Original Art from the Grand Age of American Illustration
A two paneled signed pen & ink illustration drawing by Nell Brinkley published as an interior illustration in a 1931 edition of Life magazine. On the left the biblical Eve is seen in the Garden of Eden, in harmony with nature and god’s living creatures before her fall into temptation. The right image shows Jill, a […]
Artist: Nell Brinkley
A whimsical and satirical yet deftly rendered original self portrait watercolor painting dated 1948 by the legendary American illustrator and New York City resident James Montgomery Flagg. The artist paints himself tiptoeing along the roofline of a posh Park Avenue neighborhood in the guise of a snarky Psychiatrist with a Central Park night […]
Artist: James Montgomery Flagg
A bustling signed and dated 1925 original advertising gouache painting by noted Golden Age illustrator Henry Patrick Raleigh for Maxwell House Coffee. An opulent high society Great Gatbsy-esque scene which creates focal points around the coffee cups and serving platters in the hands of tony patrons and servers. Raleigh worked on Maxwell House’s print campaign […]
Artist: Henry Raleigh
This stylized and dramatic large gouache painting was created by the well regarded American Golden Age Illustrator Wilmot Emerton Heitland as an interior magazine illustration. In this dramatic art deco scene, a confrontation in an artist’s studio plays out as the handsome male artist appears to be at odds with his pretty svelte modernist flapper […]
Artist: Wilmot Heitland
A large classic Americana c. 1950 oil painting on canvas created for Atlantic Petroleum by Hayden Hayden. This was likely created as a billboard advertising design. In this all-American apple pie depiction, a clean cut high school football star has attracted the interest of a pretty co-ed after being “Fixed Up For The […]
Artist: Hayden Hayden
This remarkable image features a nude reclining maiden by one of our favorite Golden Age illustrators W.T. Benda. A dazzling composition, an intricate and technically adept graphite drawing with silver glittery paint highlighting the subject’s hair and face. Signed lower right and beautifully framed and silk matted behind glass in a hand carved gold leafed […]
Artist: Wladyslaw Benda
Created to accompany the 13th installment of the serialized novel” Silver Knees” in the April 4th 1931 issue of Liberty Magazine, this oil on canvas painting features a romanticized depiction of love during the Mexican-American war. In this lush scene, Gitana, a gypsy dancer, enjoys an afternoon serenade as her star crossed lover, an American war hero, looks on quietly.
Artist: Norman Price
This powerful example of golden age American illustration art playfully explores the tension between past and future presented in the early motor age. In this affecting unsigned image, the cliche of the Western Americana “Westward Ho” expansion scene is reinterpreted through the addition of an up-to-the-minute flapper girl in an adorable cloche hat. Beneath our heroine–who, along with her car, is checked out by a cowboy attired service attendant–text reads “Forms No Hard Carbon.”
Artist: Unknown
A tense and well rendered set at sea Golden Age of Illustration painting by the noted and prolific American artist Ralph Pallen Coleman, signed and dated 1925 in the lower right corner. Set aboard a ship at sea, the image hints that the vessel is heading into troubled waters at least metaphorically. While the well groomed male calmly prepares to light his pipe, his pretty flapper companion holds her hand over her heart, both attracted to and made nervous by taking this trip with her suitor.
Artist: Ralph Coleman
This is the very rare surviving original pastel illustration on board by Emil Flohri of Rudolph Valentino as the title character in Son of The Sheik, the controversial romantic adventure that was unexpectedly the final film starring silent filmdom’s first iconic heartthrob. This signed pastel was commissioned and used as the cover for the September 1926 edition of Motion Picture Magazine, and was published almost simultaneously with the unexpected death of Valentino on August 23rd, 1926. A complete copy of the printed magazine is included in the sale.
Artist: Emil Flohri
