Bonwit Teller & Co. perfume advertisement. Gouache and ink on board. 560x406 mm; 22x16 inches, image, on 24 1/2x19-inch board which is glued down around perimeter to 30x22-inch window matte.
A technically exquisite painting that shows the artistry of the glass bottle and the beauty of the exotic flower which holds "The perfume of Youth, the delicate fragrance of the budding Jasmin blossom." The luxury department store Bonwit Teller created their own proprietary fragrances. These "Personality Perfumes" were made in Paris exclusively for the shop, which the ad boasts in its modern sans-serif lettering.
Vassos was a genius in both art and engineering, with an adventurous life. Born in Romania as the son of a Greek publisher and diplomat, he served with a suicide minesweeper squadron in World War I, was torpedoed, rescued, and landed in Boston in 1919. There, he studied art and illustration with John Singer Sargent at the Fenway Art School. In 1924, he came to New York, opened his own commercial studio, studied at the Art Students League, worked as an illustrator for Harper's and The New Yorker, and practiced industrial design. He wrote, illustrated, and published several fiction books at that time: Contempo; Ultima; and Phobia in 1931, in 1929, 1930, and 1931, respectively. Vassos also established the first internal design department for the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in 1933 and designed the first consumer television sets for them, introduced at the 1939 New York World's Fair.
