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.

Vargas Girl - Playboy 1961 Alberto Vargas	See, I Can Imitate Birds Too Earl Moran

This early original pin-up pastel which Earl Moran created for the Brown & Bigelow Calendar Company of Saint Paul Mn is a variation of the 1942 mutoscope card "Easy To Take". It is unclear whether Moran liked his naughty nurse themed offering so much that he created this similarly styled image soon after its publication, or if this was Moran's original idea, and Brown & Bigelow asked for him to turn from the French Maid homecoming piece seen here into an example of the popular candy striper pin up which was published as a hotcha girl image.

A radiant and pristine original pastel glamour pin-up illustration by Pearl Frush, created in 1944 and used in the 1945 Gerlach-Barklow calendar line under the title "Lovely as the Dawn". This really shows to great affect what Frush was able to create with her almost photo-realist in technique pastel mastery. Housed in its handsome original presentation frame properly lined behind glass with a verso tag from Robberson Steel Co. of Oklahoma who was gifted this pastel in exchange for their advertising.

An original pin-up pastel by Jules Erbit created in 1945 and used in 1946 by the Gerlach-Barklow Calendar Company with the title of "It's a Date!". Erbit did a series of these wartime "gossip girl on the phone" images using the same model for several of the eras leading calendar companies. The pastel is properly lined behind glass in its handsome original limed wood frame with dated framing tag and title.

An early art deco pastel glamour girl pin-up pastel used in 1938 by The Gerlach-Barklow Calendar Company with the title "Judy". Erbit was a prolific illustrator who worked for seemingly all of the major calendar companies offering a typically wholesome pretty and pert pin-up girl influential in creating the American ideal of feminine beauty and glamour girl allure. This is housed in its remarkable original art deco wide profile frame properly lined behind glass.

This well rendered, calendar published original pin-up pastel from 1941 by Jules Erbit titled "Yours Truly" was created for the Gerlach-Barklow company, Joliet Illinois. Jules Erbit was born in Budapest and started selling his illustrations at the age of fifteen. The artist created hundreds of typically wholesome good girl art calendar girls that were influential in creating the American ideal of feminine beauty and glamour girl allure.

"Angel Face" is a dazzling, nearly photo-realist 1959 original glamour girl pin-up pastel by Pearl Frush which was published by the Gerlach-Barklow Calendar Company of Joliet Illinois. This was gifted by a salesman at Gerlach-Barklow to the Robberson Steel Company of Oklahoma City in appreciation for their lucrative advertising account. Pastel is in a pristine state of conservation in the original gold wide profile frame lined behind glass with plate on front with title and year of print publication.

An early original pin-up pastel on illustration board by pin-up master Earl Moran from 1945 commissioned for The Brown & Bigelow Calendar Company and used for calendars and printed as a "Hot-cha girl" series mutoscope card with the title "See, I Can Imitate Birds, Too". A flirty erotic art deco era pin-up girl blowing a kiss dressed only in a bow. Pastel is handsomely framed in an ornate gesso frame and lined behind glass.

This 1937 dazzling and fresh (both in scene and technique) original mixed medium illustration painting by George Petty first appeared in Esquire Magazine as a full page color cartoon. It also was published as the first image of a spiral bound folio titled "Petty - A Portfolio from Esquire". One of the crown jewels from the estate of Charles Martignette. The work is framed and matted behind glass and is a defining example of the lithe and modernist Art Deco Petty Girl.

Alberto Vargas' first work for Playboy Magazine appeared September of 1960, exactly one year before the publication of this artwork. In this flirtatious view, a pretty brunette in a diaphanous pink nightgown smiles to the viewer after applying red lipstick to her full lips. This was generously gifted by Hugh Hefner and Playboy Magazine to an Easter Seals charity telethon auction in Chicago in the 1970s. This work was chosen specifically by the foundation, which wanted an image that could be shown on TV.

An original Gil Elvgren pin-up oil painting created in 1952 for the Brown & Bigelow Calendar Company of Saint Paul Minnesota. This curvy pin-up beauty appeared under the title "Hard To Suit," a pun the copy department liked so much they used it again in 1954 to describe an Elvgren girl disrobing from her duck hunting garb to reveal lingerie. This is the prototypical Elvgren girl in a comically harrowing and skin revealing pin-up entanglement with the artist's classic pursed lip expression that evokes surprise, embarrassment and provocation.