) Stults, Jr. (1899-1996) was a commercial artist active from the 1920s into the 1940s and perhaps for a while beyond. The Stults website has some biographical information here. It seems he spent part of his career working in Haddon Sundblom's shop (I wrote about Sundblom here).

Stults is perhaps best-known for his illustrations for Hupmobile cars that appeared in 1926 and 1927. He invariably included an attractive young woman in his illustrations; men were optional. I like these ads because they are so very-1920s, a time that has interested me for most of my life.

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That sort of dog is also seen in 1920s and 30s Art Deco designs.

The woman is very nicely done, -- the car, not so much.

Here Stults tries a flatter, more diagram-like approach.

The car's perspective is incorrect, but the lady is just fine aside from exaggerated proportions.

This last illustration might not have made its way into an advertisement.