Tuesday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1950. Part of there series of “There’s nothing like it” ads, this one shows a couple on a fishing trip, by canoe, stopping for a picnic lunch. Their lunch, including the cans of Budweiser were in a cool-looking red metal Budweiser cooler.
Monday’s ad is for Schlitz, from 1944. With the tagline “Sealed with a Kiss” doing double duty; it’s an association Schlitz had been using in their ads plus the woman sealing the letter while the postman waits. As World War 2 was still going on, the ad adds another layer of poignancy since the illustration seems to suggest the letter is important. I think we’re meant to believe it’s addressed to a soldier overseas.
Today’s work of art is yet another painted by David Teniers the Younger, a Flemish artist born in Antwerp. The painting is a Self-Portrait at an Inn, finished in 1646.
Here’s how one source describes the painting:
David Teniers the Younger is one of the greatest Flemish painters of the 17th century; he specializes in genre scenes, especially indoor ones, in taverns. This is what his self-portrait shows here, like a manifesto; he has depicted himself, with a pitcher in one hand and a glass of beer in the other. One can note the minute description of the place, the restrained range of colour, the attention given to details which become as many still lifes, and the brushstrokes, precise and delicate, yet not effaced.
To learn more about David Teniers, Wikipedia has a good overview and there’s also a more detailed biography at the National Gallery and the Web Gallery of Art. You can see more of his work at the Web Museum, Olga’s Gallery and the National Gallery. There are also additional links at ArtCyclopedia
Our 100th Guinness ad is from 1959, for their 200th anniversary, which takes place tomorrow, December 31. That’s when, in 1759, they signed the lease for St. James Gate. Since I’m almost out of vintage Guinness ads, I’ll never make it to 200, so I decided to use it for the 100th series post. The ad itself shows many of the iconic advertising characters around the new anniversary label and the ad copy “My Goodness — a 200th birthday label!”
Thursday’s ad is for Coors, from 1977 — the year I graduated from high school. Showing a pilsner glass by a mountain stream, I love their suggestion. “Refrigerate to retain brewery fresh flavor.” Did people really need to be told that? I know Coors’ has been cold-obsessed for a long time, but were there people who were unaware that beer should be stored cool? Certainly we knew it in our household. My parents had a second refrigerator in the basement that always had beer in it, along with overflow from the upstairs kitchen refrigerator.
Wednesday’s ad is for Genesee Beer, from 1961 — 50 years ago. Showing a very odd-looking couple in front of an antique car — Model T? [What I don’t know about cars would fill a book.] They just look way too happy, especially him. He looks deranged. Great copy: “Reward yourself with Genesee: enjoyment pure and simple. Beer with a bracing bonus of brightness in every bottle to make it fresher and friendlier … naturally more refreshing.”
Tuesday’s holiday ad is for Falstaff, from 1950. With a great tagline, “Falstaff’s Got Something!, I also love how they characterize the beer. “It’s Dry, Light but Lively.” And it sure looks that couple has been hitting the bottle as they put up their decorations. A wink and a nod ….
This was created back in May, but it escaped my notice. April Kuhn created a cool poster for Drink Philly entitled The Philadelphia History of Beer. According to the website, “[w]hile it doesn’t cover everything that’s occurred in Philadelphia since its founding, it does cover a lot — and it shows why this truly is one of the world’s greatest spots for beer.” If you’d like one of the poster for your very own, they’re on sale online for $10 right now.
Monday’s holiday ad — it’s Boxing Day — is from 1930s Britain and is, I believe, an industry advertisement extolling the virtues of beer. And this one is suggesting that even for festive occasions, beer is best. Happy Boxing Day.
Today’s work of art is another painted by David Teniers the Younger, a Flemish artist born in Antwerp. The painting is known as Peasants Dancing Outside an Inn. The painting is in the Royal Collection at Windsor, which I believe means the Queen of England owns it. It was completed around 1645, although the Royal Collection lists the date as 1641.
The Web Gallery of Art describes the painting:
The painting, which would appear to date from the mid- or late 1640s, is essentially a genre scene of a type that had been pioneered by painters like Jan Brueghel the Elder, Frans Francken II and David Vinckboons. The broad characterisation of peasant types by Teniers is to some extent derived from Adriaen Brouwer, but the squat proportions of the figures, with their large heads and big feet, are typical of the artist’s style. Not all the figures, however, are peasants. The couple in the left foreground, accompanied by a child and a dog, are bourgeois types. So too is the woman nearby being helped to her feet. Dress and coiffure suggest social distinctions that may give the painting extra meaning.
The inn in the left half of the composition occurs again in a painting in Dresden, but the general layout of the composition with buildings on the left, a tree with or without a fence marking the centre, and a distant view on the right is a well-established format in Teniers’s work. Otherwise it is the range of observation and contrasting actions that holds the attention. The bagpiper leaning against the tree, the man vomiting, the man near the centre leaning on his stick, the dancers, the woman looking out of the window of the inn are all memorable figures in a painting of varied emotions and changing rhythms. The figure helping the woman to her feet anticipates Watteau, who was a keen admirer of Teniers. Genre, landscape and still life are all combined in this composition, which provides abundant proof of the artist’s skills.
The second painting of the same Inn they’re referring to appears to have been done around 1660 and is also titled Peasants Dancing Outside an Inn, though it’s often referred to as Peasants Dancing Outside An Inn II
To learn more about David Teniers, Wikipedia has a good overview and there’s also a more detailed biography at the National Gallery and the Web Gallery of Art. You can see more of his work at the Web Museum, Olga’s Gallery and the National Gallery. There are also additional links at ArtCyclopedia