Original Art from the Grand Age of American Illustration
A large Victorian watercolor by famed illustrator Albert Beck Wenzell featuring an Art Nouveau virginal beauty surrounded by putti shown in idyllic purity with nimbis overhead. Wenzell is best known for his 1903 illustrated book The Passing Show. He also created stunning murals for the New Amsterdam Theater in New York City at the turn of the last century and was a cover artist for leading early 20th century magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post.
Artist: Albert Wenzell
An original gouache humorous Edwardian boudoir themed interior painting for the notorious French publication La Vie Parisienne. The long running, blatantly at times erotic and racy magazine that chronicled the exploits and sexual proclivities of sassy and free spirited French follies showgirls and their often dim witted suitors in risque, breezy, spicy pulp-like fashion. Maurice Milliere was a frequent contributor of cover illustrations. French text on margin translates to “I’m all that you have”. This is framed in a museum quality genuine gold gilt hand carved frame .
Artist: Maurice Milliere
Gil Cohen created this expertly rendered, noir, hard boiled interior story illustration for the April 1963 edition of Male Magazine. The story this brings to life is titled The Combat Hero Who Survived Korea’s Worst Brainwashing. This typifies the lurid, envelope pushing work which earned Mens genre magazines the apt title The Post-War Pulps. Caption reads … “confess to your germ warfare crime”, they told him or die like an animal…” Work is nicely matted and framed in excellent condition.
Artist: Gil Cohen
This is a bright, well-executed, published oil on canvas by “The King of the Pulps” Walter Baumhofer. Originally an interior illustration for The Girl With the Lemon Colored Hair, a short piece of fiction by the infamous author Vina Delmar. This stunning artwork was published in the September 1943 issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine. A published tear sheet is included with sale.
Artist: Walter Baumhofer
This large, innovative and sophisticatedly composed gouache by Alexander Sharpe Ross was created as an interior illustration for the April 1949 Cosmopolitan Magazine story The Small Vice of Alicia Crispin by Cynthia Hathaway. Ross was a leading American illustrator of the time and worked as cover artist for Good Housekeeping, The Saturday Evening Post, Ladies Home Journal and Colliers. Along with a handful of key illustrators—Coby Whitmore, John Whitcomb, Al Parker, Norman Rockwell—Ross helped create an indelible image of Americans in the post WWII decades.
Artist: Alex Ross
A bright, large, dazzling original Redbook Magazine interior illustration for the story Old Miguel’s Girl. A defining gouache by the gifted and inventive American illustrator Edwin Georgi, this dramatic work features the color palatte and shadowing that Georgi affecionados have come to appreciate. The work radiates around a central glamour girl that is quintessential Georgi.
Artist: Edwin Georgi
I am proud to be able to offer this highly stylized and orientalist take on the beheading of John the Baptist, as depicted by C. Bosseron Chambers, the famed illustrator of epic and Christian scenes who was dubbed the religious Rockwell. Chambers’ “Light of the World” image was as famous and popular a print as Maxfield Parrish’s “Daybreak.” This dramatic scene, in wonderful period frame with velvet matting, is an engaging and exceptional example of Chambers’ gift of rendering religious scenes in a provocative and modern manner.
Artist: Charles Bosseron Chambers
A whimsically rendered, belle-epoque pen and ink illustration, presumably created for an early issue of Life magazine, addressing the adventures of growing old. A young girl on the left attempts to gain the attention of father time (viewed literally handing out birthdays off of an old cart) while Edwardian attired women on the right flee the aging process. This appears to be an illustration for a writing by Helen Ring Robinson, the author who in 1908 adaped a version of Uncle Tom’s cabin for children. Her name is ghost written in light pencil upper left below one of the 8 draining hour glasses.
Artist: Orson Lowell
This large and colorful noir montage by Alexander Sharpe Ross was created as an interior illustration for a mid 1950’s American mainstream slick magazine. Ross was a leading American illustrator of the time with work featured on the covers of Good Housekeeping, The Saturday Evening Post, Ladies Home Journal and Colliers. Along with a handful of key illustrators — Coby Whitmore, John Whitcomb, Al Parker, and Norman Rockwell — Ross helped create an indelible image of Americans in the post WWII decades.
Artist: Alex Ross
A spicy-pulp genre, risque, color pin-up illustration by Bob Holaday titled Yeh! Cancel Volume 3-4-5-6-7-8-9… This would appear to be an interior gag cartoon for a Titters or Eyeful type girly magazine, known for iconic cheesecake and military humor and pin-up nose-art images, and wildly popular from the 1930s Jazz Age through the post World War II era.
Artist: Bob Holaday
