Original Art from the Grand Age of American Illustration
A large, dazzling, spicy pulp, science fiction, space girl painting by Gabriel Mayorga, which appeared on the cover of the second issue of Super Science Stories in May, 1940. Very loosely illustrating the interior story “Juice” by L. Sprague De Camp, whose slug is worth repeating here in full… They discovered a new game in Lunar Center – a form of ping-pong, […]
Artist: Gabriel Mayorga
From a recent east coast estate auction, Grapefruit Moon Gallery is delighted to have acquired a previously unseen collection of American Impressionist oil paintings dating to the 1940s and executed in a WPA, Regionalist, and often times stark Ashcan School design aesthetic. These are the work of the important American photo-journalist Alfred Statler, who […]
Artist: Alfred Statler
The WPA artist and art deco designer Vladimir Yoffe created this smart and modern machine age commercial illustration as advertising for Pan Am World Airways. The imagery shows a dizzying map of the earth highlighted by the routes the early commercial airline offered. Today, the Russian/American artist is best remembered for his work for the New Deal […]
Artist: Vladimir Yoffe
This patriotic, morale boosting, WWII-era red, white and blue cover gouache illustration painting was the cover for the May, 2, 1942 edition of Liberty Magazine. The image depicts a curvy pin-up girl christening a ship as the nattily attired distinguished guests of the ceremony struggle to keep their eyes on the matter at hand. In a humorous nod […]
Artist: Stephen Ronay
A rare surviving 1940s calendar published pin-up oil painting by the prolific Chicago area female illustrator Ruth Deckard, which appeared with the title of Danger. Making a classic “ooh” face, a luscious blonde sits on a sawhorse pulling a nail from her shoe at a construction site, a classic situational pin-up leg show scene. The […]
Artist: Ruth Deckard
A large preliminary rendering by Gil Elvgren of a work completed for Brown & Bigelow in 1948 with the title – “Do You Think I “No” Too Much ?” This image also appeared with the title “My Datebook’s Showing Signs Of Age”. This comes from a collection of Elvgren preliminary graphite drawings we acquired which […]
Artist: Gil Elvgren
This sparkling original oil on canvas by Robert George Harris appeared the December 1948 issue of McCall’s magazine, illustrating the story “When the Right One Comes Along” by Clara Wallace Overton. The long-running women’s magazine was known for its romantic fiction, and the hospital workplace love affair was a particularly popular subgenre. Here, the lovely nurse realizes the dashing compassionate doctor is […]
Artist: Robert George Harris
Public art in the 1930s is today synonymous with the Works Progress Administration–a New Deal Federal program that underwrote regionalist and modernist fine artists by commissioning their work for murals that can still be seen throughout the United States. Less often remembered is how private industries during the Great Depression and World War II became patrons of the […]
Dating to the late 1930s, this breezy glamour girl pin-up advertising painting for Ovaltine shows off the vitalizing and energizing benefits of the classic malted milk powder. The foreground features a pretty young blonde embodiment of the active type, looking relaxed, youthful and refreshed in the hillside above a country club in India, during the late era of British rule. […]
Artist: Unknown
A World War II-era illustration painting for the Nehi brand ginger ale Par-T-Pak. An early soda sold in quart size bottles intended to be shared, in this case by a breezy pin-up girl and her handsome enlisted beau. The saucy, double entendré tagline reads Neat Treat In The Heat! and as the flirtatious glance suggests, things are indeed about […]
Artist: Frederick Sands Brunner
