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 noir styled and cleverly depicted Edwin Georgi Saturday Evening Post interior illustration for the serial story The Disappearance of Daphne by Nancy Rutledge. The work is nicely framed in a period wide profile frame and retains the Curtis Publishing verso label with print date and title.
Artist: Edwin Georgi
A large and fabulous original illustration painting by Eric Pape used in “The Fair God” by Lew Wallace as a bookplate (page 462, with the caption “She gave him the signal”).
Pape is best remembered as a prolific illustrator of children’s books and historical fantasies, as well as an artistic contributor to Scribner’s, Cosmopolitan, and Century Magazine. After opening his own illustration school in 1898, he taught N.C. Wyeth, whose style is influenced by Pape’s own.
Artist: Eric Pape
This Everett Shinn pencil & gouache artwork offers a humorous take on class relations, and seemingly, the effects of intoxication. A well-heeled gentleman is shown face down in the grass as an unflappable butler bends down to assess the situation. Shinn was renowned for his ability to capture the minute distinctions of society and debauchery, and this artwork displays his fluid and lively style.
Artist: Everett Shinn
A deftly rendered cover painting for The American Magazine by Herbert Paus, who developed an inventive and entirely modernist, machine age, industrial aesthetic. A striking seaside beauty is depicted playing a concertina in this rare surviving original cover painting from the golden age of American illustration. Herbert Paus was a leading illustrator who contributed covers for Life, Collier’s, Leslie’s and the Woman’s Home Companion magazines.
Artist: Herbert Paus
This jazz age artwork from the late fall of 1924 smartly blends Halloween season & boxing as a metaphor for the presidential election of that November. In this vibrant gouache, used as a cover for “The Brooklyn Eagle Sunday Magazine,” an Uncle Sam-inspired ring girl attempts to keep the peace between the two parties. This is a spirited roaring 20s time capsule.
Artist: Charles Verschuuren
In Willy Pogany’s dazzling oil on board artwork, an Art Nouveau maiden finds herself in the summer foliage conversing with a little bird. This whimsical scene was created for and used as the front cover of Metropolitan Magazine, July 1916. This artwork marks the best period in Pogany’s prolific and well remembered long and successful career. A stylized belle-epoque, tightly rendered work that features a vibrant color palette and intricate use of the free-flowing forms that came to define the Art Nouveau aesthetic.
Artist: Willy Pogany
An inventive mixed medium early work by Edwin Georgi used as the cover for an early 1930s issue of “The Woman’s Home Companion.” A linear and modernist rendering of women’s disembodied heads that contrasts the art deco era ideal of make-up enhanced feminine beauty with classic Greek porcelain statuary. A clever and stylized early work by one of our favorite American Illustrators, Edwin Georgi.
Artist: Edwin Georgi
A spirited Christmas seasonal advertising painting from the 1940s in the style of Chicago artist Haddon Sundblom. This commercial advertising illustration was created for an as of yet unidentified ad campaign in the Sundblom Shop/Chicago Studios aesthetic. It is our belief that this was painted by Sundblom himself.
Artist: Haddon Sundblom (attributed)
A well rendered humorous gouache calendar painting for the Brown & Bigelow Calendar by prolific and well listed staff artist Bill Layne. This was used as an advertising calendar and is a published work. A precise depiction of what what Layne does best. Work is beautifully matted and framed in a maple gallery frame and ready to display.
Artist: Bill Layne
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A well rendered humorous gouache calendar painting for the Brown & Bigelow Calendar by prolific and well listed staff artist Bill Layne. This was used in their 1957 Calendar line and is a precise depiction of what what Layne does best. Work is beautifully matted and framed in a maple gallery frame and ready to display.
Artist: Bill Layne
