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Grapefruit Moon Gallery

Original Art from the Grand Age of American Illustration

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Illustration & Advertising Art

At the turn of the 20th century, Industrial Revolution inventions brought technological advancements to printmaking that ushered in a Golden Age of American illustration. Publishers and calendar companies developed new techniques for producing multi-color offset lithographs that were fast, affordable, and flat-out glorious to view, blurring the distinction between fine art and "art for commerce." The best examples by the finest commercial illustrators were revered by the public, and today are beloved by collectors.

This symbolist watercolor painting by the important Austrian artist Paul Grabwinkler shows a luscious nude on the cliffs with a skeleton at her feet.

The Precipice Of Death

Artist: Paul Grabwinkler

Filed Under: Illustration & Advertising Art, Sorry, It's Sold
Tagged With: allegorical, german, gothic, Jugendstil, macabre, memento mori, nude, Paul Grabwinkler, skeleton, skull, Symbolism, symbolist, The Golden Gallery, Vienna Secession
Added to Gallery: April 30, 2018

This richly colored, large, and dazzling mid-century illustration is a likely interior illustration for Redbook magazine (a publication for which Edwin Georgi worked frequently) and is a defining example by the gifted and inventive artist and illustrator. Painting has been signed by the artist in the lower left corner and is nicely matted and framed behind […]

The Social Hour

Artist: Edwin Georgi

Filed Under: Illustration & Advertising Art, Sorry, It's Sold
Tagged With: Edwin Georgi, original interior illustration
Added to Gallery: April 26, 2018

In this published pen & ink illustration by Nell Brinkley, a Brinkley beauty is holding her newborn baby. For sale at Grapefruit Moon Gallery.

It’s A Big World For A Baby

Artist: Nell Brinkley

Filed Under: Illustration & Advertising Art, Sorry, It's Sold
Tagged With: 1920s, art deco, illustration, Nell Brinkley, Pen & Ink
Added to Gallery: April 25, 2018

This oriinal painting by the Russian-American illustrator Bernard Gussow appeared as the cover of Theatre Magazine – The Magazine For Playgoers.

The Children’s Theater

Artist: Bernard Gussow

Filed Under: Illustration & Advertising Art
Tagged With: 1920s, Bernard Gussow, Golden Age, magazine cover, original cover art, russian, Theater Magazine
Added to Gallery: April 22, 2018

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.

Song of the Nile

Artist: L. Goddard

Filed Under: Illustration & Advertising Art, Sorry, It's Sold
Tagged With: 1930s, american, American Art Works, art deco, egyptian, exoticism, fantasy, L. Goddard, maiden, Maxfield Parrish, orientalist, original calendar art, pin up, The Golden Gallery
Added to Gallery: April 8, 2018

With irreverent humor, this original oil-on-board painting shows a horned satyr smoking a pipe distracted from his reading by a nude figure in the foreground.  Dating to 1929-1930, when Ovid’s Ars amatoria was in the news quite a bit, with the city of San Francisco’s ban of the Ars amatoria in 1929 and its legalization for […]

The Book of Ovid

Artist: Gaspano "Gus" Ricca

Filed Under: Illustration & Advertising Art, Sorry, It's Sold
Tagged With: 1920s, allegorical, fantasy, Gaspana "Gus" Ricca, glamour, Golden Age, illustration, jazz age, New York, nude, original cover art, original illustration art, pin up, risque, satyr
Added to Gallery: February 27, 2018

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.

The Cottage

Artist: Herbert Paus

Filed Under: Illustration & Advertising Art, Sorry, It's Sold
Tagged With: 1920s, american, art deco, Edwardian, Golden Age, Herbert Paus, illustration, Minnesota Artist, motor car, new york city, original illustration art, original interior illustration
Added to Gallery: February 27, 2018

This gouache on illustration board painting was created in 1927 by John Vassos, a singularly unique inventor, industrial designer and artist and illustrator, and appeared in the E.P. Dutton & Company edition of Salome.

Salome

Artist: John Vassos

Filed Under: Illustration & Advertising Art
Tagged With: Alla Nazimova, art deco, erotic, John Vassos, macabre, Natacha Rambova, nude, Oscar Wilde, Salome, The Golden Gallery
Added to Gallery: February 25, 2018

In this humorous yet disturbing original illustration, artist Stan Galli captures the exasperation of an archetypical housewife in the baby boom years.

Being A Mother Yourself

Artist: Stanley Galli

Filed Under: Illustration & Advertising Art, Sorry, It's Sold
Tagged With: 1950s, Golden Age, original illustration art, original interior illustration, Stanley Galli, Today's Woman Magazine
Added to Gallery: February 22, 2018

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.

La Coquette

Artist: Alberto Vargas

Filed Under: Illustration & Advertising Art
Tagged With: 1920s, Alberto Vargas, american, American Weekly, art deco, Charles Martignette, Commedia dell'arte, Edwardian, glamour, harlequin, maiden, original cover art, pin up, The Golden Gallery, Varga Girl
Added to Gallery: February 2, 2018

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