1920s

This is the very rare surviving original pastel illustration on board by Emil Flohri of Rudolph Valentino as the title character in Son of The Sheik, the controversial romantic adventure that was unexpectedly the final film starring silent filmdom’s first iconic heartthrob. This signed pastel was commissioned and used as the cover for the September 1926 edition of Motion Picture Magazine, and was published almost simultaneously with the unexpected death of Valentino on August 23rd, 1926. A complete copy of the printed magazine is included in the sale.

Rudolph Valentino

Artist: Emil Flohri

Grapefruit Moon Gallery is delighted to offer the original published cover pastel by the obscure female New York City Illustrator Tempest Inman used for the July 1922 cover of Photoplay Magazine. This captures to great affect the smoldering intensity and rugged good looks of the Latin lover film star Rudolph Valentino. This is easily the most famous movie magazine cover in Hollywood film history the image is reproduced as the cover of the hardcover book “Photoplay Treasury” that came out in 1972. This was owned by Ken Galente in New York City who operated The Silver Screen Gallery in the garment district for many years until his death. I had the pastel silk lined and framed in a 22 carat gold leaf frame and it displays wonderfully, the condition is excellent with strong vibrant colors and great clarity.

Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Artist: Tempest Inman

A noir and exquisitely detailed rendering for an interior magazine story titled on verso French Murder. By the gifed Fortunio Matania, who was known for his photo like realism and finely detailed intricate renderings and the use of period props and embellishments to create an air of authenticity to his historically based works.

French Murder

Artist: Fortunino Matania

A large art deco modernist pastel illustration by Rolf Armstrong titled “Hello Everybody”. From the estate of Mike Wooldridge and never before offered for sale, this is easily one of Armstrong’s most iconic works for The Brown & Bigelow Calendar Company. For good reason, this is one of the artist’s most widely distributed images featuring a cute and sassy flapper girl in feminine jazz-age business attire. One of Armstrong’s most prolifically used creations, Wooldridge collected versions of the image used in playing cards, advertising blotters, notebook tablets, calendars and prints in all sizes and configurations. Many are included with sale.

Hello Everybody

Artist: Rolf Armstrong

In her most erotically charged, fur clad pose, Marie Prevost is the epitome of the jazz age flapper in this rare early 1920s view. One of Edwin Bower Hesser’s classic portraits, this showgirl inspired Hollywood glamour portrait captures a soft-focus and decadent view of the scandal-ridden star, who is now as much remembered for her tragic death as her glorious career. This large-format, double weight, matte finish photograph is an unusual and important look at the cult icon in her prime.

Marie Prevost in Erotic Flapper View

Artist: Edwin Bower Hesser

A rare surviving aviation themed pulp cover painting by Stockton Mulford for the cover of Fawcett’s Battle Stories, August 1929 (thanks to Doug Clemons for the i.d.). In this dramatic image, a recently downed airplane smolders as the ejected American Air Force pilot, armed only with a wrench, engages in combat against a German, bayonet-wielding, WWI soldier. Aviation pulps appeared on news-stands in the 1920s as the horror of World War I began to fade from public memory leaving room for the development of heroic and mythic tales of soldiers and aviators. Until the start of the Second World War, the aviation pulps focused on these Great War-themed stories, but after 1941, their content switched to tales of glory from the front lines of WWII.

The Battle After The Crash

Artist: Stockton Mulford

A dazzling Heinrich Kley mixed media work featuring a host of primordial animals engaged in an orgiastic dance of evolution. A splendid cast of characters is assembled by this fondly remembered avant-garde, Jugendstil, German Expressionist artist. This is a rare full color example of the artist’s work, most surviving pieces by Kley are pen & ink drawings. This evocative artwork is rich in humor, technique and imagery. Work is in a wonderful state of preservation and nicely matted and framed in a period gesso frame.

Primordial Soup

Artist: Heinrich Kley

A large and important exhibited American impressionist oil painting by the Boston artist Arthur Prince Spear, 1879-1959. The painting features an outstanding large ethereal and luminous trio of sea nymphs in silhouette – ablaze at sea under a full moon. This is painted in an impressionist style with a textured heavy impasto technique. Housed in its original carved gold leaf wood frame.

Nets of Silver and Gold

Artist: Arthur Prince Spear

This Pierrot-inspired flapper girl pastel was created by Henry Clive as cover art for a Hollywood Comedy Club burlesque program. With a mischevious glint in her eye, the smiling blond embodies the devil-may-care ethos of the early jazz age. After moving to California to work in silent films, Clive was very much a part of the Hollywood social scene. This original pastel is an early example of his fraternal pursuits, and includes a faint dedication to a fellow member of the Hollywood Comedy Club for which this was created.

Hollywood Comedy Club

Artist: Henry Clive

A rare and whimsically delightful surviving cover painting from the golden age of illustration by Theodore Haupt, which appeared on the cover of The New Yorker; January 28, 1928. This painting captures the fun and folly of New York City in a severe art deco zig-zag aesthetic. During the busy wintertime wonderland shopping crush, a window dresser is shown feverishly attiring a nude store mannequin as snow covered throngs watch in delight. Haupt illustrated forty four covers for The New Yorker between 1927 and 1933.

Window Dressing

Artist: Theodore Haupt

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