Original Art from the Grand Age of American Illustration
Grapefruit Moon Gallery is delighted to offer Gil Elvgren’s original 1953 oil painting “Aw-Come On,” which was commissioned and completed for The Brown & Bigelow Calendar Company. One of the artist’s more enduring and popular pin-up images, this artwork features frequent model Myrna Hansen posed as a matador of sorts attempting to use her feminine wiles to persuade her disinterested poodle pup to take a turn in the ring.
Artist: Gil Elvgren
This never before offered for sale, large original Gil Elvgren calendar pin-up painting was originally commissioned by the Brown & Bigelow calendar company in 1950 for their “Miss Sylvania” advertising line. The stylized cobalt blue and neon light idealized view of Midtown Manhattan with The Sylvania Building ablaze in the night underscore the importance of the lighting and electric company to the city that never sleeps.
Artist: Gil Elvgren
Rolf Armstrong created this pastel titled “Come On In” for the Brown and Bigelow Calendar Company in 1941. The model is Jewel Flowers, Armstrong’s favorite subject and close friend. Originally, this pastel included the full body of the model, sitting in a pool with a Scottish Terrier. At some point, this illustration (like several other examples by Armstrong that have recently surfaced), was cut down to appear as a portrait. This was possibly altered by the artist himself, as Armstrong would rework and alter his pieces in the cases he retained physical possession of the originals, in order to reuse them for a second commission.
Artist: Rolf Armstrong
This 1953 deliriously sexy nude pin-up oil painting by Gil Elvgren for the Brown & Bigelow Calendar Company dates to the artist’s best period. This image was used in a deck of playing cards under the title Cee Bee (To Hold) Fascinating Figures and is pictured as figure 251 in Gil Elvgren All His Glamorous American Pin-Ups by Charles G. Martignette and Louis K. Meisel. From the Estate of Charles Martignette.
Artist: Gil Elvgren
This sassy secretary pin up pastel was created by Earl Moran for the Brown & Bigelow Calendar Company in about 1940. The work appeared as a mutoscope card with the title “A Sweet Job”. Office girl pin-up depictions were common during the pre-WWII lean economic years of the Great Depression, and this is an inspired example of that genre. A published mutoscope card of the image is included in the sale.
Artist: Earl Moran
Legendary American pin-up illustrator Earl Moran was one of the first to discover a muse in the iconic Hollywood legend Marilyn Monroe. During the late 1940s Monroe famously worked as a pin-up model for the Blue Book agency, posing under her real name of Norma Jeane Dougherty. After Moran transitioned away from the hectic life of a calendar artist to focus on his fine art painting, he revisited Marilyn, who was by then a platinum blonde Hollywood bombshell, through an arrangement with The Aaron Brothers Galleries, Laguna Beach CA.
Artist: Earl Moran
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This early original pin-up pastel which Earl Moran created for the Brown & Bigelow Calendar Company of Saint Paul Mn is a variation of the 1942 mutoscope card “Easy To Take”. It is unclear whether Moran liked his naughty nurse themed offering so much that he created this similarly styled image soon after its publication, or if this was Moran’s original idea, and Brown & Bigelow asked for him to turn from the French Maid homecoming piece seen here into an example of the popular candy striper pin up which was published as a hotcha girl image.
Artist: Earl Moran
A large art deco modernist pastel illustration by Rolf Armstrong titled “Hello Everybody”. From the estate of Mike Wooldridge and never before offered for sale, this is easily one of Armstrong’s most iconic works for The Brown & Bigelow Calendar Company. For good reason, this is one of the artist’s most widely distributed images featuring a cute and sassy flapper girl in feminine jazz-age business attire. One of Armstrong’s most prolifically used creations, Wooldridge collected versions of the image used in playing cards, advertising blotters, notebook tablets, calendars and prints in all sizes and configurations. Many are included with sale.
Artist: Rolf Armstrong
A unique and inventive, large and luminous original pin-up pastel calendar illustration created for the Brown & Bigelow Calendar Company of Saint Paul Minnesota. This was used as a 1958 calendar titled “Moonglow”. The model is Jewel Flowers and this is rendered in an electric cobalt blue palette with the model catching the golden hues afforded by a moonlit night. The work is pictured in “The Great American Pin-up” on page 98 plate #95.
Artist: Rolf Armstrong
A Christmas themed dazzling original calendar illustration by Bill Layne for The Brown & Bigelow Calendar Company. This was for a pharmacy drugstore account and appeared on a Christmas Holiday Calendar in 1953. Layne worked for Walt Disney in the art department creating story board graphics and design embellishments which is apparent here in his twinkling Tinkerbell fairy goddess depiction.
Artist: Bill Layne
