D.W.C. Pin-up Girls Portraits - Painters Alberto Vargas

Alberto Vargas (9 February 1896 – 30 December 1982) was a noted Peruvian painter of pin-up

 girls. He is often considered one of the most famous of the pin-up artists. Numerous Vargas

 paintings have sold and continue to sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars.[left-sidebar]  [wide]

Born in Arequipa, Peru, Joaquin Alberto Vargas y Chávez moved to the United States in 1916

 after studying art in Europe prior to World War I. He was the son of noted Peruvian

photographer Max T. Vargas. His early career included work as an artist for the Ziegfeld Follies

 and for many Hollywood studios. Vargas' most famous piece of film work was that for the 1933

 film The Sin of Nora Moran, which shows a near-naked Zita Johann in a pose of desperation. 

The poster is frequently named one of the greatest movie posters ever made. He became famous

 in the 1940s as the creator of iconic World War II era pin-ups for Esquire magazine known 

as "Vargas Girls." The nose art of many World War II aircraft was adapted from these

 Esquire pin-ups.

In 2004, Hugh Hefner, the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Playboy, who had previously worked

 for Esquire, wrote that "The US Post Office attempted to put Esquire out of business in the 1940s

 by taking away its second-class mailing permit. The Feds objected, most especially, to the 

cartoons and the pin-up art of Alberto Vargas. Esquire prevailed in the case that went to the

 Supreme Court, but the magazine dropped the cartoons just to be on the safe side". A legal

 dispute with Esquire over the use of the name "Varga" resulted in a judgement against Vargas

 and he struggled financially until the 1960s when Playboy magazine began to use his work

 as "Vargas Girls." 

DANCES WITH COLORS