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. Besides the Caricatures and Illustrations (HUB page), which contains a few examples of contemporary images, below are links to three pages of vintage examples.
CARICATURES & ILLUSTRATIONS (AMERICAN) || CARICATURES & ILLUSTRATIONS (EUROPEAN) || CARICATURES & ILLUSTRATIONS (ELSEWHERE)
Besides the unpublished caricature of Louise Brooks by Willy Pogany, two of the more famous caricatures of Louise Brooks were drawn by two Jazz Age celebrities — cartoonist Ralph Barton, and director Malcolm St. Clair. According to Wikipedia, Barton (1891 – 1931) was a popular American cartoonist and caricaturist of actors and other celebrities. His work was in heavy demand through the 1920s and is considered to epitomize the era. St. Clair (1897 – 1952) was a celebrated Hollywood film director, writer, producer and actor. He directed Brooks in A Social Celebrity (1926), The Show-Off (1926), and The Canary Murder Case (1929).
Ralph Barton‘s caricature of Louise Brooks was included in “A Tuesday Night at the Cocoanut Grove in Los Angeles As Imagined by a Noted American Artist, Ralph Barton“, which was published in Vanity Fair in June 1927. Besides Brooks, this popular illustration included a large number of other celebrity caricatures such as Clara Bow, Greta Garbo, Mary Pickford and Lillian Gish, as well as Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin. Writers Jim Tully and Scott Fitzgerald were also present. The article lists everyone seated at each table, noting ” At Table No. 10 Jack Dempsey sits between his smiling wife, Estelle Taylor and the esoteric Nazimova. Richard Barthelmess is next to Louise Brooks. Micky Neilan and Blanche Sweet complete the group.” This illustration proved appealing enough to have been printed as a dress design, which too included Brooks.
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| Ralph Barton dress | Vanity Fair (close-up) | as modeled by Pauline Starke |
Noted director Malcolm St. Clair also drew a caricature of Brooks — in fact he drew Brooks twice. The caricature on the left appeared in an article about Malcolm St. Clair titled “The Keystone Cop Who Became a Director” which appeared in the October 1926 issue of Motion Picture Classic. The newspaper article in the middle, “A Few Lines from a Movie Director,” dates from around the same time, as it references Brooks appearing in The Show Off.
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| “Louise Brooks” | “A Few Lines from a Movie Director” | “When do we eat?” |
Pictured below are a handful of additional examples of the vintage caricatures and illustrations of Louise Brooks. These images come from various American newspapers and magazines.
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| Forest McGinn | John Decker | Herbert Richardson |
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| unknown artist | Richard Chase | Armando |
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| unknown artist A Social Celebrity |
illegible signature Just Another Blonde |
Rascoe It’s the Old Army Game |
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| Paramount studio artist Rolled Stockings |
unknown artist A Girl in Every Port |
Don Tower Just Another Blonde |
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| Scamell | Chic ? | D. G. Shore |
Here are a few more illustrations and caricatures of the one and only Louise Brooks…. The first shown, by an artist known as “Winn,” appeared in the New York Herald Tribune. It is titled “Among those seen and seeing at ZIEGFELD MIDNIGHT FROLIC”. Louise Brooks appears in the upper right hand corner. The film related illustrations and caricatures — shown both above and below — are for the most part original to the publications in which they appeared.
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| Winn | Winn (close-up) |
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| Denon Hampton ? Beggars of Life |
Don Wooten Beggars of Life |
And here are just a few more illustrations and caricatures of Louise Brooks….
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| unknown artist The Canary Murder Case |
Ted Vorpe The Canary Murder Case |
Murt. The Canary Murder Case |
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| de Bru of Hollywood magazine illustration |
Hoffmann God’s Gift to Women |
illegible signature God’s Gift to Women |