Background
Rolf Armstrong was born in Bay City, Michigan on April 21, 1889 to Richard and Harriet (Scott) Armstrong. His father owned the Boy-Lincolnshire Fire Boat Company, which included a line of passenger ships.
Rolf Armstrong was born in Bay City, Michigan on April 21, 1889 to Richard and Harriet (Scott) Armstrong. His father owned the Boy-Lincolnshire Fire Boat Company, which included a line of passenger ships.
Student Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago, 1909-1911, Julian Academy, Paris, 1920.
Some were deployed in Chicago for use at the Chicago World"s Fair there in 1893. However, the father"s business and family were struggling, and the family homestead was lost to foreclosure. In 1899, the family moved to Detroit, Michigan.
By now Rolf"s artistic interests were emerging to more than a part-time pleasure.
He moved to Chicago in 1908, where he later studied at the Art Institute. He then went on to New York, where he studied with Robert Henri.
After a trip to Paris in 1919 to study at the Académie Julian, he returned to New York and established a studio. In 1921 he went to Minneapolis to study calendar production at Brown & Bigelow.
During the 1920s and 1930s, his work appeared on many pieces of sheet music, as well as on the covers of many magazines, most famously for movie fan magazines such as Photoplay and Screenland.
His work mostly consists of women. Mary Pickford, Bebe Daniels, and Greta Garbo are just a few of the numerous he has painted. A year later, he was the best selling calendar artist at Brown & Bigelow.
In 1930, Radio Corporation of America hired him to paint pin-ups to advertise their products, and in 1933 the Thomas Doctorate. Murphy Calendar Company signed him to produce a series of paintings for their line.
Rolf Armstrong died in 1960 on the island of Oahu, Hawaii as one of the best "pin-up" artists of the first half of the twentieth century. Rolf Armstrong"s of Screen Beauties.
Portrait of Mamie June Rose Carnegie
The Eternal Question and The Pensive Girl
Take It Easy (Part of Armstrong's Cowgirl Series)
Cover of May 1921 issue of Photoplay
Woman touching pearls
Kissproof
Palmolive, Beauty That Lures
Song of India
Pin-Up with Flowers
The Red Head and The Blonde
Try This (Cowgirl with Lasso)
Nehi
College Humor, Interior Pin-Up
Study of a Pin-Up Emerging from Blue
Hires Root Beer
College Humor
Life, Interior Pin-Up
College Humor
I'm Forever Thinking of You
Tahitian Nude
College Humor
Palmolive (Is she pretty)
The Shrine
Hello Everybody
Portrait of a Woman
Ridin' High
Self-portrait
The Enchantress
Karloff
Photoplay cover
Physical Characteristics: Rolf Armstrong was a handsome, tall and robust man with blond hair and large shoulders.