Automobile Facial Expressions

Because the front ends of most automobiles have two headlamps and an opening to send air to the radiator, they can be said to resemble a human face -- the headlamps as eyes, the grille opening as the mouth.

Ordinarily, the notion of a car having a face is simply a mental construct. But in some cases, front ends seem to be faces with expressions. At times, this might have been the intention of the stylist, in other instances it could have been accidental.

Let's take a look at some examples.

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1949 Lincoln Cosmopolitan
Although I missed it, a number of observers have pointed out the "sad" look on 1949 Lincolns. Indeed, the outside of the grille was squared off for the 1950 model year apparently because potential buyers were put off the the '49s expression.

1950 Buick Special
I've never encountered a consistent set of reactions to the 1950 Buick's grille (that too was quickly changed for the following model year). Mostly observers found it outrageous. As for analogies to human expressions, the notions of "buck teeth" or "drooling" might apply.

1956 Oldsmobile 98
Oldsmobile sported a grille theme that evolved from 1946 through 1958. The endpoint versions are considerably different, but if one looks at Oldsmobiles year-by-year between those dates, the progression is noticeable. For the 1956 model year the cars had a fish-faced look because grille opening resembled mouths of certain fish.

2010 Acura TSX
The facial expression of this Acura is ambivalent. Seen on the street from certain angles, it seems rather harsh and sinister. But in the view in the photo above it looks like there is an odd, angular sort of smile.

2010 Mazda 3
On the other hand, the Mazda 3's face is clearly smiling.

Sir James Gunn

Sir James Gunn (1893-1964, he eventually dropped his first name, Herbert, in favor of his middle name) successfully practiced representational painting in an era when it fell out of fashion. Perhaps this was because he made his living as a portraitist with the Royal Family among his prime clients. Information about him is scarce on the Web, though this site has a biographical note along with a slide show of many of his works.

Gunn was born in Glasgow, son of a tailor who apparently owned a successful business, given the support James received. He studied at the Edinburgh College of Art and the Académie Julian in Paris. During the Great War he served with the Artists Rifles and later as an officer with the 10th Battalion, Scottish Rifles. He was gassed, which resulted in lung trouble for the rest of his life.

He married Gwendoline Hillman, widow of Captain G.S. Thorne, in 1919. They had three daughters, but divorced in 1927. He married Pauline Miller in 1929, that marriage lasting until her death after a long illness in 1950. They had a son and daughter. Pauline was the subject of numerous paintings. Gunn lived in the London area from 1925, but spent some time in Paris 1935-36. He painted many portraits of members of the British establishment including Prime Ministers Chamberlain and Macmillan, plus a group portrait of George VI's family and others of the Royal Family. He painted British officers, including Montgomery in France following the D-Day invasion.

Gunn was elected to full membership in the Royal Academy in 1961 and knighted in 1963.

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Gwendoline Hillman - 1925
Gwendoline was his first wife. Their marriage might have been heading for the rocks when this was painted.

Pauline, Wife of the Artist - c.1930
Painted not long after their marriage.

Pauline Waiting - 1939

Pauline in the Yellow Dress - 1944
Two more Pauline portraits.

Gracie Fields - c.1940
Fields suffered from cancer around the time this was painted.

July by the Sea

Roman Forum - 1929
Two outdoor scenes, the first probably from the early 1920s. Gunn also painted some sensational nudes not quite modest enough for this site.

Conversation Piece at the Royal Lodge, Windsor - 1950
The Royal Family supposedly at ease (though the posing is stiff).

Queen Elizabeth - state portrait - 1953-56

My take on Gunn is that he was highly competent, but lacking the additional trace of spark or flash needed to make him and his works memorable and his reputation stronger.

Thomas Anshutz

Thomas Pollock Anshutz (1851-1912) was a painter and art instructor who studied under and later worked with the better-known Thomas Eakins. Anshutz's Wikipedia entry is here.

He became the lead instructor at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts after Eakins left. His students included Robert Henri, George Luks, John Sloan, Everett Shinn and John Marin, all of whom are better known than him today. Nevertheless, Anshutz was a skilled painter whose lack of acclaim might in part be due to his not buying heavily into modernist artistic ideology (if his paintings are any evidence).

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The Ironworkers at Noontime - 1880

Woman Writing at a Table

Figure Piece - 1909

Lady with Bonnet

The Incense Burner - c.1905

A Rose - 1907
These last two paintings seem to feature the same model.

Ultimate Airliner Stretch

"Back to the drawing board" has become an extremely expensive option for airplane designers and manufacturers, given the complexity of modern aircraft. Rather than coming up with an entirely new model to meet customer demands, builders nowadays routinely modify existing designs until technological advances demand an entirely new product.

The Douglas company was following this strategy as far back as the 1940s and 50s with its series of four-motor prop-driven airliners ranging from the unpressurized DC-4 through the DC-6 and DC-7 models. So when turbojet-propelled airliners came on the scene near the end of the 1950s, Douglas was careful to plan its planes to have most of the fuselage as a uniform-width tube. If airlines demanded more seating capacity, it was comparatively easy to add sections to the fuselage to increase length. This was done with the DC-8 jetliner and carried out to an even greater extent for the DC-9. I don't have statistics handy to prove it, but I strongly suspect that the DC-9 was stretched relatively more than any other airliner over its production run and name changes.

Shown below are the original DC-9 and the MD-90 which exemplifies the ultimate stretch (final-production Boeing 717s were about the same size).

Information regarding the DC-9 series can be found here. The DC-9-10 pictured above was designed as a short-haul airliner with a moderate seating capacity of 70 to 90, depending on whether a first-class section was available. Fuselage length is 92.1 feet (28.07 m) and range was around 1,000 miles on average. The first flight was in 1965.

The MD-90 first flew in 1996, more than 30 years after that of the DC-9. Its length is 152 ft 7 inches (46.5 m), though this statistic might include part of the tail as well as the fuselage itself. According to the Wikipedia link, its capacity was 153-172 passengers depending upon availability of first-class seating. Range was around 2,500 miles.

The MD-90 was in many respects a different aircraft than the original DC-9-10. It had larger, more powerful engines and a different wing. Similarities centered on the fuselage. The cockpit window arrangement was essentially the same for all versions and all featured five-abreast seating for coach class with three seats on one side of the aisle and two on the other.

Note that the strongest visual difference is the length of the fuselage forward of the wing, the MD-90 having wings set seemingly ridiculously far aft. The arrangement was necessary; the long nose was needed to balance the weight of the large, heavy engines at the rear.

Lilias Torrance Newton: Canadian Portraits

Lilias Torrance Newton (1896-1980) was a Canadian painter specializing in portraiture. Her career overlapped those of the Group of Seven, and some of them even sat for her.

Biographical information on the Internet is sketchy, but her Wikipedia entry contains the basics.

Here style is the slightly simplified naturalism favored by some artists in the 1920s and 1930s who either felt they had to adopt a little modernism for commercial reasons or maybe simply liked that particular look. Below are some of her portraits.

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Self-Portrait - c.1934

Elise Kingman - 1930

Louis Muhlstock - c.1937

Ethel Southam (Mrs F.H. Toller)

Lawren Harris - 1938
Harris was a leader of the famous (in Canada but, alas, not elsewhere) Group of Seven.

Edwin Holgate
Holgate became of Group of Seven member not long before it disbanded.

Frances Holgate
I have no documentation, but assume for now that this portrait is of Holgate's wife.

Mario Cooper and His Glamorous Touch

The image above is a 1930 illustration by Mario Ruben Cooper (1905-1995). Yes, there are distortions, but who cares ... I think it's terrific.

Not much information on Cooper can be found on the Internet as I write this. Here is a collection of his illustrations, and here is a memoir by his wife.

Ernest W. Watson in his 1946 book "Forty Illustrators and How They Work" sketches Cooper's career on page 71 as follows: "Mario Cooper was born in Mexico City in 1905. His father was a Californian, his mother a native of Mexico. When Mario was nine, the Coopers moved to California where the boy received his education. He studied art at the Otis Art Institute and the Chouinard School. Later he studied at Columbia University under sculptor Oronzio Maldarelli. He plunged into the professional world via engraving house, art service, and advertising agencies. He became an expert letterer and layout man. He studied drawing in night classes wherever possible and copied the work of Dean Cornwell, Harvey Dunn and Pruett Carter." His professional break occurred in 1930 when Collier's magazine, a leading general interest publication, first accepted his work. Watson mentions that Cooper's preferred media were colored inks and watercolor.

Below are a few more Cooper illustrations.

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From "The Flower Illusion" in the 26 April 1941 Collier's

A Collier's illustration - 11 October 1941

"Murder in Retrospect" - Collier's - 24 October 1941

"Patience" - Esquire magazine - 1948
This might have been for an Esquire calendar.

Lincoln 1953-58 Syling: Size Seemed to Matter

Ford Motor Company's Lincoln brand has had its ups and downs as this Wikipedia entry indicates. On very few occasions near the end of the 1990s did Lincoln sales top those of Cadillac, its main domestic luxury car rival. And for much of its existence, Lincoln was a distinct also-ran to Cadillac in sales terms.

I haven't time here to explore the entire history of the marque, instead focusing a period of exceptional interest from a styling standpoint, the middle part of the 1950s decade. To set the scene, Lincoln's first post- World War 2 restyling yielded 1949 models based on two basic bodies. One body was shared with the 1949 Mercury. The other, larger body was for the Lincoln Cosmopolitan and unique to the brand. 1952 marked the next complete restyling. The large Lincoln was abandoned and bodies were shared with Mercury, resulting in a comparatively small car at a time when top-of-the-line cars were expected to be larger than average.

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1953
This is a mild face-lift of the 1952s. It is an attractive design that was quite modern at the time, especially the low hood feature. Also stylish was the fake airscoop on the rear part of the side. It was a decorative element intended to break up otherwise potentially plain, tall sides. Ford and Mercury also sported fake side airscoops.

1954
The next model year found the fake airscoop reduced to a bulge, the chrome strip defining the location of the notional air entry point being replaced by horizontal chrome strips intended to make the car seem longer.

1955
To my eyes, the 1955 Lincoln was the last and best looking of its cars based on the 1952 body. The side bulge has been reshaped in a racier manner. Headlight bezels are now extended ahead of the headlamp faces (the term for this was "Frenching"), slightly physically lengthening the car. Further lengthening was due to redesigning the tail-light assembly as part of a rear fender extension.

1956
Cadillac came up with a (for the time) futuristic new body design for the 1954 model year. Cadillacs were more squared-off (less voluptuous) than for 1953, but the big styling innovation was the wraparound windshield. It took Lincoln two model years to catch up with this total re-design. The 1956 Lincoln was much larger than in 1955, yet was a clean, attractive design.

1957
Sales of nearly all 1956 model year cars were disappointing compared to record-setting 1955 sales. Lincoln management fought back with a major face-lift even though its restyled 1956s outsold its aging 1955s. I always thought the 1957 facelift was an aesthetic disaster, but the cars sold better than in 1956.

1958
For 1958, Lincolns were totally restyled again, this time being based on a huge, heavy unitized body. The result was aesthetically better than for 1957, but not as nice as the 1955s and 1956s. Sales were down, however.