Lisa Hix explores the history of female pin-up painters from the genre’s Golden Age, the 1920s through the early 1960s:
“If you really get into it, you begin to see that women have a different way of portraying women than men do, even when they’re all trying to do something sexy for a pin-up calendar or a magazine,” [pin-up art expert Louis K.] Meisel says. “There is a certain sexy look, with black stockings, garters, and emphasis on [Gil] Elvgren, [Alberto] Vargas, and other male pinup artists do. I would say that the women portray very beautiful, idealized women, but the images are less erotic.
“With Pearl Frush, for example, her girls were very beautiful, with wonderful-looking bodies, but it wasn’t so much about being sexy as being the all-American girl. She had less emphasis on breast size and legs than the male artists,” he continues. “Zoë Mozert was often her own model. Usually, she painted a different face, but she used her own body. And I guess in doing so, she had a different idea of what she should look like to men than maybe men would.” … The men tended to make the breasts larger, and they made the legs longer. The women tended to paint very proportionate women, more of a 36-26-36 look, whereas men would make them a little top-heavy.”
(Image: A pin-up painting by Zoë Mozert)
The Dish 