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!
Art Frahm pushes the boundaries of cheesecake pin-up in this scandalous and daring oil on canvas. Titled “Oooh, Is There a Man in the House?” this late 1940s Goes Litho calendar commissioned pin-up painting features a brunette in shockingly sheer negligee peeking around the corner in a brazen mix of apprehension and curiosity. This winsome brunette exhudes a level of erotic sophistication not always seen in the post-World War II pin up world.
Artist: Art Frahm
An elementally beautiful nymph in the midst of metamorphosis rises from the churning sea in this mythic and beautiful 1907 oil on canvas by Paul Swan. This important early example from the artist, who was himself a social butterfly, features tremendous sophistication of technique, and combines the Art Nouveau style which was popular at the time with hints of the streamlined figural forms which would become synonymous with the art deco era.
Artist: Paul Swan
Simply stated, Thanks for the Orchid, is the finest Joyce Ballantyne artwork to come on the market. Commissioned by Brown & Bigelow in 1955, the luminous quality of the image and the detail and texture of the brush strokes display the impact of Elvgren’s teachings and collaboration on Ballantyne, if they do not indeed betray the hand of Gil Elvgren. Ballantyne worked closely with Elvgren for the better part of a decade, and it has often been suggested that he ghost painted some of her best work.
Artist: Joyce Ballantyne
A comical yet masterful charcoal illustration titled “The American Girl and Why” by gifted and prolific New York City illustrator James Montgomery Flagg. This bawdy nude was likely used to illustrate a 1930s edition of the Lamb’s Club Monthly Magazine. The Lamb’s Club was established in 1874 as America’s first professional theatrical club. Renowned artists such as James Montgomery Flagg, Howard Chandler Christy, Hubert Vos, Robert Reid, and Everett Raymond Kinstler created paintings for this fraternal group that fell into two general categories; the Shepherds’ (Presidents’) portraits, and the nudes.
Artist: James Montgomery Flagg
A rare surviving cover painting for the long running Motor Magazine title which evolved alongside the car industry from the very early years of automobilia through the machine age of progress and invention. Robinson executed these light-hearted Americana views for this Hearst title from the 1920s through the 1950s, this work appeared as the cover for the September 1930 issue. Here, a hard working garage hand is shown using a different sort of elbow grease to pry loose a coin from a tightwad couple by explaining the workings of “Ellbo – A Super Automotive Polish”.
Artist: Robert Robinson
Working within the gritty and near-apocalyptic style of the ashcan school, Paul Raphael Meltsner captures here the shimmying decadence of movement that defined Depression-era burlesque, as well as the art form’s manner of dehumanizing both performer and patron. Though brazenly showcasing her human form, the dancer in the foreground hides her face from the canvas, and the audience recedes into the merest suggestion of faces represented merely as forms. This is a moving and masterful artwork, reminiscent of the works of Everett Shinn, a contemporary of Meltsner’s.
Artist: Paul Meltsner
An original 1962 oil on canvas by Gilette Elvgren commissioned by the Brown & Bigelow Calendar Company and published under the titles “Just Right”,”Hat’s Nice” and “The Eyeds of March”. This sexy pin-up masterwork explores the silk stockings & garters scenario for which the artist is best known. A brunette Elvgren girl admires her wiles in an aptly named vanity mirror in this provocative over the shoulder derriere exposed creation. For those of you not keeping track, recent auctions have seen Elvgren’s pin-up works for Brown & Bigelow topping $200,000.00 on three recent occasions. The high water mark of $262,900.00 was seen at Heritage Auctions June 5th, 2008 sale in Dallas Texas (Lot #66097).
Artist: Gil Elvgren
A bizarre and other-wordly rare surviving pulp cover painting by Harold W. McCauley for the October 1949 edition of “Amazing Stories”. A lurid and menacing, yet strangely beautiful illustration for the story “Tiger Women of Shadow Valley” by Berkeley Livingston. Story caption reads “There Was Death In Her Embrace”. This inspired work perfectly captures the luminous commercial technique and painterly elements of a successful Haddon Sundblom “Sundblom Shop” graduate and disciple in collision with pin-up girl, erotic science fiction pulp culture.
Artist: Harold McCauley
A searingly seductively blonde takes the stand in this hard boiled, pulp fiction inspired 1949 pin-up painting by Al Buell. Working for the Louis F. Dow calendar company under the pseudonym Al Leslie (Leslie was the artist’s middle name), Buell created this leggy, impish bad girl, a scandalous vixen reminiscent of the defiant film noir heroines who graced the screen in this post-war period.
Artist: Al Buell
Hidden within the lush romanticism of Nell Brinkley’s beautiful pen & ink comic illustration “Cupid Catching Butterflies” is a forward thinking depiction of the new flapper woman of the 1920s. In pearls and marcel wave, the bow-lipped brunette sits besides a winged cupid who is drawing heart shaped butterflies nearer and nearer to her net. The Brinkley girl, as these iconic idealized beauties came to be known, will have no trouble catching a beau in this scene.
Artist: Nell Brinkley
