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.

I am proud to be able to offer this highly stylized and orientalist take on the beheading of John the Baptist, as depicted by C. Bosseron Chambers, the famed illustrator of epic and Christian scenes who was dubbed the religious Rockwell. Chambers’ “Light of the World” image was as famous and popular a print as Maxfield Parrish’s “Daybreak.” This dramatic scene, in wonderful period frame with velvet matting, is an engaging and exceptional example of Chambers’ gift of rendering religious scenes in a provocative and modern manner.

Herod & the Head of John the Baptist

Artist: Charles Bosseron Chambers

A delicately rendered and stylized watercolor on illustration board by the well listed commercial illustrator Alex Luders. This is a remarkable work of an art deco era harem girl enchantress entranced in a sexy exotic veiled scarf dance. The artist Alex Luders did much commercial Hollywood advertising poster art for Fox Films including Shirley Temple and Jack Holt’s starring turn in the 1935 feature film The Littlest Rebel. This is presumed to also be a commissioned work for an as of yet undetermined art deco era movie campaign.

A Veiled Harem Dancer

Artist: Alex Luders

A whimsically rendered, belle-epoque pen and ink illustration, presumably created for an early issue of Life magazine, addressing the adventures of growing old. A young girl on the left attempts to gain the attention of father time (viewed literally handing out birthdays off of an old cart) while Edwardian attired women on the right flee the aging process. This appears to be an illustration for a writing by Helen Ring Robinson, the author who in 1908 adaped a version of Uncle Tom’s cabin for children. Her name is ghost written in light pencil upper left below one of the 8 draining hour glasses.

Adventures in Growing Old

Artist: Orson Lowell

A rare surviving original charcoal-and-graphite illustration by United States Navy Man McClelland Barclay. The lovely woman is “Eve Witney” from Brazil, an incarnation of a recipient of Y.W.C.A. war relief. Presumably this image was used as a poster design/brochure in a fund raising or awareness raising campaign showing the international reach of the Y.W.C.A. The image is from a series of Four Reasons Why You Should Give to the Y.W.C.A. World Emergency Funds.

Eve Witney Brazil

Artist: McClelland Barclay

A sharp, scathing political commentary on the heartlessness of tycoons, barons and monopolists. Depicting a fat cat industrialist sitting on top of the world wih his east coast riches dreaming from behind binoculars of otherworldly conquests as he crushes the masses beneath him. A commsissioned illustration presumably for an early issue of Life Magazine, the image captures with wonderful humor the anti-Eastern, trust-busting late Progressive culture of the early 20th century. Work is beautifully framed and matted.

Fat Cat On Top Of the World

Artist: Orson Lowell

This is a most unusual screen printed serigraph created with the pochoir technique. This original mixed media work features a severe high art deco scene and is pencil signed by the very well listed Vogue magazine cover artist Helen Dryden. Beautifully framed in a handsome gesso period original 1930s art deco frame.

Dandy with Top Hat and Rose

Artist: Helen Dryden

This large and colorful noir montage by Alexander Sharpe Ross was created as an interior illustration for a mid 1950’s American mainstream slick magazine. Ross was a leading American illustrator of the time with work featured on the covers of Good Housekeeping, The Saturday Evening Post, Ladies Home Journal and Colliers. Along with a handful of key illustrators — Coby Whitmore, John Whitcomb, Al Parker, and Norman Rockwell — Ross helped create an indelible image of Americans in the post WWII decades.

Mid-Century Voodoo Doll

Artist: Alex Ross

A spicy-pulp genre, risque, color pin-up illustration by Bob Holaday titled Yeh! Cancel Volume 3-4-5-6-7-8-9… This would appear to be an interior gag cartoon for a Titters or Eyeful type girly magazine, known for iconic cheesecake and military humor and pin-up nose-art images, and wildly popular from the 1930s Jazz Age through the post World War II era.

Yeh! Cancel Volume 2-3-4…

Artist: Bob Holaday

A fantastic WPA-themed interior illustration from the February 1931 issue of American Magazine. A Union president riles up a group of miners for an epic David versus Goliath style battle, from the seat of a stylish touring coupe. Herbert Paus was a gifted and prolific illustrator, known for his highly technical & visionary watercolor industrial illustrations. He designed World War One posters and illustrated numerous covers for Liberty, Popular Science, Life, Delineator, & Collier’s magazines. Like Edward Penfield, Paus was for many years an illustrator for Hart Shaffner and Marx clothiers. An enthusiastic modernist, he worked prolifically creating defining and iconic images of American industrialization. His commissions included Goodyear Tires and Willy’s Automobiles.

Rallying the Miners

Artist: Herbert Paus

A dark and eerily erotic oil on canvas nude with orientalist slant. The work has a verso dedication by the artist Fred Page Craft dated 1926. An exotic Moorish/East Indian Orientalist Princess depicted as a “spicy pulp” blood boiling enchantress. Craft worked as cover artist for pulp magazine Black Mask and contributed a cover for Country Gentleman in 1923. This appears to have been created as a cover for an as of yet identified spicy pulp publication. In the dedication, the artist says of the work “This little half cast might be the finest thing I shall ever paint.”

Erotic Orientalist Moor Princess

Artist: Fred Page Craft

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