Who is Merlin Enabnit?
In 1940, Merlin Enabnit was hailed by Life magazine as England’s answer t= o George Petty; the Merlin Girl was a big favourite of British “Tommys” (= G.l.s) via regular appearances in Sketch magazine. Merlin’s sleek, airbru= shed damsels certainly do evoke Petty, although they have a bounce and pe= rsonality of their own. Postcards, magazine covers and a campaign for Whi= te Owl cigars attempted to make Merlin a hit in the States, but his fame = never approached Petty level. Ironically, Merlin (a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts of England) was= not British he was born near Des Moines, Iowa, in 1903, and worked out o= f Chicago. His fame in America centered upon his portraits of United Nati= ons luminaries, among others. The artist was well-known enough for a “Merlin Enabnit’s No. 1 Palette Kn= ife” to be marketed nationally and he authored how-to books for Walter Fo= ster on painting with a palette knife, portraiture, and use of colour.
