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.
A humorous, art deco, Spanish flavored gouache illustration created for the cover of the May 24, 1930 edition of Judge magazine. A quirky scene by frequent Judge cover artist Frank Hanley titled The Serenade. This is nicely framed and matted in a period wood frame and comes with a complete edition of the published magazine.
Artist: Frank Hanley
This is an intriguing topical French magazine illustration depicting a decadent French woman enjoying five different forms of illumination as she goes through various stages of undress. Providing commentary on the onset of modernity in fin-de-siècle France through the metaphor illustrated mistress of the house who is seen with a broadening smile and increasingly confident demeanor as she lives with the at the time shockingly new conveniences, this is a bold and striking illustration by the controversial French cartoonist Gil Baer.
Artist: Gil Baer
These four comical and deftly rendered gouache illustration paintings show four faces of the 1950s Texaco Man. These explore the overly quizzical and confused faces made by a service station attendant tasked with describing the particulars of car troubles that caused distress for 1950s highway tourists. Together, they hint at the dishonesty associated with […]
Artist: Harold McCauley
From renowned American illustrator Cardwell Higgins comes this pen & ink on artist’s paper illustration that was created for Eastern Airlines with a plane whizzing through the air showing the logo for the airlines by its tail–a logo that Higgins also designed. With progress-minded, art deco imagery, this aviation themed piece is framed alongside a portrait […]
Artist: Cardwell Higgins
This Orientalist art deco avant-garde pen & ink drawing by Cardwell Higgins is an early work by the renowned illustrator that recalls the erotic and stylized work of British artist Aubrey Beardsley. This is part of a series of similarly exotic and provocative drawings Higgins created between 1927 – 1929, which would much later be marketed as a series of […]
Artist: Cardwell Higgins
In the 1960s, after a successful career as a pulp and later paperback cover artist, Harold McCauley was faced with the reality of a dwindling market for his brand of sci-fi and fantasy illustration. Moving away from freelance work, the artist found employment as a company illustrator for The Martin Marietta Corporation, an American manufacturing company […]
Artist: Harold McCauley
A stunning early 1900’s vintage James Arthur Studios, L. Goddard style, mixed media illustration. This work was used as a calendar for the American Art Works Calendar Company; Coshocton Ohio. Verso tag seems to read Drickley Studios and is titled Girl With Basket of Flowers. A lovely Art Nouveau, Belle Epoque maiden who is delightful and colorful and rendered with great detail and skill. A rare surviving original calendar-used illustration from the early era of glamour art.
Artist: Unidentified
A large oil on illustration board painting by E.F. Ward commissioned for an interior story titled “Drumheads and Dairy Maids” by Helen Topping Miller for the November 1918 edition of A Woman’s Home Companion. Work is beautifully displayed in oval matted, wide profile period antique frame behind glass.
Artist: E. F. Ward
A stark and WPA in aesthetic signed oil on canvas painting by the important Minnesota artist Dewey Albinson. This was exhibited as fine art and is titled on verso in the original exhibition tag “Event in the Loft” – Don Quixote Volume #1 Chapter 16″. The artist utilizes bold impressionist brush strokes and a subdued color palette to explore his fascination with Miguel Cervantes’s story of Don Quixote.
Artist: Dewey Albinson
A pretty mid-century Whitcomb girl tries the scientific approach while frame shopping in this inventive published large format gouache illustration magazine by Jon Whitcomb, which appeared as an interior illustration in the January, 1950 edition of Ladies Home Journal. A copy of the issue is included in the sale. Handsomely matted and framed under glass in pristine […]
Artist: Jon Whitcomb
