Two squared jaw toughs slug it out as a pretty redhead damsel in distress looks on in this classic pulp cover painting for sale at Grapefruit Moon Gallery.
Artist: Mel Phillips
1940s
This remarkable, large, and colorful pastel by Billy Devorss was created for Brown & Bigelow’s 1941 calendar line and was published under the title Pretty Smooth. Unlike most of the pin-up artists working during the Golden Age of Illustration, Devorss never signed an exclusive contract with any of the calendar companies, and instead enjoyed incredible popularity […]
Artist: Billy Devorss
This is a gritty Ashcan School-influenced Social Realist depiction of several wounded WW II-enlisted Navy Men reloading a rocket launcher while under heavy attack. A large watercolor-on-artists-paper by the very well listed Boston artist Henry O’Connor, who was a member of the Boston Art Club, president of the Artist Fellowship in New York City and The Salmagundi Club. O’Connor’s work appeared in McClure’s magazine, he illustrated several U.S. Navy books, and did presidential portraits of Roosevelt and his son.
Artist: Henry O'Connor
A moody and stirring work by Alton S. Tobey lamenting the loss of souls on February 3rd 1943 in the icy waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Work commemorates the lives of four World War II chaplains who made the ultimate sacrifice to save others as their stricken ship went down after coming under attack from German torpedo fire.
Artist: Alton Tobey
This is a haunting watercolor by renowned book illustrator Willy Pogany. Marked on verso “Doll House Hell” this is a dark noir rendering of an evening on a boathouse. The pylons and trees are turning into monsters and even the sky appears to be weighing down on the lone boat. Pogany is best remembered for his illustrated volumes of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.
Artist: Willy Pogany
Morning Song is an outstanding large format pastel pin-up illustration by the leading female illustrator Zoë Mozert, which was commissioned for The Brown & Bigelow Calendar Company of Saint Paul Minnesota. Perhaps the artist’s finest moment, capturing the seductive innocence of a fresh faced young nude in commune with a colorful parakeet. This image first appeared around 1950 with […]
Artist: Zoe Mozert
The Fairest Flower is a deliriously sexy rare surviving nude pin-up pastel by Zoe Mozert created for The Brown & Bigelow Calendar Company. In 1941, after a prolific decade long career as a leading pulp and movie magazine cover illustrator, Zoe Mozert signed on as a staff artist with Brown & Bigelow where she quickly established herself […]
Artist: Zoe Mozert
A moving gouache-on-board painting by Amos Sewell, this appeared as an interior illustration in the March, 1947 edition of Redbook magazine, accompanying a story by Peter Stirling Cardoza titled “Take Care of Jimmy.” This image shows a tearful farewell at a train window, dramatically and tenderly rendered by this well-listed and important American illustrator. Nicely framed and matted […]
Artist: Amos Sewell
We are again offering this published oil on canvas pin-up painting by Arnold Armitage as the original buyer never made subsequent payments from a purchase in 2015. Created as a pin up calendar commission for The Louis F. Dow company of Saint Paul Minnesota. In the scene, the proverbial girl next door is shown with a […]
Artist: Arnold Armitage
This 1942 patriotic Petty Girl was the first of George Petty’s iconic pin up illustrations commissioned by the Ice-Capades, then in its second season and soon to become a cultural institution. Developed by RKO as a theatrical extravaganza on ice and held at Rockefeller Center in New York City, the event was wildly popular and the souvenir programs became a […]
Artist: George Petty
