Mid 20th Century Wayne Benter Jung, Fashion Sketch of Josephine Baker, Post WWII

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Wayne Benter Jung, Fashion Sketch of Josephine Baker, Post WWII

Gouache and ink on paper, 7.5" x 9.5" (sight), silver … Read more Wayne Benter Jung, Fashion Sketch of Josephine Baker, Post WWII

Gouache and ink on paper, 7.5" x 9.5" (sight), silver lacquered frame 11" x 9", circa late 1940s

This vibrant fashion illustration represents Josephine Baker, the American-born dancer, singer, and actress whose international fame made her one of the most recognizable icons of the 20th century. Although often associated with her Parisian rise during the 1920s Jazz Age, Baker continued to embody glamour and modernity well into the 1940s and beyond, performing throughout wartime Europe, assisting the French Resistance, and reinventing her stage image for postwar audiences.

The sketch, executed by Wayne Benter Jung (1919–2003), reflects this later phase of Baker’s career. Jung, a Wisconsin-born artist who studied at the Layton School of Art in Milwaukee and served in WWII, turned to fashion and theatrical design during his early postwar years. His work often balanced fine art, interior decoration, and fashion, situating him within the larger mid-century American dialogue between commercial design and artistic practice.

Fashion Analysis

The gown depicted here is emblematic of late 1940s fashion sensibilities:

Silhouette: The tightly belted waist and elongated column form anticipate the couture revolution inaugurated by Christian Dior’s New Look (1947), which reintroduced curvaceous femininity after wartime austerity.

Details: The vertical button placket and flared hemline with contrasting stripes lend both linear precision and theatrical flair. These details bridge the austerity of wartime rationed fashion with the exuberance of postwar couture.

Accessories: The fur stole and feathered hat underscore Baker’s cultivated glamour, typical of 1940s evening wear. The striped gloves in black, red, and yellow act as a modernist accent, echoing Art Deco color blocking but reinterpreted for a later generation.

The bow-trimmed shoes inject a note of playfulness, consistent with Baker’s performance persona.

Taken together, the ensemble balances restraint and spectacle, situating Baker as both fashion muse and performer.

Cultural Context
Josephine Baker’s public image was inextricably linked to both race and modernity. In 1940s fashion imagery, depicting Baker in haute couture attire was itself an assertion of her status as an international celebrity and style icon, transcending the racial barriers of the American stage while embracing the cosmopolitan glamour of Europe. Jung’s rendering captures her as both a fashion figure and a theatrical subject, resonating with Baker’s dual identity as an entertainer and an activist.

Artist Context
Wayne Benter Jung’s career spanned painting, collage, mural work, and design. While his fine art was exhibited in New York in the 1940s and 1960s, his fashion designs remained largely unpublished during his lifetime. This drawing demonstrates Jung’s sensitivity to both figure and costume design, and it highlights the mid-century American fascination with exoticized icons like Baker, who embodied both avant-garde chic and political defiance.

Significance
As a work of mid-century fashion illustration, this piece is not simply a costume sketch—it is an artifact of postwar design culture. It bridges:
-the enduring influence of Art Deco aesthetics,
-the emerging dominance of New Look couture, and
-the iconic presence of Josephine Baker as muse, performer, and modern woman.

Such a piece is significant for collectors of Art Deco and mid-century fashion, African American cultural history, and design drawings, standing at the crossroads of performance, identity, and style. See less