Art Contrarian

Monday, March 7, 2016

In the Beginning: John La Gatta

John La Gatta (1894-1977) was a very successful illustrator whose career peaked in the 1930s. I devoted this post to his Golden Years work.

There was more to his career than that, of course. So this post deals with some of his illustrations made before the late 1920s when his fame was taking hold.

La Gatta loved to depict women. Many of his illustrations included men, but they almost always played a supporting role to gorgeous females. However, when he was getting started in illustration, men were usually his subject matter, and it took much effort on his part to persuade art directors that his interest and talent were focused elsewhere.

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Life magazine cover - 5 August 1915
La Gatta did do some illustrations featuring women from the start. This poster-style art was painted when he was about 21 years old.

Soap advertisement - 1917
A conventional illustration here, no sign of La Gatta's characteristic style yet.

Soap advertisement - c. 1918
Many artists, La Gatta included, had trouble correctly drawing British-type "tin hat" helmets that Empire and American forces used.

Varnish advertisement - c. 1918
Another Great War related advertisement. La Gatta is using his "masculine" style necessary for industrial clients such as Pratt & Lambert.

Streetcar scene - about 1920 or before

Ivory Soap advertisement - 1920
Again, pre-classical La Gatta style.

Fashion art - 1922
By 1922 he was able to focus more on female subjects. La Gatta did a good deal of fashion-related illustration during the 1920s and early 30s.

Illustration from 1924
This is close to La Gatta's style with line work supplemented with washes. The subject's feet aren't quite positioned correctly, being a bit far to the left of her head for proper balance; in real life, she might fall down.

Photoplay magazine illustration - January 1925
Ten years after the Life cover shown above, La Gatta is hitting his stride.

Swimsuit ad art for A.G. Spalding & Bros. - 1926
He usually worked with models, but I have to suppose he managed this illustration using photographs or a lot of good imagination.

Stirling Silversmiths advertisement - 1926
He is still in a transition zone in 1926: these women aren't quite as La Gatta -like as the girl in the bathing suit a couple of images above.

Thursday, March 3, 2016

Ottomar Anton: Poster Artist for Travel ... and the SS

Ottomar Carl Joseph Anton (1895-1976) was a poster artist whose work was mostly in the clean, simplified, moderne style that was especially popular during the 1930s. His Wikipedia entry is here, but was only in German when this post was drafted. The translator on my computer did a fairly good English rendition, but a few details were given misleading meanings.

The bulk of Anton's production had to do with travel -- usually for steamship lines, but also for air travel by dirigible.

However, there was another side to Anton. He joined the National Socialist German Workers Party in 1933, about the time Hitler became Chancellor. Then in 1936 Anton joined the Schutzstaffel -- the SS -- and created many posters for that organization from then through World War 2. He was jailed after the war and released in March 1946. He was able to revive his career following that.

Below are examples of his work.

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Advertising special fares to London and Scotland.

Probably from autumn 1928, publicizing travel to the Mediterranean early the next year, getting away from winter in the north. The scene is on the African coast.

Again, the Mediterranean, but here are mentioned Portugal, Spain, Morocco, Mallorca, the Riviera and Egypt.

Under the image of a ship's captain the headline stresses cheap travel.

A poster with space at the bottom for placement of local contact information. In this case, two locations in or near downtown Vienna.

"To South America in 3 Days!" this proclaims. The Graf Zeppelin only takes one as far as Rio, so to reach Buenos Aires, you'd have to catch an airplane.

The claim here is crossing the ocean in two days.

A sailing week near Kiel, showplace of the 1936 Olympics sailing regatta.

Now to the SS. The caption says "Your Future," the German word for "your" being the familiar, not the formal, term.

The illustration here is used for multiple message variations. In this instance, it is in Dutch for a Flemish audience asserting that "like blooded" Germans, Flemings, Dutch, Danes and Norwegians can stride together in the Waffen-SS. A major appeal, which got some response, was to join the Germans in the fight against Communism.

Again using the familiar "you," an appeal to Frenchmen to join the SS military to fight Communism.

Now it's 1958, the war is over and Anton is back to travel poster work, this one featuring a Norwegian fjord.

Monday, February 29, 2016

George Washington Lambert, 1905-1910

George Washington Lambert (1873-1930), born in St. Petersburg, Russia, lived in Germany and England before migrating to Australia in 1887, went to Paris around 1900, to London the following year where he remained until returning to Australia in 1921, living there until his death from heart failure, age 57. He is generally regarded as Australian, as that was his citizenship.

His short Wikipedia entry is here. It mentions that he was the father of noted musician Constant Lambert (1905-51).

So far as I am concerned, the most distinctive period of Lambert's career was approximately 1905-1910, and the images below are from then. Lambert's style was strong, featuring solid, visible drawing. Faces are usually painted smoothly, but other parts of the same painting are often somewhat blocked in using disciplined, visible brush strokes.

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Equestrian Portrait of a Boy - 1905

Sybil Walker in a Red and Gold Dress - 1905

Lotty and a Lady - 1906

Portrait Group: The Mother - 1907

The Sonnet - 1907

Portrait Group - 1908

Miss Alison Preston and John Proctor on Mearbeck Moor - 1909

King Edward VII - 1910

Holiday in Essex - 1910

Thursday, February 25, 2016

Fernand Toussaint, Yet Another Interesting Belgian

Fernand Toussaint (1873-1956) was a Belgian painter who, like so many other competent artists from that country and elsewhere, failed to make a serious mark in the Paris-dominated art world of his time. Perhaps for that reason biographical information on the Internet is slim, the most detailed being here.

I just referred to Toussaint as "competent." There is nothing wrong with that, and it's surely better than being incompetent. His defect, to the extent he had one, was that his work didn't stand out strongly. To put it another way, there wasn't a large dose of individual style that proclaimed Toussaint!! to the world.

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Arranging Flowers

Le Sillon - poster
Around 1900 many Fine Arts painters also did commercial work such as this.

Bruxelles la vie moderne - c. 1905
Correct me if I'm wrong, but this looks like the Boulevard Anspach or thereabouts.

Jeune femme contemplant de croquis
She is looking at sketches, it seems. The style is also sketchy.

La collectioneuse - 1913
A more committed appreciator of art.

Portrait de femme
This looks unfinished, but Toussaint signed it, so it's done.

Three Strollers

Seductive Pose
I guess I forgot to mention that one of Toussaint's specialties was painting attractive women.

Woman with a Fan
I like this mural style painting, probably because it reminds me of the work of Frank Brangwyn (who spent time in Belgium).

Monday, February 22, 2016

Saturnino Herrán: A Mexican Brangwyn and Lambert

Saturnino Herrán (1887-1918) was a Mexican painter who died aged 31 after an operation for a gastric problem. His Wikipedia entry is here and a longer biography that includes an evaluation of his work is here. Charley Parker blogged about him here.

Herrán was an almost exact contemporary of Diego Rivera, a more famous -- but lesser, in my opinion -- painter. One wonders whether Herrán would have evolved his subjects and style in the direction of Rivera, Orozco, Siqueros and others whose careers spanned the 1930s and often dealt with political subjects.

As it was, his style apparently was influenced by Frank Brangwyn and, to my mind, is similar to many of George Washington Lambert's works. Herrán was an excellent draftsman and his paintings include lines that help define his subjects. In a word, it can be called muralistic. But then, he also painted murals, so it all makes sense.

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