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Grapefruit Moon Gallery

Original Art from the Grand Age of American Illustration

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Sorry, It's Sold

Buena Vista Boulevard & Broadway

Artist:Leslie Thrasher
Date:1927
Medium:Oil on Canvas
Dimensions:Sight Size 13 1/2" x 15" Framed 21 1/2" x 24"
Condition:Excellent
Original Use:Cover Art for Liberty Magazine - June 18, 1927
Price: S O L D
Above: Full view of artwork

A rare surviving original oil painting by Leslie Thrasher which was created as cover art the June 18, 1927 issue of Liberty Magazine. A Westward expanionist-themed view of California real estate speculation and planned communities, featuring a handsome modernist jazz age couple imagining their new life at the intersection of Buena Vista Boulevard & Broadway. Hope, determination and an underlying tension are created with the surprising color palette and the placement of the central figures against a surround that lies purely in the speculative imagination.

Above: Verso notations
Above: Verso title
Above: The artists signature

A well worded bio on the artist courtesy of The Illustration House follows: The editors of Liberty magazine, which first appeared on the newstand in 1924, prided themselves on innovation – any innovation that would broaden their readership. One of their most successful and appealing ideas was the “continuity cover”, and the artist who took the assignment was LESLIE THRASHER (1889-1936). For six years, Thrasher created a cover a week for $1,000 each, depicting the lives of a middle-class couple and their extended family, from their high school romance to a well-heeled middle age. Entitled “For The Love o’ Lil”, the series was the prototype for the soap opera and its popularity warranted adaptations to radio and the big screen. Thrasher was a populist almost in spite of his fine arts training in Philadelphia and Paris; he even used himself as the model for the husband in the “Lil” series. He was certainly one of Howard Pyle’s most commercially successful students. He did ads for Chesterfield Cigarettes, Cream of Wheat and DuPont, and by the time he left Liberty, he had produced more cover paintings than Norman Rockwell did in his whole career at the Saturday Evening Post. His pictures are relatively spare, composed around a compelling action or an object rich with meaning – an engagement ring, for instance. Thrasher and Rockwell, while they were opposite numbers in rival publications, did share a view of America as a nation bound by humor, common sense and altruism.

Above: Detail
Above: Framed and matted in handsome gallery frame

Buena Vista Boulevard & Broadway

Artist: Leslie Thrasher
Price:  S O L D

Filed Under: Sorry, It's Sold
Tagged With: 1920s, california, jazz age, Leslie Thrasher, Liberty, magazine cover, original cover art
Added to Gallery: February 18, 2008

 

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    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]

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