Original Art from the Grand Age of American Illustration
A dazzling 1920s art deco illustration painting of a beautifully costumed, formally attired maiden at an evening summertime patio engagement. Work is stylistically mindful of Edward Eggleston and Gene Pressler who created countless similar fanciful colorful and ornamental images for calendar companies of the era. It is our belief that this too was a published calendar image. Work is beautifully matted and framed in a handsome gesso art deco period frame.
Artist: Eyre
A delightful original circa 1915-1925 gouache commercial illustration of unknown use and origin, showing a well articulated Royal Canadian Mounted Policeman and an Indian Chief in traditional headdress, both on horseback, envisioned in the vast expanses of The Canadian Rocky Mountains. This fine old gouache illustration painting is framed in a handsome wide profile antique period frame.
Artist: Unknown
An exquisite stylized, modernist, French art deco mixed media work in subdued muted tones by Edouard Sureau. In pastel and gold gilt paint, this features a delicately rendered muse with halo enraptured by a musical lyre. The top of the instrument forms a cross and the figure itself forms an angelic allegory, of the style popular in the art deco decorative arts. Work is signed and in a fine state of preservation nicely matted, framed, and ready to hang.
Artist: Edouard Sureau
This jazz age artwork from the late fall of 1924 smartly blends Halloween season & boxing as a metaphor for the presidential election of that November. In this vibrant gouache, used as a cover for “The Brooklyn Eagle Sunday Magazine,” an Uncle Sam-inspired ring girl attempts to keep the peace between the two parties. This is a spirited roaring 20s time capsule.
Artist: Charles Verschuuren
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A large oil on canvas of a pensive young nude by noted American illustrator and artist Guy Hoff. Hoff was a prolific illustrator whose paintings illustrated covers of The Saturday Evening Post, Liberty, Judge and The American Magazine.
Artist: Guy Hoff
A large scale and evocative interior story illustration by Herbert Morton Stoops; likely commissioned for Collier’s or Cosmopolitan magazine, both of for which the artist was a frequent contributor. A briskly composed hearth scene with broad brush strokes that ultimately creates a wonderful sense of urgency and movement. Stoops painted in a style much like Dean Cornwell and Howard Pyle, the artist has a high water mark at auction of just under $11,000.00 in 2001.
Artist: Herbert Stoops
A delightful pastel by Pearl L. Hill. This dates from the 1920’s and was presumably used as a cover for a period woman’s magazine (likely Modern Priscilla). A demure yet playfully-posed, modernist, roaring 20s flapper girl with short bobbed hair strikes a winning pose in this large, nicely matted and framed illustration. Hill created seven cover paintings in the early 1920’s for the prestigious “Saturday Evening Post.” Her illustrations modernized the American woman in glamorous art deco fashion.
Artist: Pearl Hill
A whimsical snow scene pastel illustration by Rolf Armstrong which initially appeared as the cover for College Humor in December of 1929. This image was slightly altered by Armstrong and appeared again in 1936 as a Brown & Bigelow Calendar titled “The Call of the North”. The pastel was dedicated to Stan Fenelle another Brown & Bigelow artist by Armstrong and is a new to the market Saint Paul Minnesota estate find. Work is matted and framed in a period art deco era Newcomb-Macklin antique gold carved frame.
Artist: Rolf Armstrong
A dark and deeply erotic Salmagundi Club Exhibited large oil on canvas by R.K. Ryland titled “Woodland Melodies.” Ryland was a celebrated New York based illustrator and fine artist who worked extensively creating modernist murals and posters for the 1939 New York World’s Fair. A work by Ryland illustrating that fair is on permanent display at the Wolfsonian Museum of Modernism in Miami. A large, defining example of the woodland nymph imagery that captivated 1920’s artists and illustrators.
Artist: Robert Ryland
A delightful early Rolf Armstrong original pastel in which the artist employs an impressionist and modern technique for the shadowing and details. This is a lovely and unusual transition piece from the period in Armstrong’s career where he began to shift from depicting winsome art nouveau beauties to the more dramatic and angular art deco flapper girls which defined his career. We have yet to find a printed version of this stunning original artwork by the father of American pin-up.
Artist: Rolf Armstrong
