Alberto Vargas was born in Peru and became one of the most famous pin-up painters. These charming prints are from an Esquire calendar of 1945 and were sold for 25c. These lovelies are still as enchanting today as they were 80 years ago.
Vargas’ early career in New York included work as an artist for the Ziegfeld Follies and for many Hollywood studios. Ziegfeld hung his painting of Olive Thomas at the theater, and she was thought of as one of the earliest Vargas Girls. His most famous piece of film work was the poster of the 1933 film The Sin of Nora Moran, which portrays a near-naked Zita Johann in a pose of desperation, bearing little resemblance to the real actress. The poster is frequently named one of the greatest movie posters ever made.
Vargas became famous in the 1940s as the creator of iconic World War-II era pin-ups for Esquire magazine known as “Vargas Girls.” Between 1940 and 1946 Vargas produced 180 paintings for the magazine. The nose art of many American and Allied World War II aircraft was inspired and adapted from these Esquire pin-ups, as well as those of George Petty, and other artists.
In 2004, Hugh Hefner, the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Playboy, who had previously worked for Esquire, wrote: “The US Post Office attempted to put Esquire out of business in the 1940s by taking away its second-class mailing permit. The Feds objected, most especially, to the cartoons and the pin-up art of Alberto Vargas. Esquire prevailed in the case that went to the Supreme Court, but the magazine dropped the cartoons just to be on the safe side.”
A legal dispute with Esquire over the use of the name “Varga” resulted in a judgement against Vargas. He struggled financially until 1959 when Playboy magazine began to use his work. Over the next 16 years he produced 152 paintings for the magazine. His career flourished and he had major exhibitions of his work all over the world.
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