Original Art from the Grand Age of American Illustration
Risqué and fetching maidens have always been popular artistic subjects and the perfect vehicle to advertise just about any product, add allure to any magazine, or brighten any calendar. In the 1930s, Rolf Armstrong and Billy Devorss’s Art Deco sophisticates were everyone’s dream girl. During World War II, George Petty and Alberto Vargas created patriotic lithe modernist heartbreakers for the pages of Esquire Magazine to keep servicemen company, and soon there was a calendar girl for every taste--whether you preferred the girl next door or the one from the wrong side of the tracks. In post-war America, the youthful spirit personified by Earl Moran’s cheesecake depictions of Marilyn Monroe reigned, and pin up and glamour art remained unflaggingly popular. Today, original pin up and glamour art is more coveted by collectors than ever, and its influence on contemporary fashion, art, and culture is everywhere.
A sassy and sexy bathing beauty pin-up painting by William Medcalf, a first tier pin-up artist and long-time illustrator for the Brown & Bigelow Calendar Company of Saint Paul, Minnesota. This preliminary work exhibits all of the illustrator’s abundant artistry and personality, and fully captures the allure of his finalized published calendar paintings.The painting is signed lower right […]
Artist: William Medcalf
A June bride gets unexpected company in this whimsical painting by Henry Clive, created as cover art for for the June 15, 1930 issue of The American Weekly, a syndicated supplement in William Randolph Hearst newspapers across the country. Part of the cover series “The Fashionable Working Girl” which showcased Great Depression-era flappers and gently satirized the social lives of independent city girls, this […]
Artist: Henry Clive
A captivating, sexy, toasting blonde pastel by noted illustrator and occasional pin-up artist Victor Tchetchet. This pin-up is unusual as it mimics the Coles Phillip’s “Fadeaway Girls” technique where the subject fades into the background. Tchetchet is best known for his pin-up, The Favorite Model, and countless movie magazine covers throughout the 1930’s. I have never come across the published version of this pastel, presumably it was done as a pin-up calendar illustration. Beautifully double matted in a $700 gallery frame.
Artist: Victor Tchetchet
A fresh to the market 1950s original pin-up oil painting that is attributed to Ben-Hur Baz, with custom advertising for Krome-Oil Piston Rings. A busty blonde bombshell ala Marilyn Monroe is shown seductively posed in a new and very revealing bikini that highlights the tan lines left from her past, more modest swimwear. A recent gallery acquisition from […]
Artist: Ben-Hur Baz
A large, sultry original published pin-up calendar painting by the prolific and important American artist Fritz Willis. Willis was the last true star pin-up artist of the old guard, when illustrative pin-up reigned supreme in Men’s magazines and advertising calendars. The artist worked during the very tail end of the genre’s popularity. Showcasing a near-nude sex […]
Artist: Fritz Willis
A tremendous example of a Brown & Bigelow published pin-up painting by Ted Withers used in a Roman themed sketchbook calendar titled; Bella Roma – In The Artist’s Sketchbook. This painting, which appeared as the October 1960 calendar page, features Pax, the Roman goddess of peace and prosperity (and counterpart to the Greek goddess Eirene) […]
Artist: Ted Withers
A rare surviving 1940s calendar published pin-up oil painting by the prolific Chicago area female illustrator Ruth Deckard, which appeared with the title of Danger. Making a classic “ooh” face, a luscious blonde sits on a sawhorse pulling a nail from her shoe at a construction site, a classic situational pin-up leg show scene. The […]
Artist: Ruth Deckard
A large preliminary rendering by Gil Elvgren of a work completed for Brown & Bigelow in 1948 with the title – “Do You Think I “No” Too Much ?” This image also appeared with the title “My Datebook’s Showing Signs Of Age”. This comes from a collection of Elvgren preliminary graphite drawings we acquired which […]
Artist: Gil Elvgren
Dating to the late 1930s, this breezy glamour girl pin-up advertising painting for Ovaltine shows off the vitalizing and energizing benefits of the classic malted milk powder. The foreground features a pretty young blonde embodiment of the active type, looking relaxed, youthful and refreshed in the hillside above a country club in India, during the late era of British rule. […]
Artist: Unknown
A just spectacular otherworldly sci-fi pulp illustration painting by Harold McCauley used as the cover for the December, 1954 edition of Imagination Stories of Science And Fantasy. Titled 21st Century Girl Walking Pet on the table of contents page in the included magazine, the artist used his wife Grace as the model, a source 8″ by […]
Artist: Harold McCauley
