The curious and strangely "cultish" world of pin-up and glamour art features paintings and pastels designed to titillate and arouse -- or maybe just amuse -- albeit within the confines of a watchful mainstream modern America. The genre emerged after the turn of the 20th Century. Full-figured, demure yet bold for the times, and coyly fresh art nouveau calendar girls illustrated by Charles Dana Gibson, Raphael Kirchner, and Harrison Fisher were in huge demand during the late Victorian years. The following Art Deco, World War II, and post-WWII years showed unflagging popularity for the genre. The wide and varied collection of Pin-Up and Glamour original artworks are all available exclusively through the Grapefruit Moon Gallery website.

The Crinoline Girl Rolf Armstrong	Ruffled Feathers Gil Elvgren

An original 1961 Oil on Canvas by Gilette Elvgren commissioned for the Brown & Bigelow Calendar Company and published under the title "A Neat Package". A sexy Elvgren pin-up that explores the silk stockings and garters scenario that the artist is best known for. For those of you not keeping track, recent auctions have seen Elvgren's pin-up works for Brown & Bigelow topping $200,000.00 at auction on more than one occasion with a high water mark of $262,900.00 this June.

A well rendered, colorful and new to the market Al Buell oil painting on board likely for an Interior story in Redbook Magazine. Al Buell did frequent images for leading Calendar Companies creating glamorous pin-up depictions, he also glorified the American Girl in period magazines. Work is framed and signed lower left.

A whimsical snow scene pastel illustration by Rolf Armstrong which initially appeared as the cover for College Humor in December of 1929. This image was slightly altered by Armstrong and appeared again in 1936 as a Brown & Bigelow Calendar titled "The Call of the North". The pastel was dedicated to Stan Fenelle another Brown & Bigelow artist by Armstrong and is a new to the market Saint Paul Minnesota estate find. Work is matted and framed in a period art deco era Newcomb-Macklin antique gold carved frame.

This wonderful, coy and large original pastel on board by Earl Moran was created as a commissioned illustration for Brown & Bigelow. The pin-up calendar image was published in the early 1950's with the quip "Leading a parade Without a falter, is easier than leading A man to the altar." Pastel is beautifully framed in a gold gilt fine museum frame and properly lined with printed tear sheet of published calendar included in sale.

Simply stated, "Thanks for the Orchid," this 1955 Oil on Canvas commissioned Brown & Bigelow artwork is the finest Joyce Ballantyne original painting to come on the market. The luminous quality of the image and the detail and texture of the brush strokes show clearly the significant impact Elvgren's teachings and collaboration had on Ballantyne, if it does not indeed betray the hand of Gil Elvgren. Ballantyne worked closely with Elvgren for the better part of a decade, and it has often been suggested that he ghost painted some of her best work.

A rare surviving pastel by the prolific and inventive early pin-up artist James Ross Bryson. Bryson defined Art Nouveau feminine beauty with his Edwardian views of corseted and lavishly attired, erotic, and bold anti-Victorian maidens. A staff artist for the Thos. D Murphy calendar co., his work also appeared on postcards, advertisements, and magazine covers. Bryson's strong use of color, and stylized depictions of feminine glamour were heavily influential on art deco pastel artists like Rolf Armstrong, Earl Moran and Zoe Mozert.

A large and new to the market, early 1950s pastel by Earl Moran, featuring the unlikely proportioned pin-up model Danice Daniels in a sexy, coy, playful, sex kitten pose that recalls Alberto Vargas' work for the pages of Playboy Magazine during the era. Work is properly lined and housed in an attactive gallery frame. A fine example of Earl Moran's masterful pastel work capturing his stylized ideals of feminine allure and temptation.

This original commissioned painting by female pin-up artist Ruth Deckard was titled A Pin Cushion by the Calendar Company that first published it, originally titled by the artist on verso A Bar Belle. Features a cheeky brunette winsome pin-up girl in a duck pin bowling alley "sit down strike" scene. This was a very popular and wildly produced calendar in the post WWII pin-up era, and we are happy to offer the original oil on canvas, a rare original surviving artifact from the era of "The Great American Pin-up."

A fabulous large and radiant original oil on canvas by the acclaimed American illustrator Edward Eggleston. This alluring, Edwardian attired glamour girl in luminous moonlight surround was a commissioned calendar artwork under the title The Sweetheart of Sigmi-Chi. Produced in 1919 this same image also appeared (with a riverboat superimposed above the subject's right shoulder) under the title Dixie. This is one of many instances where an illustrator would reuse a central image to save time while working up a new piece for a competing calendar company. In this instance, Eggleston so seamlessly removed the paddle boat from the original artwork I wouldn't have known it existed in that form if not for the image shown in Norm Platnick's A Lady of Mystery: A Collector's guide to Edward Eggleston.

Titled at turns "Flower Girl" and "Message of Love," this original oil on canvas by Edward D'Ancona was created for the John Frederick Calendar Company. Featuring an elegant and wholesome depiction of the good girl glamour art ideal, this marks a winsome departure by the prolific and infamous creator of the panties dropping, embarrassment style of cheesecake that signaled the wane of the era of "The Great American Pin-up."