Alberto Vargas (1896 – 1982) was a Peruvian painter of pin-up girls.
Despite always using figure models, his images would often portray elegantly dressed, semi-nude to nude women of idealized proportions.
Vargas' artistic trait would be slender fingers and toes, with nails often painted red.
His work was typically a combination of watercolor and airbrush.
Source: wikipedia/Alberto Vargas
The album cover Candy-O by The Cars (1979) was painted by Alberto Vargas. The idea to hire him came from drummer David Robinson, the band's artistic director and a collector of pin-ups. The 83-year-old Vargas had retired several years earlier but was persuaded to take the assignment by his niece, who was a fan of The Cars.
One day I will paint a Vargas Girl so beautiful, so perfect, so typical of the American Girl, that I shall be able to show it to people anywhere in the world, without any signature on it, and they'll say, "that's a Vargas Girl", he said in 1946.
He has more then achieved his goal. His signature style of airbrush and watercolor is now immortalized.
Anna Sten (1908 – 1993) was a Ukrainian-born Russian silent film actress and later a Hollywood film star.
Peruvian painter Alberto Vargas is perhaps the most respected of all the pin-up girl artists.
