Original Art from the Grand Age of American Illustration
Dating to the 1950s, this Mid-Century Modern original advertising illustration features a young, stylish, and well-to-do couple looking at travel posters and pondering their next destination. The African masks and tribal Zuni Fetish Doll on the mantle as well as the hanging modernist abstract art let the consumer know that this couple is sophisticated and well-traveled. A […]
Artist: Richard Preyer
This is a large preliminary charcoal drawing by Gil Elvgren that evokes two calendar works the artist completed for Brown & Bigelow; 1951’s Party Line and 1958’s A Good Connection. This is signed by Gil Elvgren lower right, above a note by the artist for the art director at Brown & Bigelow, Clair […]
Artist: Gil Elvgren
This is a large preliminary charcoal drawing by Gil Elvgren, a study for the Brown & Bigelow pin-up calendar painting published in 1956 with the title Fit To Be Tied. This comes from a collection of Elvgren preliminary graphite drawings that we acquired which were found in a house in Sarasota, Florida where the artist once […]
Artist: Gil Elvgren
An elegant art deco gouache-on-board created for General Motors who commissioned this work for their Cadillac ad campaign during the late 1920s-early 30s. This remarkable composition features a modernist, jazz age, formally attired woman flanked by majestic wolfhounds. She is shown entering a castle as her Cadillac touring sedan rests among palm trees in the background. Work is unsigned, in the manner of Edouard Benito or George Wolfe Plank.
Artist: Unknown
A large idyllic Americana “Happier Days” depiction by the prolific calendar artist and pin-up illustrator T.N. Thompson. This nostalgic 1950s image is titled Cleaning Compounds and is suffused with the warmth of that era. a well rendered, romantic depiction of unknown usage with a drag racing American Graffiti-esque appeal and a Norman Rockwell influenced take on life’s small joys. Nicely framed in original limed oak frame with brass label insert.
Artist: T. N. Thompson
Morning Song is an outstanding large format pastel pin-up illustration by the leading female illustrator Zoë Mozert, which was commissioned for The Brown & Bigelow Calendar Company of Saint Paul Minnesota. Perhaps the artist’s finest moment, capturing the seductive innocence of a fresh faced young nude in commune with a colorful parakeet. This image first appeared around 1950 with […]
Artist: Zoe Mozert
The Fairest Flower is a deliriously sexy rare surviving nude pin-up pastel by Zoe Mozert created for The Brown & Bigelow Calendar Company. In 1941, after a prolific decade long career as a leading pulp and movie magazine cover illustrator, Zoe Mozert signed on as a staff artist with Brown & Bigelow where she quickly established herself […]
Artist: Zoe Mozert
A moving gouache-on-board painting by Amos Sewell, this appeared as an interior illustration in the March, 1947 edition of Redbook magazine, accompanying a story by Peter Stirling Cardoza titled “Take Care of Jimmy.” This image shows a tearful farewell at a train window, dramatically and tenderly rendered by this well-listed and important American illustrator. Nicely framed and matted […]
Artist: Amos Sewell
This is an intriguing topical French magazine illustration depicting a decadent French woman enjoying five different forms of illumination as she goes through various stages of undress. Providing commentary on the onset of modernity in fin-de-siècle France through the metaphor illustrated mistress of the house who is seen with a broadening smile and increasingly confident demeanor as she lives with the at the time shockingly new conveniences, this is a bold and striking illustration by the controversial French cartoonist Gil Baer.
Artist: Gil Baer
Lady of Mystery is a supreme example of art deco pin-up calendar art by Edward Eggleston, created in 1938 for the V.P. Wright Litho Company. Without question, this is one of the most iconic images from the 1930s, and for good reason. The purple prose V.P. Wright came up with to adorn the calendar does a better […]
Artist: Edward Eggleston
