#penagos

1932 Cover Illustration by Rafael de Penagos for ABC, June 12, 1932. Gouache collage on paper and cardboard.

Vintage illustration by Rafael de PENAGOS (Spain, 1889-1954)

El juego de la vida de Artemio Precioso. Portada de Penagos. La novela de hoy nº 133, noviembre de 1924.

Modernism, Art Deco and woman, three concepts that the illustrator  Rafael de Penagos  understood and worked with a personal and unique vision. It has been said of him that he was the artist who introduced Art Deco illustration in Spain or that, through watercolor, gouache and charcoal, he was the greatest exponent of the Belle Époque in the arts. Undoubtedly, his role for Spanish illustration was fundamental for being the precursor of a new, modern and stylized female figure model. (x)

Modernism, Art Deco and woman, three concepts that the illustrator  Rafael de Penagos  understood and worked with a personal and unique vision. It has been said of him that he was the artist who introduced Art Deco illustration in Spain or that, through watercolor, gouache and charcoal, he was the greatest exponent of the Belle Époque in the arts. Undoubtedly, his role for Spanish illustration was fundamental for being the precursor of a new, modern and stylized female figure model. (x)

Modernism, Art Deco and woman, three concepts that the illustrator  Rafael de Penagos  understood and worked with a personal and unique vision. It has been said of him that he was the artist who introduced Art Deco illustration in Spain or that, through watercolor, gouache and charcoal, he was the greatest exponent of the Belle Époque in the arts. Undoubtedly, his role for Spanish illustration was fundamental for being the precursor of a new, modern and stylized female figure model. (x)

Penagos’ art deco illustrations represented a new Spanish society that was urban and modern. He created a type of woman known as the "mujer Penagos": daring, well-dressed, sophisticated, and provocative. The “mujer Penagos” was also slender, with narrow hips, smoked cigarettes, played sophisticated sports, and loved anything exotic. Manuel Peña Muñoz remarks that "life copied art. Because Penagos didn't paint the Madrilenian woman, but the reverse: the Madrilenian woman painted herself like the Penagos Women." Penagos' illustrations helped change the mentality and customs of the Spanish woman, making her life feel less provincial and more European and cosmopolitan.[1] Penagos "gave them a bob cut, made them more slender, put them on a bicycle, had them smoke from a cigarette holder, painted their nails red, and if that wasn't enough, had them dance the Charleston. (x) 

Art deco illustration by Rafael de Penagos (Spanish, 1889-1954) for La Esfera magazine, 1927.