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 powerful example of golden age American illustration art playfully explores the tension between past and future presented in the early motor age. In this affecting unsigned image, the cliche of the Western Americana “Westward Ho” expansion scene is reinterpreted through the addition of an up-to-the-minute flapper girl in an adorable cloche hat. Beneath our heroine–who, along with her car, is checked out by a cowboy attired service attendant–text reads “Forms No Hard Carbon.”

Forms No Hard Carbon

Artist: Unknown

A finely executed dated 1927 pen & ink illustration on board by Cardwell Higgins with inventive art deco style. A Persian attired Orientalist showgirl is depicted in a burlesque vaudeville-era Ziegfeld Follies inspired theatrical production. The work recalls the erotic and stylized pen & ink works of British artist Aubrey Beardsley.

A Persian Orientalist Showgirl

Artist: Cardwell Higgins

A tense and well rendered set at sea Golden Age of Illustration painting by the noted and prolific American artist Ralph Pallen Coleman, signed and dated 1925 in the lower right corner. Set aboard a ship at sea, the image hints that the vessel is heading into troubled waters at least metaphorically. While the well groomed male calmly prepares to light his pipe, his pretty flapper companion holds her hand over her heart, both attracted to and made nervous by taking this trip with her suitor.

Alone On This Boat

Artist: Ralph Coleman

This is the very rare surviving original pastel illustration on board by Emil Flohri of Rudolph Valentino as the title character in Son of The Sheik, the controversial romantic adventure that was unexpectedly the final film starring silent filmdom’s first iconic heartthrob. This signed pastel was commissioned and used as the cover for the September 1926 edition of Motion Picture Magazine, and was published almost simultaneously with the unexpected death of Valentino on August 23rd, 1926. A complete copy of the printed magazine is included in the sale.

Rudolph Valentino

Artist: Emil Flohri

Grapefruit Moon Gallery is delighted to offer the original published cover pastel by the obscure female New York City Illustrator Tempest Inman used for the July 1922 cover of Photoplay Magazine. This captures to great affect the smoldering intensity and rugged good looks of the Latin lover film star Rudolph Valentino. This is easily the most famous movie magazine cover in Hollywood film history the image is reproduced as the cover of the hardcover book “Photoplay Treasury” that came out in 1972. This was owned by Ken Galente in New York City who operated The Silver Screen Gallery in the garment district for many years until his death. I had the pastel silk lined and framed in a 22 carat gold leaf frame and it displays wonderfully, the condition is excellent with strong vibrant colors and great clarity.

Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Artist: Tempest Inman

A sophisticated charcoal portrait by iconic and beloved American artist and illustrator James Montgomery Flagg, dated 1936. A severe yet fetching caricature-styled portait of Hollywood film legend Gloria Swanson during her self-imposed seven year hiatus from Hollywood. Flagg created a series of similar portraits for the cover of Photoplay Magazine during the years 1936 – 1938. This was likely commissioned by Photoplay for the series, but scrapped when a rumored return to film by Swanson failed to materialize.

Gloria Swanson

Artist: James Montgomery Flagg

A brilliantly rendered pen & ink illustration by the legendary New York City illustrator Al Hirschfeld. In this tightly rendered “two worlds collide” image in which by the Russian populist poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko embraced by America as represented by cultural icon Bob Hope. The scene offers a lighter look at the Cold War tensions that occurred as politically active Soviet poets gained prominence in the US.

Bob Hope and Yevgeny Yevtushenko

Artist: Al Hirschfeld

A noir and exquisitely detailed rendering for an interior magazine story titled on verso French Murder. By the gifed Fortunio Matania, who was known for his photo like realism and finely detailed intricate renderings and the use of period props and embellishments to create an air of authenticity to his historically based works.

French Murder

Artist: Fortunino Matania

A rare surviving aviation themed pulp cover painting by Stockton Mulford for the cover of Fawcett’s Battle Stories, August 1929 (thanks to Doug Clemons for the i.d.). In this dramatic image, a recently downed airplane smolders as the ejected American Air Force pilot, armed only with a wrench, engages in combat against a German, bayonet-wielding, WWI soldier. Aviation pulps appeared on news-stands in the 1920s as the horror of World War I began to fade from public memory leaving room for the development of heroic and mythic tales of soldiers and aviators. Until the start of the Second World War, the aviation pulps focused on these Great War-themed stories, but after 1941, their content switched to tales of glory from the front lines of WWII.

The Battle After The Crash

Artist: Stockton Mulford

A Christmas themed dazzling original calendar illustration by Bill Layne for The Brown & Bigelow Calendar Company. This was for a pharmacy drugstore account and appeared on a Christmas Holiday Calendar in 1953. Layne worked for Walt Disney in the art department creating story board graphics and design embellishments which is apparent here in his twinkling Tinkerbell fairy goddess depiction.

Tinkerbell Rx

Artist: Bill Layne

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