Original Art from the Grand Age of American Illustration
Welcome to Grapefruit Moon Gallery. Here you will find an archived visual history of past sales. Pretty to look at, some are quite old; but when they're in here, consider them sold!
We are again offering this published oil on canvas pin-up painting by Arnold Armitage as the original buyer never made subsequent payments from a purchase in 2015. Created as a pin up calendar commission for The Louis F. Dow company of Saint Paul Minnesota. In the scene, the proverbial girl next door is shown with a […]
Artist: Arnold Armitage
From renowned American illustrator Cardwell Higgins comes this pen & ink on artist’s paper illustration that was created for Eastern Airlines with a plane whizzing through the air showing the logo for the airlines by its tail–a logo that Higgins also designed. With progress-minded, art deco imagery, this aviation themed piece is framed alongside a portrait […]
Artist: Cardwell Higgins
Lady of Mystery is a supreme example of art deco pin-up calendar art by Edward Eggleston, created in 1938 for the V.P. Wright Litho Company. Without question, this is one of the most iconic images from the 1930s, and for good reason. The purple prose V.P. Wright came up with to adorn the calendar does a better […]
Artist: Edward Eggleston
This 1942 patriotic Petty Girl was the first of George Petty’s iconic pin up illustrations commissioned by the Ice-Capades, then in its second season and soon to become a cultural institution. Developed by RKO as a theatrical extravaganza on ice and held at Rockefeller Center in New York City, the event was wildly popular and the souvenir programs became a […]
Artist: George Petty
George Petty created this dynamic original pin-up painting as cover art for the souvenir program for the 1946 Ice-Capades (the sixth year of its production which took place in New York City at Rockefeller Center). The image shows a modernist winged pin-up girl deftly soaring through the air on figure skates against a blue background. This particular […]
Artist: George Petty
This Orientalist art deco avant-garde pen & ink drawing by Cardwell Higgins is an early work by the renowned illustrator that recalls the erotic and stylized work of British artist Aubrey Beardsley. This is part of a series of similarly exotic and provocative drawings Higgins created between 1927 – 1929, which would much later be marketed as a series of […]
Artist: Cardwell Higgins
In the 1960s, after a successful career as a pulp and later paperback cover artist, Harold McCauley was faced with the reality of a dwindling market for his brand of sci-fi and fantasy illustration. Moving away from freelance work, the artist found employment as a company illustrator for The Martin Marietta Corporation, an American manufacturing company […]
Artist: Harold McCauley
This sexy oil-on-canvas pin-up painting by Walt Otto was created for and published in a 1961 12-page spiral bound pin-up calendar. The image shows a flirty blonde with dangerous curves seductively caught “sitting pretty,” with classic mid-century style. Though this is unsigned, it is guaranteed to be a published example by Walt Otto. We were able to […]
Artist: Walt Otto
A grotesque and unsavory gathering of creatures is assembled in this inventive signed work which is disguised as a children’s fairy tale – in this mixed medium drawing from the German expressionist artist Heinrich Kley. Here two nude nymphs shower yellow flowers upon the body of an upright champion in the heroic mold, while an […]
Artist: Heinrich Kley
In this whimsically imaginative drawing from the German expressionist and Jugendstil artist Heinrich Kley, a nude water nymph, whose form and pose evoke Venus, frightens away a sea demon as her consort, a dolphin of sorts, looks on laughing. In this mixed medium detailed work, Kley inverts the viewers expectation of women’s sensuality in […]
Artist: Heinrich Kley
