Rolf Armstrong

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Rolf Armstrong
File:Rolf Armstrong self portrait 1914.jpg
Self portrait, 1914, pastel on board
Born John Scott Armstrong[1]
(1889-04-21)21 April 1889[2]
Bay City, Michigan,[2] United States
Died Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist.[3]
Oahu, Hawaii
Nationality American
Education Art Institute of Chicago[4]
Known for Pin-up art, Illustrator
File:Rolf Armstrong in his studio.jpg
Armstrong in his studio, with one of his so-called "Armstrong Girls" in the background. (1930)
Armstrong in the process of painting Rudy Vallée. (1930)

Rolf Armstrong (April 21, 1889 – February 22, 1960) was an American painter of pin-up art.

Biography

Rolf Armstrong was born in Bay City, Michigan on April 21, 1889 to Richard and Harriet (Scott) Armstrong. His father owned the Boy-Line Fire Boat Company, which included a line of passenger ships. Some were deployed in Chicago for use at the Chicago World's Fair there in 1893. However, the father's business and family were struggling, and the family homestead was lost to foreclosure. In 1899, the family moved to Detroit, Michigan.

Rolf's father died in 1903, and a year later he and his mother moved to Seattle, Washington, following the footsteps of his oldest brother, William, who had moved there a year earlier. By now Rolf's artistic interests were emerging to more than a part-time pleasure.

He moved to Chicago in 1908, where he later studied at the Art Institute. He then went on to New York, where he studied with Robert Henri.

After a trip to Paris in 1919 to study at the Académie Julian, he returned to New York and established a studio. In 1921 he went to Minneapolis to study calendar production at Brown & Bigelow.

During the 1920s and 1930s, his work appeared on many pieces of sheet music, as well as on the covers of many magazines, most famously for movie fan magazines such as Photoplay and Screenland. His work mostly consists of women; Mary Pickford, Bebe Daniels, and Greta Garbo are just a few of the numerous he has painted.

Armstrong's work for the Pictorial Review was largely responsible for that magazine achieving a circulation of more than two million by 1926. A year later, he was the best selling calendar artist at Brown & Bigelow. In 1930, RCA hired him to paint pin-ups to advertise their products, and in 1933 the Thomas D. Murphy Calendar Company signed him to produce a series of paintings for their line.

Rolf Armstrong died in 1960 on the island of Oahu, Hawaii as one of the best "pin-up" artists of the first half of the twentieth century.

Gallery

  • Womans Home Companion 1916-04.jpg

    Woman's Home Companion, April 1916

  • Rolf Armstrong Metropolitan Aug 1918.jpg

    Metropolitan, August 1918

  • Photoplay August 1920.jpg

    Mae Murray, Photoplay, August 1918

  • Anna Q. Nilsson Photoplay Nov. 1918.png

    Anna Q. Nilsson, Photoplay, November 1918

  • Anita Stewart Photoplay Dec. 1918.png

    Anita Stewart, Photoplay, December 1918

  • Rolf Armstrong Metropolitan Jan 1919.jpg

    Metropolitan, January 1919

  • Photoplay January 1920.jpg

    Norma Talmadge, Photoplay, January 1920

  • Photoplay february 1920.jpg

    Olive Thomas, Photoplay, February 1920

  • Alice Joyce Photoplay March 1920.jpg

    Alice Joyce, Photoplay, March 1920

  • Pearl White - Apr 1920 Photoplay.jpg

    Pearl White, Photoplay, April 1920

  • Clara Kimball Young - May 1920 Photoplay.jpg

    Clara Kimball Young, Photoplay, May 1920

  • Photoplay July 1920.jpg

    Martha Mansfield, Photoplay, July 1920

  • Photoplay february 1921.jpg

    Rubye De Remer, Photoplay, February 1921

  • Photoplay March 1921.jpg

    Priscilla Dean, Photoplay, March 1921

  • Dorothy Phillips, Photoplay, May 1921

  • Photoplay June 1921.jpg

    June Caprice, Photoplay, June 1921

  • Photoplay August 1921.jpg

    Bebe Daniels, Photoplay, August 1921

  • Photoplay September 1921 - Betty Blythe.jpg

    Betty Blythe, Photoplay, September 1921

  • Agnes Ayres - Oct 1921 Photoplay.jpg

    Agnes Ayres, Photoplay, October 1921

  • Photoplay November 1921.jpg

    Marion Davies, Photoplay, November 1921

  • Lillian Gish, Photoplay, December 1921

  • Olga Petrova - Mar 1922 Photoplay.jpg

    Olga Petrova, Photoplay, March 1922

  • Mabel Ballin - June 1922 Photoplay.jpg

    Mabel Ballin, Photoplay, June 1922

  • Alice Terry - Sep 1922 Photoplay.jpg

    Alice Terry, Photoplay, September 1922

  • Screenland, January 1930.jpg

    Bebe Daniels, Screenland, January 1930

  • Rudy Vallée, Screenland, January 1930

Rolf Armstrong's Gallery of Screen Beauties

In the January 1930 issue of Screenland, Rolf Armstrong chose sixteen actresses to symbolize different colors. Here are the original captions and portraits in the order which they appeared in the magazine.[5]

  • Mary Pickford - White.jpg

    White - Light could not be painted without it. No other color can take its place. - Mary Pickford

  • Ann Harding - Lemon Yellow.jpg

    Lemon Yellow - The tip of a flame. Pale winter sunlight. - Ann Harding

  • Lupe Velez - Chrome Yellow.jpg

    Chrome Yellow - The gypsy color—primitive, elemental. - Lupe Vélez

  • Bebe Daniels - Cadmium Orange.jpg

    Cadmium Orange - The glowing combination of red and yellow. - Bebe Daniels

  • Clara Bow - Vermilion.jpg

    Vermilion - Vibrant: dominating: dynamic. - Clara Bow

  • Estelle Taylor - Rose Madder.jpg

    Rose Madder - Dusky, rich, deep red—color of roses and rubies. - Estelle Taylor

  • Corinne Griffith - Cobalt Violet.jpg

    Cobalt Violet - Evocative of fragile, costly, sophisticated femininity. - Corinne Griffith

  • Billie Dove - Cobalt Blue.jpg

    Cobalt Blue - Clear, definite, polished blue of enamels. - Billie Dove

  • Nancy Carroll - Willow Green.jpg

    Willow Green - Youth. The color of Spring. - Nancy Carroll

  • Vilma Banky - Cerulean Blue.jpg

    Cerulean Blue - Smiling, unclouded perfection of summer skies. - Vilma Banky

  • Marion Davies - Emerald Green.jpg

    Emerald Green - Gay, vivid, daring—a rollicking, sparkling color. - Marion Davies

  • Mary Brian - Ultramarine Blue.jpg

    Ultramarine Blue - Vigorous, direct—color of sunny seas. - Mary Brian

  • Gloria Swanson - Purple.jpg

    Purple - The regal color. Fire of red, spiritual range of blues: transparent, yet with the power and depth of dark tones. - Gloria Swanson

  • Indigo Blue - Mysterious, oriental, dramatic, exotic. - Eve Southern

  • Evelyn Brent - Van Dyke Brown.jpg

    Vandyke Brown - The tone of Rembrandt shadows—deep, remote, warm. - Evelyn Brent

  • Greta Garbo - Ivory Black.jpg

    Ivory Black - Impenetrable, sombre, yet capable of innumerable variations of beauty. - Greta Garbo

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Dobson, Wooldridge 2001 (p. 10.)
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Dobson, Wooldridge 2001 (p. 13.)
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

References

  • The Great American Pin-Up, by Charles G. Martignette and Louis K. Meisel, ISBN 3-8228-1701-5
  • Rolf Armstrong: The Dream Girls by Ben Stevens [1]
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External links

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