Original Art from the Grand Age of American Illustration
A large expressive C. 1920 Art Deco American painting signed by the artist Sidis, a name which is unfamiliar to us. Though mysterious, this is a fabulous work featuring a harem of nude forest sprites making merriment in lavish erotic dance. The tree foliage is boldly applied impasto paint, which provides stark contrast to the muted tones […]
Artist: Sidis
Grapefruit Moon Gallery is ecstatic to offer Sultana, the original Louis F. Dow commissioned calendar pin-up painting by Henry Clive. Created in 1925, Sultana is in all regards the artist’s signature and defining creation, featuring an exotic nearly nude dreamy enchantress in an Art Deco Egyptian fantasy dreamscape. This enchanting artwork is littered with sophisticated touches such as the Moorish architecture which glimmers behind Sultana as she releases a white dove. This timeless image was again issued in 1941 as a mutoscope card with the title Lucky Dove–a vintage calendar print and mutoscope card are included in the sale.
Artist: Henry Clive
An original early 1930’s oil on canvas illustration, presumably of exotic silent movie film star, Anna May Wong. Henry Clive did a series of oil paintings titled Enchantresses of the Ages for Randolph Hearst’s American Weekly Magazine of ethnic glamour portrait studies.
Artist: Henry Clive
The majestic Taj Mahal beckons in this extraordinary complex and detailed gouache painting by the prolific and influential American science fiction genre illustrator Chesley Bonestell. This dates to 1955 and while it represents a departure from the artist’s space art genre work, it perhaps rates as one of Bonestell’s finest paintings. The detail is so intricate it […]
Artist: Chesley Bonestell
This remarkable art deco Orientalist scene by the American illustrator and cartoonist Frank Godwin, depicts the interior story “Ali Baba And The Forty Thieves”, from the 1920 children’s book Stories The Sandman Told, a complete copy of which is included in the sale. Pictured in this gouache on board painting, is Morgiana, a slave girl who is pouring […]
Artist: Frank Godwin
An outstanding, highly stylized, Art Deco, large format oil on canvas painting by the American fine artist and illustrator Henry Soulen. This was likely featured as an interior illustration for an American weekly magazine such as The Saturday Evening Post. Known for these types of depictions, Soulen was an early student of Howard Pyle; […]
Artist: Henry Soulen
For sale is a lovely tonalist oil on canvas painting by the well regarded Chicago area artist and muralist Otto Hake.
Artist: Otto Hake
The Song Without Words is an original Orientalist genre painting by the American artist and illustrator Daniel Content which appeared as a full page color plate in the May 1937 issue of The Ladies Home Journal. Illustrating a story by famed early frontier woman Rose Wilder Lane, the image was published along side a caption […]
Artist: Daniel Content
This important and defining oil on canvas portrait features a stylized Mata Hari in the midst of one of her sensual, almost trance-like dances. The highly moody piece is a wonderful example of the 1900-1915 century Spanish modernismo movement by Anselmo Miguel Nieto, one of its brightest talents. This classically inspired yet fully modern painting applies formal chiaroscuro technique (the exaggerated use of light and dark to create a dramatic perspective) to one of the great courtesans of early 20th century Europe to create a sexually and politically subversive yet beautiful work.
Artist: Anselmo Miguel Nieto
A haunting original watercolor on board verso stamped for use by The Saturday Evening Post by acclaimed American illustrator Henry Soulen. From a pre-air travel era in American popular culture when tastes ran towards the exotic, foreign and mysterious. Nicely framed in a period gesso gold wood frame.
Artist: Henry Soulen
