• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Recent Additions
  • The Gallery
    • About
    • Browse by Topic
    • eBay
    • Sorry, It’s Sold
  • Guarantee & Policies
    • Guarantee
    • Shipping & Payment
    • Amazon.com Shipping Information
    • eBay Buyer Protection
  • Contact & Social Media
    • E-mail & Phone
    • eBay
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter

Grapefruit Moon Gallery

Original Art from the Grand Age of American Illustration

  • Gallery Blog
  • Golden Gallery
  • Fine & Decorative
  • Illustration & Advertising
  • Paperback & Pulp
  • Pin-Up & Glamour
Pin-Up & Glamour Art

In the Spotlight

Artist:Edward D'Ancona
Date:1940s
Medium:Oil on canvas board
Dimensions:Framed: 23.5" x 31.5" | Sight size: 22" x 30"
Condition:Excellent
Original Use:Calendar art for The Louis F. Dow Calendar Company
Price: $7,500.00
Full view
The artist’s signature lower right

In the Spotlight by Edward D’Ancona

This is a recently discovered and rare surviving published pin-up calendar painting by the prolific illustrator Edward D’Ancona. This was originally published with the title “In the Spotlight” by The Louis F. Dow Calendar Company of St. Paul, Minnesota.

Grapefruit Moon Gallery just unearthed a collection of new-to-the-market pin-up paintings that had previously been in a house in Saint Louis Park, MN since the 1970s! This painting has been recently cleaned and is in pristine condition in its original pine frame that has been lovingly re-oiled.

In this painting, a strawberry blonde, Veronica Lake look-a-like torch singer croons out a smoldering song in front of a RCA ribbon microphone as she no doubts enthralls her audience. Whether it be the patrons of a smoky jazz nightclub or the eager, young GI’s on a USO tour stop, this blue-eyed serenader clearly knows how to keep all eyes on her.

Detail

About the artist: Edward D’Ancona

Although D’Ancona was a prolific pin-up artist who produced hundreds of enjoyable images, relatively little is known about his background.

Edward D’Ancona sometimes signed his paintings with the name “D’Amarie”, but his real name appears on numerous calendar prints published from the mid 1930s through the mid 1950s, and perhaps as late as 1960.

The first company to publish D’Ancona pinups, about 1935 to 1937, was Louis F. Dow in St Paul. D’Ancona worked in oil on canvas and his originals from that time usually measured about 30 x 22 inches. His early work is comparable in quality to that of the young Gil Elvgren, who had begun to work for Dow in 1937. Because D’Ancona produced so much work for Dow, one might assume that he was born in Minnesota and lived and worked in the St Paul, Minneapolis area. It is known that he supplied illustrations to the Goes Company in Cincinnati and to several soft-drink firms, which capitalized on his works similarity to the Sundblom/Elvgren style, which was so identified with Coca-Cola.

During the 1940s and 1950s, D’Ancona superb use of primary colours, masterful brushstrokes, and painterly style elevated him to the ranks of the very best artist in pin-up and pin-up art. His subject matter at this time resembled Elvgren’s. Both enjoyed painting nudes and both employed situation poses a great deal. D’Ancona also painted a fair amount of evening-gown scenes, as did Elvgren, Art Frahm and Erbit.

By 1960, D’Ancona had moved into the calendar art field. Instead of doing pinups and glamour images, however, he specialized in pictures on the theme of safety in which wholesome policemen helped children across the street in suburban settings that came straight out of Norman Rockwell.

Edward D’Ancona biography borrowed from The Great American Pin-Up by Charles G Martignette & Louis K Meisel.

Framed view
Verso view with hand lettered title and inventory notations

In the Spotlight

Artist: Edward D'Ancona
Price:  $7,500.00

Filed Under: Pin-Up & Glamour Art
Tagged With: 1940s, american, blonde, Calendar, Edward D'Ancona, glamour, Golden Age, Louis F. Dow, original calendar art, original illustration art, pin up, USO, Veronica Lake
Added to Gallery: July 15, 2020

 

Contact Grapefruit Moon Gallery



    Primary Sidebar

    Join our mailing list

    Grapefruit Moon Gallery Around the Web

    Facebook
    Instagram
    Pinterest
    Twitter

    Recent Additions

    Gone With the Wind

    Pigeon Feathers

    Packed Dirt, Churchgoing, A Dying Cat, A Traded Car

    Footer

    About Grapefruit Moon Gallery

    Grapefruit Moon Gallery, based in Minneapolis MN, specializes in vintage pin up and original illustration art.  We are the proud home of the Bunny Yeager archives.

    Since 2003, Grapefruit Moon Gallery has been a leading dealer of exclusive original paintings by Gil Elvgren, Alberto Vargas, Earl Moran, Rolf Armstrong and Henry Clive, as well as vintage photographs, prints, and period decorative arts in ceramic and metal.

    All artworks featured are original, accurately represented, and guaranteed to be the work of the named artist.

    Interested buyers may view pieces by appointment and we are happy to answer any questions you may have. [Contact Us]

    Grapefruit Moon Gallery on eBay

     

    Grapefruit Moon Gallery on Instagram

    View on Instagram

    Copyright © 2023