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!
This rare original oil on canvas spicy pulp painting by Earle K. Bergey is an exciting recent estate find. Used as the cover of the October, 1935 issue of Pep Stories, this topless majorette pin-up girl exudes perhaps just a little too much “pep” as she winds up tumbling back-side-first into a large marching drum. This captures the exuberance […]
Artist: Earle K. Bergey
Created for the October, 1935 issue of the spicy pulp title La Paree, this is a rare surviving original cover painting by Earle K. Bergey. In this whimsical jazz-age art deco scene, a blonde flapper girl is attempting to choose who will get to play the part of her dream man. Vying for the title are a […]
Artist: Earle K. Bergey
This original oil on canvas painting, used as the cover for the January 1955 pulp digest, Imaginative Tales #3, shows a Vaudeville era magician and his pin-up girl assistant working a crowd and casting spells and presumably making things disappear. This was created to illustrate the interior story by Robert Bloch, titled Black Magic Holiday, […]
Artist: Harold McCauley
An action packed, rough and tumble, large format illustration by Bruce Minney for the Michael Brett Book Bonus story The High Rollers, which graced the pages of Stag Magazine in August of 1967. A Las Vegas-based tale that promises to deliver “… motel shackups… Las Vegas goon-killers… girls with a top price on their bodies!…” […]
Artist: Bruce Minney
On offer is a lurid and provocative paperback book cover painting by Paul Rader for The Path Between. Dating to 1961, this Midwood Books title was a defining example of the highly popular, lesbian pulp genre. The 1st edition played up the taboo subject with the slug line “The Bizarre World Of The Outcast Sex – Women Who Seek […]
Artist: Paul Rader
With cool blue undertones and moody, dramatic shadowing, this published oil on canvas interior illustration is a departure for artist Benton Henderson Clark who primarily created warm & vibrant narrative frontier and western scenes. Accompanying an interior story for Cosmopolitan magazine titled “The King’s Son”, a handsome and sharply dressed prince smokes a cigarette during […]
Artist: Benton Henderson Clark
American illustrator Charles Bosseron Chambers created this large majestic portrait of Escamillo from the opera Carmen in the early 20th century.
Artist: Charles Bosseron Chambers
A wonderful original pin-up painting by Irving Winer, who was active creating covers for the girlie magazine titles of the 1940s such as Titter, Wink and Beauty Parade. He is also remembered for his numerous published pin-up calendar images usually signed with the single word “Wyner”. In this work –an obvious homage to Rita Hayworth […]
Artist: Irving Winer
A precisely rendered very tight preliminary illustration by George Petty for a commissioned work which appeared as the January, 1947 Calendar page for a spiral bound True Magazine premium pin-up calendar. This is an airbrush painting on an illustration board with gouache detailing added in her skates, her nose, her bunny tail and other highlighted […]
Artist: George Petty
A large and colorful erotic and very well executed 1930s art deco-era fine art oil painting by the Lithuanian-American artist Jack Levitz. A Jewish immigrant who settled in the Jamaica neighborhood of Queens, Levitz’s social realist/Ashcan school style recalls George Luks and Everett Shinn. This oil on canvas shows a seedy New York City burlesque hall, with a […]
Artist: Jack Levitz
