Although D'Ancona was a prolific pin-up artist who produced
hundreds of enjoyable images, almost nothing is known about
his background. He sometimes signed his paintings with the
name "D'Amarie", but his real name appears on numerous calendar
prints published from the mid 1930s through the mid 1950s,
and perhaps as late as 1960.[no-sidebar]
The first company to publish D'Ancona pin-ups, about 1935
to 1937, was Louis F. Dow in St Paul. D'Ancona worked in
oil on canvas and his originals from that time usually measured
about 30 x 22 inches. His early work is comparable in quality
to that of the young Gil Elvgren,
who had begun to work for Dow in 1937. Because D'Ancona
produced so much work for Dow, one might assume that he
was born in Minnesota and lived and worked in the St Paul,
Minneapolis area. It is known that he supplied illustrations
to the Goes Company in Cincinnati and to several soft-drink
firms, which capitalized on his works similarity to the
Sundblom/Elvgren style, which
was so identified with Coca-Cola. During the 1940s and 1950s,
D'Ancona's superb use of primary colors, masterful brushstrokes,
and painterly style elevated him to the ranks of the very
best artist in pin-up and glamour art.
His subject matter
at this time resembled Elvgren's. Both enjoyed painting
nudes and both employed situation poses a great deal. D'Ancona
also painted a fair amount of evening-gown scenes, as did
Elvgren, Frahm, and Erbit. By 1960, D'Ancona had moved into the calendar art field. Instead
of doing pin-ups and glamour images, however, he specialized in
pictures on the theme of safety in which wholesorne policemen helped
children across the street in suburban settings that came straight
out of Norrnan Rockwell.
