Pin-Up & Glamour Art

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 large and beautiful original pastel by Rolf Armstrong that first appeared as a pin-up calendar for The Thos. D. Murphy Calendar Company under the title “Orchids To You”. Armstrong only created eight artworks for the Iowa based company, and as he was already America’s premiere glamour illustrator when he began working with them, he was permitted to retain ownership of his original pastels. He often reworked these slightly for use as covers for College Humor magazine, during the tail end of his ten year association with the periodical. Staying just outside copyright infringement by removing the orchids from the model’s left hand, and placing a “New York” and “C” for copyright under his distinctive signature, this altered version appeared on the cover of College Humor in March of 1936, the last time an Armstrong girl would grace this title. This pastel appears in a mid 1930s “Armstrong Art Service’s” brochure with the title of “Flower of the North” which is included in sale.

Flower of the South

Artist: Rolf Armstrong

This early original pin-up pastel which Earl Moran created for the Brown & Bigelow Calendar Company of Saint Paul Mn is a variation of the 1942 mutoscope card “Easy To Take”. It is unclear whether Moran liked his naughty nurse themed offering so much that he created this similarly styled image soon after its publication, or if this was Moran’s original idea, and Brown & Bigelow asked for him to turn from the French Maid homecoming piece seen here into an example of the popular candy striper pin up which was published as a hotcha girl image.

Easy to Take

Artist: Earl Moran

A large art deco modernist pastel illustration by Rolf Armstrong titled “Hello Everybody”. From the estate of Mike Wooldridge and never before offered for sale, this is easily one of Armstrong’s most iconic works for The Brown & Bigelow Calendar Company. For good reason, this is one of the artist’s most widely distributed images featuring a cute and sassy flapper girl in feminine jazz-age business attire. One of Armstrong’s most prolifically used creations, Wooldridge collected versions of the image used in playing cards, advertising blotters, notebook tablets, calendars and prints in all sizes and configurations. Many are included with sale.

Hello Everybody

Artist: Rolf Armstrong

A unique and inventive, large and luminous original pin-up pastel calendar illustration created for the Brown & Bigelow Calendar Company of Saint Paul Minnesota. This was used as a 1958 calendar titled “Moonglow”. The model is Jewel Flowers and this is rendered in an electric cobalt blue palette with the model catching the golden hues afforded by a moonlit night. The work is pictured in “The Great American Pin-up” on page 98 plate #95.

Moonglow

Artist: Rolf Armstrong

In her most erotically charged, fur clad pose, Marie Prevost is the epitome of the jazz age flapper in this rare early 1920s view. One of Edwin Bower Hesser’s classic portraits, this showgirl inspired Hollywood glamour portrait captures a soft-focus and decadent view of the scandal-ridden star, who is now as much remembered for her tragic death as her glorious career. This large-format, double weight, matte finish photograph is an unusual and important look at the cult icon in her prime.

Marie Prevost in Erotic Flapper View

Artist: Edwin Bower Hesser

This good girl art original pastel exemplifies the beauty and personality which kept pin up and glamour a mainstay of calendar imagery even after illustration began giving way to technicolor photography in popularity. This features a fresh faced auburn haired modernist beauty queen from 1975 envisioned by the leading female pin-up illustrator Pearl Frush and published by Gerlach-Barklow of Joliet Illinois.

A Modern Miss 1975

Artist: Pearl Frush

A radiant and pristine original pastel glamour pin-up illustration by Pearl Frush, created in 1944 and used in the 1945 Gerlach-Barklow calendar line under the title “Lovely as the Dawn”. This really shows to great affect what Frush was able to create with her almost photo-realist in technique pastel mastery. Housed in its handsome original presentation frame properly lined behind glass with a verso tag from Robberson Steel Co. of Oklahoma who was gifted this pastel in exchange for their advertising.

Lovely As The Dawn

Artist: Pearl Frush

“Angel Face” is a dazzling, nearly photo-realist 1959 original glamour girl pin-up pastel by Pearl Frush which was published by the Gerlach-Barklow Calendar Company of Joliet Illinois. This was gifted by a salesman at Gerlach-Barklow to the Robberson Steel Company of Oklahoma City in appreciation for their lucrative advertising account. Pastel is in a pristine state of conservation in the original gold wide profile frame lined behind glass with plate on front with title and year of print publication.

Angel Face

Artist: Pearl Frush

This good girl art original pastel exemplifies the beauty and personality which kept pin up and glamour a mainstay of calendar imagery even after illustration began giving way to photography in popularity. This features a fresh faced brunette envisioned by the leading female pin-up illustrator Pearl Frush and published by Gerlach-Barklow of Joliet Illinois. It was customary for calendar salesmen to reward premiere advertising accounts with original illustrations as incentive to keep advertising with the firm.

Miss 1964

Artist: Pearl Frush

This rare original painting by Henry Clive graced the cover of the June 18, 1933 edition of William Randolph Hearst’s The American Weekly. Clive was often called upon to create serialized images of pin up enchantresses who embodied a theme. This is one of those works – from a series of images which depicted a variety of maidens about to be struck by cupid’s arrow.

Cupids No.2 – An Indian Maiden

Artist: Henry Clive

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