Above: Full view of oil painting

Above: The artist’s signature lower center

A charming scarce surviving Street & Smith published pulp cover painting by John A. Coughlin, this was most likely used as the cover of the May 13, 1922 issue of Detective Story Magazine. The verso is titled “The Stolen Clew,” the dramatic and mysterious scene features Fu Manchu emerging from the background into the lair of a mad scientist. Research leads us to believe that this illustrates a scene from “Dr. Kreener’s Last Experiment,” a serialized story from Sax Rohmer’s “The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu,” which was published in Detective Story Magazine.

Above: Verso notations and date and title

Above: Verso view with new stretchers and relined canvas

Above: Detail

A recent Pennsylvania estate recently turned up a large collection of never before offered on the market original Street & Smith Publications pulp cover paintings. Grapefruit Moon gallery was fortunate to have purchased several of these rare surviving works and we are pleased to be unveiling the collection.