Original Art from the Grand Age of American Illustration
A whimsical turn of the last century illustration, this watercolor and gouache painting by John Frederick (Fred) Nankivel is a delightful piece of childhood fantasy. With soft, neutral tones that capture the ethereal play of sunlight pressing through the water's surface, it is a beautiful contrast to the murky underwater environment. Two young […]
Artist: Fred Nankivel
Price: Sold
A wonderful detailed original drawing by Harrison Fisher illustrating Hiawatha's Wedding Feast, found on page 99 of Bobbs Merrill's 1906 book, The Song of Hiawatha, an epic poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. This charcoal and pencil drawing depicts the Indian Chief storyteller specifically. The complete book in which this appeared is included with the sale. Framed in a fumed oak arts and crafts aesthetic, wide quarter sawn frame, double matted and ready to hang in your home, office, art gallery or museum.
Artist: Harrison Fisher
Price: $5,500.00
This large and luminous original watercolor painting by the famous Belgian painter Frantz Charlet dates to the turn of the 20th centuty and features a serene pastoral mother and child figural scene. Charlet, a student of the Acadeémie de Bruxelles and l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Paris, known for his portraiture, landscape and genre work. Along with a group of ten colleagues, Charlet founded Les XX in October 1883.
Artist: Frantz Charlet
Price: $4,500.00
An early and exceptional painting by New York artist and illustrator Malcolm Strauss who specialized in motor genre works creating Automobile Club posters.
Artist: Malcolm Strauss
Price: $4,500.00
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
Price: $950.00
Who were the artist's models and muses whose faces and figures are instantly recognizable to lovers of early 20th century art and photography? It's a question we at Grapefruit Moon Gallery ask ourselves often, and the more we learn about them the more fascinating they become. To share our passion, we are offering a little vignette […]
A rare surviving pastel by the prolific and inventive early pin-up artist James Ross Bryson. Bryson defined Art Nouveau feminine beauty with his Edwardian views of corseted and lavishly attired, erotic, and bold anti-Victorian maidens. A staff artist for the Thos. D Murphy calendar co., his work also appeared on postcards, advertisements, and magazine covers. Bryson's strong use of color, and stylized depictions of feminine glamour were heavily influential on art deco pastel artists like Rolf Armstrong, Earl Moran and Zoe Mozert.
Artist: J. Ross Bryson
Price: $7,500.00
A macabre and dark highly inventive large format gouache illustration painting by Harrison Fisher used as a full color book plate in the 1907 edition of "A Dream of Fair Women" by Lord Alfred Tennyson. In this scene our maiden fair has just completed lent and prepares to give the devil his due and go out ballroom dancing in revealing for the day, corseted attire. This is a classic Harrison Fisher painting and a wonderful and historically impactful example of late Victorian period imagery where traditional customs are seen colliding with a less restrained, more promiscuous Edwardian vision of femininity.
Artist: Harrison Fisher
Price: Sold
A large Victorian watercolor by famed illustrator Albert Beck Wenzell featuring an Art Nouveau virginal beauty surrounded by putti shown in idyllic purity with nimbis overhead. Wenzell is best known for his 1903 illustrated book The Passing Show. He also created stunning murals for the New Amsterdam Theater in New York City at the turn of the last century and was a cover artist for leading early 20th century magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post.
Artist: Albert Wenzell
Price: S O L D
This is original artwork by the legendary art nouveau illustrator, Raphael Kirchner. This piece was commissioned for a turn-of-the-century postcard. Kirchner was revered for his sensual and sexually-provocative "Kirchner Girls". These appeared monthly in La Vie Parisienne, a notorious French publication. Kirchner was perhaps best known as a postcard illustrator. This is a wonderfully detailed, stylized art nouveau rendering of a pan flute playing maiden. It is matted in a stunning period frame.
Artist: Raphael Kirchner
Price: SOLD
