Gil Elvgren has joined the ranks of Petty and Alberto Vargas as one of the premiere American pin-up artists...the Norman Rockwell of cheese-cake. His heroines are often caught in humorous but distressing situations. His exquisite oils of gorgeous girls-next door their skirts often blowing up to reveal lovely nylon-clad limbs rival his mentor Haddon Sundblom's "Coca-Cola" Santas for sheer nostalgic pleasure.
Elvgren looked for models with vitality and personality, and chose young girls who were new to the modelling business. He felt the ideal pin-up was a fifteen-year-old face on a twenty-year-old body, so he combined the two. An Elvgren model was never portrayed as a femme fatale. She is, rather, the girl next door whose charms are revealed in that fleeting instant when she's been caught unaware in what might be an embarrassing situation. Gusting winds and playful plants grab at her lovely, long legs. She is intruded upon as she takes a bath. Her skirts get caught in elevator doors, hung up on taps, and entangled with dog leashes. The elements conspire in divesting her of her clothing.
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