Gil Elvgren (born Gillette Elvgren) is an American artist and illustrator who worked primarily in the pin-up style.
The artist was born on March 15, 1914 in St. Paul, Minnesota.

In 1936, Gil got a job as an artist at the prestigious Chicago advertising agency Louis F. Dow, where he worked on advertising for Coca-Cola. The artist’s work turned out to be very popular, and in 1944 he signed a contract with Brown & Bigelow, the leader in the production of calendars and advertising at that time.

According to the contract, Elvgren had to draw 20 pin-up girls a year, for each drawing the artist received $ 1,000. In addition, the authorship of the drawing was not hidden, which gave the artist additional advertising. Elvgren’s illustrations were especially popular because he often used the image of a pretty, “homely” girl who accidentally got into a piquant situation: a playful wind lifts her skirt, a dog tears the hem of her dress, and so on. Elvgren is considered one of the most notable pin-up artists of the 20th century, and all of his drawings were commercially successful. Gil illustrated many popular American magazines of the 1940s and 1950s and created illustrations for large companies such as Coca-Cola and General Electric.