Grapefruit Moon Gallery

Original Art from the Grand Age of American Illustration

good girl art

A smartly rendered late 1960s to 1970s gouache illustration painting by Mayo Olmstead presumably created for a Brown & Bigelow pin-up calendar. Olmstead, along with Fritz Willis, Clair Fry, and Bill Layne, was the Saint Paul, Minnesota calendar company’s star staff illustrator during the tail end of the pin-up craze, when a more modern and contemporary idealized beauty was preferred. A classic example of what is now referred to as “Good Girl Art” or GGA by pin-up collectors and pop culture scholars.

Mod Glamour Girl with Rose

Artist: Mayo Olmstead
Price:  S O L D

Titled at turns “Flower Girl” and “Message of Love,” this original oil on canvas by Edward D’Ancona was created for the John Frederick Calendar Company. Featuring an elegant and wholesome depiction of the good girl glamour art ideal, this marks a winsome departure by the prolific and infamous creator of the panties dropping, embarrassment style of cheesecake that signaled the wane of the era of “The Great American Pin-up.”

Message of Love

Artist: Edward D'Ancona
Price:  S O L D

A charming pastel by Jules Erbit, the versatile prolific American illustrator who worked for all of the major calendar companies during his long career. Exclusively a pastel artist, Erbit created a few nudes for the Thomas D. Murphy Calendar Company but his signature genre featured the Erbit girl, a generally wholesome, gregarious and approachable beauty. This artwork is a wonderful example of his Good Girl Art style. A published tear sheet of calendar is included in sale.

Puppy Love

Artist: Jules Erbit
Price:  S O L D

A dazzling, acrobatic pin-up girl by Al Buell created on commission for the Osborne Calendar Company. This dramatic view is set against a big top trapeze backdrop and pops against the stark black backdrop. Original pin-up works by Al Buell are quite rare, and this fine original artwork exemplifies his unique and masterful style. This bright fresh oil on board comes very nicely framed and matted, condition is pristine.

A Balanced Beam

Artist: Al Buell
Price:  S O L D

An alarmingly beautiful and decorative work by the undisputed king of illustration art Alberto Vargas / Varga. This is a large early (pre Esquire Magazine) pastel by this Peruvian born master. This art deco era original glamour pin-up pastel was used as calendar art in 1935 by The Joseph Hoover & Sons Calendar Company under the title Summertime. In pristine untouched original condition. An original salesman sample copy of the original published calendar print is included with sale.

Summertime

Artist: Alberto Vargas
Price:  S O L D

A large original commissioned pin-up genre pastel on illustration board by Knute O. Munson for a 1952 Brown & Bigelow Calendar titled Our Knowledge and Experience At Your Command. This was given to a store owner in Tulsa Oklahoma decades earlier by the regional Brown & Biglelow salesman there as a reward for advertising with his company. It is cleverly signed lower left on the spine of one of the books.

Our Knowledge & Experience At Your Command

Artist: K. O. Munson
Price:  S O L D

I am pleased to offer a wonderfully executed original pastel by Rolf Armstrong that was used as a College Humor Magazine cover (February 1933) and also as a pair of Brown & Bigelow calendar prints titled Lets Go Places and a cropped “head only” version titled Florence published a few years later in 1937. A skillfully executed and elaborately detailed (and large for the artist) pastel of a sassy, beret-wearing blonde and her Scottish terrier. Classic good girl imagery by the father of American Pin-up.

Lets Go Places

Artist: Rolf Armstrong
Price:  S O L D

A wonderful commisioned Brown and Bigelow “Calendar Girl” original pastel by Earl Moran, for an August 1956 Calendar, titled NOW’S THE TIME FOR DREAMS OF YOU, A PLEASURE FINE AND WONDROUS TOO… Classic American pin-up imagery, a seated, Marilyn Monroe-esque, redhead reclining in a diaphonous, green silk nightgown. Sale includes a color, printed calendar page and a mutoscope card of image as seen. In period gesso wood frame, nicely and professionally double matted and ready to hang.

August 1956 Pin Up Calendar Girl

Artist: Earl Moran
Price:  S O L D

Wonderfully executed original oil painting from Henry Clive’s long stint as head illustrator for The American Weekly. Painting is beautifully framed under an archival quality double matt in a stunning antiqued, faux finished $700 frame. The piece is in perfect condition, and comes with the original published newsprint cover.

“The First Rose of Summer”

Artist: Henry Clive
Price:  S O L D

 

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