The Grapefruit Moon Gallery collection of original advertising art features commissioned artwork created by illustrators for poster design or for print ads in American mainstream magazines. In their day, these colorful full-page ads in publications like The Saturday Evening Post were as anticipated as the cover art, news, or human interest stories. Illustrators readily lent their craft to a wide array of products and placements, and the artwork and product often at times became synonymous as in the case of the Campbell's Soup Kids by Grace Drayton and the series of Hires Root Beer ads by Maxfield Parrish.

Lest We Forget B. Cory Kilvert	Breakfast's Ready Li'l Missy William V. Cahill

An inventive stylized colorful dated gouache advertising painting by Cardwell Higgins for "Aris Britland Doeskin" gloves. An inventive color palette and attention to fashion style details make this a compelling and inventive example. A tear sheet of the printed work from the artist's scrapbook is included in the sale.

A 1942 original pastel on board by Cardwell Higgins created for an advertising display sign for "Adola Brassieres". Higgins executed a series of these images all with erotically charged pin-up girl style and often times set in Hawaii as in this example. This is the only known surviving pastel from this campaign, the text on the die-cut display created from the artwork read "The Secret To a Lovely Figure".

A wonderful nude mermaid themed Bill Layne Brown & Bigelow Calendar Company commissioned illustration, the second of two are offering at Grapefruit Moon Gallery. A 1950s-60s gouache on board created for one of this calendar company's jewelry advertising accounts. This depicts a topless pin-up girl mermaid on a balance scale with a tray of freshly mined pearls surrounded underwater by a host of male atomic-age sea dwellers. The type of scene only Bill Layne could envision and execute. The whimsical charm predicts Layne's later career in the animation department for Walt Disney feature films. We expect Bill Layne to become a wildly collected and important artist in years to come.

An early original commissioned painting by The Saint Paul Minnesota artist Edward V. Brewer for The Cream of Wheat Company. Image appeared in countless magazines in 1916 and was one of 102 works the artist created for the cereal giant. Titled "He Sho' Thinks He's Hiding" the work appears as a full page color-plate (page 68) in Dave Stivers collectors book, "The Nabisco Brands Collection of Cream of Wheat Advertising Art."

An original illustration treasure from the storied Cream of Wheat vaults, this oil-on-canvas by William V. Cahill was used for the 1913 advertisement titled Breakfast's Ready Li'l Missy. This is perhaps the finest of the 18 works created by this Howard Pyle student for Cream of Wheat. An interior genre scene (in the same interior) painted in 1912 by Cahill titled "The Dress Fitting" set records in a New York City Sotheby's Arcade Auction selling for a staggering $327,200.

A nostalgic oil on canvas by long time Cream of Wheat illustrator Edward Vincent Brewer created for their 1913 advertising campaign. In "Forty Winks" Brewer's own children are seen mischievously posed around the chef as he takes a brief nap. This image is a timeless and rich piece of Americana from the archives of the Cream of Wheat advertising vaults, and has never been publicly offered for sale. This new to the market artwork is in pristine archived condition.

An elegant art deco gouache-on-board created for General Motors who commissioned this work for their Cadillac ad campaign during the late 1920s-early 30s. This remarkable composition features a modernist, jazz age, formally attired woman flanked by majestic wolfhounds. She is shown entering a castle as her Cadillac touring sedan rests among palm trees in the background. Work is unsigned, in the manner of Edouard Benito or George Wolfe Plank.

One of only a handful of Patriotic WWI themed works by Edward Brewer created for the Cream of Wheat advertising campaign. "None But The Brave..." features an attractive French waitress cheerily serving a US soldier stationed abroad. This 1918 artwork explores the post World War I Franco- American friendship and harmony. This new-to-the-market advertising painting is an iconic and luminous piece of American history in excellent condition, and embodies the finest of this storied advertising campaign.

Another fine original artwork from the storied Cream of Wheat advertising archives. An original watercolor on illustration board by B. Cory Kilvert titled Lest We Forget. This large and decidedly quaint image borrows from The American Arts & Crafts aesthetic which was firmly rooted into American culture in 1907, when this image first saw light as a full page magazine ad in hundreds of popular publications such as The Saturday Evening Post. Responding to fussy, over ornamented Victorian tastes, the Arts & Crafts movement artists evoked scenes of Dutch mills and serene pastoral views presented in contrast to modern industrialization. This unique and delightful hearth and home image from this iconic advertising campaign is surely one of the most enduring images from this long running series.

A whimsical oil on canvas by long time Cream of Wheat illustrator Edward Vincent Brewer created for their 1918 advertising. In "Opening The Case" Brewer's own children are seen cheerfully posed around the chef as he opens a new case of Cream of Wheat. This image is a timeless and rich piece of Americana from the archives of the Cream of Wheat advertising vaults, and has never been publicly offered for sale. By far one of the most idyllic and tender artworks in the collection. Recently cleaned, this new to the market artwork is in pristine archived condition.