Berthet - Lot 161

Berthet PHILIPPE BERTHET PIN-UP Original illustration for a poster published by Bruno Graff. Signed. Pastel on mounted paper 60 × 80 cm (23.62 × 31.5 in.) Created in 1994 by Philippe Berthet and Yann, the Pin-Up series revisits one of the fantasies that made Americans dream in the Fifties: the Pin-up, whose best-known figure is Bettie Page. In the process, Berthet and Yann pay tribute to the man who best represented them in comics: Milton Caniff, creator of Terry and the Pirates, whose heroines, Miss Lace and Dragon Lady, were icons for GIs on the front line. Their pin-up, Dottie, is a young woman abandoned by her boyfriend, who has gone off to fight in Vietnam. She poses for Milton in jet-black hair, becoming the muse of his readers. She embodies the femme fatale of his comic strip: Poison Ivy. But here Dottie is au naturel, posing in complete ingenuity. The delicacy of her negligee, chiselled in a sensual light line, contrasts with the more pictorial material of the pastel highlights.