Original Art from the Grand Age of American Illustration
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.
Mystery and Style, the Work of Daniel Content Offered here is a vintage and original gouache on board illustration created by artist and illustrator Daniel Content. Dating to the 1940s, this comes from later in Content's career as a creator of published works. He would, in the 1950s, transition from artist to art director. Filled […]
Artist: Daniel Content
Price: $1,450.00
Original watercolor illustration published as the frontispiece for N. Scott Momaday's novel "The House Made of Dawn" (1977, The Franklin Library).
Artist: Bart Forbes
Price: $750.00
Edward Eggleston's Evening Star Evening Star is a large and important painting by Edward Eggleston, which was published by the Louis F. Dow Calendar Company in 1929. The image shows a towering seated contemplative Indian Princess captured in a Maxfield Parrish-like surrealist and pleasing yet electric color scheme. In 1931, Maxfield Parrish famously declared "I […]
Artist: Edward Eggleston
Price: $35,000.00
American painter and illustrator Bart Forbes (b. 1939) was specially commissioned to create a series of interior illustrations for The Franklin Library's 1977 publication of the novel House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday.
The novel is widely credited as leading the way for the breakthrough of Native American literature into the mainstream. It was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1969 and has also been noted for its significance in Native American anthropology.
Artist: Bart Forbes
Price: $750.00
This minimalist yet evocative watercolor painting shows three men standing together against a blue sky while a horse grazes in the foreground. This illustration appears as a full-page bookplate on page 132 of Up from Slavery by Booker T. Washington. From its founding in 1973 until its closing in 2000 The Franklin Library produced public domain […]
Artist: Bart Forbes
Price: $850.00
An exciting Art Deco / Great Depression-era pen and ink illustration by the social satirist Anne Harriet Fish, this was published in an issue of the British humor magazine "The Tatler." Fish, who periodically worked under her married name Anne Sefton Fish, is best known for her character "Eve," a coquettish flapper girl, whose exploits […]
Artist: Anne Harriet Fish
Price: $950.00
An exciting Art Deco / Great Depression-era pen and ink illustration by the social satirist Anne Harriet Fish, this was published in an issue of the British humor magazine "The Tatler." Fish, who periodically worked under her married name Anne Sefton Fish, is best known for her character "Eve," a coquettish flapper girl, whose exploits […]
Artist: Anne Harriet Fish
Price: $950.00
This large World War II-era illustration is a sprawling depiction of life in Japan for American soldiers. Created with gouache and watercolor by artist and illustrator Stevan Dohanos, this image was published in the July 3, 1943 issue of The Saturday Evening Post to illustrate the short story "A Lot To Learn" by Hal G. […]
Artist: Stevan Dohanos
Price: $4,500.00
This colorful and romantic gouache on illustration board is by the mid-century artist and illustrator Robert Patterson. It was created as an interior illustration for the May 1948 issue of McCall's magazine. It accompanies a short story written by Frances Malm titled "Rain Beginning." The images shows a glamorous raven-haired beauty posed forehead-to-forehead with a […]
Artist: Robert Patterson
Price: $1,150.00
This mixed media watercolor, pen & ink on artist's paper shows a woman relaxing on a couch with a book in hand. Her reading has been interrupted by an individual who leans over close into her body, gesticulating wildly with his hands. This illustration appears as a full page bookplate on page 159 of Good […]
Artist: Steven Stroud
Price: $750.00
This pen & ink on artist's paper shows a man in a t-shirt and running shorts jogging around an indoor second-level running track. He appears strained and breathless - clearly not enjoying the exertion. This illustration appears as a full page bookplate on page 67 of Good as Gold by Joseph Heller. It depicts a […]
Artist: Steven Stroud
Price: $750.00
This pen & ink on artist's paper is broken into two segments (as were all of the illustrations created for this publication) and were printed across two pages with the empty space in between being used to identify a new date/part in the story, as seen in the example below. The purple ink, splattered intentionally […]
Artist: Steven Stroud
Price: $650.00
