Dreaming of her Prince Charming c. 1948

This sketch was made by Gil Elvgren, who died in 1980. He made his name as a commercial artist in mid-century America. Elvgren was famous for his cheesecake pin-up art. Here we see a recumbent nude woman in graphite. The title given to the drawing invites us to see the image as more than just a life study. But we might still ask ourselves, is the woman dreaming or is this the male viewer? Either way, Elvgren was an artist who worked within a very specific set of cultural norms. These norms were related to magazine culture and a certain kind of idealized masculinity. He also worked within the conventions of the advertising industry. As art historians, we might try to see Elvgren’s pin-ups in relation to the paintings of the old masters. In the studio archives, personal letters, company records and advertisements of the time, we could find out more about the original social functions of such images.