glamour

A rare surviving c. 1910 large pastel illustration by the well listed and prolific illustrator Frederick Duncan. The sporty yet flirty glamour girl co-ed with a school book and a tennis racket personifies the socially progressive, daring and active woman who was coming into fashion as the voluptuous ideal of the Victorian woman of means waned. Works like this by Duncan, a cover artist for The Saturday Evening Post, popularized this independent, carefree vision of womanhood.

Breezy Co-Ed with Tennis Racket

Artist: Frederick Duncan

This luminous, expressive oil on masonite was created as an interior story illustration by beloved american artist Tom Lovell, which has verso notations which lead us to believe this was published in the May, 1947 edition of American Magazine, a title the artist frequently worked for. A young snappily attired couple are shown surrendering to the […]

Gondola In Venice

Artist: Tom Lovell

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.

A Brown Eyed Girl

Artist: Rolf Armstrong

An iconic and rare surviving pin-up painting by Ben-Hur Baz which was published as a calendar with the title Maid In Muskegon. The image shows a strawberry blonde hot number seductively posed in a strapless bikini ala Marilyn Monroe. This artist did several pin-ups very closely based on the notorious Hollywood blonde bombshell, but it is unlikely that […]

Maid In Muskegon

Artist: Ben-Hur Baz

A sassy and sexy bathing beauty pin-up painting by William Medcalf, a first tier pin-up artist and long-time illustrator for the Brown & Bigelow Calendar Company of Saint Paul, Minnesota. This preliminary work exhibits all of the illustrator’s abundant artistry and personality, and fully captures the allure of his finalized published calendar paintings.The painting is signed lower right […]

A Study In Red

Artist: William Medcalf

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 […]

The Bride

Artist: Henry Clive

Nell Brinkley was known for her ability to personify the 1920s move towards modernity and to interpret Victorian tradition through the eyes of her flapper heroine, The Brinkley Girl. In this inspired and tremendously fun pen and ink illustration, a Brinkley bride-to-be reminisces about her carefree maiden days of wanderlust and freedom. Signed and dated in […]

The Bride

Artist: Nell Brinkley

A large, sultry original published pin-up calendar painting by the prolific and important American artist Fritz Willis. Willis was the last true star pin-up artist of the old guard, when illustrative pin-up reigned supreme in Men’s magazines and advertising calendars. The artist worked during the very tail end of the genre’s popularity. Showcasing a near-nude sex […]

Spill The Wine

Artist: Fritz Willis

A tremendous example of a Brown & Bigelow published pin-up painting by Ted Withers used in a Roman themed sketchbook calendar titled; Bella Roma – In The Artist’s Sketchbook. This painting, which appeared as the October 1960 calendar page, features Pax, the Roman goddess of peace and prosperity (and counterpart to the Greek goddess Eirene) […]

Pax – The Goddess of Peace

Artist: Ted Withers

A pretty Parisian showgirl is shown on her way to the Opera in this large and lovely original Pal Fried fine art oil on canvas painting. Along with his nude studies, Fried is best remembered for these lovely and provocative high-society, sophisticated yet sultry views. This remarkable example retains its somewhat garish, but now iconic, mid-century ornate frame. This is signed lower […]

The Opera

Artist: Pal Fried

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