Original Art from the Grand Age of American Illustration
This tawdry and seductive original artwork was illustrated for use as the cover of the 1951 Cameo Books title The Loves of Alice Brandt, part of the publisher’s “love fiction” line. Cameo was an imprint of Detective House Publishers in New York which was a major producer of digest sized pulp novels during the period when this first appeared […]
Artist: Unidentified American Illustrator
A large, dazzling, spicy pulp, science fiction, space girl painting by Gabriel Mayorga, which appeared on the cover of the second issue of Super Science Stories in May, 1940. Very loosely illustrating the interior story “Juice” by L. Sprague De Camp, whose slug is worth repeating here in full… They discovered a new game in Lunar Center – a form of ping-pong, […]
Artist: Gabriel Mayorga
A rare surviving pastel by the prolific and inventive early pin-up artist James Ross Bryson. Bryson defined Art Nouveau feminine beauty with his Edwardian views of corseted and lavishly attired, erotic, and bold anti-Victorian maidens. A staff artist for the Thos. D Murphy calendar co., his work also appeared on postcards, advertisements, and magazine covers. Bryson’s strong use of color, and stylized depictions of feminine glamour were heavily influential on art deco pastel artists like Rolf Armstrong, Earl Moran and Zoe Mozert.
Artist: J. Ross Bryson
A pristine and important surviving Henry Clive illustration painting that appeared as the cover for the July 16, 1933 edition of The American Weekly, a Randolph Hearst publication. The magazine often commissioned Clive to create serialized images of enchantresses that shared a thematic thread. In this case, exotic maidens in the crossfire of cupid’s bow. Our […]
Artist: Henry Clive
An exceedingly rare surviving Henry Clive cover illustration from his 20+ years creating for The American Weekly. This painting was from a series done in 1934 titled, Darlings of the Poets. In this series, Clive illustrated the inspirations for leading poets and writers. This particular oil on canvas depicts “Lenore” as the lost and sorrowful inspiration behind The Raven as written by Edgar Allan Poe.
Artist: Henry Clive
This original published pin-up painting by Gil Elvgren appeared as a 1968 Brown & Bigelow calendar with the title “Swingin’ Sweetie”. A classic offering from the very tail end of the pin-up craze when the summer of love swept in a new style that wreaked havoc on earlier presentations of pin-up girl femininity. While some artists tried to respond to the […]
Artist: Gil Elvgren
Cleopatra is one of only two commissioned published calendar pin-up paintings created by Henry Clive for the Louis F. Dow Calendar Company of Saint Paul Minnesota, the other work Sultana was previously sold by our gallery. Featuring an exotic nearly nude dreamy enchantress in an Art Deco Egyptian fantasy pyramid adorned dreamscape, this enchanting artwork […]
Artist: Henry Clive
A glamorous, art deco Petty Girl mixed media illustration from 1938 that appeared in the pages of Esquire Magazine with the quip “Thanks for the hospitality, Mr. Grover, but I don’t mind going home in the rain.“ In this sophisticated rendering, we see a sexy svelte blonde in a form fitting satin gown […]
Artist: George Petty
An iconic and rare surviving pin-up painting by Ben-Hur Baz which was published as a calendar with the title Maid In Muskegon. The image shows a strawberry blonde hot number seductively posed in a strapless bikini ala Marilyn Monroe. This artist did several pin-ups very closely based on the notorious Hollywood blonde bombshell, but it is unlikely that […]
Artist: Ben-Hur Baz
A deliriously fresh published Petty Girl mixed media pin-up illustration from 1937 that appeared in the pages of Esquire magazine with the quip “He doesn’t smoke and he doesn’t drink – I don’t know what I’ll do to amuse him”. A masterful rendering of a sexy modernist redhead who is clearly styled after Bette […]
Artist: George Petty
