Rico Lebrun for McCall’s

This month marks 125 years since the birth of the artist Rico Lebrun. To celebrate, this post is dedicated to his Deco-era fashion illustrations for McCall’s.

Born in Naples, Federico “Rico” Lebrun (1900-1964) emigrated to the United States in 1924. He spent five years working as a commercial artist in New York City, creating fashion and advertising images for clients like The McCall Company. Lebrun ultimately settled in California, where his artworks can be seen at institutions including LACMA, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, and Pomona College, as well as MoMA, the Whitney, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Rico Lebrun, *Genesis*, 1960, mural at Frary Dining Hall, Pomona College, Claremont, California. Image: Benton Museum of Art.

Lebrun’s striking fashion illustrations appear in McCall’s publications for a short period in the early 1930s — towards the end of his youthful career as an illustrator. As longtime readers of this blog may recall, he portrayed the very Deco Patou gown that was redrafted as a McCall’s Archive Collection pattern. (See “New Year, Vintage You.”)

No. 6057. The Patou silhouette is beautifully exemplified in a formal evening gown which has curved bands at the neckline and hipline, a short bolero and inserted panels lengthening the skirt. — A Patou evening gown illustrated by Rico Lebrun, *McCall’s* magazine, April 1930.

Other Lebrun illustrations show McCall’s designs in similarly luxurious settings:

McCall 6265 and McCall 6284 — Two dress patterns in *McCall’s*, October 1930. Illustration: Rico Lebrun. Image: Internet Archive.

Colour illustration of three women leaving a building with a uniformed chauffeur in the foreground, showing two 1930 fall patterns, McCall 6119 and McCall 6247 — Fall outerwear in *McCall’s*, September 1930. Illustration: Rico Lebrun. Image: Internet Archive.

Fashion illustration of two women in sundresses (McCall pattern 6488), with an old man in a cap and striped shirt seated in left foreground, signed lebrun — Resort fashion in *McCall’s* magazine, April 1931. Illustration: Rico Lebrun. Image: Internet Archive.

The artist’s distinctive commercial work reflects his painterly approach to drawing and movement:

“I wish my drawing to get richer by consulting the tangible world. I am just beginning to see how even the most static form is bounded by profiles so constantly changing that the form itself is in movement. This inherent animation which has nothing to do with action offers me a chance to select and transfer to the paper those contours which most fully describe that movement and that life.” — Rico Lebrun

Before he left illustration for fine art, Lebrun also created covers for the McCall Quarterly. Released between 1930 and 1931, Lebrun’s seasonal covers depict fashionable leisure and sport — tennis, polo, hunting, even an alpine ski resort. Click through the gallery below to view a selection of Lebrun’s seldom-seen fashion covers for McCall’s.