original calendar art

A fun sassy cowgirl is featured in this original oil on canvas by Gil Elvgren. This work was created for a 1953 Brown & Bigelow commissioned calendar titled Beat That. This rare surviving Western Americana/pin-up cross collectible image is fresh, bright, and a defining work by the well listed master illustrator. Verso retains original Brown & Bigelow label and this is in untouched original condition as seen. Grapefruit Moon Gallery sold this work previously (in June of 2007) and are delighted to be able to offer it again on consignment for a collector who is making wall space for new acquisitions.

Beat That

Artist: Gil Elvgren

A new to the market delightful gouache painting by the Chicago area artist and “Sundblom Shop” pin-up illustrator Harry Ekman. A stylish redheaded Burlesque performer with bright red lips in sexy opera gloves and an ostrich plumed fan. Work is nicely matted and framed and a fine example by this prolific yet hard to come by gifted pin-up artist and commercial illustrator.

The Ostrich Plume Girl

Artist: Harry Ekman

A delightful original pastel by Charles Sheldon of a lavishly-attired Gloria Swanson posed in the style of a Follies Showgirl, bathed in red light. Double matted and framed in a period art deco gesso wood painted frame.

Follies Girl in Red

Artist: Charles Sheldon

An exceptional pastel rendering of a Gloria Swanson in blue glamorous Follies showgirl manner by Charles Sheldon. Pastel is double matted and framed in a museum quality carved wood frame.

Costumed Ziegfeld Follies Girl With Mask

Artist: Charles Sheldon

An alarmingly beautiful art deco era original pastel pin-up illustration by Billy Devorss titled “Prize Winner”. A ravishing and radiant blond bathing beauty contestant winner in her slinky and current one piece suit and beach cape. One of the artist’s most successful and enduring creations. In original limed wood frame behind glass with a framing label from “M.Goldberg picture frames, 323 W. 45th St. N.Y. A rare surviving radiant work from Devorss’ most productive period, when his penthouse studio was in New York City’s prestigious Beaux Arts Building.

Prize Winner

Artist: Billy DeVorss

A large and early Zoe Mozert pastel, used as commissioned calendar art in the early 1930s. This illustration is remembered as one of Mozert’s most enduring and well realized images. Featuring a fabulous flapper girl with idealized Jean Harlow like features in a stylish art deco turban, this is a colorful commissioned artwork recently unearthed from a Florida estate.

Irresistible

Artist: Zoe Mozert

A dazzling 1920s art deco illustration painting of a beautifully costumed, formally attired maiden at an evening summertime patio engagement. Work is stylistically mindful of Edward Eggleston and Gene Pressler who created countless similar fanciful colorful and ornamental images for calendar companies of the era. It is our belief that this too was a published calendar image. Work is beautifully matted and framed in a handsome gesso art deco period frame.

A Summer Time Fete

Artist: Eyre

A dazzling and scarce surviving commercial pin-up illustration by Pearl Frush Brudon, a successful female illustrator who worked in gouache and watercolors with a unique and spectacular photo realism to her works. A lovely red headed seductress of the 1940s appears in soft focus in this luminous work, signed lower right with the artist’s married name.

Glamorous Beauty in Soft Focus

Artist: Pearl Frush

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.

Marilyn Monroe In Paradise

Artist: Earl Moran

A large and early commissioned pin-up painting by Gil Elvgren for the Brown & Bigelow Calendar Company titled “Finders Keepers.” This 1945 oil on canvas was painted in a larger format than Elvgren standardly used, and this is by all accounts a desirable and classic example of the Great American Pin Up by the undisputed master, featuring bold bright colors, and a wholesome yet sexy appeal. The canvas is relined and this painting was previously sold by The American Illustrators Gallery in New York.

Finders Keepers

Artist: Gil Elvgren

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