Rolf Armstrong (1889-1960)

Armstrong Rolf is one of the most famous American artists of the XIX-XX centuries. He made his name famous in various art directions: in graphics, decorative and applied arts, painting, sculpture. Much attention in his work was paid to the retro style.

Armstrong Rolf was born in the northwestern part of America, in the city of Seattle in 1889 and grew up on the shores of the northwestern part of the Pacific Ocean. Here he spent his childhood and youth. As a child, the boy was very athletic, strong and talented. He valued life, loved everything beautiful: beautiful people, art, beautiful things and cars. He worked a lot on the beauty of his body, played sports. His special hobby was boxing. He loved to watch athletes during training. He reflected his observations on paper using a pencil and a brush. This is how his first works appeared paintings, which depicted handsome, strong men with athletic physiques. He was also attracted by military themes, as well as life in the Wild West.

In the 1920s and 1930s, Armstrong’s pin-up works became popular. They appeared on the covers of many publications and theater posters. All the great stars of that time commissioned him to paint portraits Mary Pickford, Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Katharine Hepburn…

Working for the magazine “Art Review”, Rolf Armstrong raised it to an unprecedented level. By 1926, the magazine was selling more than 2,000,000 copies.

A year later, Armstrong began working for the company “Brown and Bigelow” as an artist creating pin-up calendars. Soon Rolf’s popularity reached such a height that the Thomas Murphy Company signed a contract with him to create more than a dozen portraits for the advertising campaign of their products. Only Billy de Vorth had received such an honor at the time.

Armstrong owned a “fantasy mansion” in Bayside. Natural light was very important to him in his work, so Rolf often painted his pictures right outside in the sun.

Soft pastel colors always prevailed in his works, but from time to time he also used charcoal and pencils.

In 1943, Armstrong met Count Morin, Zoe Mozert and Norman Rockwell at a military conference. When he was asked why he only worked with real, living models when creating his works, he replied: “When I paint a picture, I want to see a living person in front of me. I look at it again and again as I work and it brings back a thousand new vivid impressions… all the heat and spontaneous joy that comes from a young and happy heart.” Rolf Armstrong died on February 20, 1960, on the island of Oahu in Hawaii.

Armstrong’s mastery was a mixture of brilliant lighting techniques, gorgeous vivid colors, and superb craftsmanship. His works are living ideals of American femininity.