Rolf Armstrong

"Golden Girl" by Rolf Armstrong

Oil on canvas

8x10in.

1933

"Let's Get Together" by Rolf Armstrong

Sketch and Oil

8x10in.

1940

     Rolf Armstrong was born in Seattle, Washington in 1899 and moved to Chicago in 1908 where he enrolled at the Art Institute immediately after high school.

     In 1919, Armstrong founded a studio in Greenwich Village where he painted Ziegfeld Follies Girls. In 1921, he moved to Minneapolis to study calendar production at Brown and Bigelow. 

     During the 1930s, Armstrong's pinup art was displayed on a lot of sheet music and mainstream film magazines. Armstrong was known for the celebrities that posed for him--including Katherine Hepburn and Greta Garbo.

     In 1927, he became known as the best-selling calendar artist at Brown and Bigelow. With more than two million copies sold of the 1926 issue.

    At a War Advertising Conference in Minneapolis, Armstrong said:

     "When I paint, I want the living person in front of me. As I look at her again and again while I work, I get a thousand fresh, vivid impressions...all the glow, exuberance, and spontaneous joy that leaps from a young and happy heart."

     

     Armstrong was inspired by the true beauty in people, art, and nature. He died on February 22, 1960 surrounded by the beauty of Oahu in Hawaii.