“Edison Mazda lights” advertisement
This flashy watercolor illustration from 1917 is by the American illustrator, Coles Phillips. It was created as an advertisement for Edison Mazda lights during the Golden Age of Illustration, when the ideal American woman had transformed from the prim and proper Gibson girl type to a more modern, fun, and chic representation.
At this point in his career, Phillips was world renown for having illustrated the covers to magazines such as Good Housekeeping and Life (not the photography magazine of the same name). Due to his popularity, he was hired to create advertisements for a myriad of companies as well.
In the early 20th century, General Electric was paving the way for modernized technology. Their Edison Mazda incandescent light bulbs were recently introduced in 1909. Due to the energy rationing during World War I, the new Edison Mazda lights were becoming more widespread because they used less energy than the previous carbon-filament technology bulbs.
Phillips created this ad for the Edison Mazda lights, which was related to a poster he created for the United States Fuel Administration that same year in 1917. The poster for the US Fuel Administration features just the background decorative circle with the light hanging down and the words “Light consumes coal. Save light, save coal” written just below it. The woman in the forefront was added for the Edison Mazda illustration.
For more on Coles Phillips, please visit his short biography here.
You can find more artists to learn about here.
