The GREAT GATSBY

Published in 1925, The Great Gatsby is known as the Great American Novel and is considered the defining work of the 1920's, the decade often referred to as the Jazz Age.

The cover of The Great Gatsby has become one of the most celebrated pieces of jacket art in American literature. A little-known artist named Francis Cugat was commissioned to illustrate the book cover while Fitzgerald was in the midst of writing it. The cover was completed before the novel, with Fitzgerald so enamored of it that he told his publisher he had "written it into" the novel.

The image on the cover is produced in Art Deco-style gouache, with a pair of eyes hovering over the bright lights of an amusement park. The woman has no nose but full and voluptuous lips. Descending from the right eye is a green tear. The irises depict a pair of reclining nudes.

In researching many of the movie poster, fashion and make up trends of the 1920's I found similar themes that came through in striking images of movie stars and models.