REILLY, VIRGIL (1892-1974)

"Bacchanalia (Virgil Girls)" (c.1930)
gouache
48 x 38cm
Signed lower right
*private collection, Sydney
 
Virgil Gavan Reilly was an  acclaimed Australian cartoonist, comic book artist and illustrator. He worked as a commercial artist for a motion picture advertising firm, as well as drawing propaganda and recruitment posters during the First World War. 'Virgil Girls' in Smith's were the sex symbols of Australia, the equivalent in the 1920s and early 1930s of the USA Gibson or Petty Girls, where he became one of Australia's best-known and highly paid newspaper artists. Reilly was a prominent cover artist for The Australian Women's Weekly during the Second World War.  In June 1950 Reilly created his best-known comic book, Silver Flash and his Frogmen for Invincible Press. Smith's Weekly closed in October 1950, upon which Reilly became the political cartoonist for Sydney's Daily Mirror and Melbourne's The Truth. He drew cartoons for Man and was a war correspondent for the Australian Women's Weekly. Reilly also in 1950 briefly handled the Chesty Bond comic strip. In 1958 Virgil won the inaugural Walkley Award for 'Best Creative Artwork or Cartoon'. His work is reminiscent in style & quality to contemporaries Norman Lindsay & Rosaleen Norton.