Enoch Bolles (3 March 1883 – 16 March 1976) was an American painter of

pin-up art A pin-up model (known as a pin-up girl for a female and less commonly male pin-up for a male) is a model whose mass-produced pictures see widespread appeal as part of popular culture. Pin-up models were variously glamour models, fashion models ...

. He was among the earliest and most widely circulated glamour illustrators. While known today solely as a pinup artist, Bolles was a versatile illustrator who also worked extensively in the advertising industry, creating hundreds of attractive color illustrations for products ranging from bread to cigarettes. His most widely reproduced advertising illustration is the "Windy Girl" for

Zippo A Zippo lighter is a reusable metal lighter produced by Zippo Manufacturing Company of Bradford, Pennsylvania, United States. Thousands of different styles and designs have been made in the nine decades since their introduction, including milita ...

lighters. This work, produced in 1937, has recently been reissued as the Vargas Windy Girl and has appeared in well over 100 variations on Zippo lighters.

Biography

Bolles was born in Boardman,

Marion County, Florida Marion County is located in the northern portion of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 375,908. Its county seat is Ocala. Marion County comprises the Ocala, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area. it includes part ...

, the son of Enoch Bolles, Jr., a chemist in the

perfume Perfume (, ; french: parfum) is a mixture of fragrant essential oils or aroma compounds (fragrances), fixatives and solvents, usually in liquid form, used to give the human body, animals, food, objects, and living-spaces an agreeable scent. Th ...

industry, and Catherine Keep. After his father's death, the family moved to

Newark, New Jersey Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area.Harrington, New Jersey.Enoch Bolles at Pulpartists.com
/ref> Bolles studied at the

National Academy of Design The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, and others "to promote the fin ...

, and his first illustrations were published in 1914 on the covers of humor magazines, such as ''

Judge A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...

'' and '' Puck''. He became best known for illustrating ''Film Fun''. In 1923 he became the exclusive cover artist for the

pulp magazine Pulp magazines (also referred to as "the pulps") were inexpensive fiction magazines that were published from 1896 to the late 1950s. The term "pulp" derives from the cheap wood pulp paper on which the magazines were printed. In contrast, magazine ...

''Film Fun'' and continued in this role until the magazine folded in 1943, a victim of the Postmaster General's campaign against 'salacious' material. In addition to his 200 covers for ''Film Fun'', Bolles painted at least 300 more for spicy pulps, including ''Breezy Stories'', ''Pep'' and ''New York Nights''. None of this work was signed and most of it remains unattributed. Bolles' monthly lineup of all-American beauties precisely posed in wildly imaginative costumes did much to define the future of American pin-up illustration, and remain popular today. He was also a versatile illustrator who created advertising for many products, including Sun-Maid Raisins and Zippo lighters. Psychological problems ended Bolles' professional career in 1943 and confined him to

Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital (also known as Greystone Psychiatric Park, Greystone Psychiatric Hospital, or simply Greystone and formerly known as the State Asylum for the Insane at Morristown, New Jersey State Hospital, Morris Plains, and M ...

in New Jersey for most of the rest of his life, but he continued to paint commissioned portraits and for personal pleasure. He was eventually discharged from hospital in 1969, and died from heart failure at the age of 93.

References

Bibliography

* ''The Great American Pin-Up'', by Charles G. Martignette and Louis K. Meisel, * "Beauty by Design: The Art of Enoch Bolles", by Jack Raglin, ''Illustration Magazine'' (#9), 2004 * "The Art Stars of Film Fun", by Jack Raglin, ''Illustration Magazine'' (# 14), 2005.

External links

Enoch Bolles at American Art Archives Blog dedicated to BollesPhoto of painting by Enoch Bolles
American illustrators Pin-up artists 1883 births 1976 deaths 20th-century American painters American male painters 20th-century American male artists Pulp fiction artists {{US-painter-1880s-stub