Original Art from the Grand Age of American Illustration
Ruth Harriet Louise, the groundbreaking female photographer who created some of the best known 1920s jazz age Hollywood portraits for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, here captures Mae Murray at her most provocative and playful. Her “bee-stung lips” are on full display in his orientalist inspired and erotic sepia view. Large double-weight photographs such as this were never intended for widespread distributions, and were hand printed by the photographers themselves.
Artist: Ruth Harriet Louise
From the personal collection of Joan Crawford, this large format double weight still features the timeless beauty and Hollywood legend at the height of her fame, in a dramatic portrait from Grand Hotel. By George Hurrell, who revolutionized glamour photography with his dramatic art deco portraits of film and theater personalities, this 1932 film still was hand printed by Hurrell for Crawford herself. She later presented the photograph as a gift to her chauffeur. A very rare jazz age view with important and historically intriguing provenance.
Artist: George Hurrell
A rare and exceedingly beautiful gelatin silver, double weight gallery photograph of film icon Judy Garland, by her favored MGM studio photographer Eric Carpenter. This image utilizes an art deco settee to capture a timeless and glamorous view of the young Garland. This double-weight photograph comes from the personal collection of Garland, and is stamped on verso by her estate as seen. This was hand printed by the photographer for the star, and photographs such as this were never intended for widespread distribution. This is a particularly captivating piece of fine art glamour photography, and captures a marquis film star by a top artist. We are pleased to be able to offer this wonderful photograph and many other large format vintage gallery portraits from the Golden age of Hollywood for sale exclusively through Grapefruit Moon Gallery.
Artist: Eric Carpenter
Lavishly jazz age yet decadently romantic, this nude 1928 photograph of Ziegfeld Follies beauty Alice Lorraine is a spectacular showcase of the talents of Alfred Cheney Johnston. This photograph was mounted on beveled presentation board and hand signed by the iconic photographer, idolized for his masterful soft focus alluring and provocative images of showgirls, flappers, and film stars alike.
Artist: Alfred Cheney Johnston
A deeply romantic jazz age view of Gilda Gray, “the Shimmy girl” from her starring turn in “The Devil’s Dancer.” This is a treasure of the orientalist movement in photography in the 1920s, featuring the theater and film star in highly exotic lush costuming and soft focus, hyper close up style. The rich sepia of the photography and the soft focus were among the signatures of photographer Irving Chidnoff, who specialized in these idealized yet realistic photographic portraits of theater and films stars in New York.
Artist: Irving Chidnoff
A rare and exceedingly beautiful gelatin silver, double weight gallery photograph of film star Myrna Loy by Laszlo Willinger. This image utilizes a mirrored table to capture the beautiful Loy in a double image. The mirror image was one of the most innovative trends in art deco photography, as it relied on the precision lighting and bold crisp costuming that typified the period. Large double-weight photographs such as this were never intended for widespread distributions, and were hand printed by the photographers themselves.
Artist: Laszlo Willinger
A hard-boiled and erotically posed masterful gallery portrait photograph of Winifred Shaw, from her role in the Rodger’s and Hart play “Simple Simon.” Shaw, a unique beauty with vixenish jazz age features, was soon to become a Hollywood musical performer in the wild Depression era productions of the 1930s. In this photograph by Roberts, with its naturalistic styling, and provocative smoking view, Winifred Shaw is shown in all her unique beauty and iconic eroticism. A rare example of the raw sexuality of jazz age theater photography.
Artist: Roberts of Boston
A rare surviving Edward Sheriff Curtis nude titled “Aphrodite”, (Spirit of the Sea)” circa 1920s, a blue-toned gelatin silver photograph. Signed with the Curtis LA copyright insignia in the negative on the image, accompanied by the original frame backing stamped Aphrodite, Curtis Studio, Los Angeles. One of 3 blue nudes Curtis did towards the end of his life and a coveted rare old original photograph. In a fine state of conservation with silvering in the emulsion along the photographs edges.
Artist: Edward Curtis
