Original Art from the Grand Age of American Illustration
Dating to the 1950s, this Mid-Century Modern original advertising illustration features a young, stylish, and well-to-do couple looking at travel posters and pondering their next destination. The African masks and tribal Zuni Fetish Doll on the mantle as well as the hanging modernist abstract art let the consumer know that this couple is sophisticated and well-traveled. A […]
Artist: Richard Preyer
An elegant art deco gouache-on-board created for General Motors who commissioned this work for their Cadillac ad campaign during the late 1920s-early 30s. This remarkable composition features a modernist, jazz age, formally attired woman flanked by majestic wolfhounds. She is shown entering a castle as her Cadillac touring sedan rests among palm trees in the background. Work is unsigned, in the manner of Edouard Benito or George Wolfe Plank.
Artist: Unknown
These four comical and deftly rendered gouache illustration paintings show four faces of the 1950s Texaco Man. These explore the overly quizzical and confused faces made by a service station attendant tasked with describing the particulars of car troubles that caused distress for 1950s highway tourists. Together, they hint at the dishonesty associated with […]
Artist: Harold McCauley
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
A rugged and gritty WWII – era illustration by the prolific American artist E.F. Ward, which was created as part of the advertising campaign for Seiberling Rubber Company. Published as the central image for a magazine interior advertisement that appeared in numerous wartime periodicals, Safe Passage is a large format well-realized gouache on illustration board painting which […]
Artist: E.F. Ward
A 1949 Western Americana cowgirl themed gouache on illustration board which comes directly from the archives of the 100-year-old San Francisco ad agency/lithography company “Stecher-Traung & Schmidt.” The work is in the style of George Petty, and Ben-Hur Baz. Among other noted artists Stecher-Traug employed Gil Elvgren, E.B. Segner & Mary Mayo. This commissioned illustration is dated and inkstamped in the lower corner but is unsigned. Work is beautifully framed and matted in a period ornate gesso frame.
Artist: Unknown
Grapefruit Moon Gallery just unearthed a small collection of original Campbell’s Soup Kids illustrations. These appeared as print ads in countless American mainstream publications such as The Saturday Evening Post in the 1930s. In this offering a Dolly Dingle character Campbell’s Soup Kid is putting the finishing touches on his or her soapbox derby bi-plane early aviation age-inspired racing car. Nicely matted and framed behind glass and ready to hang.
Artist: School of Grace Drayton
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
A fresh to the market 1950s original pin-up oil painting that is attributed to Ben-Hur Baz, with custom advertising for Krome-Oil Piston Rings. A busty blonde bombshell ala Marilyn Monroe is shown seductively posed in a new and very revealing bikini that highlights the tan lines left from her past, more modest swimwear. A recent gallery acquisition from […]
Artist: Ben-Hur Baz
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 […]
