American illustrator Charles Bosseron Chambers created this large majestic portrait of Escamillo from the opera Carmen in the early 20th century.
Artist: Charles Bosseron Chambers
Grapefruit Moon Gallery just unearthed a small collection of original Campbell’s Soup Kids illustrations. These appeared as print ads in countless American mainstream publications such as The Saturday Evening Post in the 1930s. In this offering a Dolly Dingle-type character Campbell’s Soup Kid doubles as a railroad flagbearer with lantern ablaze attesting to the importance of the railroad in 20th century American history. Verso is stamped with a usage print date of 10/11/33. Painting is nicely matted and framed behind glass and ready to hang.
Artist: School of Grace Drayton
A genre defining girl in peril, menace themed pulp cover painting by the prolific and gifted American illustrator Peter Driben, this appeared as the cover for the December 1941 issue of Expose Detective True Crime Cases. Illustrating the interior story The Scarlet Sinner’s Final Exit, this lurid, large and rare surviving pulp cover painting has it all. Beautifully framed and in a fine state of conservation.
Artist: Peter Driben
A gorgeous and very detailed framed preliminary graphite sketch by the legendary American pin-up artist Gil Elvgren, which was used in the making of the 1955 Brown & Bigelow calendar “Waiting For You”. As part of his process, Elvgren would pose a live model in his home studio and create a series of graphite sketches […]
Artist: Gil Elvgren
After driving halfway across the country and using our superhero powers to stay up for several days straight, we returned to Minneapolis with some new friends, wonderful memories, and even a few treasures. San Diego Comic Con was fun, as it always is, and we were lucky enough to share booth 4205-4207 with the lovely Fred Taraba of […]
Perhaps the best-known character from the Commedia dell’Arte, Pierrot has occupied a starring role in pop culture since the late seventeenth century. The sad clown has been an inspiration to countless artists, writers, and musicians, including Picasso, Matisse, Maxfield Parrish, Michael Jackson, Lon Chaney, Debussy, Langston Hughes, and of course David Bowie. One of the […]
The Gallery makes headlines! Our new show, “Welcome Traveler: A Pin-up Journey,” was featured in Pioneer Press. Read about the show and our owner Dan Murphy’s take on the pin up scene. Treasures from the heart of our collection are on display at Gallery 122 at Hang It. Peerless examples of pin up art […]
In an exciting coincidence, our founder ran into one of Gil Elvgren’s favorite models this week in Hollywood. The lovely Myrna Hansen, Miss USA and runner up in the Miss Universe Pageant of 1953, was muse to countless mid-century artists and photographers. The radiant former model graciously spoke with us about Elvgren and one of our favorite […]
One of the current favorites at Grapefruit Moon Gallery is the noted French-American artist Andre Durenceau, and we’re thrilled to have just added this fresh new artwork to the website. The artist was born in Auray, France in 1904, and after studying at Paris’ l’Ecole des Beaux Arts, he moved to the United States in 1923 […]
A kinetic, pop culture, post-war pulp painting by Mort Kunstler painted in 1964 and published as a cover in March of 1967 “For Men Only”. A fear mongering and chaotic depiction loosely illustrating the story “Belly Dancer Raid to Spring Russia’s Top Rocket Man.” Painting is very nicely framed and ready to hang.
Artist: Mort Künstler
