Girls like it hot. Zoe Mosert's extraordinary pin-up.

Many people think that pin-up was painted exclusively by men, because only they can truly appreciate all the advantages of semi-nude and nude girls. There were indeed many good pin-up artists among men, but there is always an exception to every rule.

Modern Mermaid

Zoe Mosert (real name Alice Adelaide Moser) 1907-1993 was an American artist who earned the unofficial title of “Queen of Pin-Up”. Her works resembled quality glossy photos in men's magazines, both in the level of drawing and in the plot, which was usually uncomplicated - an attractive pin-up beauty demonstrates herself beloved to the delight of the male audience.

Playsuit Girl

Mosert focused only on the image of her models, without paying much attention to the background or the depiction of any racy situation in which these girls could get into, as in the paintings of Gil Elvgren. But after that she began to paint realistic portraits of women, with great attention to the psychology and individual qualities of the portrait subjects.

Seated Brunette. Bare Breasts

The future artist comes from the American city of Colorado Springs. Her grandfather was German by nationality, but when he came to America, changed his last name Mozart to Moser. His son and, by extension, Zoe Mozert's father Fred William worked as a mechanical engineer. Alice Adelaide was attracted to art and painting from childhood, and she enrolled in the School of Industrial Arts in Philadelphia. And to pay for tuition worked as a model for various artists, including those who worked on pin-up pictures.

’m Keeping Abreast Of The Times

In working on her drawings, Mosert, in order not to pay sitters, posed herself with the help of a mirror or asked someone to photograph her, taking the desired pose, on the camera.

Hit the deck

In 1927, she got a job as a graphic artist in a large company producing various glassware, but she soon got bored with the job, and women were paid less than men. Mosert moved to New York, hoping to get a job there as an illustrator, and soon she was lucky: she received an order to illustrate the novel “True Story” by Bernard McFadden.

Good news

Instead of her long double name, Mosert took the simple pseudonym Zoya Moser, under which she became known to customers and fans of her work.

Sun-Tanned Sue

She had a lot of work to do, drawing hundreds of illustrations, magazine covers and advertising posters, when she was offered a contract by the famous Brown & Bigelow company to create a series of drawings for calendars in the pin-up genre. What's interesting here is the length of the contract - a full 15 years, so Brown & Bigelow's bosses were serious about working with Mosert for a long time.

Morning song

When World War II broke out, Mosert created a series of pin-up pictures called “Victory Girls” and quite deservedly became one of the trendsetters of the genre.

Bubbles

And there is nothing surprising in this: in addition to a well-honed technique and excellent efficiency, Mosert was able to find a common language with all her models, because she was in their place. The girls did not shy away from her, behaved as relaxed and confident as possible, and Mozert had enough skill to embody this looseness in her pin-up pictures.

Cowgirl

In 1945, the artist decided to change her last name Moser to Mosert, obtaining the appropriate legal document. Soon she began working with the Hollywood company “Warner Brothers” and drew illustrations for movies about girls working as pin-up models and a pin-up artist.

Fairest Flower

In the 1950s, Mosert was already considered a leading artist of the genre and became a member of the “Big Four Masters of Pin-Up”, which in addition to her included Rolf Armstrong, Earl Moran and Gil Elvgren.

Starry Night In Hawaii

She lived a long life - 85 years, drew many wonderful illustrations and clearly proved that a woman can succeed even in such a strictly male genre, such as pin-up.

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