Today’s art is an oil painting that would pass perfectly well as a piece of fine art in a chiaroscuro style.

Actually it’s a piece for a magazine published in 1924 by the one-eyed artist Stockton Mulford – a biography of him here. Despite the beautiful colour, it was printed in monochrome, as shown here. I think the aircraft is meant to be a Jenny, widely used after a Great War training career for barnstorming – and other, even more precarious and perhaps less savoury roles, such as rum running.

Posted online by Fred Taraba, he had this to say about it: “The piece itself was reproduced in Everybody’s Magazine in April 1924. The opinion of someone whose taste I trust, for the most part, cites this as Mulford’s masterwork. Maybe it is and maybe it isn’t… what I do know though is that it’s wonderfully painted and so charmingly evocative that one needn’t even read the story. ‘The Long Call’ by Katharine and Robert Pinkerton. Caption: ‘A low whistle directed them to the airplane and the supplies were stowed in the fuselage.’ Enjoy.”

And as I certainly did, I hope you do too.

James Kightly, Vintage Aero Writer.

Shared by Fred Taraba on the Today’s Inspiration Page on Facebook here.