Anonymous portraits used in a 1950s Aero campaign are on display at York Mansion House. MATT CLARK looks into the history of these advertisements.

THE women in the paintings have names such as Anna, Wendy and Elaine, but who were they? At best we know their Christian names, although some have no name at all.

Two are simply referred to as the ‘country girl’ and the ‘art student’. Others are even less fortunate, being consigned to history as ‘untitled’.

We don’t even know for sure if they are fictitious characters or real women, but they do have one thing in common. All were chosen to be the face of Aero, marketed in the 1950s as “The chocolate for her”.

The paintings have been stored in the Borthwick Institute since the early 1990s and researchers Kerstin Doble and Francesca Taylor reckoned it was time they went on public display.

As part of Chocolate Week 2013, the women feature in an exhibition entitled “Who Were The Aero Girls? Discovering Hidden Art in the Archives” which runs at the Mansion House until Sunday.

Francesca hopes the exhibition will shed light on these enigmatic portraits.

“Visitors will be encouraged to share their own stories and to ask questions,” she says. “Better still, if anyone was an Aero Girl or knows one, we’d love to hear from them.”

There are precious few records from the marketing campaign, but Kerstin and Francesca did find an advertising book which listed some of the artists’ names – including a man, unknown to them, named Deane.

After a spot of detective work they thought they had tracked him down. But it was a long shot. The book didn’t give his Christian name and despite writing to their best guess, no reply was forthcoming.

“After a couple of months we had given up,” says Kerstin. “Then one day, when I was in the middle of another project, the phone rang and the voice at the other end said, ‘Hello, I’m Frederick Deane. You’ve been trying to contact me, I’m sorry it’s taken so long’.”

Mr Deane, now 89, recalled many of the sittings, how he was linked with the Aero campaign and, best of all, he named two of the models as Rhona Lamson and Myrtle Crawford.

“Frederick Deane’s painting of Myrtle was never published, but she was picked out to be an Aero girl and I wonder whether some of the other portraits depict her, because she looks similar to the girl named Elaine,” says Francesca.

This discovery left the pair feeling they should perhaps take the identities in the portraits with a pinch of salt.

Another aspect explored in the exhibition is why Rowntree decided to use painted images of women in their print campaigns, long after photography had taken precedence.

“Aero was marketed as being different and they wanted to do something completely different in the advertising campaign,” says Francesca. “We found some records that say: ‘You can’t photograph ecstasy, you can’t draw delight’, so presumably all they could do was try to capture the experience in oils.”

Along with Mr Deane, a student at the time, major artists were recruited such as Anthony Devas, Vasco Lazzolo and Henry Marvell Carr. And their paintings are highly stylised, as you might expect with art trying to depict perfection.

“Rationing ended in 1954 and that probably drove the campaign,” says Kerstin. “It was certainly an aspirational one with images of demure sophisticated women, which Rowntree wanted Aero to be compared with. They look more like ladies in perfume adverts.”

Because it has holes, Aero was also marketed as being easy to digest, even nutritious. Francesca discovered illustrations from the campaign that point out a woman’s ideal model-like vital statistics. The message being Aero will help you stay thin, because it’s a lighter choice.

Rowntree even said this view was backed up by science.

Another clue offered by Mr Deane is that some of the girls who sat for the artists were top models of the day. Kerstin hopes magazines such as Vogue might be able to assist with her quest to name the unnamed.

She has also tracked down a man researching the history of his mother, who he thinks might have been an Aero girl. With many of the portraits painted by leading London artists, Kerstin believes a chat with the Chelsea Arts Club might yield results. But she says the Mansion House exhibition is the starting point.

“It’s important to share this archive material with the people of York and we’d love to know what memorabilia from the 1950s campaign they have.

“With so many people having links to Rowntree, once we get them to see these portraits I hope some will recognise who the sitters are.”

• If you were an Aero Girl, or if you know one, please contact the Borthwick Institute for Archives at whoweretheaerogirls@gmail.com or phone 01904 321166

• The Borthwick Institute is one of the biggest repositories for archives outside London, and includes the archives of Rowntree and Terry’s. The Aero Girls exhibition is part of a larger programme curated by the Borthwick Institute for Archives under the banner of ‘Opening Up Archives’.

• “Who were the Aero Girls? Discovering Hidden Art in the Archives” runs at the Mansion House, St Helen’s Square, York, until Sunday, from 11am to 4pm daily. Admission is free.