1930s

A macabre gouache rendering by Mahlon Blaine for an as of yet undetermined publication. A highly charged noir erotic scene depicting a Vaudeville era Burlesque performer in allegorical temptation scene. The devil, with serpent’s tongue is shown behind a nude dancer representing temptation. The two figures left and right are shown as stand ins for good and evil. Blaine was a unique talent, and counter culture avant-garde artist who worked outside of the confines of the mainstream.

Demonized Burlesque Dancer

Artist: Mahlon Blaine

A wonderful original oil on canvas used as a poster design for the 1937 Warner Bros. Western film starring Dick Foran titled Prairie Thunder. Illustrated in this work are Albert J. Smith, Janet Shaw and Jim Corey. Ratterman was a gifted illustrator whose work appeared in many of the major “slick magazines” as advertisements and/or covers.

Prairie Thunder

Artist: W. G. Ratterman

A deftly rendered cover painting for The American Magazine by Herbert Paus, who developed an inventive and entirely modernist, machine age, industrial aesthetic. A striking seaside beauty is depicted playing a concertina in this rare surviving original cover painting from the golden age of American illustration. Herbert Paus was a leading illustrator who contributed covers for Life, Collier’s, Leslie’s and the Woman’s Home Companion magazines.

Seaside with a Concertina

Artist: Herbert Paus

An extraordinary and experimental early work by Hannes Bok, featuring a bizarre surreal landscape with a young boy riding a prehistoric creature. Hannes Bok was the pseudonym of Wayne Woodard, a self taught artist who was fascinated by the luminous quality of Maxfield Parrish’s oil paintings.

Upon a visit from the impoverished teenage Bok, and impressed by the examples of Bok’s work, Parrish gave Bok an expensive set of oil paints and brushes to help the teenager build on his obvious gifts.

Boy on Animal in Surreal Landscape

Artist: Hannes Bok

An inventive mixed medium early work by Edwin Georgi used as the cover for an early 1930s issue of “The Woman’s Home Companion.” A linear and modernist rendering of women’s disembodied heads that contrasts the art deco era ideal of make-up enhanced feminine beauty with classic Greek porcelain statuary. A clever and stylized early work by one of our favorite American Illustrators, Edwin Georgi.

A Pair of Art Deco Heads

Artist: Edwin Georgi

A wonderfully conceived and deftly executed art deco original risque artwork from Rolf Armstrong’s short tenure in Hollywood. This large pastel dates to 1932 and is a rare nude by the Father of American pin up. This transcendent work was unearthed in the late 1990s in the estate of a one of Armstrong’s former models. This important piece was exhibited at a solo show of the artist’s work in 1999 at the Bruce R. Lewin Gallery in New York City. A program from the exhibition featuring “The Blue Nude” is included with sale.

The Blue Nude

Artist: Rolf Armstrong

A strongly rendered, machine age/industrial revolution inspired modernist 1935 oil painting by Thomas Tyrone Comfort, used as the cover for The Los Angeles Herald & Express; Oct.19, 1936. Comfort worked as an art deco-era muralist and illustrator. His work evokes the spirit of the WPA movement, his brilliant career was cut short in 1939 when the artist passed away at the young age of 30.

Controlled Power

Artist: Tyrone Comfort

Perhaps the finest nude pin-up ever created, this Earl Steffa Moran pastel is a fresh midwest estate find. This luminous masterwork dates from Moran’s “Light & Shadow” period. Marketed under the title “Tomorrow’s Star,” the model was reported to be Jean Harlow. Six early nudes by Moran were packaged as a large format high end print folio which Brown & Bigelow gave as a premium gift to its most lucrative business accounts under the title “Running into Six Figures.” Many collectors site the folio as the high water mark of pin-up art.

Show Girl

Artist: Earl Moran

A flirty, scandalous and new to the market cover illustration by Enoch Bolles, which appeared first as a cover for a 1930’s Young’s Magazine, and again made an appearance on a 1938 cover of Breezy Stories. Enoch Bolles excelled in these curiously proportioned Spicy Pulp, envelope pushing, angular modernist heartbreakers. This is a spectacular work which, like most Bolles’ offerings, is unsigned and is nicely framed and ready to hang.

Bathing Beauty in Sun Hat

Artist: Enoch Bolles

Perhaps the finest Rolf Armstrong original pastel ever offered for sale and one of only a hand full of nudes done by this iconic American illustrator. This original pastel was one of three nudes Armstrong did in the 1930’s. It was marketed as a calendar print titled, “Rosalie” as well as “Hollywood Venus”. This large, reclining nude was clearly a personal favorite of Armstrong’s. It hung on his studio walls throughout the 1940’s and 1950’s. This is a large and monumental art deco masterwork by the Father of the American Pin-Up. With an expensive gallery frame, this pastel is in pristine condition with unfaded vibrant colors.

The Hollywood Venus

Artist: Rolf Armstrong

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