Quite often we are struck by an image for its immediate impact despite not knowing anything of its origins and this is the case with "Eve" here. We know it dates from 1938 and a little research has shown that it originated from the Joseph C Hoover and Sons print publishers company of Philadelphia (a fine city where Triple P spent an enjoyable week a couple of years ago). The name on the piece, VP Wright, under the copyright notice, would not be the artist but the employee of the company who registered the image for copyright purposes.
Joseph Hoover was actually a native American and started out as a picture framer in Philadelphia in 1856. Soon he was producing prints, initially for other publishers. In 1885 he set up a complete printing plant and by the end of the century was producing nearly three quarters of a million prints a year. By the thirties they were producing calendars including ones featuring pin ups such as this.
Eve is an elegant composition with the pose, chair, abstracted background and colouring typical of late Art Deco. The use of chiaroscuro is unusual in pin-up pictures of the time but here is used beautifully to define the woman's form.
An altogether splendid image!
