This deliriously posed nude original artwork is by Earle K. Bergey and was created for a 1933 cover of La Paree Stories.
Artist: Earle K. Bergey
pre-code
A large c. 1936 signed pastel portrait by Zoe Mozert of the Hollywood film star Loretta Young from about the time of her starring turn in Ramona. Zoe Mozert was a much in demand Hollywood film magazine cover artist during the pre-code years of Hollywood tinsel town glamour. She later settled into a long and […]
Artist: Zoe Mozert
Pre-code Hollywood starlet Verna Hillie is the subject of this erotically charged pastel portrait which was likely used as a cover for the title Reel Movie Fun, a short lived wild and racy publication. Pastel is dated and signed on the back and the sitter is identified in the artist’s hand as seen.
Artist: Cardwell Higgins
In an unusual blonde hatted view by George Hurrell, Joan Crawford is captured in her most captivating glory by the master of Hollywood photography George Hurrell. In a gentle sepia on a large format double weight semi-gloss paperstock, Hurrell captures the beauty of the young Joan Crawford, with her effortless art deco style, and emboldened flapper sensibility. This is blindstamped by Hurrell lower right, and inkstamped on verso.
Artist: George Hurrell
In a glamorous wide-brimmed hat, Joan Crawford displays the smoldering intense gaze that was to become her trademark in this image by the incomparable George Hurrell. This double weight gallery still is the personality portrait at its finest, on a high end double weight photostock, and never intended for public distribution. A pre-code form of glamorous sophistication the likes of with Hollywood rarely saw.
Artist: George Hurrell
The smoldering temper, and exotic sensuality of Lili Damita attracted as much attention in pre-code Hollywood as her films, and this Greta Garbo inspired photograph by Elmer Fryer captures her unusual attractions. This large format, double weight sepia gallery portrait features the French beauty in ornate art deco headdress, and displays Fryer’s sophisticated eye.
Artist: Elmer Fryer
Paramount pictures glamour photographer Otto Dyar captures pre-code starlet Adrienne Ames at her most glamorous in this large format, art deco gallery portrait. The press snipe on the verso evokes the sophistication with which Ames was identified, and the fashion icon as which she was known. “Brown and tomato red creates the striking color combination of this rough crepe street frock worn by Adrienne Ames in “From Hell to Heaven”, a Paramount pictures.”
Artist: Otto Dyar
Ruth Chatterton is remembered as one of the most sophisticated beauties of the pre-code era of American film, and her refined and often chilly beauty is showcased wonderfully in this evocative portrait by the renowned Russell Ball. Signed in grease pencil by the photographer, this large format, marginless print was created for Chatterton’s personal collection, and this was printed by Ball himself and captures the spirit of subject, artist, and the art deco moment in which it was created.
Artist: Russell Ball
A rare and exceedingly beautiful gelatin silver, double weight gallery photograph of film star Myrna Loy by Laszlo Willinger. This image utilizes a mirrored table to capture the beautiful Loy in a double image. The mirror image was one of the most innovative trends in art deco photography, as it relied on the precision lighting and bold crisp costuming that typified the period. Large double-weight photographs such as this were never intended for widespread distributions, and were hand printed by the photographers themselves.
Artist: Laszlo Willinger
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.
Artist: Marland Stone
