McClelland Barclay

Art Brokerage: McClelland Barclay American Artist: b. 1891-1943. McClelland Barclay was an American painter of pin-up art. By the age of 21, Barclay's work had been published in The Saturday Evening Post, Ladies' Home Journal, and Cosmopolitan. He later became a Lieutenant in the Naval Reserve in 1938. During World War I, he was awarded a prize by the Committee on National Preparedness in 1917 for his poster "Fill the Breach." The next year, he designed naval camouflage under the direction of William Mackay, Chief of the New York District Emergency Fleet Corporation. During the 1920s and 1930s, McClelland Barclay's images were selected for use by art directors for the nation's most popular periodicals including Collier's, Country Gentleman, Redbook, Pictorial Review, Coronet, Country Life, The Saturday Evening Post, The Ladies' Home Journal, Cosmopolitan, and a host of movie magazines. During the 1930s, he began painting movie poster art for Hollywood studios, including Paramount Pictures and Twentieth Century Fox. Barclay was considered a superstar in the film industry during the late 1930s and early 1940s. Barclay was one of the first artists to paint World War II pin-up girl, Betty Grable. In 1930, the General Motors selected McClelland Barclay's 'Fisher Body Girl' for a series of advertisements, and she quickly became as popular as 'The Gibson Girl' and 'The Christy Girl'. He used his wife, just 19 years old, as the model for the iconic Fisher Autobody image. She later appeared in magazine advertisements and was so well published with her languid body plastered across the country on billboards, that she was recognized wherever she went. He also illustrated advertisements for the A & P, Eaton Paper Company, Elgin Watches, Humming Bird Hosiery, and Lever Brothers, amongst others. His fashionable women for General Motors' "Body by Fisher" advertising campaign made his work recognizable to virtually every magazine reader in the United States. He also illustrated advertisements for Whitman's Chocolates, Texaco, and Camel and Chesterfield brand cigarettes. Because Barclay was known for his illustrations of "striking women," he earned a judging position at the 1935 Miss America pageant. Barclay was a member of the Art Students League, the Chicago Art Club, the Society of Illustrators, the Association of Arts and Industries, and the Artists Guild. Barclay did not limit himself to painting. In the late 1930s, Barclay set up a small company to reproduce jewelry and fabricate utilitarian figures for ashtrays, bookends, desk sets, lamps, and other articles for home and office use. These products were fabricated out of cast grey metal with a thick bronze plate finish and they retailed for just a few dollars. it didn't make him much money. He named the company after himself, McClelland Barclay Arts Products Corporation. Listings wanted.