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Grapefruit Moon Gallery

Original Art from the Grand Age of American Illustration

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Brown & Bigelow

      This is a fabulous example of Gil Elvgren’s pin-up work for the Brown & Bigelow Calendar Company of Saint Paul, MN. This was created and published in 1955 with the title of Welcome Traveler and is one of the finest Elvgren paintings this gallery has offered. A pretty redhead perched on a tweed […]

Welcome Traveler

Artist: Gil Elvgren

Filed Under: Pin-Up & Glamour Art, Sorry, It's Sold
Tagged With: 1950s, american, Brown & Bigelow, Gil Elvgren, original calendar art, pin up, redhead, risque, The Golden Gallery
Added to Gallery: October 23, 2023

Detail

  This is a beautiful, unique, and rare preliminary graphite drawing by Gil Elvgren for a Brown & Bigelow artwork, though it appears the final composition shifted somewhat, as this bears resemblance to a few different published pieces. Gil Elvgren took, on average, one week to complete each of the 400+ pin-up paintings he created […]

Brown & Bigelow Preliminary Sketch

Artist: Gil Elvgren

Filed Under: Pin-Up & Glamour Art
Tagged With: 1950s, Brown & Bigelow, Gil Elvgren, pin up
Added to Gallery: August 23, 2023

World War II Home Front Honey by Rolf Armstrong Widely considered  “The Father of American Pin-Up”, Rolf Armstrong‘s luminous portraits of famous actresses and idealized girls-next-door made him one of the highest paid commercial artists in America; his pictures are noted for their grace, vibrancy, and indescribable lifelike quality. During the 1940s, Armstrong created a […]

I’ll Be Waiting

Artist: Rolf Armstrong

Filed Under: Pin-Up & Glamour Art, Sorry, It's Sold
Tagged With: 1940s, Brown & Bigelow, Calendar Art, Pastel Illustration, Rolf Armstrong, The Golden Gallery, World War II Pin-Up
Added to Gallery: September 1, 2021

Rolf Armstrong’s Final Brown & Bigelow Calendar Art This is an absolutely adorable pastel thumbnail sketch by the Father of American Pin-Up, Rolf Armstrong. Featuring the artist’s muse and lifelong friend Jewel Flowers, this pastel preliminary sketch would become the published calendar art titled “All Smiles”, which was Armstrong’s last commissioned work for Brown & […]

All Smiles Thumbnail Sketch

Artist: Rolf Armstrong

Filed Under: Pin-Up & Glamour Art, Sorry, It's Sold
Tagged With: 1950s, Brown & Bigelow, Jewel Flowers, Pastel Illustration, Rolf Armstrong
Added to Gallery: August 20, 2021

This is a  C.1940 pastel illustration created by Hungarian artist and illustrator Jules Erbit for the Brown & Bigelow Calendar Company. Titled, “Betty”, this is a glamorous pin-up offering of a pretty blue-eyed girl with flushed, rosy cheeks and inviting red lips. Erbit was a prolific illustrator who worked for seemingly all of the major […]

Betty

Artist: Jules Erbit

Filed Under: Pin-Up & Glamour Art, Sorry, It's Sold
Tagged With: 1940s, Brown & Bigelow, Jules Erbit, Norman Platnick, pastel
Added to Gallery: August 5, 2020

Newly uncovered original Gil Elvgren painting, overpainted by Vaughan Bass. A 1944 oil on canvas for Louis F. Dow.

What a Break – Overpaint

Artist: Gil Elvgren

Filed Under: Pin-Up & Glamour Art, Sorry, It's Sold
Tagged With: 1940s, american, art deco, Brown & Bigelow, Calendar, Gil Elvgren, Golden Age, Louis F. Dow, original calendar art, original illustration art, pin up
Added to Gallery: July 15, 2020

Brown & Bigelow Beauty by Frank H. Desch This fabulous Edwardian maiden pastel illustration by the American illustrator Frank Desch was published by the Brown & Bigelow Calendar Company of Saint Paul Minnesota under the title “Marie”. The image showcases a delightfully costumed maiden with a beauty mark on her left cheek, seductively looking over […]

Edwardian Masquerade Beauty – Marie

Artist: Frank H. Desch

Filed Under: Illustration & Advertising Art, Sorry, It's Sold
Tagged With: 1910s, Brown & Bigelow, Calendar, Edwardian, Frank H. Desch, Norman Platnick, pastel, pin up
Added to Gallery: June 17, 2020

Original pin up painting by Gil Elvgren for sale at Grapefruit Moon Gallery. “He was neither a gentleman or a sculler,” Oil on canvas, Brown & Bigelow, 1948

He Was Neither A Gentleman Nor A Sculler

Artist: Gil Elvgren

Filed Under: Pin-Up & Glamour Art, Sorry, It's Sold
Tagged With: 1940s, aquatic, Brown & Bigelow, Calendar, Gil Elvgren, oil painting, pin up, The Golden Gallery
Added to Gallery: May 22, 2020

Earl Moran created this iconic published pin-up pastel for Brown and Bigelow’s 1946 calendar line.  It was published with the title “The Doctor Said I Needed Glasses”. The image shows a pretty blonde, enjoying a libation in a cordial glass, her inviting smile and legs on full display. This fresh-to-the-market original pastel is in a […]

The Doctor Said I Needed Glasses

Artist: Earl Moran

Filed Under: Pin-Up & Glamour Art, Sorry, It's Sold
Tagged With: 1940s, blonde, Brown & Bigelow, Calendar, Earl Moran, Golden Age, illustration, original calendar art, original illustration art, pin up
Added to Gallery: October 28, 2019

Earl Moran created this coquettish and sassy pin-up pastel for Brown and Bigelow’s 1941 calendar line.  It was published with the title Fishermans’s Luck. The image shows an outdoorsy redhead beauty fly fishing wading into the water, legs on full display. This fresh-to-the-market original pastel is in a pristine state of conservation and retains the […]

Fisherman’s Luck

Artist: Earl Moran

Filed Under: Pin-Up & Glamour Art, Sorry, It's Sold
Tagged With: 1940s, american, art deco, bathing beauty, Brown & Bigelow, Calendar, Earl Moran, fishing, glamour, Golden Age, original calendar art, original illustration art, pastel, pin up, The Golden Gallery
Added to Gallery: June 4, 2019

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