Original Art from the Grand Age of American Illustration
This voluptuous dreamy risqué redhead was created as calendar pin up art for the Goes Litho Company by the prolific and talented female Chicago area illustrator Pearl Frush. A red headed femme-fatale, loosely styled after Jean Harlow from her starring turn in the 1932 film Red Headed Woman, appears in a floppy wide brimmed straw hat with […]
Artist: Pearl Frush
On offer is a classic cheesecake pin up painting featuring a decidedly sexy bed-headed platinum blonde ala Marilyn Monroe by the prolific American pin-up artist Bill Randall. Bill Randall is best remembered for his wildly popular spiral bound “Randall’s Date Book” 12 page calendars for The Kemper-Thomas Calendar Company. He also created a series of works in […]
Artist: Bill Randall
This playfully spirited and sexy original oil on canvas pin-up painting by Edward Runci was published by the Shaw-Barton Calendar Company in 1947 with the title “Wish You Were Here.” The artist was an outstanding painter of pin-ups during the 1940s and 50s whose smooth style was much admired by his contemporaries. Unlike the majority of other […]
Artist: Edward Runci
This circa 1925 oil on canvas by F.R. Harper was used as calendar art by The American Art Works Calendar Company. For sale at Grapefruit Moon Gallery.
Artist: F. R. Harper
This 1949 Brown & Bigelow Calendar Company commissioned pin-up pastel is one of the finest examples by Earl Moran we have encountered. A redheaded heart-breaker on a then state of the art mid-century modern phone asks the viewer and the caller to “Remember Me?” in a classic pin-up entanglement loaded with double entendre. Earl Moran was a master of light and shadow and this large and commanding artwork is a monument to his talent.
Artist: Earl Moran
This 1948 Brown & Bigelow Calendar Company commissioned pastel by Earl Moran is a large and defining example of American pin up. A pretty blonde pin-up girl is posed on a mid-century modern Heywood Wakefield office desk with a phone in one hand. The title “Call Again” is a witty take on an office secretary and her private hours. Condition is pristine in a custom made lined gallery frame with fitted corners behind ultraviolet glass. A 1948 Brown & Bigelow advertising calendar of the image is included with sale.
Artist: Earl Moran
This delicately rendered, original, signed Pearl Frush pin-up illustration was published by the Gerlach-Barklow Calendar Company under the title “Miss Bermuda.” The nearly photo-realist watercolor appeared as part of a 1947 “Aqua Tour” series of bathing beauty images. Pearl Frush was a prolific and talented female artist who was active during the 1940s and 50s and worked […]
Artist: Pearl Frush
The Louis F. Dow Calendar Company of Saint Paul, Minnesota commissioned this pristine and rare surviving pin-up painting by Art Frahm for publication in their 1944 calendar line under the title “Pay Off.” The image shows an underdressed, impish redhead having an “oops” moment as she is drenched by the puppy she has just so carefully bathed. This painting is […]
Artist: Art Frahm
A curvy nude pin-up beauty in a red wide brimmed mid-century hat contently admires her reflection in this original pin-up painting by Harry Ekman. This was previously part of the collection of pin-up historian and author Charles Martignette and appears in the 1996 Taschen volume The Great American Pin-Up (page 153, plate #326) co-authored by Martignette and Louis K. […]
Artist: Harry Ekman
A large, detailed, preliminary calendar illustration by Andrew Loomis for a 1944 calendar commission of the Dionne Quintuplets that was titled May Time for The Brown & Bigelow Calendar Company. The Dionne Quintuplets were a Great Depression-era pop culture sensation and cautionary tale. Their images were reproduced everywhere and cover articles appeared in Time and […]
Artist: Andrew Loomis
