Original Art from the Grand Age of American Illustration
A colorful and deftly rendered pin-up calendar pastel by Billy Devorss from 1942 titled A Real Leg Show, for the Brown & Bigelow Calendar Company. Devorss was never under contract with any single calendar company which allowed him to work for virtually all of the golden age of Illustration calendar firms, his work was very […]
Artist: Billy Devorss
Grapefruit Moon Gallery is delighted to offer this large rare surviving published pin-up pastel illustration, done for the U.O. Colson calendar company of Paris, Ohio – titled Firelight Glow, part of their 1939 calendar line. Easily the finest original pastel calendar pin-up illustration ever offered for sale by the prolific illustrator Jules Erbit, known typically for […]
Artist: Jules Erbit
Grapefruit Moon Gallery is delighted to offer the original 1941 lurid gouache painting by Bill Fleming which appeared as the cover for the early Dell Vest Pocket Paperback book Marihuana, written by Cornell Woolrich under the pen name of William Irish. The cover slug says it all- “A Cheap and evil girl sets a hopped […]
Artist: Bill Fleming
This original gouache and ink Al Buell published pin up was painted in 1957 for the Brown & Bigelow Calendar Company, and first appeared as the September 1961 image for a 12 page calendar titled Buell’s Beauties. The model appears at her aptly titled vanity with fresh flowers from an admirer, as two dreamy Buell’s […]
Artist: Al Buell
A superlative large format oil painting by the well regarded prolific American Golden Age of Illustration artist Edward Eggleston that appeared in 1933 as a calendar print with the title Hearts Unmasked, and was widely distributed at the same time as a puzzle with the title The Proposal. A romantic fantasy […]
Artist: Edward Eggleston
A lovely calendar used pin-up pastel for The Brown & Bigelow Calendar Company by K.O. Munson from the late 1940s to early 50s. A fresh faced red headed bathing beauty finds herself under close scrutiny below the suns colorful rays in this nautically themed classic pin-up pastel illustration. Work is in a very fine vibrant […]
Artist: K.O. Munson
The prolific early Golden Age of Illustration artist Archie Gunn created this whimsical boldly art deco painting for publication. Commissioned as calendar art for a series titled Dancing Girls, in this version a Follies Girl is costumed as a jazz-age French Pierrot clown. A complete vintage salesman’s sample folio of Dancing Girls that includes Gunn’s published image is included in the sale. Gunn […]
Artist: Archie Gunn
Evoking Little Red Riding Hood with an ominous mood and maiden in brightly colored cape, this art nouveau winter-scape shows a determined maiden walking through a snow covered forest, a masterful example from belle époque artist extraordinaire Louis Rhead. Though Rhead, like many of the popular illustrators of the period, did illustrate a version of the […]
Artist: Louis Rhead
A two paneled signed pen & ink illustration drawing by Nell Brinkley published as an interior illustration in a 1931 edition of Life magazine. On the left the biblical Eve is seen in the Garden of Eden, in harmony with nature and god’s living creatures before her fall into temptation. The right image shows Jill, a […]
Artist: Nell Brinkley
An iconic early original pin up oil painting by Gil Elvgren for the Louis F. Dow calendar company of Saint Paul, Minnesota titled “A Hitch in Time.” In this never before offered published calendar work, a pretty modernist pin up girl is caught hitching up her sexy silk stockings in a hurried moment while tangled […]
Artist: Gil Elvgren
