Original Art from the Grand Age of American Illustration
A stylish art deco era smartly rendered original gouache illustration painting created as Raleigh Cigarettes advertising. A flirty idealized modern couple spark up more than a conversation with a prominently featured cigarette. This work of some of the George Petty stylized advertising illustrations for “Acme Beer” and “Chesterfield Cigarettes” of the same era. Nicely matted and framed in an art deco period gesso handsome wood frame.
Artist: E. B. Segner
A large and never-before-seen original pastel by Rolf Armstrong, this Green River Soda advertisement features a glamorous pin-up girl. This original pastel was found among other pastels and old lithographs in an abandoned Milwaukee, Wisconsin warehouse building. Decades earlier, the structure had served as headquarters for the “A. C. Schulz” lithography company. Although this piece is unsigned (this is true of much advertising art), it was undoubtedly created by the hand of Rolf Armstrong and is sold as an attributed painting.
Artist: Rolf Armstrong
A large and moody defining interior illustration for a mid 1950’s edition of Cosmopolitan Magazine by Alexander Sharpe Ross, titled A Weeping Violet. Ross was a leading American illustrator in the 1940s and 50s, 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
An alarmingly beautiful and decorative work by the undisputed king of illustration art Alberto Vargas / Varga. This is a large early (pre Esquire Magazine) pastel by this Peruvian born master. This art deco era original glamour pin-up pastel was used as calendar art in 1935 by The Joseph Hoover & Sons Calendar Company under the title Summertime. In pristine untouched original condition. An original salesman sample copy of the original published calendar print is included with sale.
Artist: Alberto Vargas
A skillfully executed, sexy and coyly posed nude interior scene. This lovely piece is a large oil on canvas by the painter and portraitist Frederick Elwood Wallace a very well listed Virginia artist (1893-1958). His portraiture is seen in numerous museums and government offices, and he is listed in Davenports, Who’s Who In American Art, The Artists Bluebook, and countless other art references. Work retains its original wood faux painted frame. A nice, fresh, new to the market Texas Estate find.
Artist: Frederick Wallace
This stylized pastel portrait of a dashing high society fashionable blonde with bright red lips is bright, colorful, fresh and new to the market. The 1930s era portrait was most likely used for print ads for a beauty product in American glamour magazines. A large seductive example of Rolf Amstrong’s unsurpassed pastel work. A winsome idealized vision of American feminine beauty by The Father Of American Pin-up.
Artist: Rolf Armstrong
A glamourous and serene large rendering of long reigning screen star siren Loretta Young in pastel done for a cover of Romantic Story Magazine by noted Brown & Bigelow pin-up artist and prolific cover illustrator Zoe Mozert. Mozert executed over 400 covers for such titles as Screen Book, True Romance, True Confessions and Randolph Hearst’s American Weekly. Titled on verso Letters and in fine print the letter is addressed to Louis B. Meyer Paramount film head of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Artist: Zoe Mozert
A defining huge original charcoal on board of a divine bathing beauty in a smart, streamlined art deco style by the American Illustrator McClelland Barclay. Model looks to be Gracie Allen and this was most likely used in the General Motors Body by Fisher Advertising campaign for which Barclay is fondly remembered. Work is a defining example by this talented and prolific artist and beautifully matted and framed.
Artist: McClelland Barclay
A large original commissioned pin-up genre pastel on illustration board by Knute O. Munson for a 1952 Brown & Bigelow Calendar titled Our Knowledge and Experience At Your Command. This was given to a store owner in Tulsa Oklahoma decades earlier by the regional Brown & Biglelow salesman there as a reward for advertising with his company. It is cleverly signed lower left on the spine of one of the books.
Artist: K. O. Munson
A large original commissioned pin-up genre pastel on illustration board by Knute O. Munson for a 1949 Brown & Bigelow Calendar titled Top Service Is Delivered. This was given to a store owner in Tulsa Oklahoma decades earlier by the regional Brown & Biglelow salesman there as a reward for advertising with his company. It is cleverly signed on the falling package by the artist.
Artist: K. O. Munson
