As an actress and as a celebrity, Louise Brooks was the subject of a fair amount of press — from profiles and interviews in newspapers and magazines to mentions in numerous gossip columns. Photographs of Brooks also appeared in all manner of publications, as did illustrations. These visual depictions included drawings, spot illustrations, and most significantly, caricatures. Some were intended to depict Brooks as a “personality” or celebrity, while some were editorial illustrations which either accompanied an article or stood on their own. Others were used in the promotion of a film, or accompanied editorial coverage of a movie.
This section of the Louise Brooks Society website highlights illustrations and caricatures of Louise Brooks. Below are links to three pages of vintage examples.
CARICATURES & ILLUSTRATIONS (AMERICAN) || CARICATURES & ILLUSTRATIONS (EUROPEAN) || CARICATURES & ILLUSTRATIONS (ELSEWHERE)
Pictured below are just a few examples of the many contemporary caricatures of Louise Brooks. There are more examples to be found online, as well as in books and magazines. Try a search on Google using the terms “Louise Brooks caricature“.
Likely the best known and most reproduced caricature of Louise Brooks was drawn by David Levine in the 1980s. Actually, he drew her twice. Both drawings originally appeared in the New York Review of Books, a literary journal. The image on the left appeared in 1982 alongside Sara Laschever review of Lulu in Hollwood. The one on the left was also reproduced as a postcard, book of postcards, print, calendar, and bookmark (shown below), and in various advertisements over the years. Each of these drawings are held in the archive of the Louise Brooks Society. It also holds a signed and numbered print (#25/500) of the image on the left which was purchased from the artist before his death. (Here is a Louise Brooks Society blog written after Levine’s death in 2009. It contains a couple more related images.) Want to purchase your own print of Levine’s iconic caricature of Louise Brooks? Visit this page on the NYRB reader’s catalog.
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| Louise Brooks by David Levine | NYRB bookmark | Louise Brooks by David Levine |
And for good measure, here are some interesting examples of some of the many other post WWII caricatures and illustrations. Besides these, there are similar images by noted artists and illustrators including Erte, Frank Martin, Don Bachardy, Stanley Mouse, Dave Stevens, Rick Geary, Robert Nippoldt, Corne Akkers, Wayne Shellabarger and others. Images of Brooks have also been drawn in comic books and graphic novels, and turned up as graffiti and street art in the United States, France and elsewhere.
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| Uruguayan newspaper illustration, 1952 artist unknown |
Belgian handout, 1956 Serge Creuz |
two from Hollywood Panorama, 1971 Bob Harman |
Little Balkans Review, Fall 1982 Ted R. Watts |
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| Classic Images, February 1983 artist unknown |
from Enchanted Images, 1991 Bob Harman |
S.P., date unknown * YAM |
Louise Brooks caricature artist unknown |
* re: S.P., date unknown This cover was sent to me by Andi Brooks, a resident of Japan and a Louise Brooks collector. It is something of a mystery. Though it looks rather contemporary, I was told it was from 1933. I’m baffled. Does anyone know anything more about this cover or this publication?
Let me add that Wayne Shellabarger’s design for the 2016 San Francisco Silent Film Festival poster for Beggars of Life is superb. It is a personal favorite. (Click on the preceding link to take a look.) For more about Bob Harman’s enchanting work, be sure and check out this 2016 LBS blog post about the artist and his books. Otherwise, here are a few books which contains illustrations and caricatures of Louise Brooks, aside from comix and graphic novels.
Harman, Bob. Bob Harman’s Hollywood Panorama. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1971. (purchase on amazon)
Harman, Bob. Bob Harman’s Enchanted Faces. Birmingham, Alabama, EBSCO Media, 1991. (purchase on amazon)
Bachardy, Don. Stars in My Eyes. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2000. (purchase on amazon)
Over the years, a small number of caricatures and illustrations of Louise Brooks have graced the covers of books published around the world. These cover appearances can be found on two pages on the Louise Brooks Society archive, “Louise Brooks – Contemporary Book Covers I (fiction)” and “Louise Brooks – Contemporary Book Covers II (nonfiction)“. Here are four examples.
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| Amour-Erotisme et Cinema (binding) Ado Kyrou Le Terrain Vague, 1957 non-fiction | France |
Lulu (cover) |
Roaring Twenties Whodunnits (cover) Mike Ashley Carroll & Graf, 2004 anthology | USA |
Cosas que no creeríais (cover) José Manuel Benítez Ariza Universitat de València, 2016 non-fiction | Spain |