Original Art from the Grand Age of American Illustration
This rare surviving original oil on canvas by H.J. Ward was created for the September, 1938 edition of Romantic Western. Only in the upside down, just plain evil world of the pulps would such a lurid and unchivalrous ultra-violent depiction exist on the same playing field with the word romantic. Painted with enough action to capture […]
Artist: H.J. Ward
Earle K. Bergey’s spicy pulp covers are known for their provocative, even lawless sensuality. It’s the root of their wild, jazz age, hedonistic charm. Even eighty years later, Bergey’s art looks daring, modern, and cool. Since more than 90% of original pulp cover artwork is thought to be lost, we were over the moon to come across two fresh-to-the-market original […]
Created for the October, 1935 issue of the spicy pulp title La Paree, this is a rare surviving original cover painting by Earle K. Bergey. In this whimsical jazz-age art deco scene, a blonde flapper girl is attempting to choose who will get to play the part of her dream man. Vying for the title are a […]
Artist: Earle K. Bergey
This original oil on canvas painting, used as the cover for the January 1955 pulp digest, Imaginative Tales #3, shows a Vaudeville era magician and his pin-up girl assistant working a crowd and casting spells and presumably making things disappear. This was created to illustrate the interior story by Robert Bloch, titled Black Magic Holiday, […]
Artist: Harold McCauley
One of the earliest existing examples of Erté’s Art Deco cover illustrations for Harper’s Bazar, this gouache painting appeared in November 1918 under the title Les Bulles de Savon. The image showcases two chic Parisian ladies, icons of the new modernist turn, blowing bubbles in which are seen a parade of Edwardian and Art Nouveau fashions. A whimsical yet […]
Artist: Erté
A beautiful and delicately rendered oil on canvas painting of a pensive lovelorn flapper girl in pearls which appeared as cover art for The Redbook Magazine, September, 1927. A lovely golden age of illustration published example by the noted female artist and illustrator Edna Crompton. The artist worked prolifically creating calendar art glamour images for […]
Artist: Edna Crompton
Here at Grapefruit Moon Gallery, we are always tickled when illustration art shows up on PBS’s Antiques Roadshow, the 12-time Emmy nominated standard-bearer that paved the way for Pawn Stars, Storage Locker Wars, and a host of others shows that have gotten Americans searching their attics for dusty treasures. As loyal viewers, we were among the nearly eight […]
A stunning, patriotic World War II era pastel by famed American illustrator Bradshaw Crandell. This appeared as the cover of the April, 1942 issue of Cosmopolitan magazine. Intriguingly, posed in the Navy uniform was a young Yale Law student and male model named Gerald Ford, who would go on to be the 38th president of the United States. The pretty […]
Artist: Bradshaw Crandell
This underworld, barroom image shows a head-turning femme fatale with the sort of bad-girl good looks that spell bad luck, this pulp fiction paperback cover painting was deftly painted by Harry Barton in 1955 for the cover of the Ace Double Novel The Squeeze. As the tag line announces this unlucky redhead…”Played With Death To Get The Man She […]
Artist: Harry Barton
A sultry mixed medium paperback cover illustration by Lou Marchetti, this first appeared in 1951 as the paperback cover of Shadow Of The Mafia, aka Horns of the Devil by Louis Malley. The provocative and hard-boiled image shows an “easy loving” blonde beauty flirtatiously eying the streetwise tough Don Alberto, who lays on the bed, his enforcers […]
Artist: Lou Marchetti
