Original Art from the Grand Age of American Illustration
A rare surviving luminous pastel portrait of early talkie era legendary Hollywood film star Katherine Hepburn, created as the cover for the September 1933 issue of Screenland Magazine. An excellent example of cover portraiture by Charles Gates Sheldon who had a very prolific career creating stylized glamorous art deco Hollywood film star portraits for many of the leading jazz age movie magazine titles. Pastel is beautifully framed and silk matted behind glass.
Artist: Charles Sheldon
A rare original pastel of Jean Harlow commissioned and used as the cover for the March 1932 edition of “The New Movie Magazine” by prolific American illustrator Charles Gates Sheldon. Sheldon was a frequent cover artist for this title and for Photoplay Magazine capturing the allure of the silent and early talkie era female film stars in glamorous stylized pastel portraits taken from photographs he shot himself at his Carnegie Hall, New York City Studio. A coveted example of early tinseltown featuring perhaps the eras brightest and biggest star.
Artist: Charles Sheldon
A deftly rendered luminous pastel portrait of silent and early talkie legendary Hollywood film star Greta Garbo, created as the cover for the June 1934 issue of Screenland Magazine. One of the finest examples of cover portraiture we have ever come across by Charles Gates Sheldon who had a very prolific career creating stylized glamorous art deco Hollywood film star portraits for many of the leading jazz age movie magazine titles.
Artist: Charles Sheldon
An inventive and forward thinking “progress through industry” original gouache illustration painting by Theodore Haupt. This was commissioned by The New Yorker magazine and used as their May 2, 1931 cover. The imagery attempts to put a positive spin on the Great Depression using modernism, industry and the technological advances of the Machine Age as rallying points in this bustling New York City cityscape. Haupt illustrated forty four covers for The New Yorker between 1927 and 1933.
Artist: Theodore Haupt
An inventive and unique hand crafted Holiday Seasons Greeting Card from the F. Burtis Clayton Company who we believe were a commercial airbrush art studio. The cover features a streamlined airbrushed painting of a modernist silhouetted cityscape with planes, trains and automobiles ushering in the machine age. Nicely framed, this opens to reveal text and New Year’s wishes as would a more typical holiday card.
Artist: Unknown
A recently discovered radiant C.1934 pastel portrait by Rolf Armstrong of the beautiful and glamorous and tragically short lived Hollywood film legend Carole Lombard. This work was never published, it was likely proposed as a cover for Modern Screen magazine. A luminous and large pastel on illustration board, handsomely matted and framed behind glass, a fresh never before on the market rare and important offering.
Artist: Rolf Armstrong
A large and expressive avant-garde gouache illustration painting by noted German/American artist and illustrator Carl Link, the dancer pictured is identified on the verso as Dorsha Hayes. In the late 1920’s along with Alberto Varga, Carl Link created numerous covers for the Bernarr MacFadden publication “The Dance” capturing the art deco modernist dance movement in a lyrical and flowing inventive manner. Painting is beautifully framed and matted behind glass and is a defining example from the Charles Martignette collection.
Artist: Carl Link
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.
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.
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.
Artist: Edward Eggleston
