Original Art from the Grand Age of American Illustration
This large, colorful, and bustling painting by the prolific American artist Louis Glanzman appeared in the April 26, 1952 issue of Collier's magazine, illustrating "Honkytonk - U.S.A." by William Slocum. In this scathing analysis, the honkytonk is described in great and scandalous detail as a lawless den of sin, whose unscrupulous owners prey on male weakness, hiring low-class strippers […]
Artist: Louis Glanzman
Price: SOLD
A finely executed dated 1927 pen & ink illustration on board by Cardwell Higgins with inventive art deco style. A Persian attired Orientalist showgirl is depicted in a burlesque vaudeville-era Ziegfeld Follies inspired theatrical production. The work recalls the erotic and stylized pen & ink works of British artist Aubrey Beardsley.
Artist: Cardwell Higgins
Price: $3,950.00
The Main Attraction is a large, colorful, and very well-executed 1930s art deco-era fine art oil painting by the Lithuanian-American artist Jack Levitz. A Jewish immigrant who settled in the Jamaica neighborhood of Queens, Levitz's social realist/Ashcan School style recalls George Luks and Everett Shinn. This oil on canvas shows a seedy New York City theater, with a writhing burlesque dancer bathed in […]
Artist: Jack Levitz
Price: Sold
A large and very rare hand painted composition figural advertising display of Josephine Baker in her legendary and scandalous banana skirt. The international sensation made its debut in the 1927 Follies Bergere show titled "Un Vent de Folie" and became Baker's signature costume. Likely French in manufacture, this is an antique and original burlesque era surviving advertising document, we have never seen another example and are certain few were manufactured and even fewer have survived.
Artist: Unidentified
Price: $2,750.00
In this work, the first of the series, and the image that was to greet visitors as they entered the room, a nude showgirl dancer does a sad burlesque, her shadow duplicated in silhouette in a Coney Island funhouse style. Both evoking and critiquing the sordid and semi-underground world of Depression-era girlie shows, the artwork lures the viewer into the underbelly of the city that is explored in the nine images that follow.
Artist: Mahlon Blaine
Price: $4,000.00
A dizzying, kinetic, brilliant large-scale fine art oil painting by the American artist and illustrator Theodore Haupt, signed in the lower right corner and dated 1929. This important surviving painting was created in Haupt's signature modernist style combining elements of Cubism and Surrealism. Lyrical figures of swirling burlesque dancers depicted in lush harmony are juxtaposed with heavy […]
Artist: Theodore Haupt
Price: Sold
An expressive Art Deco era large format oil painting by the noted American artist and illustrator Elbert McGran (E.M.) Jackson. The scene shows a bustling backstage dressing room, perhaps on opening night. In the foreground, a confident, lavishly costumed Follies Girl clutches her script as she prepares to make her debut, with reassurances from […]
Artist: E.M. Jackson
Price: Sold
A large and colorful erotic and very well executed 1930s art deco-era fine art oil painting by the Lithuanian-American artist Jack Levitz. A Jewish immigrant who settled in the Jamaica neighborhood of Queens, Levitz's social realist/Ashcan school style recalls George Luks and Everett Shinn. This oil on canvas shows a seedy New York City burlesque hall, with a […]
Artist: Jack Levitz
Price: Sold
This Pierrot-inspired flapper girl pastel was created by Henry Clive as cover art for a Hollywood Comedy Club burlesque program. With a mischevious glint in her eye, the smiling blond embodies the devil-may-care ethos of the early jazz age. After moving to California to work in silent films, Clive was very much a part of the Hollywood social scene. This original pastel is an early example of his fraternal pursuits, and includes a faint dedication to a fellow member of the Hollywood Comedy Club for which this was created.
Artist: Henry Clive
Price: S O L D
An early offering by legendary American pin-up artist and cover illustrator Peter Driben likely created in the late 1920s when the artist was a resident of Paris France and contributed popular illustrations in various French showgirl magazines chronicling the exciting Parisian nightlife and its lovely erotic burlesque Follies Dancers. Nicely matted and framed behind glass; from the famed collection of Charles Martignette.
Artist: Peter Driben
Price: Sold
