Original Art from the Grand Age of American Illustration
This pen, ink, and gouache artwork is an early example by renowned illustrator Cardwell Higgins. A sublime offering in his art deco style, this shows a cityscape at night, with anonymous windows lit up throughout, menaced by a red bolt of lightning, suggesting the tremendous electric power humanity was trying to harness from nature in the early 20th century.
Artist: Cardwell Higgins
One of the more surreal takes on the 1929 stock market crash which led to the Great Depression is on view in this October 1930 Campbell’s Soup advertisement which appeared in The Saturday Evening Post. A Campbell’s Soup Kid reads the latest stock news from a state of the art glass domed stock ticker machine. Wishful text reads “The news that I’m reading look’s dandy to me. Like a plateful of Campbell’s Which fills me with glee.” This original illustration painting is a supremely odd example of Americana advertising.
Artist: School of Grace Drayton
This deftly painted cover illustration by Leslie Thrasher was created for the June 7th, 1930 edition of Liberty Magazine, and showcases the artist’s finely tuned ability to capture the spirit of the time in which he worked. The image shows two ruddy children in a game of dress-up, as a pair of blind and […]
Artist: Leslie Thrasher
A boldly colored and tightly rendered likely preliminary pastel pin-up illustration by Earl Moran, showing an art deco sailor girl living the life aquatic. This dates to the late 1930s, as the outbreak of war in Europe caused both a premonition of America’s eventual involvement into what would become World War II, and a boost in industrial production (particularly shipbuilding) […]
Artist: Earl Moran
A rare surviving mixed medium calendar commissioned painting for “American Art Works Company”. A Great Depression-era 1930s art deco work by L. Goddard of a lovely young Indian maiden drawing back cupid’s bow and taking aim. This large impressive work is beautifully framed and matted and ready to hang in a period ornate carved wood gold frame.
Artist: L. Goddard
This sassy secretary pin up pastel was created by Earl Moran for the Brown & Bigelow Calendar Company in about 1940. The work appeared as a mutoscope card with the title “A Sweet Job”. Office girl pin-up depictions were common during the pre-WWII lean economic years of the Great Depression, and this is an inspired example of that genre. A published mutoscope card of the image is included in the sale.
Artist: Earl Moran
This signed 1936 watercolor by an unidentified artist presents a haunting look at the life of an urban bohemian in Greenwich village New York. Mixing the malaise and grit of Great Depression-era NY with romantic nostalgia for the artist’s communities that flourished during the Ashcan school-period of the early 20th century, this scene presents a view of an artist attempting to find inspiration at the sight of his muse, a sensuously posed nude model, but sinking into debauchery as he cradles a drink in one hand with a tawdry book titled Eros laying on his table. On his wall, unseen by either the artist or model, are his previous creations, including a likeness of the napping dog at his feet. This is an inspired work of urban realism, that dates to the WPA period where unflinching looks at the hidden corners pf life were becoming an increasingly popular topic for the finest American artists.
Artist: Unknown
Working within the gritty and near-apocalyptic style of the ashcan school, Paul Raphael Meltsner captures here the shimmying decadence of movement that defined Depression-era burlesque, as well as the art form’s manner of dehumanizing both performer and patron. Though brazenly showcasing her human form, the dancer in the foreground hides her face from the canvas, and the audience recedes into the merest suggestion of faces represented merely as forms. This is a moving and masterful artwork, reminiscent of the works of Everett Shinn, a contemporary of Meltsner’s.
Artist: Paul Meltsner
“Racing the Sun” is a rare surviving oil on stretched canvas painting by Ruehl Frederick Heckman, created for the Thomas D. Murphy Calendar Company. During the 1930s Heckman executed a series of five paintings for this storied calendar company, all featuring bold aviation progress and industrial themes. These works ponder the collision of the industrial revolution’s streamlined machine age aesthetic with previous generations traditional and more pastoral ways.
Artist: Ruehl Frederick Heckman
A Grecian inspired, fantasy themed, mixed media illustration that was used by the Thos. D. Murphy Calendar company for a 1930 calendar titled The Glory That Was Ancient Greece. This whimsical yet erotic Grecian maiden themed work consists of a heavily tinted photograph of the two Grecian adorned beauties by L.G. Woolenden and an elaborate garden landscape painting by Rudolph Ingerle that envelopes the photographic element. This team of enterprising calendar art talents created numerous works under the pseudonym L. Goddard Surviving original L Goddard artworks are quite rare and spectacular, and among our favorite examples of fantastical and escapist art deco/Great Depression calendar illustration. A large printed calendar from the Thomas D. Murphy calendar company archives is included in the sale.
Artist: L. Goddard
