Current events illustrate McClelland Barclay was more than a ‘Pretty Girl’ artist

A coincidence of current museum events happening in December help me illustrate McClelland Barclay was more than a ‘pretty girl’ artist. He became famous in the 1920s and 30s for his illustrations for Fisher Bodies and General Motors. These ads featuring fashionable, active women, often had no cars in sight!

Yes, he painted a lot of pretty girls, but he was much more than that.

 L: General Motors Fisher Bodies ad, Saturday Evening Post, 1930. R: Detroit Motor News cover, December 1928

Recommended events

At the Delaware Museum of Art in Wilmington on December 6, 2024 is a day-long Jazz Age Illustration Symposium. Or, December 19 catch the Jazz Age Illustration Gallery Talk, while you see this exhibit of some of America's most notable illustrators.

On December 7, 2024, visit the National Museum of the U.S. Navy in Washington, DC for the historian talk: Best Beloved: the Wartime letters of Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz to his wife, Catherine. Dr. Tyler Bamford will talk about the newly published letters written by the Admiral to his wife. Admiral Nimitz is considered the man most responsible for the U.S. victory in the Pacific during WWII.

What do these very different museum events have to do with McClelland Barclay?

Pretty Girls and Printing Technology

In 1934 Barclay was one of house cover artists for King Features Syndicate doing weekly weekend newspaper supplements. The McClelland Barclay's Glamorous Girls newspaper insert (below) is from December 23, 1934. Another of Barclay’s ‘pretty girl’ works is part of the current Jazz Age Illustration exhibit at the Delaware Art Museum.

'Pretty Girls' is a theme ubiquitous in mainstream publications beginning in the 1890s with Charles Gibson's “Gibson Girl” and lasting throughout the Jazz Age.

Mass market magazines flourished with advances in printing, creating demand for illustrators. Colour printing began to be used while limitations to printing photography had yet to displace illustration.

That is why this period is sometimes referred to as the "Golden Age of Illustration".

In a recent talk, the curator of the Jazz Age Illustration exhibit explained why, among so many pretty girl artists, Barclay got work for syndicated newspaper supplements during The Depression: he was a famous artist who could help newspapers sell more copies when advertising dried up.

I'm glad to see Barclay's work is in the company of better known artists from that era, particularly those he knew and studied with at the Art Students League: J.C. Leyendecker and Norman Rockwell. The exhibit, on until January 26, 2025, has a great range of original work displayed beside a reproduction by illustrators such as C. Cole Phillips, Frank E. Schoonover and Neysa McMein.

U.S. Navy History Revealed in Letters to Loves

McClelland Barclay painted an oil portrait of Admiral Nimitz in 1942 when both were in the South Pacific. This painting of Nimitz (below, right), and other senior Navy officers were done in unofficial capacity when Barclay was a U.S. Navy Reserve Lieutenant Commander during WWII.

His job was illustrating for U.S. Navy Recruiting efforts. But one of his wartime works (above, left) crossed over editorial illustration  - as a war correspondent of sorts - for Cosmopolitan where he had been illustrating serial fiction stories for more than a decade.

Many of Barclay’s official and unofficial wartime works are now part of the U.S. Navy Art Collection, one day I hope may be on public display in their new museum.

In letters Admiral Nimitz wrote to his wife, it is his personal accounts which can be most revealing. While at sea, Barclay also wrote often to his last love, Mardee Hoff (his portrait of her below right).

It was only having access to Mac's letters and personal papers that I was able to write his full life story, including his own personal relationships with three ‘pretty girls’. It was to Mardee that he wrote the letter with the sketch of navy ships while serving in the U.S.N.R. just before he was lost at sea in the South Pacific in 1943.

L to R: Sea Power magazine cover Dec 1941; Mac 1942 letter to Mardee with a Navy ship sketch; Mardee Hoff portrait by Barclay

Pretty Girls to Pin-ups

The ‘pretty girl' illustration style was a precursor to the more exaggerated and sexy pin-up art of the 1940s. Barclay's curvy cover girl on The LOG, a biweekly magazine published March 5, 1943 by the U.S. Naval Academy (featured image, right) perhaps helped in attracting and motivating recruits.

Among Barclay’s later works of 'glamour art', include the 1941 Zeigfeld Girl (below left). Two of the most famous pin-up girls of the WWII era were painted by Barclay: Betty Grable in 1942, and Anna Neagle in 1940 (bottom right).

 L to R: Barclay's 1941 Ziegfeld Girl; Sea Power Navy Nurse Jan 1943; oil portrait of Anna Neagle for the 1940 film No, No, Nanette

But Barclay was also a wartime artist. His poster for the U.S. Red Cross won him accolades in 1917, and again during WWII when he painted portraits of sailors in action and commanders like Admiral Nimitz. Barclay fought war with art by portraying real women in active WWII roles. I think he saw the Navy nurse on the December 1941 Sea Power (middle), women of the W.A.A.A.F. or ISO entertainers contributing to the war effort alongside the sailors and their superiors in action.

Barclay didn't paint or sketch people from his imagination or a photograph.

His practice of using real life people as models, plus his own lifelong love of the sea, is apparent in his works made during his service to his country. He actively sought to be aboard U.S. Navy ships and at sea in the theatre of war. What he saw first hand he captured, as on the June 12, 1942 cover of The LOG (featured image, left).

A life and Art Bookended by War

Besides living in an era of rapid societal change, two world wars were bookends dramatically affecting Barclay’s art and life. Barclay succeed as an artist by adapting: honing life drawing skills at renown art schools, moving cities to get work, and twice enlisting in the U.S. Navy Reserve.

His artistic style evolved with trends. Mass print technology helped him gain name recognition. But when hard times hit, Barclay leveraged his 'pretty girl' fame into different media. In the 1930s he began a company creating and marketing decorative household objects like the signed pair bronze plated Sisyphus bookends shown below.

Biography reveals much more about Mac

I didn’t know anything about Mac as an artist, I first learned about him through collecting McClelland Barclay costume jewellery. My book is the first ever illustrated biography of this artist. It is the result of years of research, interviews with private art collectors. Access to artifacts and letters he left behind about his personal life allowed me to go beyond his art and tell his whole story.

My indexed and referenced book has over 400 images showing the vast range of his works, from fine art, advertising illustration, magazine covers, to decorative art, and costume jewellery.

And you can see how Barclay painted plenty of very attractive women. I hope you can visit these current events, or read my book so you can see he was much more than a 'pretty girl' artist.