Tailwind

“Here is one of my favorite and best pin-up paintings that I made in the last 25 years. It is a replica painting. This was first painted (though unfortunately the original was thrown away in 1960) by Elvgren about 1939 or 1940 the original was used for calendar art, cards advertising and for lady box top art for fine seamed stockings for many years. It was no accident that this painting was made to look like Rosalind Russell, popular movie actress of the time. (“My Favorite Secretary” with Cary Grant).

During WWII, this pin-up was a popular image for the flight crews in the Army Air Corps to copy and paint on the sides of Bombers like B-17, B-24, B-29, and their crew jackets. The original painting of Tailwind was stored in a huge art archive of about 10,000 calendar art and pinup paintings used by DOW advertising company, who closed in 1960, sold their property and had to remove the 60’s years of stored art. At the time no one wanted these fine originals, so they cleared the entire lots and it was taken to the dump. In a similar way, B&B had several storage clean outs of their pin-up and calendar art paintings, one such was in 1957. Very few paintings of this early DOW Elvgren era survive today.

It is estimated that about 40% of all Elvgren pin-ups were thrown away, by Dow, by Brown & Bigelow (B&B) and several other advertisers. These events were personally told and confirmed to me by the former employees and even former owners of these companies who were there at the time.” TAILWIND, This painting was made by Daniel, painted on the original Elvgren easel where he created the first one. This is the only fully authorized preservation of it. My new painting of Tailwind is now the replacement art archive for this and many other lost Elvgren pin-ups that I have painted since 1995 and preserves the art for another generation to enjoy. I have been doing this legally and properly, with protection, backed by Permanent Federal Court Orders, signed by B&B, for over 22 years. Tail Wind is a new derivative copyright by Daniel Vancas (c) 2008 and 1994 all rights reserved.

Biography

Daniel Vancas is a fine artist and fine art publisher of limited editions. Known mostly for his work in pinup, illustration, aviation and automobile art. He was the very first publisher of fine art Elvgren limited editions, and also the very first to commercially offer high quality Elvgren Replica paintings. He promoted Elvgren for 14 years at his own expense of over $1,000,000. Before Elvgren was rediscovered in the late 1990's and well before most of those popular new books came out, Daniel Vancas Owned and opened several Vanguard Galleries promoting Elvgren! He paid for shows all around the country promoting Elvgren pinup. He was the first to open Elvgren web sites in 1993 & 94. He was the first commercial Replica Artist of Elvgren works: Because an estimated 40% of all of Elvgren's paintings were thrown away and lost, and because the found ones are rarely for sale, unless offered at $75,000 to $150,000.

Daniel Vancas was the first to paint the replicas of Elvgren pinups for the public, using mostly the destroyed, lost and unavailable Elvgren images. In this way he has faithfully and lovingly preserved many now lost works of art for another generation. At first he was licensed with B&B, now he owns his own separate elvgren Intellectual Property. Daniel Vancas painted over 238 ELVGREN REPLICA PAINTINGS! He has signed and dated back of each one, so they will never be confused with the original vintage painting by Elvgren. The reason you don't often see them for resale is because the collectors of these paintings keep them. Most are sold through galleries. Gillette Elvgren (March 15, 1914 – February 29, 1980) was an American painter of pin-up girls, advertising and illustration. Best known for his pin-up paintings for Brown & Bigelow, Elvgren studied at the American Academy of Art. He was strongly influenced by the early "pretty girl" illustrators, such as Charles Dana Gibson, Andrew Loomis, and Howard Chandler Christy. Other influences included the Brandywine School founded by Howard Pyle.

Elvgren was a commercial success. He lived in various locations, and was active from the 1930s to 1970s. In 1951 he began painting in a studio in his home, then in Winnetka, Illinois, using an assistant to set up lighting, build props and scenes, photograph sets, and prepare his paints. His clients ranged from Brown and Bigelow and Coca-Cola to General Electric and Sealy Mattress Company. In addition, during the 1940s and 1950s he illustrated stories for a host of magazines, such as The Saturday Evening Post and Good Housekeeping. Among the models Elvgren painted were Myrna Hansen, Donna Reed, Barbara Hale, Arlene Dahl, Lola Albright and Kim Novak.

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