Female Artists: Neysa Mcmein and Rose O\'Neill

¶ … Female Artists: Neysa McMein and Rose O'Neill

Neysa McMein: Neysa McMein was an influential American artist in the early 1900's who painted various pop-culture images, including magazine covers, brand identities, and commercial designs. Her style is marked by her creative ability to invent appealing and compelling characters, many of which depict complex and powerful beautiful women who rarely make direct eye-contact. She created the cover designs for popular magazines that sold millions of copies throughout the 19-teens, '20's, and '30's. She designed propaganda poster images for World War I, as well as advertisements such as Palmolive soap, Lucky Strike cigarettes, and Coke. Most of McMein's illustrations were done using oil paint, with brilliant colors or soft pastels.

Many of her portraits and images featured seductively aloof, gorgeous female characters. The women were generally dressed in elaborate, sophisticated attire that complemented a matching background. One of McMein's most influential creations was her 1936 painting of the first image of legendary cultural icon, Betty Crocker. McMein's Betty Crocker painting was a personification of a food brand, which represents the vision of the wholesome, all-American woman. The character has since evolved to adapt to changing mainstream expectations of the prototypical homemaker. Interestingly, the more traditional and conservative Betty Crocker character deviated from most of McMein's other depictions of more dynamic and independent women. However, the Betty Crocker character can also be seen as an excellent cook, baker, and teacher who encouraged women to be recognized for excelling in their indispensible duties at home.

On the whole, McMein seemed to infuse her liberated lifestyle into her paintings of chic female images. McMein's painting style fell out of favor in the late 1930s, whereupon she turned more exclusively to portraiture, painting many politicians, actors, and socialites in a realistic style. Indeed, part of the influence of McCain's artwork came from her real-life, avant-garde personality, and extensive social network. McMein's style has had a lasting legacy in commercial art, and vestiges of her aesthetic approach can be seen in modern-day commercial illustrations.

Rose O'Neill: Rose O'Neill was an illustrator and cartoonist who also lived in the early twentieth century, but her career began about 15 years earlier than that of McMein. Hundreds of O'Neill's illustrations were featured in prominent magazines and newspapers. One of O'Neill's most significant contributions was the kewpie doll, which could be described as a predecessor to the popular cabbage-patch dolls of the 1980s. In her later years, she began sculpting, often creating images of fairies, trolls, and deities in Greek mythology.