Original Art from the Grand Age of American Illustration
An explosive World War II battle scene rages in this published Bruce Minney illustration. A Nazi submarine has crashed ashore and brought the fight to land in this lurid piece that is a quintessential example of the style coming out of men’s magazines of this period. With three U.S. Navy soldiers wounded and down for the […]
Artist: Bruce Minney
A remarkable, large, signed and dated 1929 oil painting by one of the leading “cabin art” calendar artists Frank Stick. Known best for his genre illustrations for the Thomas D. Murphy Calendar Company, Stick also worked for many early 20th century magazine titles including Collier’s, Sports Afield and The Saturday Evening Post creating rugged outdoorsman scenes culled from his own experiences. This is a unique offering by the artist, featuring a pretty Pre-Raphaelite Viking mother and her newborn child emerging from a long winter, a cherished example from the Charles Martignette collection.
Artist: Frank Stick
This remarkable, large, and colorful pastel by Billy Devorss was created for Brown & Bigelow’s 1941 calendar line and was published under the title Pretty Smooth. Unlike most of the pin-up artists working during the Golden Age of Illustration, Devorss never signed an exclusive contract with any of the calendar companies, and instead enjoyed incredible popularity […]
Artist: Billy Devorss
A climactic moment from the epic story of Don Quixote as depicted by by Willy Pogany. This is titled on verso in the artist’s hand “The Enchanters Put Don Q. In A Cage”. A commissioned “Golden Age of Illustration” work used in a 1920s adaptation of Don Quixote. Signed lower right beautifully framed and silk matted behind glass.
Artist: Willy Pogany
This is a haunting watercolor by renowned book illustrator Willy Pogany. Marked on verso “Doll House Hell” this is a dark noir rendering of an evening on a boathouse. The pylons and trees are turning into monsters and even the sky appears to be weighing down on the lone boat. Pogany is best remembered for his illustrated volumes of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.
Artist: Willy Pogany
This is an intriguing topical French magazine illustration depicting a decadent French woman enjoying five different forms of illumination as she goes through various stages of undress. Providing commentary on the onset of modernity in fin-de-siècle France through the metaphor illustrated mistress of the house who is seen with a broadening smile and increasingly confident demeanor as she lives with the at the time shockingly new conveniences, this is a bold and striking illustration by the controversial French cartoonist Gil Baer.
Artist: Gil Baer
From renowned American illustrator Cardwell Higgins comes this pen & ink on artist’s paper illustration that was created for Eastern Airlines with a plane whizzing through the air showing the logo for the airlines by its tail–a logo that Higgins also designed. With progress-minded, art deco imagery, this aviation themed piece is framed alongside a portrait […]
Artist: Cardwell Higgins
Lady of Mystery is a supreme example of art deco pin-up calendar art by Edward Eggleston, created in 1938 for the V.P. Wright Litho Company. Without question, this is one of the most iconic images from the 1930s, and for good reason. The purple prose V.P. Wright came up with to adorn the calendar does a better […]
Artist: Edward Eggleston
This Orientalist art deco avant-garde pen & ink drawing by Cardwell Higgins is an early work by the renowned illustrator that recalls the erotic and stylized work of British artist Aubrey Beardsley. This is part of a series of similarly exotic and provocative drawings Higgins created between 1927 – 1929, which would much later be marketed as a series of […]
Artist: Cardwell Higgins
A breezy Jazz-Age American impressionist painting from the 1920s by the New York City illustrator artist, illustrator and anarchist Modest Stein. A young contemplative couple with a sense for fashion eye a possible future as one as they gaze out together over the Eastern seaboard. The artist worked extensively for romance themed titles for Street & […]
Artist: Modest Stein
