Announcing her arrival - Richard Amsel's work for Bette Midler

 

A sketch for Midler's premier album "The Divine Miss M."

Between 1972 and 1976 the celebrated illustrator Richard Amsel produced a handful of well-regarded and influential promotional portraits of Bette Midler. These included the now iconic covers of her first two albums, images that signaled - and helped establish - her new-found status in music and popular culture. 

Album cover for "The Divine Miss M," 1972.

Album cover for "Bette Midler," 1973.

What appears to be a preliminary version/sketch of the final cover image.

The poster for Midler’s "Clams on the Half-Shell Revue," 1975.

The original artwork for the "Clams on the Half-Shell Revue"; the artist imagined her as portrayed by Vargas.

A sketch for the poster.

Record sleeve illustrations for "Songs for the New Depression," 1976.

This appears to be an unused design for a record sleeve, ND. 

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Richard Amsel (4 December 1947, Philadelphia – 13 November 1985, New York City), American illustrator and graphic designer. His career was brief but prolific, including film posters, album covers, and magazine covers. Shortly after graduating from Philadelphia College of Art, his proposed poster art for the 1969 musical Hello, Dolly! was selected by 20th Century Fox for the film’s campaign after a nationwide talent search; the artist was only twenty-two at the time. His commissions for film posters would go on to include some of the most important and popular films of the 1970s and early 1980s, including The Champ, Chinatown, Julia, The Last Picture Show, Murder on the Orient Express, and The Sting. He also created the posters for Raiders of the Lost Ark, which ultimately became arguably his most famous work. First commissioned by TV Guide in 1972, he went on to enjoy a thirteen year association with the publication, during which time he produced more than 40 covers. Amsel's last film poster was for Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, and his final completed artwork was for an issue of TV Guide, featuring news anchors Tom Brokaw, Peter Jennings, and Dan Rather. He died less than three weeks later, succumbing to complications from AIDS at the age of only thirty-seven.

Portrait of Richard Amsel by Kenn Duncan for After Dark magazine, 1973.