1920s

This is a suggestive and subtle 1929 oil on canvas painting featuring a pierrot and ballerina in a quiet ‘behind the curtain’ circus moment. This large scale stylized art deco work is mournful and gay all at once, evoking all of the tensions of jazz age culture. Italian-born Alphonse Palumbo studied in New York at the Art Students League under Louis Mora and Frank DuMond. He exhibited at the Allied Artists of America, the National Academy of Design and the Society of Independent Artists.

Pierrot and Ballerina Art Deco Interior Scene

Artist: Alphonse Palumbo

I am proud to be able to offer this highly stylized and orientalist take on the beheading of John the Baptist, as depicted by C. Bosseron Chambers, the famed illustrator of epic and Christian scenes who was dubbed the religious Rockwell. Chambers’ “Light of the World” image was as famous and popular a print as Maxfield Parrish’s “Daybreak.” This dramatic scene, in wonderful period frame with velvet matting, is an engaging and exceptional example of Chambers’ gift of rendering religious scenes in a provocative and modern manner.

Herod & the Head of John the Baptist

Artist: Charles Bosseron Chambers

A beautiful and serene commissioned pastel portrait of the young, wealthy blue blood high society beauty N.H. Fill. American illustrators often subsidized their earnings by taking lucrative portrait commissions from wealthy New York City Industrial Revolution aristocratic patrons. Often these jobs found the artists depicting the heiresses as glamour girl beauties in stylized, iconic, modern fashion. Gifted artist and illustrator Haskell Coffin excelled at this sort of beauty, and was best known as a cover artist contributing covers for countless American magazines including The Saturday Evening Post. His wholesome American stylized beauties also graced many Calendars for The Thos D. Murphy Calendar Company and other early twentieth century companies.

A Demure Society Girl In Pastel

Artist: Haskell Coffin

A dark and eerily erotic oil on canvas nude with orientalist slant. The work has a verso dedication by the artist Fred Page Craft dated 1926. An exotic Moorish/East Indian Orientalist Princess depicted as a “spicy pulp” blood boiling enchantress. Craft worked as cover artist for pulp magazine Black Mask and contributed a cover for Country Gentleman in 1923. This appears to have been created as a cover for an as of yet identified spicy pulp publication. In the dedication, the artist says of the work “This little half cast might be the finest thing I shall ever paint.”

Erotic Orientalist Moor Princess

Artist: Fred Page Craft

A beautiful and delicately rendered oil on canvas of a formal flapper girl in glamorous evening winter wear. An original oil on stretched canvas by the noted female artist and illustrator Edna Crompton. This was used as cover art for The Redbook Magazine February 1925. The artist also worked prolifically creating calendar art glamour images throughout the 1920s.

Flapper Girl In Mink Stole

Artist: Edna Crompton

A large and dramatic interior illustration by Walt Louderback for an American Slick magazine such as Collier’s or The Saturday Evening Post. An impressionist style, colorful and free flowing view of a delightful young red headed girl depicted against a backdrop of cyprus trees and a flat bottomed boat. In fine ornate frame.

A Red Headed Beauty

Artist: Walt Louderback

A delicate and dazzling example of Wladyslaw Theodor Benda’s portraiture with an exotic stylized Benda Girl. A mixed media work, on a verso addressed illustration board with a demure and soft focused masterfully conceived mysterious ingenue. This was presumably done as cover art and the back is dated 1928. Looks very much like covers done for Hearst’s International or The Shrine Magazine.

An Exotic Benda Girl Glamour Beauty

Artist: Wladyslaw Benda

From the estate of noted wildlife artist Paul Bramson comes this unique pair of W.T. Benda mask motif plaster bookends. These were most likely a gift: they are impressed and signed by the artist as seen, and the paint effect was applied by Benda himself to create an antiquated, relic type of “found remains” appearance. Benda was a famed illustrator and exceptional mask maker and published a book in 1944 on his technique and glorious fine, often times whimsical masks.

Benda Mask Decorative Bookends

Artist: Wladyslaw Benda

A finely detailed intricate 1920s illustration by noted comic artist and illustrator Jay Irving. This differs from his often times loose and quickly rendered interior comic gag cartoon style, as it is a much more detailed and intricately rendered work. I am presuming it was used as a cover for Judge Magazine as there is a large border in the upper portion for the title of the magazine to be added, and the appearance, size of work, date of illustration board and subject matter would fit the magazine’s tone and overall aesthetic.

An Old Man Sees A Mummy

Artist: Jay Irving

A serene and expertly rendered early original pastel from the admired female Jazz Age illustrator Neysa McMein. This illustration was created as the cover of the October 1921 issue of Woman’s Home Companion. Pictured is New York City blue blood debutante and silent movie star Mrs. Lydig (Julia) Hoyt. McMein gained notoriety in the 1920’s and 30’s as an independent, feminist minded free spirit. She roamed with the Algonquin Round Table set crowd of heavy drinking, free spirited New York City intellengtsia.

A Portrait of Julia Hoyt

Artist: Neysa McMein

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