Original Art from the Grand Age of American Illustration
A large and important exhibited American impressionist oil painting by the Boston artist Arthur Prince Spear, 1879-1959. The painting features an outstanding large ethereal and luminous trio of sea nymphs in silhouette – ablaze at sea under a full moon. This is painted in an impressionist style with a textured heavy impasto technique. Housed in its original carved gold leaf wood frame.
Artist: Arthur Prince Spear
Price: S O L D
The Light of New York by Walter Dean Goldbeck was created as a full page color advertisement that ran in The Saturday Evening Post for General Electric. The inspired and almost transcendentally captivating image would later become a Judge Magazine cover (August 1, 1914) under the title “The Spirit of New York”. The image, which features a mischievous goddess sprinkling moonlight down onto the city below also captured the imagination of music publishers Fred Fischer, who used it as a sheet music cover for his composition “I Found a Rose in the Devil’s Garden.”
Artist: Walter Dean Goldbeck
Price: Sold
A large, Victorian era, original watercolor on illustration board by frequent LIFE Magazine illustrator, Charles Howard Johnson. This was most likely an interior, 2-page, color plate illustration for Truth Magazine. A stylized Belle Epoque, old world gondola scene. Nicely framed in a large, period, gesso wood frame.
Artist: Charles Howard Johnson
Price: Sold
A recently unearthed original pastel on illustration board, this never before seen artwork by Earl Moran was created for the Brown & Bigelow Calendar Company. The model is of course the young Blue Book agency pin-up model Norma Jeane Baker, who later transformed herself into Marilyn Monroe. Monroe posed for Moran during the late 1940’s and a pictorial of this collaboration appears in the July 2008 issue of Playboy Magazine. This pastel is a warm and radiant portrait of Monroe gazing seductively from a lush tropical moonlit setting. We are thrilled to be offering this monumental work.
Artist: Earl Moran
Price: S O L D
An other-worldly science fiction themed cover painting for the 1977 Ace Paperback edition of “The Silent Invaders” by Robert Silverberg. A well realized fantasy minded surrealist excursion into another dimension by the prolific and vanguard sci-fi artist Dan Ivan Punchatz. Work is nicely framed and comes with the published Ace paperback edition shown.
Artist: Don Ivan Punchatz
Price: Sold
A fabulous large and radiant original oil on canvas by the acclaimed American illustrator Edward Eggleston. This alluring, Edwardian attired glamour girl in luminous moonlight surround was a commissioned calendar artwork under the title The Sweetheart of Sigmi-Chi. Produced in 1919 this same image also appeared (with a riverboat superimposed above the subject’s right shoulder) under the title Dixie. This is one of many instances where an illustrator would reuse a central image to save time while working up a new piece for a competing calendar company. In this instance, Eggleston so seamlessly removed the paddle boat from the original artwork I wouldn’t have known it existed in that form if not for the image shown in Norm Platnick’s A Lady of Mystery: A Collector’s guide to Edward Eggleston.
Artist: Edward Eggleston
Price: S O L D
A breathtaking and evocative sensual moonlit nude by Vaughan Alden Bass. The Veronica Lake look-alike is drenched in streaming moonglow rays in her dark colored boudoir. The unusual color palette employed by Bass gives the work a surreal glow. A stirring masterful work by this under valued and gifted pin-up artist and illustrator. This was gathered from the Saint Paul Estate of a 92 year old woman whose husband worked for the Louis F. Dow Calendar Company.
Artist: Vaughan Bass
Price: S O L D
The finest surviving Henry Clive cover illustration from his 20+ years creating for The American Weekly. This painting was from a series done in 1934 titled, Darlings of the Poets. In this series, Clive illustrated the inspirations for leading poets and writers. This particular oil on canvas was the inspiration behind The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. It is matted to museum quality and framed in an amazing ornate art deco silver gesso frame. Seven American Weekly issues with the complete run of the Darlings of the Poets series are included.
Artist: Henry Clive
Price: S O L D
