Varrrghas.

June 23, 2008 4:25 PM

Help me identify the title of this illustration by Alberto Vargas.

It's probably circa 1920s.

Extensive googling only turned up stuff like the following (NSFW):

1. Art gallery websites like the San Francisco Art Exchange are better than most image-dump galleries, because they actually list the titles of the works. Unfortunately, the image in question does not appear to be on offer here or elsewhere.

2. Vargas ID list has a lot of information, but again, I don't see this image glossed anywhere.

The reason I want the title is because I'd like to obtain a high quality print or lithograph, but not knowing what to search for makes it extremely difficult (I'm no Vargas buff or collector). I tried the brute-force method of just browsing through art print sites and galleries, but I guess it's a rare image, so it didn't turn up.

posted by davidriley to media & arts (3 comments total)

A shot in the dark, but that looks like a portrait of Louise Brooks.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 10:10 PM on June 23

Or maybe Nita Naldi [goog-images]?

The strike against Louise Brooks is that she had brown eyes whereas the unknown girl has green (or perhaps blue) eyes (like Naldi). Not sayin' I'm right - just an observation.

I would email SFAE - they have a long association with Vargas.
posted by peacay at 2:16 AM on June 24

Thanks, peacay, that did the trick.

The nice gentleman at SFAE identified it as a portrait of Caroline Rogers. (I wasn't able to find any information about her, though.) The piece is discussed in an autobiography co-authored by Vargas and Reid Austin from 1978.

It's available used on Amazon, so I may have to pick that up. Oh, yeah, he also said that they sold the original watercolor a long time ago.
posted by davidriley at 10:15 AM on June 29