Original Art from the Grand Age of American Illustration
A lyrical American impressionist oil painting by Charles Allan Winter, one of our favorite 20th century fine artists and illustrators. This is a large and important work with two demure Art Nouveau maidens in a lush and colorful stylized fantasy landscape. Verso retains original exhibition card and title of “Music”. Housed in a wide profile hand carved Paul Carter Goodnow American Arts & Crafts frame, a defining example from the Charles Martignette collection.
Artist: Charles Winter
An elegant art deco gouache-on-board created for General Motors who commissioned this work for their Cadillac ad campaign during the late 1920s-early 30s. This remarkable composition features a modernist, jazz age, formally attired woman flanked by majestic wolfhounds. She is shown entering a castle as her Cadillac touring sedan rests among palm trees in the background. Work is unsigned, in the manner of Edouard Benito or George Wolfe Plank.
Artist: Unknown
A large idyllic Americana “Happier Days” depiction by the prolific calendar artist and pin-up illustrator T.N. Thompson. This nostalgic 1950s image is titled Cleaning Compounds and is suffused with the warmth of that era. a well rendered, romantic depiction of unknown usage with a drag racing American Graffiti-esque appeal and a Norman Rockwell influenced take on life’s small joys. Nicely framed in original limed oak frame with brass label insert.
Artist: T. N. Thompson
This is a haunting watercolor by renowned book illustrator Willy Pogany. Marked on verso “Doll House Hell” this is a dark noir rendering of an evening on a boathouse. The pylons and trees are turning into monsters and even the sky appears to be weighing down on the lone boat. Pogany is best remembered for his illustrated volumes of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.
Artist: Willy Pogany
This is an intriguing topical French magazine illustration depicting a decadent French woman enjoying five different forms of illumination as she goes through various stages of undress. Providing commentary on the onset of modernity in fin-de-siècle France through the metaphor illustrated mistress of the house who is seen with a broadening smile and increasingly confident demeanor as she lives with the at the time shockingly new conveniences, this is a bold and striking illustration by the controversial French cartoonist Gil Baer.
Artist: Gil Baer
What is Man That Thou Art Mindful of Him? asks this inspirational and spiritual large male nude oil painting by the well-listed New Rochelle based illustrator and artist Walter Beach Humphrey. This new to the market, prize-winning ‘Rock of Ages’ scene was owned for many years by the artist’s daughter, Constance June Humphrey. As a young child in the late 1920s, Constance was a favored model of her father’s friend Norman Rockwell. Humphrey and Rockwell shared a New Rochelle hayloft when they were both starting out. The exceptional provenance and history of the painting evoke the spirit of when it was painted and the special talents and life of the painter.
Artist: Walter Beach Humphrey
An epic and poignant large allegorical preparatory painting by Eugene Savage for the mural titled Armistice, which was created for and still resides in the front reception room at The Elks Veteran Memorial in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood.
Artist: Eugene Savage
An original gouache cover painting for an unidentified issue of the notorious French publication “La Vie Parisienne”. The long running, humorous and racy magazine chronicled the exploits and sexual proclivities of sassy and free spirited French follies showgirls and their often dim witted suitors in risque, breezy, spicy pulp-like fashion. This original gouache painting is nicely double matted in an oval window in a fine antique ornate gesso gold frame behind glass.
Artist: Maurice Milliere
A rare surviving c. 1910 large pastel illustration by the well listed and prolific illustrator Frederick Duncan. The sporty yet flirty glamour girl co-ed with a school book and a tennis racket personifies the socially progressive, daring and active woman who was coming into fashion as the voluptuous ideal of the Victorian woman of means waned. Works like this by Duncan, a cover artist for The Saturday Evening Post, popularized this independent, carefree vision of womanhood.
Artist: Frederick Duncan
An intoxicating and erotic reclining nude by the well-listed artist Harold Mott-Smith. Born in Hawaii, Harold Mott-Smith was a painter who lived in Paris from 1894-1906. He studied at the Academie Julian with Jean Paul Laurens, and exhibited in 1894 with the Boston Art Club as well as Paris Salon. After returning to New York, Mott-Smith worked for GE, illustrating calendars and painting portraits of Thomas Edison. This captivating oil on canvas dates from his early Hawaiian career and showcases his sensuous style.
Artist: Harold Mott-Smith
