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.

Grapefruit Moon Gallery is delighted to offer a fresh (in all respects!) original oil on canvas pin-up painting by Vaughan Bass for The Louis F. Dow Calendar Company. A young strawberry-blonde nude bombshell with a curling iron readying herself for a night out on the town. A never on the market before fabulous estate find by this under valued and very talented and prolific calendar artist. Work is on original pine stretchers and in a very fine state of conservation, in all regards “The Great American Pin-up”.

An Iron in the Fire

Artist: Vaughan Bass

A 1940s gouache painting on illustration board showing a silk stockings wearing heartbreaker exposing her garter and getting the worst of a little winter fun. This is by the pin-up artist Winer who created numerous covers for the pin-up magazine titles of the day such as Beauty Parade, Titter, and Wink. Work is unsigned but comes from a Los Angeles estate which featured several signed examples by the artist similar in all regards and artistic aspects.

Bullseye

Artist: Winer

A delightful, whimsical early oil on board painting by Henry Clive, one of our favorite American Illustrators. This dates from 1916-1920 and was likely created as cover art for Randolph Hearst’s American Weekly Magazine. Featuring a cute and perky flapper in pirate girl garb, this a rare surviving example by this gifted and influential, prolific illustrator. Work is nicely framed in a period 1930s limed wood frame.

An Art Deco Pirate Girl

Artist: Henry Clive

A delightful and never before offered on the market large and sensational Brown & Bigelow commissioned pastel illustration by Rolf Armstrong, featuring a sassy and sexy stylized southwestern attired cowgirl in traditional charro hat, riding pants and and tassled boots. From the zenith of Armstrong’s long tenure as “The Father of American Pin-up”. A 1944 large Brown & Bigelow Calendar of image titled “Hi, Neighbor” is included in sale. Among the finest Armstrong works we have ever owned.

Hi, Neighbor

Artist: Rolf Armstrong

A vignette style interior illustration by Charles Chambers for an as of yet undetermined American slick magazine, featuring a damsel being rescued from rising waters in a precarious flood zone destination. This style of vignette painting likely had text overlaid in in the final printed version. The white painted expanses upper left and lower right would become part of the story developments and turns, to keep the 1920s magazine reader glued to the adventure and action in the story.

From the Flood

Artist: Charles Edward Chambers

A large, luminous pastel created as pin up calendar art for the Thomas D. Murphy Calendar Company of Red Oak Iowa. This colorful and bright mid-century bathing beauty scene by the artist Paul Kafka was marketed under the title “Sunny.” Nicely framed and properly lined under glass. A multi-image color separation proof series and finished calendar print is included in sale as well as a complete Calendar line Salesman Sample Brochure for the year 1952 titled “The Murphy Record Prize Edition; What Lines!”. Featuring this calendar girl as the cover by The Thos. D. Murphy Calendar Company.

Sunny

Artist: Paul Kafka

A 1961 painting by Al Brule created on commission for the Shaw-Barton Calendar Company; scene features a modern formally attired heartbreaker with her colorful parrot as was often the scene. Included in sale is a vintage calendar print of this work, titled “A Word With Polly”.

Brule was a Chicago area illustrator whose style closely resembled Haddon Sundblom and his circle of Chicago artists.

A Word With Polly

Artist: Al Brule

A rare original Brown and Bigelow-commisioned pin-up painting for their prestigious Sylvania Products account. Each year one of the calendar company’s star artists would create a wholesome yet alluring “Miss Sylvania” exclusively for Sylvania’s advertising campaign. This luminous original oilon canvas dates to the early 1950s and is featured on page 228 plate #545 in the collector’s book Gil Elvgren All His Glamorous American Pin-ups. Grapefruit Moon Gallery sold this work previously (in March of 2008) and are delighted to be able to offer it again on consignment for a collector who is making wall space for new acquisitions.

Miss Sylvania

Artist: Gil Elvgren

A fun sassy cowgirl is featured in this original oil on canvas by Gil Elvgren. This work was created for a 1953 Brown & Bigelow commissioned calendar titled Beat That. This rare surviving Western Americana/pin-up cross collectible image is fresh, bright, and a defining work by the well listed master illustrator. Verso retains original Brown & Bigelow label and this is in untouched original condition as seen. Grapefruit Moon Gallery sold this work previously (in June of 2007) and are delighted to be able to offer it again on consignment for a collector who is making wall space for new acquisitions.

Beat That

Artist: Gil Elvgren

A new to the market delightful gouache painting by the Chicago area artist and “Sundblom Shop” pin-up illustrator Harry Ekman. A stylish redheaded Burlesque performer with bright red lips in sexy opera gloves and an ostrich plumed fan. Work is nicely matted and framed and a fine example by this prolific yet hard to come by gifted pin-up artist and commercial illustrator.

The Ostrich Plume Girl

Artist: Harry Ekman

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