Robert Dunlap Blue (1946 – January 22, 1998Art-Mart.com /ref>) was a
painter
Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...
noted for his images of
pin-up girl
A pin-up model is a model whose mass-produced pictures and photographs have wide appeal within the popular culture of a society. Pin-up models are usually glamour, actresses, or fashion models whose pictures are intended for informal and aesth ...
s in the 1980s and later his
cowgirl
A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the ''vaquero'' ...
s of the New West series. He was the son of comedic actor
Ben Blue
Ben Blue (born Benjamin Bernstein; 9 December 1901 – 7 March 1975) was a Canadian-American actor and comedian whose varied career on stage, in movies, and in television appearances, spanned nearly 50 years.
Early life
Benjamin Bernste ...
. Blue's work precedes that of
Patrick Nagel
Patrick Nagel (November 25, 1945 – February 4, 1984) was an American artist and illustrator. He created popular illustrations on board, paper, and canvas, most of which emphasize the female form in a distinctive style, descended from Art Dec ...
, as Blue's credits as a commercial artist date as early as 1970. A Blue painting was used for the album back cover art for Iron Butterfly "Metamorphosis" 1970 LP release and he painted fetish pin-ups of icon
Bettie Page
Bettie Mae Page (April 22, 1923 – December 11, 2008) was an American model who gained notoriety in the 1950s for her pin-up model, pin-up photos.Charles G. Martignette. (Martignette is co-author of ''The Great American Pin-Up'' with Louis K. Meisel). Other notable collectors of Blue's art have included
Jack Nicholson
John Joseph Nicholson (born April 22, 1937) is an American retired actor and filmmaker. Nicholson is widely regarded as one of the greatest actors of the 20th century, often playing rebels fighting against the social structure. Over his five-de ...
,
Barbra Streisand
Barbara Joan "Barbra" Streisand ( ; born April 24, 1942) is an American singer, actress, songwriter, producer, and director. With a career spanning over six decades, she has achieved success across multiple fields of entertainment, being the ...
,
Brian Wilson
Brian Douglas Wilson (June 20, 1942 – June 11, 2025) was an American musician, songwriter, singer and record producer who co-founded the Beach Boys. Often Brian Wilson is a genius, called a genius for his novel approaches to pop compositio ...
and
Hugh Hefner
Hugh Marston Hefner (April 9, 1926 – September 27, 2017) was an American magazine publisher. He was the founder and editor-in-chief of ''Playboy'' magazine, a publication with revealing photographs and articles. Hefner extended the ''Playboy ...
, as well as numerous corporate collectors, including the
Hyatt
Hyatt Hotels Corporation, commonly known as Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, is an American multinational corporation, multinational hospitality company headquartered in the 150 North Riverside, Riverside Plaza area of Chicago that manages and franchise ...
Regency Hotel in Los Angeles, and the Atlanta Hilton Motel. Blue's paintings are in the National Archives in Washington D.C. and the permanent collection of the Carnegie Art Museum.
Biography
Robert Dunlap Blue was born, 27 August 1946 in
Los Angeles County
Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles and sometimes abbreviated as LA County, is the most populous county in the United States, with 9,663,345 residents estimated in 2023. Its population is greater than that of 40 individua ...
,
California
California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
, to Axie (née Dunlap) and
Ben Blue
Ben Blue (born Benjamin Bernstein; 9 December 1901 – 7 March 1975) was a Canadian-American actor and comedian whose varied career on stage, in movies, and in television appearances, spanned nearly 50 years.
Early life
Benjamin Bernste ...
, and grew up in
Beverly Hills
Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. A notable and historic suburb of Los Angeles, it is located just southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Beverly Hil ...
. He served in the
United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...
and attended the
California College of Arts and Crafts
The California College of the Arts (CCA) is a Private university, private art school in San Francisco, California. It was founded in Berkeley, California in 1907 and moved to a historic estate in Oakland, California in 1922. In 1996, it opened ...
,
Oakland
Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major West Coast port, Oakland is ...
Chouinard Art Institute
The Chouinard Art Institute was a professional art school founded in 1921 by Nelbert Chouinard, Nelbert Murphy Chouinard (1879–1969) in the Westlake, Los Angeles, Westlake neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. In 1961, Walt Disney, Walt and ...
(1969) in Los Angeles. Blue served as chairman of fine art at Assn. in Art,
Van Nuys
Van Nuys ( ) is a neighborhood in the central San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California. Home to Van Nuys Airport and the Valley Municipal Building, it is the most populous neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley.
History
In 1 ...
.
In 1979, Blue joined Brian Davis to form the Davis-Blue Artwork publishing company. This company published a number of dramatic posters, including some by illustrator
Major Felten
Major Felten, also "Felton" (March 19, 1904 – November 1975) was an American visual artist and illustrator. He produced modernism style designs in charcoal drawings and other media.
Early life
Felten was born March 19, 1904 in Canaan, Con ...
.
Blue, a published painter as early as 1970 worked in many mediums including watercolors, oils and acrylics. Blue's fashion pin-up "Blue Girl" paintings and serigraphs were done in the 1980s, selling to Japan. Compare Blue's artwork to the famous Playboy and commercial illustrator Patrick Nagel, both artists were alumni of the Chouinard Art Institute and painted women during the 1980s.
Blue's popular 1980s period "Blue Girl" series was easily identifiable. Blue painted eyebrows featuring a signature zig-zag detail, with hair swirls with individual strands (often in a stark violet or gold), hands adorning long painted nails, frequently in cherry red. Some popular paintings include "Monica," "Lauren," "Claudia," and golden-haired "Suzanne," in which Blue painted and printed his female subject's hair strands in micronized 24k gold.
In the early 1990s, Blue painted with more realism. By the mid 1990s Blue began painting
Bettie Page
Bettie Mae Page (April 22, 1923 – December 11, 2008) was an American model who gained notoriety in the 1950s for her pin-up model, pin-up photos.Dave Stevens
Dave Lee Stevens (July 29, 1955 – March 11, 2008) was an American illustrator and comics artist. He was most famous for creating '' The Rocketeer'' comic book and film character, and for his pin-up style "glamour art" illustrations, especiall ...
brain cancer
A brain tumor (sometimes referred to as brain cancer) occurs when a group of cells within the brain turn cancerous and grow out of control, creating a mass. There are two main types of tumors: malignant (cancerous) tumors and benign (non-cance ...
in
Santa Monica
Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...
in 1998, and the Robert Blue Foundation to aid brain cancer victims was instituted in his memory. He was survived by his wife, Linda, and his brother, Tom.
Blue's art was featured in the 1974 film ''
The Second Coming of Suzanne
''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...
'', and also 1984's '' Heartbreakers'', which was loosely based on Blue himself.IMDb.com - Trivia for Heartbreakers /ref> His work also appeared in the 1982
Richard Elfman
Richard Elfman (born March 6, 1949) is an American actor, musician, director, producer, screenwriter, journalist, author and magazine publisher.
Early life
His younger brother is musician and film composer Danny Elfman, with whom Richard woul ...
film ''
Forbidden Zone
''Forbidden Zone'' is an American absurdist musical fantasy comedy film produced and directed by independent filmmaker Richard Elfman, and co-written by Elfman and Matthew Bright. Shot in 1977 and 1978, the film premiered in 1980 and was di ...
''.
IMDb
IMDb, historically known as the Internet Movie Database, is an online database of information related to films, television series, podcasts, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and biograp ...