Grapefruit Moon Gallery

Original Art from the Grand Age of American Illustration

1940s

A rare and outstanding situational pin-up painting used as calendar art for The Louis F. Dow Calendar Co., circa 1940’s- 50’s. Image is playfully titled Snowshoes it also appeared as a calendar print titled Alask-Ann. This was purchased by a gentleman the day he got back from the Viet Nam War in the early 1970’s. The Dow Calendar Company rented a downtown Saint Paul hotel and sold off their paintings and original calendar art at $50.00 a painting! This is a major find and has never been on the market since it was purchased thirty years ago. He created the “Wonder Bread Girl” in the 1950’s using his daughter Nancy as his model. His portrait of President Dwight D. Eisenhower is in the Smithsonian institution in Washington D.C.

Alask-Ann

Artist: Vaughan Bass

A genuinely magical illustration from the 1940 John C. Winston Co.’s publication of the Oscar Wilde classic The Happy Prince and Other Tales. This watercolor on board is a colorful and evocative rendering of the climactic scene from Wilde’s emotionally complex parable of Christian love. The illustration depicts the selfish giant gazing upon the boy who warmed his heart, as the boy bleeds from stigmata-like wounds. Everett Shinn was the youngest of a loosely associated group of New York-based social realist illustrators who were termed, by their critics, the Ashcan school, for their gritty style, often ugly depictions of humanity, and fixation on urban scenes. Shinn’s illustrators today are revered for the manner in which these themes are juxtaposed with gentle beauty.

The Selfish Giant

Artist: Everett Shinn

We have a collection of three Gag Cartoons done by the well listed illustrator Bob Pettes for reproduction as calendar art by Brown & Bigelow. These feature hapless “Scotch swilling ” hacks — ala Caddyshack and Rodney Dangerfield — but decades earlier in this depiction. Ready to frame with expensive round cut matts. Pettes is best known as an illustrator for puzzle reproduction.

Collection of Golf-themed Gag Cartoons

Artist: Robert Pettes

An original World War II era pin-up illustration featuring a Marlene Dietrich – esque lovelorn pin-up admiring her 2 enlisted men presumably stationed in Europe ” over there ” as it were… Classic bad girl campy imagery which was used as art for a Mennon gift box for Men lithographed box for the set which is included in the sale. Signed Bischoff on the box (only, not on gouache artwork itself). This is by Herman E. Bischoff an illustrator that worked for Esquire Magazine and created covers for Liberty magazine during the 1940s – 50s.

Lovelorn Beauty Admires 2 WWII Soldiers

Artist: Herman Bischoff

An original art deco pastel by noted cover illustrator and sometimes pin-up creator, Victor Tchetchet. Illustrating the interior story by John Erskine titled Thargelia. Face is very Rolf Armstrong-esque. A worn tear sheet of the cover is included in the sale, nicely framed and double matted in a vintage gesso period frame.

Thargelia

Artist: Victor Tchetchet

An exotic Far East-themed interior illustration for the January 30th 1949 edition of Randolph Hearst’s American Weekly Magazine. Caption reads: ” Queen Supi-Yaw-Lat and her wicked mother prodded the hen-pecked King to torture anyone who might be a rival.” Framed in a gold wood suitable frame as seen.

The Dragon Throne Returns To Mandalay

Artist: Jules Gottlieb

A wonderfully executed interior illustration for a story by Eustace Cockrell titled Compliments of R. Smith. Depicting a Christmas gift given to the gentleman center in the form of a race horse. Caption reads: “He won de second at Sunnyside Downs,” Refugee said ” Merry Christmas, Mr. Willie “. A large crisply-rendered pastel nicely framed and matted in it’s original gesso frame. Retains original Collier’s Magazine verso identification label and a full copy of the published magazine is included in the sale.

Compliments of R. Smith

Artist: Martha Sawyers

 

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