Original Art from the Grand Age of American Illustration
A brilliantly rendered pen & ink illustration by the legendary New York City illustrator Al Hirschfeld. In this tightly rendered “two worlds collide” image in which by the Russian populist poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko embraced by America as represented by cultural icon Bob Hope. The scene offers a lighter look at the Cold War tensions that occurred as politically active Soviet poets gained prominence in the US.
Artist: Al Hirschfeld
A noir and exquisitely detailed rendering for an interior magazine story titled on verso French Murder. By the gifed Fortunio Matania, who was known for his photo like realism and finely detailed intricate renderings and the use of period props and embellishments to create an air of authenticity to his historically based works.
Artist: Fortunino Matania
A macabre and dark highly inventive large format gouache illustration painting by Harrison Fisher used as a full color book plate in the 1907 edition of “A Dream of Fair Women” by Lord Alfred Tennyson. In this scene our maiden fair has just completed lent and prepares to give the devil his due and go out ballroom dancing in revealing for the day, corseted attire. This is a classic Harrison Fisher painting and a wonderful and historically impactful example of late Victorian period imagery where traditional customs are seen colliding with a less restrained, more promiscuous Edwardian vision of femininity.
Artist: Harrison Fisher
An original published gouache illustration painting on board by the Connecticut painter and illustrator Robert Fawcett. The verso label states this was used in a Saturday Evening Post story titled the ‘Ghost Inn Society’. Signed in initials ‘RF’ and notated as Robert Fawcett on the Curtis Publishing Company verso affixed label. Outside the margins are centering spots for print usage. Image shows three women in discussion in a cluttered mid-century office done in a Norman Rockwell-like Americana illustrative style. Fine condition, well framed.
Artist: Robert Fawcett
This large and luminous oil on canvas by Charles E. Chambers was created most likely as an interior story illustration for The Saturday Evening Post. Though the piece is unsigned, it contains all of the characteristics of Chambers work, and is undoubtedly an example of his glossy magazine socialites. Dating to about 1930, the scene features a number of refined jazz age beauties in modest yet flapper inspired apparel enjoying a garden teatime with a dapper suitor.
Artist: Charles Edward Chambers
A stylized and well conceived gouache illustration painting dated 1925 by New York City artist and illustrator Robert Reid MacGuire. This art deco erotic offering features a nearly nude goddess in a gossamer long dress with a train attended to by 2 blackamoor servants. We are unsure of the exact usage of this illustration it likely was published as a full color bookplate in an unidentified pulication. The artist was active in New York City as both a designer and an artist and had his first exhibition in 1928 in Manhattan.
Artist: Robert Reid MacGuire
A comical yet masterful charcoal illustration titled “The American Girl and Why” by gifted and prolific New York City illustrator James Montgomery Flagg. This bawdy nude was likely used to illustrate a 1930s edition of the Lamb’s Club Monthly Magazine. The Lamb’s Club was established in 1874 as America’s first professional theatrical club. Renowned artists such as James Montgomery Flagg, Howard Chandler Christy, Hubert Vos, Robert Reid, and Everett Raymond Kinstler created paintings for this fraternal group that fell into two general categories; the Shepherds’ (Presidents’) portraits, and the nudes.
Artist: James Montgomery Flagg
A large, signed, oil on canvas painting by prolific and influential New York City illustrator James Montgomery Flagg titled “At The Stork Club”. A prohibition/speakeasy-era, exhibited, large format illustration inviting us in behind the doors of New York City’s legendary Stork Club. Exhibited in 1976 at the Columbus Museum of Arts and Crafts in Columbus Georgia as well as the Berry-Hill Galleries on 5th Avenue in New York.
Artist: James Montgomery Flagg
A dark, masterfully suspenseful, photo-realist in technique painting by noted American illustrator and avant-garde filmmaker Douglass Crockwell. This menacing oil on board was likely used as an interior illustration in an American slick magazine such as The Saturday Evening Post, or Colliers. Crockwell was a gifted and precise artist, his advertising accounts included Coca-Cola, GE and US Steel.
Artist: Douglass Crockwell
A deftly rendered, intricate, highly decorative oil on canvas painting by noted Brandywine School illustrator Arthur E. Becher, a student of Howard Pyle. An East Indian Minstrel performs magic feats to the delight of his adoring harem in this Orientalist Golden Age of Illustration depiction. Becher’s work appeared in numerous magazine titles after the turn of the last century; Scribner’s and Leslie’s most notably. He also created full color bookplates for such titles as “Long Live the King” and an 1914 adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven” by P.F. Collier & Sons.
Artist: Arthur Becher
