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Grapefruit Moon Gallery

Original Art from the Grand Age of American Illustration

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erotic


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.

Easy to Take

Artist: Earl Moran

Filed Under: Pin-Up & Glamour Art, Sorry, It's Sold
Tagged With: 1930s, 1940s, Brown & Bigelow, Earl Moran, erotic, french maid, original calendar art, pin up, risque
Added to Gallery: February 18, 2012

In her most erotically charged, fur clad pose, Marie Prevost is the epitome of the jazz age flapper in this rare early 1920s view. One of Edwin Bower Hesser’s classic portraits, this showgirl inspired Hollywood glamour portrait captures a soft-focus and decadent view of the scandal-ridden star, who is now as much remembered for her tragic death as her glorious career. This large-format, double weight, matte finish photograph is an unusual and important look at the cult icon in her prime.

Marie Prevost in Erotic Flapper View

Artist: Edwin Bower Hesser

Filed Under: Pin-Up & Glamour Art, Sorry, It's Sold
Tagged With: 1920s, american, Edwin Bower Hesser, erotic, flapper, gelatin silver photograph, glamour, hollywood, jazz age, Marie Prevost, portrait, risque, showgirl
Added to Gallery: October 30, 2011

A dazzling Heinrich Kley mixed media work featuring a host of primordial animals engaged in an orgiastic dance of evolution. A splendid cast of characters is assembled by this fondly remembered avant-garde, Jugendstil, German Expressionist artist. This is a rare full color example of the artist’s work, most surviving pieces by Kley are pen & ink drawings. This evocative artwork is rich in humor, technique and imagery. Work is in a wonderful state of preservation and nicely matted and framed in a period gesso frame.

Primordial Soup

Artist: Heinrich Kley

Filed Under: Illustration & Advertising Art, Sorry, It's Sold
Tagged With: 1910s, 1920s, art nouveau, erotic, fantasy, german, german expressionism, Heinrich Kley, Jugendstil, The Golden Gallery, vienna secessionist
Added to Gallery: September 27, 2011

A moving and evocotive, free flowing oil rendering of a Spanish-themed nude senorita by Edmund Ward. Making his first illustrations for the Saturday Evening Post before he was age 20, Ward had a successful career as an illustrator of works that ranged in style and subject matter from dark tonalist in oils to humorous in wash and watercolor. For many years he illustrated the Alexander Botts and Assistant District Attorney Doowinkle stories for the Post.

A Spanish Nude

Artist: Edmund Ward

Filed Under: Fine & Decorative Art, Sorry, It's Sold
Tagged With: 1940s, american, Edmund Ward, erotic, nude, spanish
Added to Gallery: September 2, 2011

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.

Capturing The Moment

Artist: Peter Driben

Filed Under: Illustration & Advertising Art, Sorry, It's Sold
Tagged With: 1920s, american, art deco, burlesque, Charles Martignette, erotic, flapper, follies, french, original illustration art, paris, Peter Driben, pin up, risque, showgirl
Added to Gallery: May 6, 2011

Art Frahm pushes the boundaries of cheesecake pin-up in this scandalous and daring oil on canvas. Titled “Oooh, Is There a Man in the House?” this late 1940s Goes Litho calendar commissioned pin-up painting features a brunette in shockingly sheer negligee peeking around the corner in a brazen mix of apprehension and curiosity. This winsome brunette exhudes a level of erotic sophistication not always seen in the post-World War II pin up world.

Oooh, Is There a Man In the House?

Artist: Art Frahm

Filed Under: Pin-Up & Glamour Art, Sorry, It's Sold
Tagged With: 1940s, american, Art Frahm, erotic, Goes Litho. Company, Great American Pin-up, nude, original calendar art, pin up
Added to Gallery: January 10, 2011

A bizarre and other-wordly rare surviving pulp cover painting by Harold W. McCauley for the October 1949 edition of “Amazing Stories”. A lurid and menacing, yet strangely beautiful illustration for the story “Tiger Women of Shadow Valley” by Berkeley Livingston. Story caption reads “There Was Death In Her Embrace”. This inspired work perfectly captures the luminous commercial technique and painterly elements of a successful Haddon Sundblom “Sundblom Shop” graduate and disciple in collision with pin-up girl, erotic science fiction pulp culture.

Tiger Woman of Shadow Valley

Artist: Harold McCauley

Filed Under: Pin-Up & Glamour Art, Sorry, It's Sold
Tagged With: 1940s, Amazing Stories, american, Charles Martignette, erotic, Harold McCauley, lurid, menace, pin up, pulp, science fiction, The Golden Gallery
Added to Gallery: November 12, 2010

A hauntingly beautiful, erotically charged, reclining nude pastel by Rolf Armstrong from his very best period. This nude was never published and dates from right around 1930; a seductive light and shadow meditation that finds Armstrong contemplating the “temptation of allure” and “the allure of temptation” in this jazz-age, art deco erotic rendering of a veiled showgirl finding the light.

The Veiled Nude

Artist: Rolf Armstrong

Filed Under: Pin-Up & Glamour Art, Sorry, It's Sold
Tagged With: 1920s, 1930s, american, art deco, boudoir, erotic, jazz age, nude, orientalist, Rolf Armstrong
Added to Gallery: October 20, 2010

A striking in technique light and shadow in composition rare surviving original pastel on illustration board by Earl MacPherson created in the 1940s for a Patriotic pin-up brochure with text on how to survive an enemy military air raid and subsequent blackout. We will be selling all of the pastels from this important commissioned homeland wartime “Blackout Brochure”. This was a cheeky, lighthearted morale boosting effort making great use of double entendre and the talents of MacPherson to fight fear during World War II.

Incendiary Bombs

Artist: Earl MacPherson

Filed Under: Pin-Up & Glamour Art, Sorry, It's Sold
Tagged With: 1940s, Earl MacPherson, erotic, military, nude, patriotic, pin up, WWII
Added to Gallery: October 19, 2010

An electric in composition rare surviving original pastel on illustration board by Earl MacPherson created in the 1940s for a Patriotic pin-up brochure with text on how to survive an enemy military air raid and subsequent blackout. We will be selling all of the pastels from this important commissioned homeland wartime “Blackout Brochure”. This was a cheeky, lighthearted morale boosting effort making great use of double entendre and the talents of MacPherson to fight fear during World War II.

Comfort Beside You

Artist: Earl MacPherson

Filed Under: Pin-Up & Glamour Art, Sorry, It's Sold
Tagged With: 1940s, american, Earl MacPherson, erotic, nude, pin up, stuffed animal, WWII
Added to Gallery: October 19, 2010

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