Unexpected Lift 1961

Gil Elvgren made this painting, called 'Unexpected Lift' sometime in the middle of the last century, but the date is not known. It's an image of a woman whose dress has been caught by a crane. There's something so old-school about the illusionistic painting and bright colour, like the red of her dress and lipstick. You can see that Elvgren took time to blend and shade the colours to make the woman appear three-dimensional; the form feels very round and full. It's interesting how the soft brushstrokes contrast with the harder-edged rendering of the crane. It makes the accident feel real. I can't help but see a relationship to photorealism, although the painting has a clear point of view, as if we're seeing the woman from the painter's perspective. I'm reminded of John Currin, who takes this kind of illustration and pushes it to a weird, almost grotesque extreme. But here, in Elvgren's painting, it is playful and fun.