Picture Within a Picture

I can’t believe it’s October already. This year is flying by! Before you know it, it’ll be Christmas. There are Christmas things in the stores already, perhaps that was a common ploy even in the 1930s when this cover was published, with its red, green and white colours?

This illustration Paris Openings, is by André-Edouard Marty, and was first published in September 1932. It is such a lovely, cool-weather cover: the soignée woman nestled in her deep, cosy armchair, huge lamp throwing light in a darkened room. She is reading the magazine she is on the cover of. I was always fascinated by these Escher-type ‘picture within a picture within a picture’ images when I was a child. I even used to stand in front of a mirror with a hand mirror to mimic the effect!

Until the mid 1940s, Vogue covers featured an illustrated masthead, matching or complementing the theme of the cover image. It’s one of the most enjoyable aspects of the covers in the early twentieth century. I can understand why magazines today stick to the same masthead, but they do lose so much liveliness thereby (not to mention the stock-standard glossy, highly-polished photographs of Hollywood actresses – yawn – and an exaggerated proliferation of coverlines). They just don’t make them like they used to…

Until next month then – only two more illustrations to go!