american

A rare and outstanding situational pin-up painting used as calendar art for The Louis F. Dow Calendar Co., circa 1940’s- 50’s. Image is playfully titled Snowshoes it also appeared as a calendar print titled Alask-Ann. This was purchased by a gentleman the day he got back from the Viet Nam War in the early 1970’s. The Dow Calendar Company rented a downtown Saint Paul hotel and sold off their paintings and original calendar art at $50.00 a painting! This is a major find and has never been on the market since it was purchased thirty years ago. He created the “Wonder Bread Girl” in the 1950’s using his daughter Nancy as his model. His portrait of President Dwight D. Eisenhower is in the Smithsonian institution in Washington D.C.

Alask-Ann

Artist: Vaughan Bass

This is the first of two provocative, cheeky, and sexy large nude original pin-ups we are offering by the classic American illustrator Ren Wicks. Wicks, a pin-up artist who was frequently commissioned to create advertising art for aviation and wartime industries, has been called the master of “wings and women.” This large and lovely gouache on illustration board features the infamous sharpshooter Annie Oakley re-imagined as a voluptuous reclining beauty. This painting is perfect in theme and scale for a tavern, pool room, or den.

Annie Oakley

Artist: Ren Wicks

A genre defining original illustration painting for the October 1956 edition of Imagination Science Fiction for the interior story by Edmond Hamilton titled Citadel Of The Star Lords. By Lloyd Rognan (1923-2005) an Original oil on illustration board depicting ufo’s , rayguns, mayhem and all things lurid sci-fi, set amongst the ruins of a town center square anytown USA circa 1950’s. The artist recently passed away and many works were recently auctioned off directly from his estate. This to my eyes was one of the defining work by this highly regarded and frequently published illustrator.

Citadel Of The Star Lords

Artist: Lloyd Rognan

A genuinely magical illustration from the 1940 John C. Winston Co.’s publication of the Oscar Wilde classic The Happy Prince and Other Tales. This watercolor on board is a colorful and evocative rendering of the climactic scene from Wilde’s emotionally complex parable of Christian love. The illustration depicts the selfish giant gazing upon the boy who warmed his heart, as the boy bleeds from stigmata-like wounds. Everett Shinn was the youngest of a loosely associated group of New York-based social realist illustrators who were termed, by their critics, the Ashcan school, for their gritty style, often ugly depictions of humanity, and fixation on urban scenes. Shinn’s illustrators today are revered for the manner in which these themes are juxtaposed with gentle beauty.

The Selfish Giant

Artist: Everett Shinn

A Norman Rockwell-esque picturesque scene featuring a couple out for “a Sunday Drive” in the early 20th century. They are taking in the sights and showing off their 1908 Buick, in this 1940s produced Robert Berran idealized rendering of a bygone-era of rural Americana.

A Sunday Drive

Artist: Robert Berran

A very stylized and decidedly mid-century modern period original gouache illustration by Edwin Georgi for an interior story in Redbook Magazine titled on verso Encounter on the Beach. Estate stamped and signed upper right, work is beautifully matted and framed. A defining example.

Encounter on the Beach

Artist: Edwin Georgi

This is the second of two provocative, cheeky, and sexy large nude original pin-ups we are offering by the classic American illustrator Ren Wicks from his Famous And Infamous Ladies Of The Old West, commissioned by Harolds Club Casino, in Reno Nevada. Wicks, a popular pin-up artist who was frequently commissioned to create advertising art for aviation and wartime industries, has been called the master of “wings and women.” This large and lovely gouache on illustration board features the infamous Lola Montez, creator of the Tarantula Dance, and the phrase “whatever Lola wants Lola gets.”

Lola Montez

Artist: Ren Wicks

A decidedly art deco jazz age original cover illustration for Judge Magazine signed F. Hanley lower right. Titled Feeding The Flames for the February 7, cover a topical great depression humorous depiction. Gouache painting is displayed in a great period ornate carved gesso frame.

Feeding The Flames

Artist: Frank Hanley

An unusual pen & ink drawing by pre-eminent William Randolph Hearst illustrator Nell Brinkley. This intricately detailed 1932 illustration offers satirical social commentary on the deliterious effects the ongoing Great Depression was having on economic health around the world. In this lighter take on troubled times, three Brinkley Girls are depicted nursing the ailing globe back to health.

Political Great Depression Brinkley Girl Illustration

Artist: Nell Brinkley

I am pleased to offer a wonderfully executed original pastel by Rolf Armstrong that was used as a College Humor Magazine cover (February 1933) and also as a pair of Brown & Bigelow calendar prints titled Lets Go Places and a cropped “head only” version titled Florence published a few years later in 1937. A skillfully executed and elaborately detailed (and large for the artist) pastel of a sassy, beret-wearing blonde and her Scottish terrier. Classic good girl imagery by the father of American Pin-up.

Lets Go Places

Artist: Rolf Armstrong

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