Rolf Armstrong (April 21, 1889 – February 22, 1960) was an American commercial artist specializing in glamorous depictions of female subjects. He is best known for his magazine covers and calendar art. In 1960 the New York Times dubbed him the “creator of the calendar girl.” His commercial career extended from 1912 to 1960, the great majority of his original work being done in pastel.

Personal life

Rolf Armstrong was born John Scott Armstrong in

Bay City, Michigan Bay City is a city and county seat of Bay County in the U.S. state of Michigan, located near the base of the Saginaw Bay on Lake Huron. As of the 2010 census, the city's population was 34,932, and it is the principal city of the Bay City Metropol ...

. His parents were Richard and Harriet (Scott) Armstrong. His father owned the Boy-Line and Fire Boat Company, comprising fire boats and passenger ships on the Great Lakes, including one that served the Chicago World's Fair in 1893. Due to increasingly financial difficulties, the family left Bay City in 1899 and moved to

Detroit, Michigan Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...

. Rolf had two brothers and a sister, all at least twenty years older than himself. After his father's death in 1903, Rolf lived for about three years with his eldest brother, William, in

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...

. There he became close to William's son, Robert Armstrong, who later achieved fame as a film and television actor best known for his role in

King Kong (1933) ''King Kong'' is a 1933 American pre-Code adventure fantasy horror monster film directed and produced by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack. The screenplay by James Ashmore Creelman and Ruth Rose was developed from an idea conceived by ...

. Rolf's brother, Paul, also had a brief but successful career as a New York playwright (1907-1915). After studying in Chicago and living and working in New York for several years, Rolf married Claire Louise Frisbie, a free-lance writer, in 1919. They had no children. Around 1930 they moved to

Bayside, Queens Bayside is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens. It is bounded by Whitestone to the northwest, the Long Island Sound and Little Neck Bay to the northeast, Douglaston to the east, Oakland Gardens to the south, and Fresh Meadows ...

, where Rolf had recently designed and built a house on an inlet of

Little Neck Bay Little Neck Bay is an embayment in western Long Island, New York, off Long Island Sound. Little Neck Bay forms the western boundary of the Great Neck Peninsula, the eastern boundary of which is Manhasset Bay. The political boundary between Nassa ...

. Rolf had learned to sail as a child and kept as many as eight sailboats at this property. Among these was ''Mannequin'', a decked sailing canoe he designed and raced, twice winning the

American Canoe Association The American Canoe Association (ACA) is the oldest and largest paddle sports organization in the United States, promoting canoeing, kayaking, and rafting. The ACA sponsors more than seven hundred events each year, along with safety education, in ...

br>Elliott Trophy (1932, 1934)
About 1935 Rolf and Louise left Bayside for Southern California in an apparent attempt to benefit from the movie industry. In 1939 they obtained a divorce, after which Louise immediately married Robert Armstrong. In 1939 Armstrong moved back to Manhattan, taking up residence for the next twenty years in the

Hotel des Artistes Hotel des Artistes is a historic residential building located at 1 West 67th Street in New York City near the west side of Central Park, Manhattan. Completed in 1917, the ornate 17-story, 119-unit Gothic architecture, Gothic-style building has bee ...

. In the 1950s he traveled extensively, visiting Europe,

Tahiti Tahiti (; Tahitian ; ; previously also known as Otaheite) is the largest island of the Windward group of the Society Islands in French Polynesia. It is located in the central part of the Pacific Ocean and the nearest major landmass is Austr ...

, and

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

. After several trips to the latter, he retired there permanently in late 1959. Shortly after this move, he suffered a mild heart attack, followed by a fatal attack on February 22, 1960. In accordance with his wishes, his ashes were scattered from an overlook on

Nuʻuanu Pali Nuuanu Pali is a section of the windward cliff (''pali'' in Hawaiian) of the Koolau mountain located at the head of Nuuanu Valley on the island of Oahu. It has a panoramic view of the windward (northeast) coast of Oahu. The Pali Highway ( Hawai ...

. In 1997, surviving friends and admirers arranged for placement of a grave marker at the Armstrong family plot in Elmwood Cemetery, Detroit, Michigan.

Education

Rolf enrolled in the School of the

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mill ...

in 1907 under the name Jack Armstrong. One of his four original roommates was Thomas Hart Benton, the noted painter and muralist. Armstrong moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

immediately upon graduation in 1911 and lived for a time in the

Lincoln Arcade The Lincoln Arcade was a commercial building near Lincoln Square, Manhattan, Lincoln Square in the Upper West Side of Manhattan, New York City, just west of Central Park. Built in 1903, it was viewed by contemporaries as a sign of the northward ex ...

where he attended classes held by

Robert Henri Robert Henri (; June 24, 1865 – July 12, 1929) was an American painter and teacher. As a young man, he studied in Paris, where he identified strongly with the Impressionists, and determined to lead an even more dramatic revolt against A ...

at the Henri School of Art. It was around this time that he changed his name to Rolf. Armstrong traveled to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

in 1919 to study at the

Académie Julian The Académie Julian () was a private art school for painting and sculpture founded in Paris, France, in 1867 by French painter and teacher Rodolphe Julian (1839–1907) that was active from 1868 through 1968. It remained famous for the number a ...

, and in 1921 he went to

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

to study calendar production at

Brown & Bigelow Brown & Bigelow is a company based in Saint Paul, Minnesota, that sells branded apparel and promotional merchandise. History The company was founded in 1896 by Herbert Huse Bigelow and Hiram Brown. On June 24, 1924, Bigelow was convicted fo ...

Magazine covers

Armstrong's first known published work is the cover of Judge magazine from January 27, 1912, also known as “A Live Wire.” Throughout this decade he built a reputation as a cover artist, producing over sixty covers for a variety of magazines including Metropolitan, Puck, Every Week, American Magazine, and The Stewart Lever. During the 1920s Armstrong achieved considerable commercial success creating a total of 65 portraits of silent screen actors (all but one female) for the covers of ''

Photoplay ''Photoplay'' was one of the first American film (another name for ''photoplay'') fan magazines. It was founded in 1911 in Chicago, the same year that J. Stuart Blackton founded '' Motion Picture Story,'' a magazine also directed at fans. For mo ...

'', ''

Screenland ''Screenland'' was a monthly U.S. magazine about movies, published between September 1920 and June 1971,fan magazine A fan magazine is a commercially written and published magazine intended for the amusement of fans of the popular culture subject matter which it covers. It is distinguished from a scholarly, literary or trade magazine on the one hand, by the tar ...

s. Among his better known subjects were

Mary Pickford Gladys Marie Smith (April 8, 1892 – May 29, 1979), known professionally as Mary Pickford, was a Canadian-American stage and screen actress and producer with a career that spanned five decades. A pioneer in the US film industry, she co-founde ...

Bebe Daniels Phyllis Virginia "Bebe" Daniels (January 14, 1901 – March 16, 1971) was an American actress, singer, dancer, writer, and producer. She began her career in Hollywood during the silent film era as a child actress, became a star in musicals such ...

, and

Greta Garbo Greta Garbo (born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson; 18 September 1905 – 15 April 1990) was a Swedish-American actress. Regarded as one of the greatest screen actresses, she was known for her melancholic, somber persona, her film portrayals of tragedy, ...

. As his popularity grew, he was the subject of featurettes in Photoplay and Screenland. Armstrong's work for the ''

Pictorial Review The ''Pictorial Review'' was an American women's magazine published from 1899 to 1939. Based in New York, the ''Pictorial Review'' was first published in September 1899. The magazine was originally designed to showcase dress patterns of German i ...

'' was largely responsible for that magazine achieving a circulation of more than two million by 1926. Other published works in the twenties include a cover for Collier's (1926) and two covers for the Saturday Evening Post (1923). In 1925 Armstrong contracted with the newly launched College Humor, a monthly magazine aimed at male college students, producing 68 covers over the following decade. As color photography came into its own, demand for original cover art waned in the 1930s. Armstrong's last known cover image is College Humor, March 1936. The great majority of Armstrong's magazine covers show the head only, and the originals that are known are relatively small works (less than 24” in greatest dimension). Approximately 200 total magazine images are known.

Calendar art

The earliest known calendar featuring an Armstrong image is from 1915. During the twenties and early thirties Armstrong's work appeared with increasing frequency as calendar art. These were often reused or reworked magazine cover images. One of the most popular of such images was Hello Everybody, originally the March 1929 cover of College Humor. This was the first College Humor cover showing the entire figure, as opposed to the head only. During this period Armstrong also produced works specifically for the calendar industry. Notable exceptions to the small pastels typically done by Armstrong in this period were five life-size oil paintings of the female figure entitled Cleopatra, The Enchantress, Arabian Nights, Carmen, and Song of India. All were published as calendar art, and having never appeared as magazine covers, were almost certainly created for this purpose. Calendar images became a larger part of Armstrong's work in the early thirties and his chief source of income within a few years. In 1927 Armstrong was the best-selling calendar artist at Brown & Bigelow and in 1933 the Thomas D. Murphy Calendar Company signed him to produce a series of paintings for their line. Around 1939 he landed a lucrative contract to produce exclusively for Brown & Bigelow, the largest calendar publisher at that time. Under this contract, which was renewed throughout the forties and fifties, he produced approximately six original pieces per year (fewer in later years). Most of Armstrong's later works produced for the calendar industry depict the entire figure, were done in pastel, and were of intermediate size (about 36” in greatest dimension). Approximately 180 calendar images are known, not including reworked cover images.

Other work

Many if not most of Armstrong's covers and early calendar images were reused for sheet music, postcards, and all manner of advertising items. In addition, Armstrong produced at least another 60 original images for magazine or other ads, including a series for

RCA The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...

around 1930. About the same number of unpublished sketches, student works, and portraits are known.

Summary of work

Along with

Howard Chandler Christy Howard Chandler Christy (January 10, 1872 – March 3, 1952) was an American artist and illustrator. Famous for the "Christy Girl" – a colorful and illustrious successor to the "Gibson Girl" – Christy is also widely known for his ico ...

Norman Rockwell Norman Percevel Rockwell (February 3, 1894 – November 8, 1978) was an American painter and illustrator. His works have a broad popular appeal in the United States for their reflection of Culture of the United States, the country's culture. Roc ...

, and numerous other artists, Armstrong lived and worked during what is sometimes called the “Golden Age of American Illustration.” This age began with the development of four-color printing in the late 19th century, was fueled by the advent of magazines supported by advertising, and declined after the introduction of color photography in the 1930s. In a career of almost 50 years, Rolf Armstrong produced over 500 works. He prided himself on the fact that he worked almost exclusively from live models, as opposed to photographic references. Armstrong eschewed the term “illustrator,” referring to himself as a “portrayer of feminine beauty.” The term “glamour” has been applied to his work retrospectively in an effort to distinguish his style from that of artists who may depict female subjects, but not in a glamorizing way. For the same reason, while the term “pin-up” is often applied to his work, its use is controversial among Armstrong enthusiasts. In
Pin Up Dreams: The Glamour Art of Rolf Armstrong
', the authors present glamour art generally, and the work of Rolf Armstrong specifically, as characteristic of the early 20th century, especially the years 1920-1950 “after World War I had freed women of their excessive modesty, but before World War II had made certain subtleties seem outdated.” The glamour girl as depicted by Armstrong is described as “beautiful of face and form...always vivacious and often mysterious, exuding romance and subtle sexuality.” In addition to societal attitudes toward women, Armstrong's work illustrates other many other aspects of American life in the early 20th century. These include trends in hairstyles and fashion, popular color schemes, changing concepts of ideal beauty, and cultural trends such as Egyptology (1920s), female participation in sports (1930s), patriotism (1940s), and Hawaiian and western themes (1950s). Armstrong's better-known images include Naomi aka Portrait of Martha Mansfield (1920), The Dream Girl (1924), The Bride Pompeiian Beauty Panel (1927), It (1927), Dreamy Eyes (1927), The Enchantress (1927), Queen of the Ball (1928), Hello Everybody (1929), Thinking of You (1930), Golden Girl (1933), How Am I Doing? (1940), On the Beam (1943), and Toast of the Town (1945).

Work with Jewel Flowers

In March 1940, Jewel Flowers, a girl from

Lumberton, North Carolina Lumberton is a city in Robeson County, North Carolina, United States. As of 2020, its population was 19,025. It is the seat of Robeson County's government. Located in southern North Carolina's Inner Banks region, Lumberton is located on the Lum ...

, sent a picture of herself to Armstrong in response to an advert he had placed in the

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

. Armstrong, 50 at the time, had been based at the Hotel des Artistes on West 67th Street in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

since 1939, and was seeking new models. He invited Flowers for an interview. On March 25, 1940, Flowers began modeling for Armstrong. Their professional collaboration and friendship lasted two decades. The first painting, titled "How am I doing?", reportedly because Flowers, new to modeling, repeatedly asked Armstrong "How am I doing?" during the session, was first published after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

began. It was

's best selling calendar for 1942 at a time when the company sold millions of calendars in America. It became one of Armstrong's most reproduced pictures. Flowers was popular with American servicemen during World War II, some of whom sent her letters proposing marriage. Armstrong's calendars and silhouettes of Flowers were copied onto bombers and other planes as

nose art Nose art is a decorative painting or design on the fuselage of an aircraft, usually on the front fuselage. While begun for practical reasons of identifying friendly units, the practice evolved to express the individuality often constrained by ...

and painted on tank turrets. She became so well known during the war, although more as a famous face than by name, that a serviceman's letter addressed simply as "Jewel Flowers, New York City" was delivered correctly. For many American servicemen abroad, she represented the "

Why We Fight ''Why We Fight'' is a series of seven propaganda films produced by the US Department of War from 1942 to 1945, during World War II. It was originally written for American soldiers to help them understand why the United States was involved in th ...

" spirit. U.S. President

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

's government enlisted her to help promote

war bonds War bonds (sometimes referred to as Victory bonds, particularly in propaganda) are debt securities issued by a government to finance military operations and other expenditure in times of war without raising taxes to an unpopular level. They are a ...

. The January 1, 1945 edition of

TIME magazine ''Time'' (stylized in all caps) is an American news magazine based in New York City. For nearly a century, it was published weekly, but starting in March 2020 it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York City on Mar ...

included Armstrong's "Toast of the Town" painting of Flowers in an article about Calendar Art. The article noted that calendars with "girl paintings" were "bought heavily by foundries, machine shops, auto-supply dealers." Flowers married in 1946. She and her husband resided in several locations while he attempted several business ventures, including

Laguna Beach, California Laguna Beach (; ''Laguna'', Spanish language, Spanish for "Lagoon") is a seaside resort city located in southern Orange County, California, in the United States. It is known for its mild year-round climate, scenic coves, environmental preservat ...

Greenville, South Carolina Greenville (; locally ) is a city in and the seat of Greenville County, South Carolina, United States. With a population of 70,720 at the 2020 census, it is the sixth-largest city in the state. Greenville is located approximately halfway be ...

and

Reno, Nevada Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada-California border, about north from Lake Tahoe, known as "The Biggest Little City in the World". Known for its casino and tourism industry, Reno is the ...

, where she reportedly worked as a card dealer, and New York City. According to Michael Wooldridge, coauthor of ''Pin up Dreams: The Glamour Art of Rolf Armstrong'', Armstrong called her several times while she was following her husband's quest, attempting to persuade her to return to New York and model for him. Her modeling career ended with Armstrong's death in 1960. He left a large proportion of his personal wealth to Flowers. Armstrong created approximately 50 to 60 works using Flowers as the model.

Gallery

File:Womans Home Companion 1916-04.jpg, ''

Woman's Home Companion ''Woman's Home Companion'' was an American monthly magazine, published from 1873 to 1957. It was highly successful, climbing to a circulation peak of more than four million during the 1930s and 1940s. The magazine, headquartered in Springfield, O ...

,'' April 1916 File:Rolf Armstrong Metropolitan Aug 1918.jpg, ''Metropolitan,'' August 1918 File:Photoplay August 1920.jpg,

Mae Murray Mae Murray (born Marie Adrienne Koenig; May 10, 1885 – March 23, 1965) was an American actress, dancer, film producer, and screenwriter. Murray rose to fame during the silent film era and was known as "The Girl with the Bee-Stung Lips" and "Th ...

, ''Photoplay,'' August 1918 File:Anna Q. Nilsson Photoplay Nov. 1918.png,

Anna Q. Nilsson Anna Quirentia Nilsson (March 30, 1888 – February 11, 1974) was a Swedish-American actress who achieved success in American silent movies. Early life Nilsson was born in Ystad, Sweden in 1888. Her middle name Quirentia is derived from her ...

, ''Photoplay,'' November 1918 File:Anita Stewart Photoplay Dec. 1918.png,

Anita Stewart Anita Stewart (born Anna Marie Stewart; February 7, 1895 – May 4, 1961) was an American actress and film producer of the early silent film era. Early years Anita Stewart was born in Brooklyn, New York as Anna Marie Stewart on February 7, 18 ...

, ''Photoplay,'' December 1918 File:Rolf Armstrong Metropolitan Jan 1919.jpg, ''Metropolitan,'' January 1919 File:Photoplay January 1920.jpg,

Norma Talmadge Norma Marie Talmadge (May 2, 1894 – December 24, 1957) was an American actress and film producer of the silent film, silent era. A major box-office draw for more than a decade, her career reached a peak in the early 1920s, when she ranked among ...

, ''Photoplay,'' January 1920 File:Photoplay february 1920.jpg,

Olive Thomas Olive Thomas (born Oliva R. Duffy; October 20, 1894 – September 10, 1920) was an American silent-film actress, art model, and photo model. Thomas began her career as an illustrator's model in 1914, and moved on to the ''Ziegfeld Follies'' the ...

, ''Photoplay,'' February 1920 File:Alice Joyce Photoplay March 1920.jpg,

Alice Joyce Alice Joyce Brown ( Joyce; October 1, 1890 – October 9, 1955) was an American actress who appeared in more than 200 films during the 1910s and 1920s. She is known for her roles in the 1923 film '' The Green Goddess'' and its 1930 remake of ...

, ''Photoplay,'' March 1920 File:Pearl White - Apr 1920 Photoplay.jpg,

Pearl White Pearl Fay White (March 4, 1889 – August 4, 1938) was an American stage and film actress. She began her career on the stage at the age of six, and later moved on to silent films appearing in a number of popular serials. Dubbed the "Queen of ...

, ''Photoplay,'' April 1920 File:Clara Kimball Young - May 1920 Photoplay.jpg,

Clara Kimball Young Clara Kimball Young (born Edith Matilda Clara Kimball; September 6, 1890 – October 15, 1960) was an American film actress who was popular in the early silent film era. Early life Edith Matilda Clara Kimball was born in Chicago on Septembe ...

, ''Photoplay,'' May 1920 File:Photoplay July 1920.jpg,

Martha Mansfield Martha Mansfield (born Martha Ehrlich; July 14, 1899 – November 30, 1923) was an American actress in silent films and vaudeville stage plays. Early life She was born in New York City to Maurice and Harriett Gibson Ehrlich. She had a younger sis ...

, ''Photoplay,'' July 1920 File:Photoplay february 1921.jpg, Rubye De Remer, ''Photoplay,'' February 1921 File:Photoplay March 1921.jpg,

Priscilla Dean Priscilla Dean (November 25, 1896 – December 27, 1987) was an American actress popular in silent film as well as in theatre, with a career spanning two decades. Biography She was born on November 25, 1896 in Manhattan, New York City to an activ ...

, ''Photoplay,'' March 1921 File:Photoplay Magazine May 1921 Dorothy Phillips.jpg,

Dorothy Phillips Dorothy Phillips (born Dorothy Gwendolyn Strible, October 30, 1889 – March 1, 1980) was an American stage and film actress. She is known for her emotional performances in melodramas, having played a number of "brow beaten" women on screen, bu ...

, ''Photoplay,'' May 1921 File:Photoplay June 1921.jpg,

June Caprice June Caprice (born Helen Elizabeth Lawson, November 19, 1895 – November 9, 1936) was an American silent film actress. Early life and career Born Helen Elizabeth Lawson in Arlington, Massachusetts, Caprice was educated in Boston. She began ...

, ''Photoplay,'' June 1921 File:Photoplay August 1921.jpg,

, ''Photoplay,'' August 1921 File:Photoplay September 1921 - Betty Blythe.jpg, Betty Blythe, ''Photoplay, September 1921 File:Agnes Ayres - Oct 1921 Photoplay.jpg,

Agnes Ayres Agnes Ayres (born Agnes Henkel; April 4, 1896 – December 25, 1940) was an American actress who rose to fame during the silent film era. She was known for her role as Lady Diana Mayo in '' The Sheik'' opposite Rudolph Valentino. Career Ayres ...

, ''Photoplay,'' October 1921 File:Photoplay November 1921.jpg,

Marion Davies Marion Davies (born Marion Cecilia Douras; January 3, 1897 – September 22, 1961) was an American actress, producer, screenwriter, and philanthropist. Educated in a religious convent, Davies fled the school to pursue a career as a chorus girl ...

, ''Photoplay,'' November 1921 File:Photoplay December 1921.jpg,

Lillian Gish Lillian Diana Gish (October 14, 1893February 27, 1993) was an American actress, director, and screenwriter. Her film-acting career spanned 75 years, from 1912, in silent film shorts, to 1987. Gish was called the "First Lady of American Cinema", ...

, ''Photoplay,'' December 1921 File:Olga Petrova - Mar 1922 Photoplay.jpg,

Olga Petrova Olga Petrova (born Muriel Harding; 10 May 1884 – 30 November 1977) was a British-American actress, screenwriter and playwright. Life and career Born Muriel Harding in England, she moved to the United States and became a star of vaudeville u ...

, ''Photoplay,'' March 1922 File:Mabel Ballin - June 1922 Photoplay.jpg,

Mabel Ballin Mabel Ballin (née Croft; January 1, 1885 – July 24, 1958), was an American motion-picture actress of the silent film era. Early life and career Mabel Croft was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on January 1, 1885. Some sources give 1887 as h ...

, ''Photoplay,'' June 1922 File:Alice Terry - Sep 1922 Photoplay.jpg,

Alice Terry Alice Frances Taaffe (July 24, 1899 – December 22, 1987), known professionally as Alice Terry, was an American film actress and director. She began her career during the silent film era, appearing in thirty-nine films between 1916 and 1 ...

, ''Photoplay,'' September 1922 File:Screenland, January 1930.jpg, Bebe Daniels, ''Screenland,'' January 1930 File:Rudy Vallee by Rolf Armstrong.jpg, 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. File:Mary Pickford - White.jpg,

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...

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

File:Ann Harding - Lemon Yellow.jpg, Lemon Yellow - ''The tip of a flame. Pale winter sunlight.'' -

Ann Harding Ann Harding (born Dorothy Walton Gatley; August 7, 1902 – September 1, 1981) was an American theatre, motion picture, radio, and television actress. A regular player on Broadway and in regional theater in the 1920s, in the 1930s Harding was ...

File:Lupe Velez - Chrome Yellow.jpg,

Chrome Yellow __NOTOC__ Chrome yellow is a yellow pigment in paints using monoclinic lead(II) chromate (PbCrO4). It occurs naturally as the mineral crocoite but the mineral ore itself was never used as a pigment for paint. After the French chemist Louis Va ...

- ''The gypsy color—primitive, elemental.'' -

Lupe Vélez María Guadalupe Villalobos Vélez (July 18, 1908 – December 13, 1944), known professionally as Lupe Vélez, was a Mexican actress, singer and dancer during the Golden Age of Hollywood cinema. Vélez began her career as a performer in Mexican ...

File:Bebe Daniels - Cadmium Orange.jpg, Cadmium Orange - ''The glowing combination of red and yellow.'' -

File:Clara Bow - Vermilion.jpg,

Vermilion Vermilion (sometimes vermillion) is a color, color family, and pigment most often made, since ancient history, antiquity until the 19th century, from the powdered mineral cinnabar (a form of mercury sulfide, which is toxic) and its correspondi ...

- ''Vibrant: dominating: dynamic.'' -

Clara Bow Clara Gordon Bow (; July 29, 1905 – September 27, 1965) was an American actress who rose to stardom during the silent film era of the 1920s and successfully made the transition to "talkies" in 1929. Her appearance as a plucky shopgirl in the ...

File:Estelle Taylor - Rose Madder.jpg,

Rose Madder Rose madder (also known as madder) is a red paint made from the pigment madder lake, a traditional lake pigment extracted from the common madder plant '' Rubia tinctorum''. Madder lake contains two organic red dyes: alizarin and purpurin. ...

- ''Dusky, rich, deep red—color of roses and rubies.'' -

Estelle Taylor Ida Estelle Taylor (May 20, 1894 – April 15, 1958) was an American actress, singer, model, and animal rights activist. With "dark-brown, almost black hair and brown eyes," she was regarded as one of the most beautiful silent film stars of the 1 ...

File:Corinne Griffith - Cobalt Violet.jpg,

Cobalt Violet Cobalt phosphate is the inorganic compound with the formula Co3(PO4)2. It is a commercial inorganic pigment known as cobalt violet.Hugo Müller, Wolfgang Müller, Manfred Wehner, Heike Liewald "Artists' Colors" in Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Indust ...

- ''Evocative of fragile, costly, sophisticated femininity.'' -

Corinne Griffith Corinne Griffith (née Griffin; November 21, 1894 – July 13, 1979) was an American film actress, producer, author and businesswoman. Dubbed "The Orchid Lady of the Screen," she was widely regarded as one of the most beautiful actresses of the ...

File:Billie Dove - Cobalt Blue.jpg,

Cobalt Blue Cobalt blue is a blue pigment made by sintering cobalt(II) oxide with aluminum(III) oxide (alumina) at 1200 °C. Chemically, cobalt blue pigment is cobalt(II) oxide-aluminium oxide, or cobalt(II) aluminate, CoAl2O4. Cobalt blue is lighter ...

- ''Clear, definite, polished blue of enamels.'' -

Billie Dove Lillian Bohny (born Bertha Eugenie Bohny; May 14, 1903 – December 31, 1997), known professionally as Billie Dove, was an American actress. Early life and career Dove was born Bertha Eugenie Bohny in New York City in 1903 to Charles and Ber ...

File:Nancy Carroll - Willow Green.jpg, Willow Green - ''Youth. The color of Spring.'' -

Nancy Carroll Nancy Carroll (born Ann Veronica Lahiff; November 19, 1903 – August 6, 1965) was an American actress. She started her career in Broadway musicals and then became an actress in sound films and was in many films from 1927 to 1938. She was t ...

File:Vilma Banky - Cerulean Blue.jpg, Cerulean Blue - ''Smiling, unclouded perfection of summer skies.'' - Vilma Banky File:Marion Davies - Emerald Green.jpg,

Emerald Green Varieties of the color green may differ in hue, chroma (also called saturation or intensity) or lightness (or value, tone, or brightness), or in two or three of these qualities. Variations in value are also called tints and shades, a tint b ...

- ''Gay, vivid, daring—a rollicking, sparkling color.'' -

File:Mary Brian - Ultramarine Blue.jpg,

Ultramarine Blue Ultramarine is a deep blue color pigment which was originally made by grinding lapis lazuli into a powder. The name comes from the Latin ''ultramarinus'', literally 'beyond the sea', because the pigment was imported into Europe from mines in Afg ...

- ''Vigorous, direct—color of sunny seas.'' -

Mary Brian Mary Brian (born Louise Byrdie Dantzler, February 17, 1906 – December 30, 2002) was an American actress who made the transition from silent films to sound films. Early life Brian was born in Corsicana, Texas, the daughter of Taurrence J. ...

File:Gloria Swanson - Purple.jpg,

Purple Purple is any of a variety of colors with hue between red and blue. In the RGB color model used in computer and television screens, purples are produced by mixing red and blue light. In the RYB color model historically used by painters, pu ...

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

Gloria Swanson Gloria May Josephine Swanson (March 27, 1899April 4, 1983) was an American actress and producer. She first achieved fame acting in dozens of silent films in the 1920s and was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, most f ...

File:Eve Southern - Indigo Blue.jpg,

Indigo Blue Indigo is a deep color close to the color wheel blue (a primary color in the RGB color space), as well as to some variants of ultramarine, based on the ancient dye of the same name. The word "indigo" comes from the Latin word ''indicum'', m ...

- ''Mysterious, oriental, dramatic, exotic.'' -

Eve Southern Eve Southern (born Elva L. McDowell; August 23, 1900 – November 29, 1972) was an American film actress. She appeared in 38 films from 1916 to 1936. In 1930 she was selected by portrait artist Rolf Armstrong as one of the film industry's ...

File:Evelyn Brent - Van Dyke Brown.jpg, Vandyke Brown - ''The tone of Rembrandt shadows—deep, remote, warm.'' -

Evelyn Brent Evelyn Brent (born Mary Elizabeth Riggs; October 20, 1895 – June 4, 1975) was an American film and stage actress. Early life Brent was born in Tampa, Florida, and known as Betty. When she was age 10, her mother Eleanor (née. Warner) died, ...

File:Greta Garbo - Ivory Black.jpg, Ivory Black - ''Impenetrable, sombre, yet capable of innumerable variations of beauty.'' -

References

External links

Rolf Armstrong artwork can be viewed at American Art Archives web siteAskArt auction records for Rolf Armstrong art
{{DEFAULTSORT:Armstrong, Rolf 1889 births 1960 deaths American illustrators Pin-up artists American male painters