Elaine I. Duillo (July 28, 1928 – July 30, 2021) was an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

painter and illustrator known for her

romance fiction A romance or romantic novel is a genre fiction novel that primarily focuses on the relationship and romantic love between two people, typically with an emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending. Authors who have contributed to the developme ...

book covers. She was inducted into the

Society of Illustrators The Society of Illustrators (SoI) is a professional society based in New York City. It was founded in 1901 to promote the art of illustration and, since 1959, has held an annual exhibition. Since absorbing the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art (M ...

Hall of Fame in 2003.

Early life

Elaine studied at the High School of Music and Art in Manhattan, where she met John Duillo, who became an

adventure fiction Adventure fiction is a type of fiction that usually presents danger, or gives the reader a sense of excitement. Some adventure fiction also satisfies the literary definition of Romance (prose fiction)#Definition, romance fiction. History In t ...

illustrator and gallery painter. She graduated from

Pratt Institute Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York. It has an additional campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The institute was founded in 18 ...

in Brooklyn. She began her career in 1959, illustrating adventure story magazines and

Gothic novels Gothic fiction, sometimes referred to as Gothic horror (primarily in the 20th century), is a literary aesthetic of fear and haunting. The name of the genre is derived from the Renaissance era use of the word "gothic", as a pejorative to mean me ...

Career

Duillo is known for her prolific, eye-catching, realism painting for romance paperback covers. Her painting style is one of "characteristically flawless draftsmanship, evocative mood and compositional power", and uses "layer upon layer of transparent acrylic washes to achieve a luminous effect". She is credited not only with breaking through into a male-dominated field in the early 1960s, but with redefining romance art at the end of the 1970s and early 1980s, introducing more men and male nakedness into her cover art, and influencing other illustrators who followed her style. She is also credited with aiding the rise to fame of the model

Fabio Lanzoni Fabio Lanzoni (; born March 15, 1959), known List of one-word stage names, mononymously as Fabio, is an Italian actor, fashion model, and spokesman. Lanzoni is known for his wide-ranging career including work as a romance novel cover model thro ...

when she began using him as a model, first on the

clinch cover The clinch cover is the name for a style of romance book cover art. It generally features two people touching or in close proximity, and the art style has its roots in pulp art. Origin and development The 1949 creation of Harlequin Enterprises ...

illustration for

Johanna Lindsey Johanna Helen Lindsey (née Howard, March 10, 1952 – October 27, 2019) was an American writer of historical romance novels. All of her books reached the ''New York Times'' bestseller list, many reaching No. 1. Personal life Johanna He ...

's '' Hearts Aflame''.
- She worked for paperback publishers including

Ace An ace is a playing card, die or domino with a single pip. In the standard French deck, an ace has a single suit symbol (a heart, diamond, spade, or a club) located in the middle of the card, sometimes large and decorated, especially in the ...

, Airmont, Avon, Balcourt Art Service, Bantam, Berkley, Crescent,

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, Fawcett Gold Medal,

Lancer A lancer was a type of cavalryman who fought with a lance. Lances were used for mounted warfare in Assyria as early as and subsequently by India, Egypt, China, Persia, Greece, and Rome. The weapon was widely used throughout Eurasia during the M ...

Penguin USA Penguins are a group of aquatic flightless birds from the family Spheniscidae () of the order Sphenisciformes (). They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere. Only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is equatorial, with a small ...

Playboy Press PLBY Group, Inc. is an American global media and lifestyle company founded by Hugh Hefner as Playboy Enterprises, Inc. to oversee the ''Playboy'' magazine and related assets. Its headquarters are in Los Angeles, California. The company is focus ...

Pocket Books Pocket Books is a division of Simon & Schuster that primarily publishes paperback books. History Pocket Books produced the first Paperback#Mass market paperback, mass-market, pocket-sized paperback books in the United States in early 1939 and ...

New American Library The New American Library (also known as NAL) is an American publisher based in New York, founded in 1948. Its initial focus was affordable paperback reprints of classics and scholarly works as well as popular and pulp fiction, but it now publi ...

and Zebra Kensington. She retired from book cover illustration in early 2003. In her acceptance speech for her induction to the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame, she summarized her career saying, " is field has been rewarding to me and in return I've tried to elevate romance illustration to an art form. At least I hope I've been influential in changing the look of the genre… My work is mainly about creating fantasy – fantasy people, fantasy situations and fantasy settings. It is realistic, but upon closer inspection, my paintings portray a highly glamorized version of already attractive people and places that goes beyond realism."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Duillo, Elaine I. 1928 births 2021 deaths American illustrators Artists from Brooklyn