Among the documents and other little treasures that Irene left behind, I came upon a certificate of authenticity for a “Lace Bustle” lithograph signed by Virginia Fisher. Below is the actual scanned image of this certificate.
I wanted to know more about this Lace Bustle and Virginia Fisher, so I went online. The first web page I browsed to was from a site called artsellers.com and I immediately recognized the beautiful art on the page. My mother has a lithograph hanging on her wall, probably the one this certificate belongs to. Makes sense.
Take a look at what I’m referring to..
http://www.artsellers.com/classifieds/artists/fisher.htm
This is a small thumbnail screen-shot of the page that Lace Bustle displays on. Irene hired the artist, Virginia Fisher, to paint for her costume designer. Each Lithograph was signed by Irene, Virginia Fisher, as well as the Producer and Director of the movie Irene created the fashion for. This page offers a little background information about Irene, as well as descriptions of the Lithograph and the movie behind the fashion. This was a nice site to stumble across today. Hope you enjoyed it as well.
Virginia Fisher was one of Irene’s sketch artists at MGM. Irene had more than one sketch artist, and they varied over the years. Bill Thomas was one, for example, and he later became a Hollywood costume designer himself. Virginia Fisher worked on some of Irene’s period costume movies from the late 40s, notably Easter Parade, and Good Ol Summertime, but also the fabulous costumes from B.F.s Daughter. I’ll soon send in another one of her sketches.
Thank you for your insight Christian. It’s always appreciated! I look forward to viewing the sketch you mention sharing.