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!
Evoking Little Red Riding Hood with an ominous mood and maiden in brightly colored cape, this art nouveau winter-scape shows a determined maiden walking through a snow covered forest, a masterful example from belle époque artist extraordinaire Louis Rhead. Though Rhead, like many of the popular illustrators of the period, did illustrate a version of the […]
Artist: Louis Rhead
A two paneled signed pen & ink illustration drawing by Nell Brinkley published as an interior illustration in a 1931 edition of Life magazine. On the left the biblical Eve is seen in the Garden of Eden, in harmony with nature and god’s living creatures before her fall into temptation. The right image shows Jill, a […]
Artist: Nell Brinkley
An iconic early original pin up oil painting by Gil Elvgren for the Louis F. Dow calendar company of Saint Paul, Minnesota titled “A Hitch in Time.” In this never before offered published calendar work, a pretty modernist pin up girl is caught hitching up her sexy silk stockings in a hurried moment while tangled […]
Artist: Gil Elvgren
This majestic and otherworldly oil-on-board by the New York illustrator A.D. Rahn is a reflection on the decadence of the Broadway stage circa 1915. A beautiful and haughty blonde, whose bobbed hair and dropped waist gown evoke Irene Castle, is seen emerging from backstage with the help of a green imp, her own high […]
Artist: A.D. Rahn
A large format redheaded pin up girl cover painting by the well listed female artist Ellen (E.B.) Segner, used as the cover for The Toronto Star Weekly, July 22, 1950. The artist was a prolific calendar artist who worked for the Louis F. Dow and Thomas D. Murphy Calendar Companies during the 1930s – 40s. […]
Artist: Ellen Segner
A fabulous surviving Gil Elvgren pin up oil painting from the Brown & Bigelow Calendar line of 1953, published with the title Out of the Running (What A Heel!). A pretty party girl laments the broken shoe that has temporarily taken her away from the evening’s fun. The image was a tremendous success for the company, […]
Artist: Gil Elvgren
This dramatic and lurid oil painting was created by Rudy Nappi as the original cover for the now-infamous Jane Manning novel Reefer Girl, published by Detective House in New York under the Cameo Books imprint in 1953. The cover slug describes the work as “The frank, biting story of a young girl of the slums, and […]
Artist: Rudy Nappi
This original gouache and ink Al Buell published pin up was painted in 1959 for the Brown & Bigelow Calendar Company, and first appeared as the June 1961 image for a 12 page calendar titled Buell’s Beauties. The model appears as an artist, brush in hand, in this colorful mid-century modernist calendar painting. […]
Artist: Al Buell
The rare surviving cover painting by Frank Paul for the May 1935 edition of Wonder Stories, a futuristic sci-fi pulp title published by Hugo Gernsback. A detailed machine age science minded scene illustrating the interior story “Human Ants” by J. Harvey Haggard. Pictured in this bustling scene is the flight of altruist […]
Artist: Frank Paul
In May of 1919, on the advice of Sam Kingston, general manager for Florence Ziegfeld, Alberto Vargas applied to be the in-house artist for the Ziegfeld Follies. The rest, as they say, was history. At only 24 Vargas had already established himself as a freelance illustrator of beautiful women, with a sophisticated style inspired by Raphael […]
Artist: Alberto Vargas
