Some Help - Down Boy by Gil Elvgren

The play within a play of artistic creation was a recurring and popular theme among mid-century American calendar painters. It is this ingenious theme that the composition entitled “Some Help - Down Boy” stages, blending humor and complicity. The renowned illustrator Gil Elvgren plays here with the codes of portraiture by inserting a mischievous animal into the studio. This work illustrates the perfect marriage between visual storytelling, fun, and the elegance unique to this pictorial genre.

Sitting high on a green stool in her studio, a brunette artist holds her paintbrush in one hand and points to her bare shoulder with the other. She wears a red and white striped blouse and a lifted black skirt, revealing a white ruffled lace petticoat and her very sensual bare thighs. At her feet, a curly black poodle stands on its hind legs near an overturned pot of green paint dripping onto the light floor. On a light wood easel, a black and white sketch representing the face of the animal is outlined on a large canvas. Colorful paint pots complete this joyful creative decor.

Technical virtuosity manifests itself in the striking contrast between the clean stripes of the garment and the creative clutter of the studio. The detailed rendering of the poodle’s curly coat and the green paint drips shows striking realism and absolute mastery of oil.