Cocktail Lounge, 1946 1935 - 1942

Perkins Harnly rendered this watercolor and graphite drawing of a Cocktail Lounge in 1946. The lounge is rife with images of feminine beauty, reflecting a mid-century ideal. Note the pin-up style images adorning the walls, reminiscent of goddesses and nymphs from classical antiquity, yet recontextualized for the modern era. We see echoes of Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty, in these figures, a timeless archetype of desire and allure. The female form, celebrated across cultures and epochs, reappears here, adapted to the aesthetics of postwar America. This re-emergence is not linear but cyclical, reflecting our collective fascination with beauty and the feminine ideal. The Atom Bomb pin-up blends allure with anxiety, a symbol of the complex emotions of that time. These images touch something deep within us, a subconscious yearning for beauty, intertwined with the anxieties of modernity.