Original Art from the Grand Age of American Illustration
A large and early Zoe Mozert pastel, used as commissioned calendar art in the early 1930s. This illustration is remembered as one of Mozert’s most enduring and well realized images. Featuring a fabulous flapper girl with idealized Jean Harlow like features in a stylish art deco turban, this is a colorful commissioned artwork recently unearthed from a Florida estate.
Artist: Zoe Mozert
A dazzling and scarce surviving commercial pin-up illustration by Pearl Frush Brudon, a successful female illustrator who worked in gouache and watercolors with a unique and spectacular photo realism to her works. A lovely red headed seductress of the 1940s appears in soft focus in this luminous work, signed lower right with the artist’s married name.
Artist: Pearl Frush
This exceptionally large oil on canvas mural by Henry Clive was created for the long gone legendary Hollywood Boulevard haunt “The Jade Lounge.” Titled “The Buddha-Pest,” the image acted as a logo for the bar, with matchbooks and post cards created with its likeness to attract tourists. The Jade Lounge became a destination and this monumental painting remained a focal point of the restaurant for decades. Henry Clive executed several murals for Hollywood nightclubs, and for The Masquers Club, Hollywood’s oldest theatrical club.
Artist: Henry Clive
A well rendered, colorful and new to the market Al Buell oil painting on board likely for an Interior story in Redbook Magazine. Al Buell did frequent images for leading Calendar Companies creating glamorous pin-up depictions, he also glorified the American Girl in period magazines. Work is framed and signed lower left.
Artist: Al Buell
A captivating and well rendered glamour girl commercial illustration by Haddon Sundblom for Schlitz Beer. Image shows a pretty, spirited gardener quenching her thirst with a cold beer. A classic Americana image, acquired from the estate of illustrator Albert Berwinkle, who worked with Sundblom on advertising campaigns in Illinois. Berwinkle traded some of his own artwork with his friend “Sunny” and this piece was given to Berwinkle by Sundblom. Artwork is unsigned but guaranteed to be the work of Haddon Sundblom.
Artist: Haddon Sundblom (attributed)
A noir styled and cleverly depicted Edwin Georgi Saturday Evening Post interior illustration for the serial story The Disappearance of Daphne by Nancy Rutledge. The work is nicely framed in a period wide profile frame and retains the Curtis Publishing verso label with print date and title.
Artist: Edwin Georgi
A sassy and colorful glamour girl pastel rendering by Earl Moran, created for the Brown & Bigelow Calendar Company in the early 1950s. Caption reads “Whenever I dance with you alone, before I know it The evening’s flown.” Work is beautifully matted and framed and in a fine state of preservation, a 1954 Brown & Bigelow Calendar of image is included in sale.
Artist: Earl Moran
A wonderfully conceived and deftly executed art deco original risque artwork from Rolf Armstrong’s short tenure in Hollywood. This large pastel dates to 1932 and is a rare nude by the Father of American pin up. This transcendent work was unearthed in the late 1990s in the estate of a one of Armstrong’s former models. This important piece was exhibited at a solo show of the artist’s work in 1999 at the Bruce R. Lewin Gallery in New York City. A program from the exhibition featuring “The Blue Nude” is included with sale.
Artist: Rolf Armstrong
A large and early bathing beauty themed pin-up illustration in pastel by K.O. Munson, the gifted and prolific illustrator who worked many years for The Brown & Bigelow Calendar Company. This is an early work note the stylized signature and 1940’s glamour girl pose. Work is in fine condition and properly lined behind glass in an attractive period wide profile gold gesso frame.
Artist: K. O. Munson
Perhaps the finest nude pin-up ever created, this Earl Steffa Moran pastel is a fresh midwest estate find. This luminous masterwork dates from Moran’s “Light & Shadow” period. Marketed under the title “Tomorrow’s Star,” the model was reported to be Jean Harlow. Six early nudes by Moran were packaged as a large format high end print folio which Brown & Bigelow gave as a premium gift to its most lucrative business accounts under the title “Running into Six Figures.” Many collectors site the folio as the high water mark of pin-up art.
Artist: Earl Moran
