Original Art from the Grand Age of American Illustration
This breezy sailor girl, bathing beauty pin-up graced the cover of the July 24, 1937 edition of Liberty magazine, a popular long running Bernarr MacFadden publication. By the artist R.C. Kauffmann–a personal favorite of the gallery–this is a tremendously spirited, large format oil painting with spectacular zest and allure. Kauffmann is best remembered for his Saturday Evening Post covers as […]
Artist: R.C. Kauffmann
A mixed media gouache and pastel portrait work by the gifted and fondly remembered Russian Jewish artist Alexander Davidovich Ziliouk – Sacha Zaliouk. The artist moved to Paris in 1912 and studied at the Paris Ecole des Beaux-Arts. He contributed jazz-age art deco illustrations for many of the notorious French Roaring twenties flapper girl magazines such as Fantasio, Sourire, Le Journal Amusant, La Vie Parisienne and the more scabrous Paris-plaisirs. He set up a studio in the cities Montparnasse area and was a well known and often exhibited avant-garde artist as seen by this haunting and evocotive unique portrait of a lovely young Parisian.
Artist: Sacha Zaliovk
From the estate of legendary Ziegfeld Follies photographer Alfred Cheney Johnston comes this beautiful portrait of Follies showgirl Barbara Dean. Noted illustrator J. Knowles Hare was commissioned by impresario Flo Ziegfeld to create pastel illustrations of his glorified American girls based upon the the sittings between Johnston and the showgirls.
Artist: J. Knowles Hare
From the estate of legendary Ziegfeld Follies photographer Alfred Cheney Johnston comes this portrait of Follies showgirl Naomi Johnston. Noted illustrator J. Knowles Hare was commissioned by impresario Flo Ziegfeld to create pastel illustrations of Ziegfeld’s glorified American girls as they were captured by photographer A.C. Johnston, for a variety of display and publicity uses. The finished pastel […]
Artist: J. Knowles Hare
An exceedingly rare surviving Henry Clive cover illustration from his 20+ years creating for The American Weekly. This painting was from a series done in 1934 titled, Darlings of the Poets. In this series, Clive illustrated the inspirations for leading poets and writers. This particular oil on canvas depicts “Lenore” as the lost and sorrowful inspiration behind The Raven as written by Edgar Allan Poe.
Artist: Henry Clive
An exceedingly scarce and early Art Nouveau period original pastel portrait by Rolf Armstrong dated 1913. A crisply rendered serene take on a sad eyed solemn brown eyed lass. This pastel dates just one year later than his first published works of 1912 for Puck and Judge magazines. His signature had not yet become the stylized scripted font of which we are accustomed to seeing. I have yet to uncover the published version of this work, it was most likely commissioned as a sheet music cover or perhaps a cover for American Sunday Magazine, one of several periodicals willing to take a chance on the young emerging talent.
Artist: Rolf Armstrong
A topical newspaper illustration (presumably for the Hearst Newspapers) confronting the dilemma of Eugenics. In the 1910’s-1920’s the United States was faced with the question of whether individuals should marry with a mind towards creating superior babies through genetic family planning. This cartoon finds this notion farfetched and we see love conquering science to the shock and delight of a couple now free to live as their hearts command. A very sophisticated topical take on a pre-eminent question of the early 20th century. This is a fantastically rendered en grisaille style pen and ink drawing with highlights. En grisaille was a popular style in the early 20th century for illustrations created for reprinting. In a stylish contemporary fine gilded wood frame.
Artist: Gustav Michelson
A June bride gets unexpected company in this whimsical painting by Henry Clive, created as cover art for for the June 15, 1930 issue of The American Weekly, a syndicated supplement in William Randolph Hearst newspapers across the country. Part of the cover series “The Fashionable Working Girl” which showcased Great Depression-era flappers and gently satirized the social lives of independent city girls, this […]
Artist: Henry Clive
A whimsical roaring twenties stylized Art Deco pen & ink illustration by John Held, Jr. of unknown publication usage. A stylish flapper girl in a cloche hat enlists this year’s dandy as her personal social secretary. Handsomely matted and framed under glass.
Artist: John Held, Jr.
This rare original oil on canvas spicy pulp painting by Earle K. Bergey is an exciting recent estate find. Used as the cover of the October, 1935 issue of Pep Stories, this topless majorette pin-up girl exudes perhaps just a little too much “pep” as she winds up tumbling back-side-first into a large marching drum. This captures the exuberance […]
Artist: Earle K. Bergey
