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 original 1912 oil on board features actress Constance Collier in her role of Pallas Athene in the Beerbohm Tree production of Ulysses. This stylized art nouveau depiction in the Pre-Raphaelite aesthetic was by the well listed artist Charles Buchel and a similiar illustration of the actress by Buchel hangs in the London V & A museum. Buchel was a prolific versatile artist who depicted Edwardian and Victorian actors and actresses in period stage costumes. He designed numerous theatre programs and period postcards depicting dramatic scenes. Comes ready to hang in a fine period gesso ornate frame.

Constance Collier as Pallas Athene

Artist: Charles Buchel

A rare surviving original advertising illustration by noted American illustrator Jean Oldham. Created in the Americana vein of Leslie Thrasher and Norman Rockwell. This piece was created as exclusive print advertising by Philadelphia Made Hardware. A fresh and new to the market Saint Paul Minnesota estate find. Comes framed in fine newer gallery frame.

Football Interference

Artist: Jean Oldham

A large, art deco era, original pastel on illustration board by the well listed and prolific American Illustrator Warde Traver. This is an as of yet unidentified calendar or magazine commission. Image features a proud brightly colored deftly rendered peacock showing his bright plumage. Work is matted and framed in period green painted wood frame.

A Proud Peacock in Pastels

Artist: Warde Traver

Grapefruit Moon Gallery is proud to offer several scarce original paintings from the American Illustrator Charles Bosseron Chambers, including this large, dazzling, and spiritually evocative work titled Guardian Angel and Boy. Compositionally, this is a complex, stark, and questioning work. Thematically, the young boy–holding a model airplane–represents the machine age and ongoing industrialization. The angel is shown in a soft focused diffused and ethereal otherwordly world, while the boy is almost photo-realist in appearance. Their interaction calls into question the relationship between modernity and spirituality. Oil is titled on verso and framed in a wonderful carved gold gesso frame.

The Guardian

Artist: Charles Bosseron Chambers

Grapefruit Moon Gallery is proud to offer the second of several original John Louis Rhead Art Nouveau/Belle Epoque-era illustrations only recently acquired from a New York estate. This large Thanksgiving Harvest goddess colorful and stylized image is titled November in pencil by the artist on the lower margin. The work is matted and framed in a large period gesso frame. This is an astonishing and rare surviving document from this American poster master. Rhead’s work appeared alongside Alphonse Mucha, Jules Cheret and Toulouse Latrec pieces in Les Maîtres de l’Affiche (Masters of Posters) folios at the turn of the last century.

November

Artist: Louis Rhead

Fresh from a New York estate, Grapefruitmoongallery is proud to offer the first of several original John Louis Rhead Art Nouveau/Belle Epoque-era illustrations. This large harvest goddess image was exhibited at The Twenty-First Annual Exhibition Architectural League of New York 1900. The work is matted and framed in a large period gesso frame. An astonishing and rare surviving document from this American poster master. Rhead’s work appeared alongside Alphonse Mucha, Jules Cheret and Toulouse Latrec pieces in “Les Maîtres de l’Affiche” (Masters of Posters) folios at the turn of the last century.

Autumn

Artist: Louis Rhead

This large, innovative and sophisticatedly composed gouache by Alexander Sharpe Ross was created as an interior illustration for the April 1949 Cosmopolitan Magazine story The Small Vice of Alicia Crispin by Cynthia Hathaway. Ross was a leading American illustrator of the time and worked as cover artist for Good Housekeeping, The Saturday Evening Post, Ladies Home Journal and Colliers. Along with a handful of key illustrators—Coby Whitmore, John Whitcomb, Al Parker, Norman Rockwell—Ross helped create an indelible image of Americans in the post WWII decades.

The Small Vice of Alicia Crispin

Artist: Alex Ross

This whimsical and humorous fishing scene was created in 1964 as advertising art celebrating 100 years of Hauenstein beer. A remarkably colorful and well rendered oil-on-board featuring a rural Americana scene of the sort popularized by Norman Rockwell. This is a rare surviving original Breweriana advertising illustration by Gale Hendrickson, who enjoyed a long and prolific career as commercial illustrator at Brown and Bigelow, working in a style inspired by the artistic visions of friend and fellow B&B illustrator Bill Medcalf. Comes in fine rustic gallery frame.

Hauenstein Brewery Fishing Scene

Artist: Gale Hendrickson

We have for your consideration an evocotive and stirring aquatic themed oil on canvas by the well listed American Illustrator Douglass Crockwell. This original advertising illustration was created for Red & White Food, and was a take off on the classic tale Moby Dick by Herman Melville. This original artwork was kept in the company’s archives and presented to an employee by the name of William E. Krapf in 1940 as the gallery label attests.

Harpooning a Whale

Artist: Douglass Crockwell

A bright, large, dazzling original Redbook Magazine interior illustration for the story Old Miguel’s Girl. A defining gouache by the gifted and inventive American illustrator Edwin Georgi, this dramatic work features the color palatte and shadowing that Georgi affecionados have come to appreciate. The work radiates around a central glamour girl that is quintessential Georgi.

Old Miguel’s Girl

Artist: Edwin Georgi

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