Grapefruit Moon Gallery

Original Art from the Grand Age of American Illustration

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A rare surviving original oil on canvas by the talented cover artist Harold or H.W. McCauley (1913-1977), who specialized in science fiction genre work. Exploring fantasy, adventure and space travel themes while maintaining a keen eye for the feminine guiles and allure of the pin-up girl, McCauley was a frequent cover illustrator for Fantastic Adventures between 1939 – 1942. He later illustrated covers for Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy.This work was first used as a cover in the underground 1947 Shaver Mystery Magazine, a fanatically coveted black & white sci-fi pulp devoted to the fantasies and cosmologies of writer/artist Dick Shaver.

The Shaver Mystery Magazine Pulp Cover

Artist: Harold McCauley

This large, innovative and sophisticatedly composed gouache by Alexander Sharpe Ross was created as an interior illustration for the April 1949 Cosmopolitan Magazine story The Small Vice of Alicia Crispin by Cynthia Hathaway. Ross was a leading American illustrator of the time and worked as cover artist for Good Housekeeping, The Saturday Evening Post, Ladies Home Journal and Colliers. Along with a handful of key illustrators—Coby Whitmore, John Whitcomb, Al Parker, Norman Rockwell—Ross helped create an indelible image of Americans in the post WWII decades.

The Small Vice of Alicia Crispin

Artist: Alex Ross

This large and colorful noir montage by Alexander Sharpe Ross was created as an interior illustration for a mid 1950’s American mainstream slick magazine. Ross was a leading American illustrator of the time with work featured on the covers of Good Housekeeping, The Saturday Evening Post, Ladies Home Journal and Colliers. Along with a handful of key illustrators — Coby Whitmore, John Whitcomb, Al Parker, and Norman Rockwell — Ross helped create an indelible image of Americans in the post WWII decades.

Mid-Century Voodoo Doll

Artist: Alex Ross

A lurid and gruesome large en grisaille style original oil on illustration board by noted 20th century artist and Illustrator Basil Gogos. An interior or perhaps cover illustration for a 1960s post-war pulp mens magazine published by Balcourt. This copy selling gruesome frontier style work pushes the envelope showing whisky bottle anesthetic self amputation by lantern light. Basil Gogos is currently featured in a long and detailed retrospective in Illustration Magazine. Nicely matted and framed and ready to hang.

Frontiersman Styled Surgery

Artist: Basil Gogos

A genre defining original illustration painting for the October 1956 edition of Imagination Science Fiction for the interior story by Edmond Hamilton titled Citadel Of The Star Lords. By Lloyd Rognan (1923-2005) an Original oil on illustration board depicting ufo’s , rayguns, mayhem and all things lurid sci-fi, set amongst the ruins of a town center square anytown USA circa 1950’s. The artist recently passed away and many works were recently auctioned off directly from his estate. This to my eyes was one of the defining work by this highly regarded and frequently published illustrator.

Citadel Of The Star Lords

Artist: Lloyd Rognan

Rare surviving original illustration art for Rogue for Men Magazine. A lurid genre defining cover by Lloyd Rognan for an April 1956 edition . Rognan had a long and prolific career as an illustrator, he studied with an early WPA art student project, contributed regularily for Stars and Stripes. Later his science fiction pulp artwork appeared as covers for such publications as Fate, Imagination, ImaginativeTales, and other sci fi pulp magazines exploiting the “pre-Apollo” moon mission space travel craze. This is a particularily rich interpretation of a Men’s magazine cover, and finally someone had the nerve to portray things as seen here.

Man the Beast

Artist: Lloyd Rognan

A rare surviving Detective Pulp cover illustration of a hard boiled New York City policeman with a drawn gun. A defining cover for the May 1932 issue of Real Detective , illustrating the interior story “Pay or Die! The Menace of the Kidnapping Terrorists”. Artwork by Alec Redmond signed lower right. Oil on stretched canvas retains original gesso painted wood frame. Call or e-mail for a complete condition report.

Pay or Die!

Artist: Alec Redmond

 

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