The Pin-up Files

Greg Hildebrandt pin-up artist | 1/3

b.1939

Greg Hildebrandt finally made the decision to live the dream of every commercial illustrator and do a painting just for himself and this resulted in the American Beauties series


"Once I decided to place this series in the 1940s and 1950s, which is when I grew up, my choices for scenes came like lightning ... good girls in bad situations and bad girls in good situations."

Greg Hildebrandt pinup artist

The year was 1939. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was in the White House. Hitler was waging war on Britain and France. The country's 131 million people were lining up to see The Wizard of Oz, the Yankees won the World Series Championship, a loaf of bread cost 8 cents, and, on January 23, the Brothers Hildebrandt were born.

Throughout his career, Greg would work together and separately, and together again, with his twin brother Tim. Together they would create everything from the world famous poster for Star Wars, the best-selling calendars illustrating Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, to their own fantasy novel, Urshurak.

The Hildebrandt brothers would also work on advertising art, hundreds of classic children's books, and the covers of numerous fantasy and science fiction novels. They have won the coveted Gold Medal from the Society of Illustrators and in 1973, the Child Study Association chose their Giant Panda Book as a Children's Books of the Year. However, being a twin can be both a blessing and a curse. Being so closely related in both life and work, a sense of individuality can be lost, at least in the eyes of the public.

I would have to say composition is the most important element - without good composition an image falls apart

Greg Hildebrandt

Towards the end of 1999, with a career in commercial art and illustration spanning forty years, Greg finally made the decision to live the dream of every commercial illustrator and do a painting just for himself. After considerable thought Greg made the decision to combine the two greatest loves of his life, art and women. This resulted in not just one painting but an entire series of paintings, his American Beauties.

continued in next gallery

All images in this gallery are copyright © Greg Hildebrandt. All rights reserved.


Go to American Beauties and Spiderwebart Gallery.

Greg Hildebrandt's American Beauties

Spiderweb Gallery