In this published pen & ink illustration by Nell Brinkley, a Brinkley beauty is holding her newborn baby. For sale at Grapefruit Moon Gallery.
Artist: Nell Brinkley
A fine exhibited nude oil painting by Joseph Tomanek, that was exhibited in the 1920s at a Chicago Galleries Association fine art show.
Artist: Joseph Tomanek
An exceedingly scarce original mixed media work by L. Goddard used as a published calendar by The American Art Works Calendar Company, Coshocton Ohio in 1931 as Song of the Nile. “L. Goddard” was the pseudonym for a pair of enterprising artists L.G. Woolfenden, a successful Detroit area commercial photographer, and Rudolphe/ Rudolph Ingerle a Vienna born fine art landscape artist who lived and exhibited at museums and galleries in Chicago after the turn of the last century. Their collaborative efforts resulted in some of the finest and most spectacular images in the Calendar Art genre. The pair was known for fantasy-laden Depression-era escapist themes: Indian Maidens, Gypsies, Salomes, Art Deco Egyptian Beauties and Grecian Goddesses posed in vivid and evocotive Maxfield Parrish -esque dreamscapes.
Artist: L. Goddard
An expressive and lyrical gouache watercolor painting by the Russian-American artist and illustrator Vladimir Yaffe, who worked in New York City during the 1940s and was involved in the burgeoning WPA art movement there through the New Deal Federal Arts Project. His offerings included sculpture and architectural bas relief, and his works were exhibited at […]
Artist: Vladimir Yoffe
Grapefruit Moon Gallery is delighted to offer “Out of the Darkness” by the well listed Brandywine School female artist Edith Ballinger Price. This ethereal view was painted in 1920 and exhibited in 1925 at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Arts annual. Image features a really inventive and inspired angelic mother enveloping her young children, one of whom is depicted as blind as was the artist’s young adopted daughter. Fans of the American Arts & Crafts movement have become attracted to the Brandywine school, as the aesthetic of the artwork complements Bungalow and Prairie School interiors.
Artist: Edith Ballinger Price
A well rendered and precise colorful interior gouache painting by one of our favorite art deco-era illustrators Herbert Paus that reflects the attention to detail and skill of the artists working during the Golden Age of Illustration. This large signed work depicts a son leaving his family’s pastoral cottage by carriage as his grieving mother looks on. A nostalgic look back at the well to do culture of pre-machine age American society.
Artist: Herbert Paus
A fabulous c. 1940s original pin up pastel by Earl Moran created for the Brown & Bigelow Calendar Company of Saint Paul, MN.
Artist: Earl Moran
A darling and very Art Deco in aesthetic portrait of Mary Brian, the silent and early talkie era Hollywood film star. We do not have the specific usage of this oil on masonite painting but it was likely created as a cover for a late 1920s Hollywood Movie Magazine by the artist, who worked prolifically for a number of titles during the period. The china doll imagery was one which Clive favored, as it plays on the coquettish doll like charms of the flappers of the period. The painting is signed lower right and handsomely framed in a period wide profile antique frame behind glass.
Artist: Henry Clive
A subversive youth gone wild party scene original cover painting by Peter Driben likely used for a paperback book title published by the Novel Library imprint. During the 1950s a hedonistic bohemian fictional sub-culture existed where teens smoked reefer and engaged in orgiastic exploits while becoming addicted to heroin. In showing these delinquents pursuing their darkest sinful desires, the illustrators of the day seemed to take great joy and this is a prime example of this sort of homage to debauchery.
Artist: Peter Driben
A whimsical art deco original gouache painting titled “La Coquette” by Alberto Vargas. An early work by the Peruvian born pin-up legend exploring the Commedia dell’arte revival that took hold around 1915, the cast of characters in this boldly colored and delightful Edwardian scene features the requisite maiden courted by a Harlequin with slapstick at his side as her guardian looks on in horror. Vargas brings a unique spin to this popular genre and his artistic mastery is apparent even at this early date. This was acquired by Charles Martignette in 1989 from the Vargas estate – the painting is accompanied by a series of Kodak color photographs (dated June 1989) taken by Martignette of this painting, also included are several color photographs of the artist and Martignette taken shortly before Vargas’ death in 1982.
Artist: Alberto Vargas
