Rolf Armstrong (April 21, 1889 – February 22, 1960) was an American commercial artist specializing in glamorous depictions of female subjects.

In 1960 the New York Times dubbed him the “creator of the calendar girl.”[5] His commercial career extended from 1912 to 1960, the great majority of his original work being done in pastel.

There he became close to William's son, Robert Armstrong, who later achieved fame as a film and television actor best known for his role in King Kong (1933).

[6] After studying in Chicago and living and working in New York for several years, Rolf married Claire Louise Frisbie, a free-lance writer, in 1919.

In 1997, surviving friends and admirers arranged for placement of a grave marker at the Armstrong family plot in Elmwood Cemetery, Detroit, Michigan.

During the 1920s Armstrong achieved considerable commercial success creating a total of 65 portraits of silent screen actors (all but one female) for the covers of Photoplay, Screenland and other movie fan magazines.

The great majority of Armstrong's magazine covers show the head only, and the originals that are known are relatively small works (less than 24” in greatest dimension).

Notable exceptions to the small pastels typically done by Armstrong in this period were five life-size oil paintings of the female figure entitled Cleopatra, The Enchantress, Arabian Nights, Carmen, and Song of India.

Calendar images became a larger part of Armstrong's work in the early thirties and his chief source of income within a few years.

[citation needed] Around 1939 he landed a lucrative contract to produce exclusively for Brown & Bigelow, the largest calendar publisher at that time.

Most of Armstrong's later works produced for the calendar industry depict the entire figure, were done in pastel, and were of intermediate size (about 36” in greatest dimension).

Many if not most of Armstrong's covers and early calendar images were reused for sheet music, postcards, and all manner of advertising items.

Along with Howard Chandler Christy, Norman Rockwell, and numerous other artists, Armstrong lived and worked during what is called the “Golden Age of American Illustration.”[7] This age began with the development of four-color printing in the late 19th century, was fueled by the advent of magazines supported by advertising, and declined after the introduction of color photography in the 1930s.

In March 1940, Jewel Flowers, a girl from Lumberton, North Carolina, sent a picture of herself to Armstrong in response to an advert he had placed in the New York Times.

Armstrong's calendars and silhouettes of Flowers were copied onto bombers and other planes as nose art and painted on tank turrets.

She became so well known during the war, although more as a famous face than by name, that a serviceman's letter addressed simply as "Jewel Flowers, New York City" was delivered correctly.

The January 1, 1945 edition of TIME magazine included Armstrong's "Toast of the Town" painting of Flowers in an article about Calendar Art.

She and her husband resided in several locations while he attempted several business ventures, including Laguna Beach, California, Greenville, South Carolina and Reno, Nevada, where she reportedly worked as a card dealer, and New York City.