american

A beautiful and serene commissioned pastel portrait of the young, wealthy blue blood high society beauty N.H. Fill. American illustrators often subsidized their earnings by taking lucrative portrait commissions from wealthy New York City Industrial Revolution aristocratic patrons. Often these jobs found the artists depicting the heiresses as glamour girl beauties in stylized, iconic, modern fashion. Gifted artist and illustrator Haskell Coffin excelled at this sort of beauty, and was best known as a cover artist contributing covers for countless American magazines including The Saturday Evening Post. His wholesome American stylized beauties also graced many Calendars for The Thos D. Murphy Calendar Company and other early twentieth century companies.

A Demure Society Girl In Pastel

Artist: Haskell Coffin

A large mid-1950’s calendar girl pin-up pastel that was commissioned by the Shaw-Barton Calendar Company for one of their wildly successful and genre changing “Sketchbook” style 12 page pin-up calendars. Knute “K.O.” Munson executed many pastels for the Brown & Bigelow Calendar Company during the 1940’s and then Shaw-Barton. He later went on to become a successful cheesecake pin-up photographer during illustration arts lean years of the 1960’s, a charmed life to be sure.

The Model as Artist

Artist: K. O. Munson

A defining patriotic themed large original pastel by the father of American Pin-up Rolf Armstrong created for the Brown & Bigelow Calendar company. A fetching bathing beauty with modern features and build strikes a celebratory pose in front of a red, white and blue beach umbrella in this World War II-era pin-up In The Pink. The model was Margery Crampton and the appeal of this bright large work is universal.

In The Pink

Artist: Rolf Armstrong

A fantastic WPA-themed interior illustration from the February 1931 issue of American Magazine. A Union president riles up a group of miners for an epic David versus Goliath style battle, from the seat of a stylish touring coupe. Herbert Paus was a gifted and prolific illustrator, known for his highly technical & visionary watercolor industrial illustrations. He designed World War One posters and illustrated numerous covers for Liberty, Popular Science, Life, Delineator, & Collier’s magazines. Like Edward Penfield, Paus was for many years an illustrator for Hart Shaffner and Marx clothiers. An enthusiastic modernist, he worked prolifically creating defining and iconic images of American industrialization. His commissions included Goodyear Tires and Willy’s Automobiles.

Rallying the Miners

Artist: Herbert Paus

A bright, fresh and new to the market original pastel pin-up illustration by Earl Steffa Moran, comissioned for a late 1940s Brown & Bigelow calendar. A winsome young pretty idealized redhead in a Hawaiian flavored sarong. 2 small printed B & B marked calendars featuring “Feature Attraction” are included with sale. Pastel is properly lined and behind glass in a fine museum quality handsome gold gilt carved frame.

Feature Attraction

Artist: Earl Moran

A beautiful and delicately rendered oil on canvas of a formal flapper girl in glamorous evening winter wear. An original oil on stretched canvas by the noted female artist and illustrator Edna Crompton. This was used as cover art for The Redbook Magazine February 1925. The artist also worked prolifically creating calendar art glamour images throughout the 1920s.

Flapper Girl In Mink Stole

Artist: Edna Crompton

A colorful, bright and decorative art deco era original gouache illustration painting, created for print use by an as of yet unidentified fruit/produce company. A handsome shirtless native effortlessly navigates a tropical waterway in a fruit filled gondola. In style and execution, this work is reminiscent of many of the Travel Magazine covers commissioned for print use of the same era. Nicely matted and framed in an art deco period silver gesso handsome wood frame.

Fruit Boat Gondola Ride

Artist: E. B. Segner

A stylish art deco era smartly rendered original gouache illustration painting created as Raleigh Cigarettes advertising. A flirty idealized modern couple spark up more than a conversation with a prominently featured cigarette. This work of some of the George Petty stylized advertising illustrations for “Acme Beer” and “Chesterfield Cigarettes” of the same era. Nicely matted and framed in an art deco period gesso handsome wood frame.

Lighting the Fire

Artist: E. B. Segner

A lurid and gruesome large en grisaille style original oil on illustration board by noted 20th century artist and Illustrator Basil Gogos. An interior or perhaps cover illustration for a 1960s post-war pulp mens magazine published by Balcourt. This copy selling gruesome frontier style work pushes the envelope showing whisky bottle anesthetic self amputation by lantern light. Basil Gogos is currently featured in a long and detailed retrospective in Illustration Magazine. Nicely matted and framed and ready to hang.

Frontiersman Styled Surgery

Artist: Basil Gogos

A large and never-before-seen original pastel by Rolf Armstrong, this Green River Soda advertisement features a glamorous pin-up girl. This original pastel was found among other pastels and old lithographs in an abandoned Milwaukee, Wisconsin warehouse building. Decades earlier, the structure had served as headquarters for the “A. C. Schulz” lithography company. Although this piece is unsigned (this is true of much advertising art), it was undoubtedly created by the hand of Rolf Armstrong and is sold as an attributed painting.

Green River Soda Girl 1931

Artist: Rolf Armstrong

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