VARGA GIRL - December

10x13.5 in
Alberto Vargas
 
The Varga Girl was the work of Peruvian-born illustrator Alberto Vargas (1896-1982).
 
During World War II, U.S. servicemen made Vargas part of living history when they chose to adorn their aircraft, ships, and even uniform jackets with Varga Girl images, copied from the pages and calendars of Esquire magazine. These sexy, vibrant images portrayed women for the first time as both pretty and powerful.
 
Vargas' renderings of curvaceous women in corseted underpinnings and pin curls brightened many a military bunk. His erotic work was published in Esquire and Playboy. One serviceman wrote a letter  to Alberto Vargas suggesting that regardless of what "the girl back home" looked like, "we can see her in each of your drawings." Kurt Vonnegut (an American writer) observed, "The American male's capacity to make do with imaginary women gave our military forces a logistical advantage I have never seen acknowledged anywhere."