1940s

A large impressionist pastel by Leon Dolice with an electric view of an illuminated New York City skyline, looking down Madison Avenue towards Chelsea’s Flatiron building. Leon Dolice spent over 60 years painting New York City landscapes, borrowing from the French Impressionists and Claude Monet specifically. He depicted his beloved Manhattan in varying lighting and color combinations, capturing the extreme skyscrapers and machine age industrialism which transformed the New York skyline during the art deco jazz age.

Madison Avenue Skyline

Artist: Leon Dolice

A large pastel by Leon Dolice featuring a stark view of an illuminated New York City skyline. Leon Dolice worked for over 60 years painting New York City views borrowing from the French Impressionists and Claude Monet specifically. His countless pastel variations capture his beloved Manhattan in varying lighting and color combinations and pastel configurations. The work highlights the extreme skyscraper forms and machine age industrialism which transformed the New York skyline during the art deco jazz age. A fresh estate find from the Collection of The Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota.

New York City Skyline

Artist: Leon Dolice

A well rendered erotically posed Diana the Huntress nude pin-up painting by Lawrence Gordon Low, in a stylish wide profile gallery frame. The work is estate stamped on the verso and is a luminous well realized example of The Great American Pin-up.

Diana The Huntress

Artist: Lawrence Low

This original commissioned painting by female pin-up artist Ruth Deckard was titled A Pin Cushion by the Calendar Company that first published it, originally titled by the artist on verso A Bar Belle. Features a cheeky brunette winsome pin-up girl in a duck pin bowling alley “sit down strike” scene. This was a very popular and wildly produced calendar in the post WWII pin-up era, and we are happy to offer the original oil on canvas, a rare original surviving artifact from the era of “The Great American Pin-up.”

A Pin Cushion

Artist: Ruth Deckard

Grapefruit Moon Gallery is delighted to offer a new to the market large Brown & Bigelow commissioned original pastel illustration by Earl Moran titled Next Time. The luminous model is of course Marilyn Monroe, before she was transformed into the platinum blonde bombshell movie star. Norma Jeane Baker was a frequent pin-up model for photographers and illustrators in the late 1940’s, and her alarmingly nude centerfold depiction in the first issue of Playboy Magazine in 1953 launched the sexual revolution. Works of this magnitude by Moran rarely come on the market and this is a unique opportunity to own a fantastic piece of American cultural history.

Next Time

Artist: Earl Moran

A dazzling, acrobatic pin-up girl by Al Buell created on commission for the Osborne Calendar Company. This dramatic view is set against a big top trapeze backdrop and pops against the stark black backdrop. Original pin-up works by Al Buell are quite rare, and this fine original artwork exemplifies his unique and masterful style. This bright fresh oil on board comes very nicely framed and matted, condition is pristine.

A Balanced Beam

Artist: Al Buell

A breathtaking and evocative sensual moonlit nude by Vaughan Alden Bass. The Veronica Lake look-alike is drenched in streaming moonglow rays in her dark colored boudoir. The unusual color palette employed by Bass gives the work a surreal glow. A stirring masterful work by this under valued and gifted pin-up artist and illustrator. This was gathered from the Saint Paul Estate of a 92 year old woman whose husband worked for the Louis F. Dow Calendar Company.

Moonlit Nude

Artist: Vaughan Bass

A signed and dated 1943 erotic, lesbian-themed, art deco nude pastel by the notorious New York City libertine photographer and fine artist G. Maillard Kesslere. This defiantly “out” New York vanguard artist made his name by blurring the distinctions between the homosexual arts community and high society during the avant-garde interwar era. Both his pastels and photographs of sensuously-posed follies showgirls were much in demand among sophisticated circles during the exuberant, decadent art deco era.

Girlfriends

Artist: G. Maillard Kesslere

The Augsbrug Sailors is a dramatic, boldly rendered, surrealist and homoerotic World War II illustration by the renowned illustrator Karl Godwin. Best remembered for his longtime work as artist for Reader’s Digest and calendar illustration, Godwin was a versatile talent, as shown by this unusual, patriotic image of one semi-nude sailor defiantly eyeing the sky as he cares for his wounded brother in arms. Piece comes nicely matted and framed in a fine gold gesso period gallery frame.

The Augsburg Sailors

Artist: Karl Godwin

This is a bright, well-executed, published oil on canvas by “The King of the Pulps” Walter Baumhofer. Originally an interior illustration for The Girl With the Lemon Colored Hair, a short piece of fiction by the infamous author Vina Delmar. This stunning artwork was published in the September 1943 issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine. A published tear sheet is included with sale.

The Girl with the Lemon Colored Hair

Artist: Walter Baumhofer

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