american

An exceedingly scarce and early Art Nouveau period original pastel portrait by Rolf Armstrong dated 1913. A crisply rendered serene take on a sad eyed solemn brown eyed lass. This pastel dates just one year later than his first published works of 1912 for Puck and Judge magazines. His signature had not yet become the stylized scripted font of which we are accustomed to seeing. I have yet to uncover the published version of this work, it was most likely commissioned as a sheet music cover or perhaps a cover for American Sunday Magazine, one of several periodicals willing to take a chance on the young emerging talent.

A Brown Eyed Girl

Artist: Rolf Armstrong

A topical newspaper illustration (presumably for the Hearst Newspapers) confronting the dilemma of Eugenics. In the 1910’s-1920’s the United States was faced with the question of whether individuals should marry with a mind towards creating superior babies through genetic family planning. This cartoon finds this notion farfetched and we see love conquering science to the shock and delight of a couple now free to live as their hearts command. A very sophisticated topical take on a pre-eminent question of the early 20th century. This is a fantastically rendered en grisaille style pen and ink drawing with highlights. En grisaille was a popular style in the early 20th century for illustrations created for reprinting. In a stylish contemporary fine gilded wood frame.

Satirical Eugenics Illustration

Artist: Gustav Michelson

Cleopatra is one of only two commissioned published calendar pin-up paintings created by Henry Clive for the Louis F. Dow Calendar Company of Saint Paul Minnesota, the other work Sultana was previously sold by our gallery. Featuring an exotic nearly nude dreamy enchantress in an Art Deco Egyptian fantasy pyramid adorned dreamscape, this enchanting artwork […]

Cleopatra of the Nile

Artist: Henry Clive

A glamorous, art deco Petty Girl mixed media illustration from 1938 that appeared in the pages of Esquire Magazine with the quip “Thanks for the hospitality, Mr. Grover, but I don’t mind going home in the rain.“ In this sophisticated rendering, we see a sexy svelte blonde in a form fitting satin gown […]

Thanks for the Hospitality, Mr. Grover

Artist: George Petty

A deliriously fresh published Petty Girl mixed media pin-up illustration from 1937 that appeared in the pages of Esquire magazine with the quip “He doesn’t smoke and he doesn’t drink – I don’t know what I’ll do to amuse him”. A masterful rendering of a sexy modernist redhead who is clearly styled after Bette […]

He Doesn’t Smoke and He Doesn’t Drink

Artist: George Petty

This shoot ’em up action packed Western Americana illustration titled The Rider From Rio appeared as the April 22, 1933 cover of Street & Smith’s – Wild West Weekly. By the prolific and gifted American painter, John Coughlin, this exciting old west scene exemplifies the fighting cowboy spirit that was essential to the Western pulps. A fresh to […]

The Rider From Rio

Artist: John Coughlin

On offer is an action packed, large format cover painting by George H. Wert, commissioned by Street & Smith publishers for the April 27, 1929 edition of Western Story Magazine. A foiled bank robbery in the old west as the three tough as nails cowboys heed orders to “Come out with your hands up”. The artist employs a heavy […]

Come Out With Your Hands Up

Artist: George H. Wert

A June bride gets unexpected company in this whimsical painting by Henry Clive, created as cover art for for the June 15, 1930 issue of The American Weekly, a syndicated supplement in William Randolph Hearst newspapers across the country. Part of the cover series “The Fashionable Working Girl” which showcased Great Depression-era flappers and gently satirized the social lives of independent city girls, this […]

The Bride

Artist: Henry Clive

A captivating, sexy, toasting blonde pastel by noted illustrator and occasional pin-up artist Victor Tchetchet. This pin-up is unusual as it mimics the Coles Phillip’s “Fadeaway Girls” technique where the subject fades into the background. Tchetchet is best known for his pin-up, The Favorite Model, and countless movie magazine covers throughout the 1930’s. I have never come across the published version of this pastel, presumably it was done as a pin-up calendar illustration. Beautifully double matted in a $700 gallery frame.

The Toast Of The Town

Artist: Victor Tchetchet

A dizzying, kinetic, brilliant large-scale fine art oil painting by the American artist and illustrator Theodore Haupt, signed in the lower right corner and dated 1929. This important surviving painting was created in Haupt’s signature modernist style combining elements of Cubism and Surrealism. Lyrical figures of swirling burlesque dancers depicted in lush harmony are juxtaposed with heavy […]

A Modern Burlesque

Artist: Theodore Haupt

« Previous Page