portrait

A delightful early Rolf Armstrong original pastel in which the artist employs an impressionist and modern technique for the shadowing and details. This is a lovely and unusual transition piece from the period in Armstrong’s career where he began to shift from depicting winsome art nouveau beauties to the more dramatic and angular art deco flapper girls which defined his career. We have yet to find a printed version of this stunning original artwork by the father of American pin-up.

An Orchid and a Smile

Artist: Rolf Armstrong

This is a rare American expressionist offering by the “poet of American Indian Painters,” George De Forest Brush. The European trained Brush is best known for his romantic potrayals of Native American life, and his Old Masters inspired portraits of Modern American Madonna and child scenes. The portraits, while they made his name and fortune in the late 19th century, were constraining, and this dark and dramatic symbolist work vividly shows his desire to break free of the stereotype of idealized portrait painter.

A Dark American Madonna

Artist: George De Forest Brush

A beautiful and serene commissioned pastel portrait of the young, wealthy blue blood high society beauty N.H. Fill. American illustrators often subsidized their earnings by taking lucrative portrait commissions from wealthy New York City Industrial Revolution aristocratic patrons. Often these jobs found the artists depicting the heiresses as glamour girl beauties in stylized, iconic, modern fashion. Gifted artist and illustrator Haskell Coffin excelled at this sort of beauty, and was best known as a cover artist contributing covers for countless American magazines including The Saturday Evening Post. His wholesome American stylized beauties also graced many Calendars for The Thos D. Murphy Calendar Company and other early twentieth century companies.

A Demure Society Girl In Pastel

Artist: Haskell Coffin

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.

Smiling High Society Glamour Portrait

Artist: Rolf Armstrong

A delicate and dazzling example of Wladyslaw Theodor Benda’s portraiture with an exotic stylized Benda Girl. A mixed media work, on a verso addressed illustration board with a demure and soft focused masterfully conceived mysterious ingenue. This was presumably done as cover art and the back is dated 1928. Looks very much like covers done for Hearst’s International or The Shrine Magazine.

An Exotic Benda Girl Glamour Beauty

Artist: Wladyslaw Benda

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.

Letters

Artist: Zoe Mozert

An original pastel by noted cover illustrator Marland Stone a striking pastel portrait of the fetching and talented Silent Movie and early talkie star Norma Shearer.This appeared as a cover for Screenland Magazine under the title Spotlight Cover of Norma Shearer.

Spotlight Cover of Norma Shearer

Artist: Marland Stone

An original Brown & Bigelow published illustration for calendar use by their art director Clair V. Fry. Fry studied at the American Academy of Art in Chicago, the Chicago Art Institute and the Minneapolis Art Institute. He was Art Director of Brown and Bigelow for 35 years, working with Norman Rockwell, Maxfield Parrish and N. C. Wyeth. He taught at St. Paul School of Arts and Sciences and has frequently conducted painting workshops. He retired with his wife to Sun City, Arizona and was a member of the Arizona Watercolor Association.

Hatted Glamour Girl With Demitasse

Artist: Clair Fry

An exceptional and defining example of William Malherbe’s post impressionistic landscapes and portaiture — a circa 1920’s oil on stretched canvas. Malherbe is a well-listed and coveted artist with outstanding auction hammer prices. To these eyes, an inferior village view with no figures sold for a record $4,180.00 in 1988. Original label on verso, as seen, boldly signed lower left. This oil painting is an evocative and stirring example of his mastery of the post impressionistic landscape.

“La Seine aux Andelys”

Artist: William Malherbe

An early example of a fine art glamour painting, depicting “Birute”, a 14th century Lithuanian princess. Original commissioned artwork for calendar reproduction by Hoover and Sons. This oil on canvas is reproduced in The Great American Pin-Up (Martignetti and Meisel) on page 25, fig #15. Along with Angelo Asti, Whitroy was a prolific Art Nouveau era Victorian glamour artist.

Birute Lithuanian Princess

Artist: Hy Whitroy

« Previous Page