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Beer In Art #75: Eduard Grutzner’s Monastery Brewers

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art-beer
Today’s works of art are by a German artist, Eduard Grützner, who was born in 1846 and became well-known for his genre paintings of monks until his death in 1925. I had a hard time choosing from among his monk paintings, so there are a number of them presented here. Few of them are dated, and they would have been throughout his career. Many of them appear to be the same monk used as the model. And some of them can be purchased at Art Prints on Demand. But to me, they’re exactly what I envision when I think of 19th century monastery breweries.

Grutzner_braumeister-im-bierkeller
Bruder Braumeister im Bierkeller (a.k.a. Brother Master Brewer in the Beer Cellar from 1902).

Grutzner_cloister-snack
Braumeister bei der Brotzeit im Klosterkeller (a.k.a. Master brewer snacking in the Cloister cellar from 1892).

Grutzner_beer-test
Bier Test (1905).

Grutzner_monch
Mönch auf dem Weg zur Brotzeit (a.k.a. Monk on the Way to Snack).

Grutzner_connoisseur
The Connoisseur (a.k.a. Capuchin monk).

Grutzner_salvatorhumpen
The Klosterbräu with Salvatorhumpen as Well as Radish and Radish (1889).

Grutzner_brewmasters-break
The Brewmaster’s Break (1885)

Grutzner_kellermeister
Kellermeister (a.k.a. Cellarmaster).

You can read more about Eduard von Grützner at his Wikipedia page, and you can view more of his artwork at Art Prints On Demand and
Ask/Art.

Beer In Ads #99: Ballantine Ale Begins Where Other Brews Leave Off

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ad-billboard
Friday’s ad is for Ballantine Ale from — I’m just guessing — the 1950s, and is attempting to show the beer as high class, upscale even with the cocktail dress and morning coat. The slogan, “Ballantine Ale begins where other brews leave off … in flavor … in satisfaction!,” is one they used frequently. There’s another one, down below that’s pretty interesting. Just above the bottle and can, it reads. “The LIGHT ale that’s strong on flavor.” Obviously, that was before low-calorie light beers. It most likely was to combat competition from lighter color lagers.

ballantine-begins

Beer In Ads #98: Acme’s Dietetically Non-Fattening

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ad-billboard
Thursday’s ad is from the 1930s and is part of a series of pin-ups done for San Francisco’s Acme Brewing by one of the most famous pin-up artists ever. George Petty is probably one of a handful of well-known pin-up artists who also made the transition to commercial and mainstream work. Some of his most famous work was done for Esquire magazine, where he worked from 1933 to 1956. The women he painted had a look that was dubbed “the Petty Girl.” You can see more examples at the Pin-Up Page, BPIB and the Pin-Up Files.

Acme-Lady-in-Red-shadow

Today’s Petty ad was part of the Dietetically Non-Fattening series, which Brewery Gems describes.

In the mid ’30s Acme came up with a brilliant marketing concept directed at an untapped market – women. It advertised its beer as “Dietetically Non-Fattening,” and following the asterisks, the fine print says: “Relatively so, compared with other foods.”

This caused the Federal Trade Commission, who was devoted to fair practices in advertising, to move against Acme Breweries. However, it took until 1951 for the Commission’s decision that the words “Acme beer contains no fattening substances and will not increase consumer’s weight” was still considered a “deceptive nutritional claim,” so Acme dropped the advertising campaign, but by then they had doubled their capacity and captured nearly 50% of the California beer market.

Petty apparently painted three works for Acme Beer, the other two are below.

Petty’s Cowgirl.
Cowgirl by Petty

Petty’s Reclining Lady.
Redhead by Petty

Beer In Ads #95: Bretzels Singer

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Monday’s ad is one I don’t know much about, but chose it because it’s National Pretzel Day. The French translates as something like “pretzel singer with beer and wine.” I’m not even sure it’s for a brewery, it seems like it may be for a bar or restaurant instead. It’s most likely from 1920s France.

lotti-bretzels-singer

Beer In Art #74: LC Neill’s Heineken Beer Caps

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art-beer
Today’s work of art was painted in 2007 by LC Neill, a North Carolina artist. She does a small painting every day, and this is one of them. It’s formal title is Two Will Do, though it’s also known as Heineken Beer Caps. It’s a 5″x 5″ oil painting.

Heineken Beer Caps

Here’s what Lori Neill says about the painting:

This was an extremely challenging piece for me as I found the lettering to be a lot of work. You would be surprised how much you learn about a bottle cap after drawing it and painting it with this level of detail.

I loved the contrast of the deep green with the bright red graphic star, and ultimately wanted the finished painting to have a creative feel to it. One beer cap is lying face down and the other is standing inside the first one. They are sitting on a highly reflective surface. I hope you enjoy it!

There’s a short biography at her website, where you can also see a number of her other paintings. You can also see many more of her “daily paintings” at Still Rivers Studios and at Daily Painters.

Beer In Ads #94: National Bohemian’s Wet, Cold & Delicious

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ad-billboard
Friday’s ad closes strange glances week with a 1957 ad for National Bohemian. The ad’s tagline is “Wet, Cold and Delicious … just the way you want your beer.” The woman in the bathing cap, popping up out of the water at the side of the pool is likewise certainly wet, possibly cold though I’m touching that last one. Still, I think it’s fair to assume that it was their unspoken plan to suggest that connection. Then there’s that hilariously odd sideways glance as she eyes the beer bottle.

57nationalbohemianbeer
If you want to see a larger size ad, there is one here, though the text is cropped.