The Grand Age of American Illustration was at its peak after the turn of the century in the early 1900s. The printing industry with its technological advancements and the American Industrial Revolution made for a multicolor offset printing process that was fast, affordable, and flat-out glorious in print. Cover artists were much in demand, earned lavish salaries and often became household names and stars in their own right. The distinction between fine art and "art for commerce" was blurred and artists like Alphonse Mucha, Maxfield Parrish, Norman Rockwell, and countless others excelled in both realms. These often lost original paintings are available exclusively via Grapefruit Moon Gallery.

To the Queens Taste Edward V. Brewer	Lurid Fu Manchu Interior Watercolor C.C. Beall

This Raphael Kirchner Ziegfeld Follies pastel is a newly unearthed piece of New York City theater history, and a once in a generation find. Part of a suite of five illustrations which feature the erotic and luminous showgirls who starred in the legendary theater revue Ziegfeld Follies and made the name synonymous with images of the most beautiful, brazen and sensuous women in early 20th century New York. This portrait of Justine Johnstone hung in the lobby of the historic Century Theater until it shut its doors in 1936.

A fashionable demure art nouveau maiden with a parasol is leered at by an Edwardian gent in a wig with opera glasses in this gouache illustration which dates from 1910 - 1920. The work is unsigned and is mindful in style of the works which appeared in Vogue and Vanity Fair Magazines. This is beautifully framed in a carved wood gesso antique frame.

Grapefruit Moon Gallery is delighted to offer "What Do You Charge For Board, Sir?" a rare surviving archived Cream of Wheat original oil painting. This 1919 artwork was reproduced as a full page advertisement in hundreds of American magazines. Featuring the iconic chef "Rastus" greeting a child on hobby horse at the Cream of Wheat Inn. the Cream of Wheat advertising campaign came to define some of the most enduring visions of American hearth and home.

A monumental and important original large pastel illustration on stretched canvas by James Ross Bryson, executed in 1914 for The Thos. D. Murphy Calendar Company of Red Oak Iowa under the title "Reverie in Green". Bryson was an influential and supremely gifted and handsomely paid American Illustrator who earned a hefty $200.00 per commission for images of his risque for the day, modern enchantress themed Art Nouveau Maiden depictions. This work is housed in it's original wide solid mahogany gold gilt lined antique frame and is properly lined behind glass.

A large, luminous, and otherworldly gouache illustration most likely created for Redbook Magazine, verso is dated January 1958. A most awkward wedding day depiction where seemingly the groom new the bride and the bride's maid of honor when they used to rock and roll. A dazzling work by one of our favorite artists in a rainbow inspired color palette that only Georgi could have conceived. Beautifully matted and framed in a period gold gesso frame.

A charming and vanguard view of the generation gap which incited "The Jazz Age". Boomerang, which in the 1910s was synonymous with backfire, was a key flashpoint term of the era, since the older generation found all their efforts to instill their Victorian values on their children failed drastically. This lovely watercolor work is by Rose O'Neill, the most famous and prolific female illustrator of the early 1900's. She is best remembered for her creation the Kewpie doll.

A beautiful historically inspired maiden with a sword amidst Moorish castles and architecture. A dazzling charcoal rendering by the Polish emigrant W.T. Benda, a frequent cover artist for Life, Hearst's and The Shrine Magazine. Benda is perhaps best remembered today for his elaborate theater masks which made him the toast of New York City during the roaring 20's jazz age. He also favored images of exotic European and Asian ingenues with mysterious foreign features and dress.

This set of two pendant oil paintings is unusual within Wenzell's oervre, both for its classical mythological subject and explicit eroticism. These two paintings were clearly conceived as a matched set; they present a "before" and "after" narrative. The first panel was published as a vignette in the March 26th, 1910 issue of Collier's magazine but we don't believe that the second work was created for publication. This pair was displayed in the Wenzell's 1967 Maxwell Gallery (San Francisco) exhibition, "The Age of Elegance." An illustrated program is included with sale.

A delicately rendered mixed media work by Edwin Georgi which illustrated an interior story in The Saturday Evening Post. A tense dramatic courtroom portrayal from 1959 which captures the Perry Mason/Earle Stanley Gardner American Pop Culture sensation which was resonating at the time this commissioned work appeared in the Post. The lovely Georgi girl is "Policewoman O'Keefe," and this work confirms our suspicion that illustrators frequently created their finest works for this highly circulated and revered Curtis Publications slick mainstream magazine institution.

A wonderful Edwardian themed glamour girl Belle-Epoque era original pastel by Frank Desch. This was created for the Knapp Calendar Company and published under the title Lady Caprice. It first appeared in 1911, the endearing and iconic image that created quite a stir. A 1912 Knapp Calendar press release stated "No one to-day has to be told about "Lady Caprice...during the past year the praises of "Lady Caprice" have been sounded from sea to sea. Thousands of extra copies were demanded and bought at $1.00 each, and the supply was soon exhausted."