As mass-market magazines rose to prominence in the 20th century, a host of publications aimed at the lucrative women’s market provided female readers with fiction and advertising that often highlighted the latest fashions. The top American illustrators of the day portrayed their heroines (and heroes) dressed in the finest styles, reflecting the top couture of the times.

The Hilbert Collection includes many works of American illustration created for popular magazines, particularly from the “Midcentury” years (late 1940s through the 1950s). In story illustrations and advertising images, artists of that era employed bold graphics and textures and jaunty colors to depict the latest fashions of the times. Artists such as Gwen Fremlin, Joe de Mers and many others studied the details of current couture and mass-market styles and often portrayed them accurately in their illustrations. Other artists improvised on the styles to design their own fashionable fantasy couture.

This exhibition features fashion-forward original illustrations created for fiction and advertising from such popular magazines as Saturday Evening Post, Redbook, McCall’s and more.

Mary Platt, Director

Image:
Bradshaw Crandell (1896-1966)
"Beautiful Woman in Large Hat"
Cosmopolitan Magazine Cover
1940
Pastel on paper
20 x 17"
The Hilbert Collection