Did you know... the Esquire collection of original Vargas Pinup Girl art is archived at the Spencer Museum of Art located in Lawrence, Kansas at the University of Kansas.
How he loved her... You can see it in the way he painted the nape of a neck, the flush of a cheek, the sensuous curve of a voluptuous breast. Stand in front of one of Alberto Vargas' paintings of a beautiful woman, such as "Reflection in Mirror," and what you see is a man in love, passionately in love, and trying to use his art to express the depth and delicacy of his feelings. Gaze at the way he always rendered women, so glorified, so idealized, and you cannot help but wonder: Who 
was the real-life woman who could inspire such eloquent testaments of love and adoration?
Her name was Anna Mae Clift, and for the six decades Vargas was one of America's most celebrated and distinctive illustrators, she was his one true love. She was also Vargas' first model, his inspiration for "Reflection in Mirror" and countless other paintings, and she was the archetype for his fabled Vargas Girl, the luscious pin-up published each month in Esquire in the 1940s and early 1950s and then for 16 years in Playboy. But Anna Mae was far more. For 44 years, she was Vargas' wife, his business manager, his confidante and his devoted companion. Anna Mae was also Vargas' fiercest protector in the long, nasty legal battle the couple waged with Esquire over money, contracts and, above all, the rightful ownership of Vargas' name and artistic output. For complete article, go here.
Did you know... there are thousands of vintage pinup items located in
Ebay Stores that don't show up in simple searches? Ebay give little or no
exposure for tens of millions of items sellers have listed as store items. For several years, eBay pushed the store concept onto sellers only to change the process of searching for those items in favor of items listed as auctions or "buy it now." For those of you wishing to search for the hundreds of additional Vargas goodies within eBay Stores, go through the area below.
Ebay Stores that don't show up in simple searches? Ebay give little or no
exposure for tens of millions of items sellers have listed as store items. For several years, eBay pushed the store concept onto sellers only to change the process of searching for those items in favor of items listed as auctions or "buy it now." For those of you wishing to search for the hundreds of additional Vargas goodies within eBay Stores, go through the area below.
