Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Beer In Art #118: Frank Waller’s Harvesting Hops

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art-beer
This week’s work of art is by New York artist Frank Waller, a founding member of the Art Students’ League in 1875. The painting, Harvesting Hops Near Cooperstown, New York, was completed in 1884 and today hangs in the Fenimore Art Museum.

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The Fenimore also has a short biography of Waller:

A nineteenth century American painter, educator and etcher, Frank Waller (1842-1923) began his career as a businessman. In 1870, however, he traveled to Rome to study art under John G. Chapman. For the next several years Waller traveled extensively in both Europe and Egypt. Upon his return to the United States he became a founding member of New York’s influential Art Students’ League (1875) and served as its first president. As well, Frank Waller served as honorary secretary of the Egypt Exploration Fund Society. He was also a noted architect and a Fellow of both the Academy of Design and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Guinness Ad #59: The Toucan Be Enjoyed Together!

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guinness-toucan
Our 59th Guinness ad shows the iconic toucan carrying two trays. One, of course, has Guinness on it and the other a tasty meal. The slogan, using a play on words, is “The Toucan be enjoyed together!” Nice to see food and beer being suggested, but it’s a little funny to see it being presented as something unusual, or at least as a combination that wasn’t obvious. You mean I can eat AND drink beer?

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Strong Women Brew Strong Beer

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Just stumbled upon this awesome ad for Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing. They’ve used the “Strong Women Brew Strong Beer” slogan on other artwork, but this new version by local illustrator Janet Allinger is the best yet. It has a “Rosie the Riveter” feel to it and according to her blog it will be used as a poster by the brewery. I hope they’ll have a version to buy in their online shop soon. I know at least a few brewsters who will probably want one for themselves.

StrongWomen2011

Beer In Ads #327: George Sanders For Blatz

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Wednesday’s ad is for Blatz Beer, and features Hollywood leading man George Sanders, whose most famous role was probably in All About Eve in 1950, though I know him for playing Simon Templar in the Saint series in the 1940s (I’m a huge fan of Leslie Charteris’ “The Saint” books, movies and TV shows). The funniest part of this ad is the headline: “I’ve been to Milwaukee, I ought to know … Blatz is Milwaukee’s Finest Beer!. Yeah, ’cause to visit a place is to know everything about it. I’m not exactly sure when the ads is from, though there’s a small “100” in the lower right-hand corner suggesting 1951, which would have been the Blatz Brewery‘s 100th anniversary, having been founded in 1851.

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Beer In Ads #326: Budweiser, Say When

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Tuesday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1960, and it’s one of their “where’s there’s life … there’s Bud” series. This one shows a couple enjoying an evening on the floor. Cigarette hanging from his mouth, the man is pouring a bottle of Budweiser while his lady friend watches expectantly. Holding her hands on either side of the filling beer glass, her expression seems to be waiting to say “when.”

Bud-1960

Beer In Ads #325: Schlitz, Cowboy Music

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Monday’s ad is for Schlitz, from 1950, and is one of a series of three panels ads that Schlitz created through the 1940s and 50s using as captions for the panels, “I was curious …,” “I tasted it …,” “No wonder Schlitz is …” blah, blah, blah. This one shows a country musical group. The fiddle player/snger tries some Schlitz and then the whole band starts smiling and playing again.

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Beer In Art #117: Michael Marcinkowski’s Nectar Of The Gods

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art-beer
This week’s work of art is by a French illustrator, Michael Marcinkowski, who created a fun play on a portion of Michelangelo’s painting of the Sistine Chapel. He calls his work Le Nectar Des Dieux or Nectar of the Gods and it shows God giving beer to Adam, presumably right after he gave him life.

LE NECTAR DES DIEUX

Today is actually the birthday of Michelangelo (a.k.a. Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simon), who was born in 1475 near Tuscany in what today is Italy. Marcinkowski took the hands from a portion of Michelangelo’s painting of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, which is meant to represent God giving life to Adam.

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That scene makes up the central portion of the fresco in the Vatican showing Adam and God.

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