Sorry, It's Sold

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!

Six Brinkley girls, each with distinct style and personality, are shown in a classroom, preparing to take their knowledge of the geography of beauty out into the wider world. A map, at the time, was slang for a beautiful face, and there is no question that these maps would lead to men’s hearts across the country. Created as a stand alone cartoon for an unidentified Hearst publication, this pen & ink on board illustration contains all the elements that made Nell Brinkley the pre-eminent female cartoonist of the early 20th century.

A Map of the Heart

Artist: Nell Brinkley

D’Ancona brings a lighthearted sense of whimsy to this 1950s situational cheesecake pin-up oil on board, which he created for the Goes Lithographic Company, Cincinnati Ohio.

A talented and prolific illustrator, D’Ancona excelled at creating curvaceous imaginings of the Girl Next Door, often presented at her most adorably vulnerable. In this artwork, a pouting brunette reaches for “A Lost Oar” (the title seen on verso of illustration board) only to find herself up the proverbial creek without a paddle.

Up A Creek

Artist: Edward D'Ancona

A sensational, action packed, original oil painting by Allen Anderson. Commissioned as a cover for the pulp title Spicy Detective this work illustrates “The Corpse is Yours” by Robert A. Garron in the May 1941 issue. The artist created a number of these spicy covers for Culture Publications in the 1930s and 1940s. Anderson had some fun with this painting, presenting his signature on the canvas of the oil painting pictured within the scene, he also employs a very thick impasto technique on the paint colors that appears on the artist’s palette at the bottom of the field to appear as fresh paint used on the canvas being created within.

The Corpse Is Yours

Artist: Allen Anderson

A lurid, action filled, original pulp cover oil on canvas by Harry Lemon Parkhurst / H. L. Parkhurst, one of the premier artists creating spicy pulp imagery for Culture Publications during the 1930s – 40s. This work illustrates “It’s Your Funeral” by Robert A. Garron and was used as the cover for the June 1941 issue of Private Detective. Surviving pulp paintings for this title and by this artist are scarce and this painting has it all; action, danger, drama, menace and movement.

It’s Your Funeral

Artist: H. L. Parkhurst

A large, signed, oil on canvas painting by prolific and influential New York City illustrator James Montgomery Flagg titled “At The Stork Club”. A prohibition/speakeasy-era, exhibited, large format illustration inviting us in behind the doors of New York City’s legendary Stork Club. Exhibited in 1976 at the Columbus Museum of Arts and Crafts in Columbus Georgia as well as the Berry-Hill Galleries on 5th Avenue in New York.

At The Stork Club

Artist: James Montgomery Flagg

A luminous and glowing, glamour girl painting by the well-listed, prolific pin-up illustrator and Hollywood portrait artist Edward Runci. This fine oil on canvas features a Haddon Sundblom / Gil Elvgren inspired color palette and painterly technique. A formally posed beauty queen with a little bit of mischief in her eyes, in white gloves and fur wrap with a purple orchid from an admirer.

The Purple Orchid

Artist: Edward Runci

A rare and fabulous surviving commissioned calendar art pin-up painting by Al Buell titled on verso A Perfect Pair. From a series of paintings Buell did for Brown & Bigelow, The Playmate Series. This was for the month of October and dates to the late 1940s. Buell worked with Gil Elvgren in the Sundblom studios in Chicago and his accounts included Coca-Cola. His oils are among the best in the genre, they capture the pretty girl next door (albeit generally under-dressed) and have a wholesomeness rare in the pin-up form.

A Perfect Pair

Artist: Al Buell

A hauntingly beautiful, erotically charged, reclining nude pastel by Rolf Armstrong from his very best period. This nude was never published and dates from right around 1930; a seductive light and shadow meditation that finds Armstrong contemplating the “temptation of allure” and “the allure of temptation” in this jazz-age, art deco erotic rendering of a veiled showgirl finding the light.

The Veiled Nude

Artist: Rolf Armstrong

A dark, masterfully suspenseful, photo-realist in technique painting by noted American illustrator and avant-garde filmmaker Douglass Crockwell. This menacing oil on board was likely used as an interior illustration in an American slick magazine such as The Saturday Evening Post, or Colliers. Crockwell was a gifted and precise artist, his advertising accounts included Coca-Cola, GE and US Steel.

The Captive

Artist: Douglass Crockwell

A deftly rendered, intricate, highly decorative oil on canvas painting by noted Brandywine School illustrator Arthur E. Becher, a student of Howard Pyle. An East Indian Minstrel performs magic feats to the delight of his adoring harem in this Orientalist Golden Age of Illustration depiction. Becher’s work appeared in numerous magazine titles after the turn of the last century; Scribner’s and Leslie’s most notably. He also created full color bookplates for such titles as “Long Live the King” and an 1914 adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven” by P.F. Collier & Sons.

Minstrel Entertains a Harem

Artist: Arthur Becher

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