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!

From the estate of Mike Wooldridge, our friend sadly departed and deeply missed author, historian and advanced pin-up collector comes this new to the the market original pastel illustration by Rolf Armstrong. Pictured is Jewel Flowers, the artist’s favorite model and dear friend for decades. This beautiful pin up portrait dates to the war years of the 1940s and Jewel is depicted in a star spangled red, white and blue patriotic scarf as she readies herself to embark in an afternoon of sailing. Armstrong for several years in the early 1940s had a summer studio in Marblehead Mass, where he was able to combine his love of women, sailing and art and absorb the beautiful seaside imagery and bright vibrant colors associated with this historic beach town.

Embarking On a Sail

Artist: Rolf Armstrong

A framed presentation grouping including a thumbnail pastel preliminary sketch by Rolf Armstrong and large format promotional gelatin silver photograph of Jewel Flowers as posed by Rolf Armstrong. These were created for a Brown & Bigelow Cowgirl themed Pin-up calendar titled “Try This” which first appeared in either 1949 or 1950. From the estate of Mike Wooldridge, the noted Armstrong scholar and collector. Mike befriended Jewel Flowers in the course of his research into Rolf Armstrong, and he acquired this directly from Jewel. This is charmingly framed in a rope adorned Western Americana wood frame behind glass and comes with the published B & B calendar of the finished pastel illustration. A unique and effective presentation of the work process of modeling, staging and creating a calendar commissioned pin-up pastel.

Jewel Flowers as a Cowgirl

Artist: Rolf Armstrong

Doris Niles was a premiere ballerina and concert dancer, known primarily for her Spanish-inspired pieces, and one of the shining beauties of the New York stage. Her flamboyant continental costume and dramatically posed stance in this portrait by Nikolas Muray, capture the dancer’s unique and refined sensibility. Muray, one of the masters of the modern expressive style, chronicled the New York dance world in the art deco jazz age, and his expert eye is on display to fine effect in this seductive view.

Doris Niles

Artist: Nickolas Muray

Before her tenure as the reigning queen of Hollywood society, and her long-standing position as mistress of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, Marion Davies was among the most beautiful of Florence Ziegfeld’s glorified American girls. Here, she is a delicate princess captured at the height of her beauty by Alfred Cheney Johnston, who had as much a part of creating the Follies reputation as Ziegfeld himself.

Follies Princess Marion Davies

Artist: Alfred Cheney Johnston

An exquisitely posed, unusually delicate view of Myrna Loy, by Elmer Fryer, the Hollywood glamour photographer who had perhaps the best sense of modernist style and fashion. This unusual view features Loy in blonde wig in her role as Sophie the dancer in “Bride of the Regiment.” An early view of the star, who would come to be known for her sassy wit and hard nosed sexuality in the Nick & Nora Thin Man series.

Myrna Loy in Bride of the Regiment

Artist: Elmer Fryer

A large and fresh (in all respects) original pastel illustration by Rolf Armstrong, the father of American pin up. Created in 1940 for the Brown & Bigelow Calendar Company and titled “Let’s Get Together” this features a streamlined modernist view of model Dorothy Conover in as close to a situational pin-up entanglement as Armstrong cared to venture. For many years this was in the collection of Armstrong model and confidante Jewel Flowers.

Let’s Get Together

Artist: Rolf Armstrong

This radiant, fabulously large original pastel by Rolf Armstrong was created in 1941 for the Brown & Bigelow Calendar Company. Titled “Figured To Win,” this original and previously undocumented beautiful illustration incorporates two of the artist’s great loves in life; sailing and Jewel Flowers. This pastel was owned for many years by Jewel herself, who was Armstrong’s favorite model and dearest friend for nearly two decades.

Figured To Win

Artist: Rolf Armstrong

A spectacular view of Clara Bow in jazz age headscarf with streamlined modernist style, by George Hommel. Bow’s wizened eyes and cupid feature captured the nihilism and eroticism of the Lost generation, as well as the heart of the American moviegoing public, and vintage original stills of her remain highly collectible.

Clara Bow

Artist: George Hommel

This original 1942 oil-on-board artwork by well listed female artist Bettina Steinke was commissioned for a United States Government WWII poster titled “Keep ‘Em Flying”. The image also became popular as a calendar art print titled “When They Came Marching Home” for The Louis F. Dow calendar company during the years of World War II and the immediate post-war period. The image became one of the enduring pictures of a changing America during wartime, featuring a victory girl nurse and armed forces servicemen working together to protect the nation.

Keep ‘Em Flying

Artist: Bettina Steinke

A dramatic and artfully posed gelatin silver original photograph by Edward Bower Hesser taken along the secluded shores of the California Coast. A pretty pair of lounging nude models mindful of the nude imagery of Edward Weston another noted nude Pictorialist who worked in Southern California during the 1920s – 30s art deco jazz-age. From an Allied Artist’s Photographers Guild east coast estate. An original graflex photograph taken by Hesser for use in his “Art’s Monthly Pictorial” photography magazine for artists and art students.

Nudes Along The California Coast

Artist: Edwin Bower Hesser

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