Anton BRUEHL
Australia 1900 – United States of America 1982
United States from 1919

This will be music to your ears c 1945
image 36.0 (h) x 29.2 (w) cm

The team dynamics of the advertising world, brilliantly realised in the recent television series Mad Men, finds its real life equivalent in Young & Rubicam campaigns like this one for Four Roses whiskey. Bruehl’s ingenuity in making sets, props, and table-top photography found full expression in the Four Roses advertisements, particularly in the ‘model’ ads which ran from 1943–1953. Capitalising on the company’s trademark of four roses, Bruehl created scenes of sophistication and adventure with a touch of whimsy and humour.

Bruehl not only took the photographs but made the original cardboard models from which his long-term model maker, Willi Noell, worked. The cost of the props was exorbitant: the roses were selected from between 50–300 blooms and, for this advertisement, the model baby grand piano cost more than a real one.