BERN HILL (1911-1977)

FLY CANADIAN PACIFIC / ACROSS THE PACIFIC. Circa 1950s.

36x24 inches, 91 1/2x61 cm.
Condition B+ / B: tears, small losses and creases at edges; tape stains at lower right edge, showing through; minor creases in image. Paper.

Bern Hill is best known for his railway poster designs for the General Motors Corporation in the 1950s. He also designed a small handful of posters for American Airlines during that same decade. Canadian Pacific Airlines began flying to Australia, New Zealand and Asia in 1949. Here, a woman festooned in island finery (a grass skirt and lei) and a hibiscus flower in her hair, is on Waikiki beach. With Diamondhead in the distance, she waves at a passing DC-4. Human figures rarely feature in Hill's work, and to our knowledge this is his only poster where the central figure is a woman. Rare. We could find only one other copy at auction.