Thursday, March 22, 2018

E. Simms Campbell: Basic Exercises

In 1948, Esquire published six panels entitled Basic Exercises by artist E. Simms Campbell. Purportedly demonstrating a series of skiing exercises, they present a blonde model wearing a violet leotard assuming a variety of extremely awkward poses, often with her legs spread, intended to give male readers some sort of forbidden voyeuristic pleasure. The joke, if there is one in these banal panels, is that these difficult exercises are being done not for her benefit but for ours.  

Basic Exercises
E. Simms Campbell
Esquire, 1948



Note:  Attempted Bloggery continues its survey of the work of cartoonist E. Simms Campbell (1906-1971), who specialized in drawing attractive women for supposedly discerning male readers. I seek high-resolution scans or photographs of original Campbell art or of obscure published cartoons and illustrations which demonstrate this artist's range. 

In what issue of Esquire did this page appear? Ski instructors everywhere are waiting for the answer.


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