From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Birth, family, and death
George Petty was born in Abbevilloe, the seat of Vermilion Parish in south Louisiana
to George Brown Petty III and his wife, Sarah. George, IV, was the
couple's second child; his sister Elizabeth had been born in 1891.
The Petty family moved to Chicago, Illinois,
just before the turn of the century, where George, III, a photographer
of some note, enjoyed considerable success. One may locate his
photographs of young women, madonnas, and nudes anywhere from coast to
coast.
Education and early career
Petty was not a particularly good student in high school spending a
great deal of time on extracurricular activities instead of schoolwork.
His artistic bent first became obvious in high school where he was the
staff artist for the school newspaper.
During his high school years, he enrolled in evening classes at
Chicago Academy of Fine Arts under the tutoring of Ruth VanSickle Ford
where he taught his own art course, charging classmates US$5.00 per
session. He also worked in his father's photo shop where he learned how
to use an airbrush.
Petty studied art at the Académie Julian with Jean-Paul Laurens and others until 1916, when World War I caused Joseph P. Herrick, ambassador at that time, to order all Americans to return home.
Petty returned to Chicago, and worked as an airbrush retoucher for a
local printing company. He was able to establish himself as a freelance
artist, painting
calendar girls and magazine covers for
The Household. By 1926, he was able to open his own studio.
Artistic influences
“The Petty Girl”
Petty is especially known for “the Petty Girl”, a series of
pin-up paintings of women done for
Esquire
from the Autumn of 1933 until 1956. Petty frequently depicted these
women with the relative lengths of their legs being longer — and the
relative sizes of their heads being smaller — than those of his actual
models.
Sources
Reid Stewart Austin (The Best of Gil Elvgren) examined the life and art of George Petty in the 192-page Petty: The Classic Pin-Up Art of George Petty. Published by Gramercy in 1997, the lavish volume features a foreword by Hugh Hefner and an introductory essay by Petty's daughter, Marjorie Petty, who was his main model. In The New York Times Book Review famed designer George Lois praised this collection of Petty's creamy creations, commenting:
- Just as the cool, unapproachable Gibson Girl was the feminine ideal
of young men at the turn of the century, the voluptuous Petty Girl
became the ideal of their wide-eyed sons. I'm going on the record to
swear that George Brown Petty IV consistently created better-designed
women than God, and now I've got a big beautiful book to prove it.
Robert Cummings portrayed George Petty in the biographical musical comedy
The Petty Girl (Columbia, 1950), directed by Henry Levin and featuring the film debut of
Tippi Hedren as one of the Petty Girls. Nat Perrin's screenplay was based on a story by
Mary McCarthy. The film is also notable for several lilting, lighthearted songs composed by
Harold Arlen (music) and
Johnny Mercer
(lyrics), including “Fancy Free” and “I Loves Ya”. The large production
number at the finale is “The Petty Girl” by Arlen and Mercer, performed
by Joan Caulfield (dubbed by Carole Richards), the Petty Girls and a
male quartet.
