Willy Pogany, Illustrator

Meet the New Bossie, Same as the Old Bossie

Willy Pogany (1882-1955) was a Hungarian-born illustrator who produced a vast, diverse body of work in England and the United States. Working in a wide variety of styles, he illustrated books, art directed movies, painted murals for public and private buildings, wrote art instruction books, and who knows what-all. Prolific was the guy's middle name. For some extra details, see his Wikipedia entry.

Pogany was an excellent draughtsman, though he often put that aside to create extravagant drawings in the Art Nouveau and Art Deco styles.

Out of the Infinitely Surprising Scrap File I extracted this clipping from a 1934 Fortune magazine. It's a concept painting (as we call them these days) for the Technicolor finale of Kid Millions, a comedy-musical starring Eddie Cantor. The number takes place in a wild fantasy ice cream factory where scores of lovely Goldwyn Girls serve ice cream to a sea of brats. This kid-book-style watercolor showcases one of a thousand Pogany art styles.

1050s Gouache Technique

Heads Up!
Wandering through the scrap file I came upon these three heads clipped from some mid-1950s magazines. I post them as beautiful examples of the gouache painting style of the period. The dad and son were a story illustration for some women's mag while the nautical smoker starred in a Lucky Strike ad--probably from a male-oriented magazine like True. Artists unknown.