Original Art from the Grand Age of American Illustration
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
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
A large, sultry original published pin-up calendar painting by the prolific and important American artist Fritz Willis. Willis was the last true star pin-up artist of the old guard, when illustrative pin-up reigned supreme in Men’s magazines and advertising calendars. The artist worked during the very tail end of the genre’s popularity. Showcasing a near-nude sex […]
Artist: Fritz Willis
This unhinged and provocatively erotic original illustration by the artist & illustrator Mahlon Blaine dates to the 1940s. It has two functioning doors that when opened reveal the magicians assistant engaged in coitus with a horned satyr. The gouache painting is housed inside an innocuous faux wood, paper, hardcover display folio. Garishly colored and […]
Artist: Mahlon Blaine
Created for the October, 1935 issue of the spicy pulp title La Paree, this is a rare surviving original cover painting by Earle K. Bergey. In this whimsical jazz-age art deco scene, a blonde flapper girl is attempting to choose who will get to play the part of her dream man. Vying for the title are a […]
Artist: Earle K. Bergey
This feverish and provocative original illustration by Mahlon Blaine appears to date to the late 1930s, when the artist was mining the myth of Aphrodite for Nova Venus, a series of artworks illustrating a poem written by Blaine that interrogates the relationship between love, lust, and modernism. Characteristically dark, and replete with complicated and even bizarre symbolism, this gouache and ink painting explores fertility, […]
Artist: Mahlon Blaine
A deliriously sexy and erotically unhinged Alberto Vargas mixed media pin-up illustration for Playboy Magazine, this appeared on page 104 in the June, 1962 issue. A curvy and pretty new bride is seen in a moment of sudden clarity about to pack up for the divorce capital of the US in this spirited and brash […]
Artist: Alberto Vargas
Wouldn’t You Like To Know… is a large sultry original published pin-up calendar painting by the prolific and important American artist Fritz Willis. Willis was the last true star pin-up artist of the old guard, when illustrative pin-up reigned supreme in men’s magazines and calendars. The artist worked during the very tail end of the […]
Artist: Fritz Willis
A 1940s pin-up oil painting on masonite panel showing an erotically rendered on the wrong end of a situation bathing beauty. A blonde, young heart-breaker is seen blowing up an inner tube while her own pneumatic charms prove too much for her bikini top; focused on her task she seems unfazed by the classic cheesecake “oops” moment. […]
Artist: Irving Winer
In May of 1919, on the advice of Sam Kingston, general manager for Florence Ziegfeld, Alberto Vargas applied to be the in-house artist for the Ziegfeld Follies. The rest, as they say, was history. At only 24 Vargas had already established himself as a freelance illustrator of beautiful women, with a sophisticated style inspired by Raphael […]
Artist: Alberto Vargas
