Grapefruit Moon Gallery

Original Art from the Grand Age of American Illustration

american

A stylized and well conceived gouache illustration painting dated 1925 by New York City artist and illustrator Robert Reid MacGuire. This art deco erotic offering features a nearly nude goddess in a gossamer long dress with a train attended to by 2 blackamoor servants. We are unsure of the exact usage of this illustration it likely was published as a full color bookplate in an unidentified pulication. The artist was active in New York City as both a designer and an artist and had his first exhibition in 1928 in Manhattan.

A Gossamer Goddess

Artist: Robert Reid MacGuire

From the estate of legendary jazz-age Ziegfeld Follies photographer Alfred Cheney Johnston comes this sensational pastel by noted American illustrator Penrhyn Stanlaws. Inscribed “To Cheney from Penrhyn Stanlaws”, this is a fabulous offering it features a stylish 1920s flapper girl in a cloche hat admiring her abundant beauty in a compact mirror. This was created as the cover for the October 4, 1924 issue of Collier’s magazine, and later inscribed and gifted to Johnston.

A Stylish Fadeaway Girl

Artist: Penrhyn Stanlaws

A rare surviving art deco gouache painting by one of our favorite American illustrators Edward Eggleston. This was created as the cover for a Valentines Day themed crafting magazine, Dennison’s Party Magazine,Jan/Feb 1928. Eggleston was a New York based calendar artist and illustrator who is best remembered today for his Jazz Age, racy and stylized 1920s Atlantic City travel posters that brought to light the allure of the flapper girl with risque bathing beauty imagery.

The Valentine Girl

Artist: Edward Eggleston

An early offering by legendary American pin-up artist and cover illustrator Peter Driben likely created in the late 1920s when the artist was a resident of Paris France and contributed popular illustrations in various French showgirl magazines chronicling the exciting Parisian nightlife and its lovely erotic burlesque Follies Dancers. Nicely matted and framed behind glass; from the famed collection of Charles Martignette.

Capturing The Moment

Artist: Peter Driben

An inspired and outrageous, entirely hand painted and created paper-mache decorative mask by Hannes Bok, this captures an exuberant, outlandish Art Deco Egyptian – Orientalist style. One of our favorite illustrators, Bok was born Wayne Woodard and grew up in Duluth Minnesota. As an adult, the artist carved out a meager living as an illustrator and “part time astrologer”. What we love most about Bok is his steadfast idealism and refusal to conform to the whims and rigors of publishing trends. Not surprisingly Bok died penniless in New York City. As today’s collectors and scholars unearth the lost history of the pulps the star of Hannes Bok burns brighter than at any time during his long and prolific career.

An Orientalist Avant-Garde Mask

Artist: Hannes Bok

This very rare illustration is possibly the only surviving pin-up girl, non-menace themed spicy pulp cover painting ever offered for sale by H.J. Ward. This was created for the spicy pulp title “Tattle Tales” and was published as either the March 1937 or June 1937 edition. Hugh J. Ward was a prolific pulp cover artist who has enjoyed much recent acclaim. At a recent 2010 auction, one of Ward’s damsel in distress cover paintings (August 1936 Spicy Mystery Stories) fetched $143,400.

The Tattle Tale

Artist: H. J. Ward

In an unusual blonde hatted view by George Hurrell, Joan Crawford is captured in her most captivating glory by the master of Hollywood photography George Hurrell. In a gentle sepia on a large format double weight semi-gloss paperstock, Hurrell captures the beauty of the young Joan Crawford, with her effortless art deco style, and emboldened flapper sensibility. This is blindstamped by Hurrell lower right, and inkstamped on verso.

Pre-Code Joan Crawford

Artist: George Hurrell

In a glamorous wide-brimmed hat, Joan Crawford displays the smoldering intense gaze that was to become her trademark in this image by the incomparable George Hurrell. This double weight gallery still is the personality portrait at its finest, on a high end double weight photostock, and never intended for public distribution. A pre-code form of glamorous sophistication the likes of with Hollywood rarely saw.

A Hatted Joan Crawford

Artist: George Hurrell

Along with its companion work “Ye Chiselers” (previously sold through Grapefruit Moon Gallery), Clive created this masterwork for the tavern of The Masquers Club, a historic and fascinating Hollywood institution. A reclining redheaded flapper is seen consorting with a Persian genie of sorts, illustrating the verse from the Rubaiyat which is inscribed on the mural.

The Infidel

Artist: Henry Clive

 

Contact Grapefruit Moon Gallery