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Grapefruit Moon Gallery

Original Art from the Grand Age of American Illustration

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Disney

Heinrich Kley is best remembered today for satirical, despairing, and often obscene images which demonstrate a maniacal distrust of the industrial revolution and its automatized society. But not only did he express the disillusionment of modernity through drawings, his imaginative works played a large role in the career of Walt Disney, arguably America’s greatest animator. […]

Walt Disney’s Heinrich Kley

Filed Under: Gallery Blog
Tagged With: Disney, Heinrich Kley
Added to Gallery: June 16, 2013

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.

Tinkerbell Rx

Artist: Bill Layne

Filed Under: Illustration & Advertising Art, Sorry, It's Sold
Tagged With: 1950s, american, Bill Layne, Brown & Bigelow, christmas, Disney, Elf, holiday, original calendar art, pin up
Added to Gallery: October 3, 2011

A unique offering from the estate of Charles Martignette, the original Banshee’s club “Silver Lady” award presented to comic artist George McManus by Walt Disney himself on January 16th, 1952 at a Beverly Hills luncheon. This award statue was designed by another legendary illustrator, Willy Pogany and features a near nude pin-up girl with a quill pen and an elf and is silver-plated over cast bronze. This was purchased by us at the Charles Martignette estate auction in Delray Beach after the author’s untimely and sudden death in 2008.

Banshee’s Award, George McManus

Artist: Willy Pogany

Filed Under: Illustration & Advertising Art, Sorry, It's Sold
Tagged With: 1950s, american, Banshee's Club, Charles Martignette, Disney, George McManus, plastic arts, Willy Pogany
Added to Gallery: March 14, 2011

A wonderful nude mermaid themed Bill Layne Brown & Bigelow Calendar Company commissioned illustration, the second of two are offering at Grapefruit Moon Gallery. A 1950s-60s gouache on board created for one of this calendar company’s jewelry advertising accounts. This depicts a topless pin-up girl mermaid on a balance scale with a tray of freshly mined pearls surrounded underwater by a host of male atomic-age sea dwellers. The type of scene only Bill Layne could envision and execute. The whimsical charm predicts Layne’s later career in the animation department for Walt Disney feature films. We expect Bill Layne to become a wildly collected and important artist in years to come.

A Mermaid Weighs In

Artist: Bill Layne

Filed Under: Illustration & Advertising Art, Sorry, It's Sold
Tagged With: 1950s, aquatic, Bill Layne, Brown & Bigelow, Disney, Elf, mermaid, nude, original calendar art, pin up
Added to Gallery: July 18, 2009

The finest example of a Bill Layne Brown & Bigelow Calendar Company commissioned illustration we have had to offer. A 1950s-era gouache on board titled “Pearl Gardens, for Cultivated Pearls”. Created for one of this calendar company’s jewelry advertising accounts, the image depicts a pair of topless pin-up girl mermaids in an underwater oyster mine with a host of male atomic-age sea dwellers. The type of scene only Bill Layne could envision and execute.

Pearl Gardens

Artist: Bill Layne

Filed Under: Illustration & Advertising Art, Sorry, It's Sold
Tagged With: 1950s, american, aquatic, Bill Layne, Brown & Bigelow, Disney, Elf, Little Mermaid, mermaid, pin up
Added to Gallery: July 11, 2009

 

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