Original Art from the Grand Age of American Illustration
A bustling signed and dated 1925 original advertising gouache painting by noted Golden Age illustrator Henry Patrick Raleigh for Maxwell House Coffee. An opulent high society Great Gatbsy-esque scene which creates focal points around the coffee cups and serving platters in the hands of tony patrons and servers. Raleigh worked on Maxwell House’s print campaign […]
Artist: Henry Raleigh
An enchanting and one of a kind original watercolor by my favorite illustrator, Henry Clive. Given as a Christmas present in 1928. Inscribed “Dear old Art — Be good and you’ll be eccentric.” Dated “Hollywood-Christmas 1928.” Watercolor mimics a published Smart Set cover. I will include color copy of the published cover with sale.
Artist: Henry Clive
This remarkable image features a nude reclining maiden by one of our favorite Golden Age illustrators W.T. Benda. A dazzling composition, an intricate and technically adept graphite drawing with silver glittery paint highlighting the subject’s hair and face. Signed lower right and beautifully framed and silk matted behind glass in a hand carved gold leafed […]
Artist: Wladyslaw Benda
A lyrical Golden Age of Illustration dated 1921 oil on canvas painting by Edwin John Prittie for The Mary Frances Story Book – a children’s book by Jane Eayre Fryer published by John C. Winston. In this whimsical lush rendering a child with a fishing net joists with a red dragon in a fantasy-scape surround […]
Artist: Edwin John Prittie
This dark and cleverly conceived and technically brilliant tinted pen & ink drawing with gouache highlights exemplifies the German expressionist artist Heinrich Kley’s brooding and satirical vision of mankind. At first take, we see a bear, ogre, and frog cavorting in a circus-like atmosphere, but on further reflection the scene turns darker. Kley’s pessimism […]
Artist: Heinrich Kley
In this inspired and tremendously fun pen and ink illustration, two Brinkley girls are seen in an all out battle to catch a bridal bouquet tossed by an unseen hand. In an ironic turn, they become so engrossed in their conflict that the flowers they are fighting for appear about to fall to the ground. The frenzied scene, with its youthful energy and sexuality suggests the ambivalence of Brinkley’s new woman towards traditional marriage.
Artist: Nell Brinkley
This important and defining oil on canvas portrait features a stylized Mata Hari in the midst of one of her sensual, almost trance-like dances. The highly moody piece is a wonderful example of the 1900-1915 century Spanish modernismo movement by Anselmo Miguel Nieto, one of its brightest talents. This classically inspired yet fully modern painting applies formal chiaroscuro technique (the exaggerated use of light and dark to create a dramatic perspective) to one of the great courtesans of early 20th century Europe to create a sexually and politically subversive yet beautiful work.
Artist: Anselmo Miguel Nieto
This powerful example of golden age American illustration art playfully explores the tension between past and future presented in the early motor age. In this affecting unsigned image, the cliche of the Western Americana “Westward Ho” expansion scene is reinterpreted through the addition of an up-to-the-minute flapper girl in an adorable cloche hat. Beneath our heroine–who, along with her car, is checked out by a cowboy attired service attendant–text reads “Forms No Hard Carbon.”
Artist: Unknown
A finely executed dated 1927 pen & ink illustration on board by Cardwell Higgins with inventive art deco style. A Persian attired Orientalist showgirl is depicted in a burlesque vaudeville-era Ziegfeld Follies inspired theatrical production. The work recalls the erotic and stylized pen & ink works of British artist Aubrey Beardsley.
Artist: Cardwell Higgins
A tense and well rendered set at sea Golden Age of Illustration painting by the noted and prolific American artist Ralph Pallen Coleman, signed and dated 1925 in the lower right corner. Set aboard a ship at sea, the image hints that the vessel is heading into troubled waters at least metaphorically. While the well groomed male calmly prepares to light his pipe, his pretty flapper companion holds her hand over her heart, both attracted to and made nervous by taking this trip with her suitor.
Artist: Ralph Coleman
