Items Similar to Mid-Century Cigarette Ad Illustration
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 12
Mary BlairMid-Century Cigarette Ad Illustrationca 1955
ca 1955
$25,000
£18,897.11
€21,675.77
CA$34,851.03
A$37,938.19
CHF 20,137.61
MX$456,478.05
NOK 255,170.85
SEK 233,808.61
DKK 161,873.31
About the Item
Disney Legend Mary Blair was also a commercial illustrator for national brands such as Maxwell House Coffee and Beatrice Foods, and two complete national campaigns for Pall Mall cigarettes. The present work was part of her Pall Mall cigarette campaign "'So friendly to your taste!'". We are unsure whether this work was a reproduced, or was only used in a test market , or for a client comp. Nonetheless, as a piece of commercial work-for-hire art, it rises to the realm of fine art. Even though the look of the work has a quick, loose and playful feel to it, each element is carefully placed to strike a perfect balance. In this campaign, the artist created the background, and the art director stripped in the product label. The cigarette to the left is also a cut-out and pasted into position to achieve the ideal look. Commercial art is, in almost all cases, a collaborative effort between the Art Director, the Artist, Account People, and the Client, yet in this case, the Mary Blair signature flat graphic and colorful style is dominant and the packaging is secondary. We have to assume the client, American Tobacco Company's brand Pall Mall was trying to sell the sizzle and not the steak. Nothing in advertising is done by chance. This Pall Mall campaign was acutely tested, and apparently, the Mary Blair style was the brand identity that the ad agency chose over other submissions. Blair's warm personal feel fits perfectly with the tag line "'So friendly to your taste!'" and connects with the audience. In the 1950s - 1960s, Mary Blair was one of the few women artists to design and execute a major mainstream advertising campaign that was not solely women-oriented subject matter: babies, women's clothes, and household products. Cigarette ads had some of the most significant budgets and visibility. Typically, they were a full page back or inside cover and pervasive billboards. The ad agencies could have called any artist in the world, and they would have jumped at the opportunity for such a sought-after, lucrative
and prestigious job. In the commercial art field, Mary Blair was somewhat like Margaret Burke White in that she was one of the first women to have crossed over into a predominantly male area. In this regard, Blairs commercial work is in no way inferior to her more well know Disney work. In fact, it should be considered on equal footing.
The work is unsigned . Framed under glass to 20.25" x 23.25"
Provenance: Mary Blair Family Trust.
- Creator:Mary Blair
- Creation Year:ca 1955
- Dimensions:Height: 13.75 in (34.93 cm)Width: 10.75 in (27.31 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement Style:
- Period:
- Condition:very good.
- Gallery Location:Miami, FL
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU385316827962
About the Seller
5.0
Vetted Professional Seller
Every seller passes strict standards for authenticity and reliability
Established in 2005
1stDibs seller since 2016
122 sales on 1stDibs
Typical response time: 1 hour
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Shipping from: Miami, FL
- Return Policy
More From This Seller
View AllBaby
s House Kitchen Interior - Woman Illustrator Mid-Century
Located in Miami, FL
Famed Disney artist Mary Blair was also an illustrator for assignments outside Disney.
The present work appears to be for a Gelolo Mchugh children's book called Baby's House. There i...
Category
1950s Feminist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Gouache, Illustration Board
Glamorous Redhead Iconic Mid-Century Illustration
By Al Parker
Located in Miami, FL
Glamorous Redhead is a poster-like iconic image that sums up an era in American visual history - The 1950s. Al Parker is a giant in the history of American Illustration. He possess...
Category
1950s Modern Portrait Paintings
Materials
Gouache
Yo Yo - Feminist Female Illustrator
By Barbara Nessim
Located in Miami, FL
The current work, Yo Yo, is rendered by a pioneering Feminist Female Illustrator a trailblazer and friend and roommate of Gloria Steinem.
to include: "Yo Yo", 1967, signed and dated ...
Category
1960s Feminist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Ink, Watercolor, Archival Paper
Mid- Century Fashion Illustration - Neiman Marcus ?
By Marjorie Ullberg
Located in Miami, FL
1950's elegant fashion models pose depicted for a designer clothing line for a major San Francisco department store - Perhaps Neiman Marcus. Estate ...
Category
1950s Modern Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Watercolor, Pencil
Whimsical Graphic Design Abstract Collage - Brno Mechanic Bold Colors
By Ivan Chermayeff
Located in Miami, FL
World renowbed Graphic Designer Ivan Chermayeff creates whimsical abstract collage characters in bold colors . Here we have Brno Mechanic.
Mixed media collage on paper, 1998, signed 'Ivan Chermayeff', titled and dated lower right. on heavy Arches paper. Framed under plexi 33.5 x 25.5
Slight Staining near glove and minor scattered surface soiling. Otherwise apparently in good condition.
Chermayeff & Geismar
It was founded in 1957 by the two Yale graduates Ivan Chermayeff and Tom Geismar as well as Robert Brownjohn, a protégé of László Moholy-Nagy and Chermayeff's father, industrial designer Serge Chermayeff, at the New Bauhaus in Chicago.[2] Brownjohn, who struggled with heroin addiction for most of his adult life, left the partnership to join J. Walter Thompson's London branch in 1959.
The firm has designed logos for such companies as Pan Am, Mobil Oil...
Category
1990s Abstract Geometric Mixed Media
Materials
Paper, Tape, Magazine Paper, Pen
Mid-Century Cosmopolitan Illustration Surreal Family Narrative
By Jon Whitcomb
Located in Miami, FL
A complex story is portrayed in one picture.
American Glamour Illustrator Jon Whitcomb interprets a Mid-Century Cosmopolitan story about a beautiful blond actress who, on set, appea...
Category
1950s Surrealist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Gouache, Illustration Board
You May Also Like
Midcentury Pop Art Oil Still-Life Painting Salvatore Grippi Red Salmon Banana
By Salvatore Grippi
Located in Brooklyn, NY
One of the original members of the Abstract Expressionist "New York School", Salvatore Grippi (1921-2017) exhibited in two of the famous New York Painting and Sculpture Annuals (1953...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Paint
Still Life, Pop Art Screenprint by Hunt Slonem
By Hunt Slonem
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Hunt Slonem, American (1951 - )
Title: Still Life
Year: 1980
Medium: Screenprint, signed and numbered in pencil
Edition: AP 25
Image Size: 26 x 19 inches
Size: 30 in. ...
Category
1980s Pop Art Still-life Prints
Materials
Screen
$600 Sale Price
20% Off
Untitled - Original Watercolor by Gustave Singier - Late 20th Century
By Gustave Singier
Located in Roma, IT
Untitled is an abstract composition drawing in watercolor realized by Gustave Singier.
Monogrammed by the Artist.
Included a Passepartout:49 x 34
Very good conditions.
Beautiful mixed colored composition on the tones yellow and red by the Belgian painter Gustave Singier (Comines-Warneton, 1909 – Paris, 1984), active in France as member of the new Paris School of Lyrical Abstraction and the Salon de Mai. After meeting the painter Charles Walch...
Category
Late 20th Century Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Watercolor
Clinton Hill, Paris, Oct., 1951 (France), mid-century abstract gouache drawing
By Clinton Hill
Located in New York, NY
Clinton Hill (1922-2003), created quintessential mid-century images.
He lived in SoHo, New York, and was a frequent Gallery visitor.
Born in Idaho and raised on a working ranch, ...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Modern Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Gouache
Clinton Hill, Paris, July, 1951 (France), mid-century abstract gouache drawing
By Clinton Hill
Located in New York, NY
Clinton Hill (1922-2003), created quintessential mid-century images.
He lived in SoHo, New York, and was a frequent Gallery visitor.
Born in Idaho and raised on a working ranch, ...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Modern Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Gouache
Gouache and Graphite Drawing on Board by Lois Field, Dated 1947
Located in New York, NY
Lois Field (Am. 1923 - 2010)
Untitled
Gouache and graphite on board, 1947
11 3/4” x 9”
Signed and dated Lois Field ‘47, lower left
Provenance
The artist, Webster Groves, MO (ca. 200...
Category
1940s Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Gouache
