Original Art from the Grand Age of American Illustration
George Petty created this dynamic original pin-up painting as cover art for the souvenir program for the 1946 Ice-Capades (the sixth year of its production which took place in New York City at Rockefeller Center). The image shows a modernist winged pin-up girl deftly soaring through the air on figure skates against a blue background. This particular […]
Artist: George Petty
In the 1960s, after a successful career as a pulp and later paperback cover artist, Harold McCauley was faced with the reality of a dwindling market for his brand of sci-fi and fantasy illustration. Moving away from freelance work, the artist found employment as a company illustrator for The Martin Marietta Corporation, an American manufacturing company […]
Artist: Harold McCauley
A breezy Jazz-Age American impressionist painting from the 1920s by the New York City illustrator artist, illustrator and anarchist Modest Stein. A young contemplative couple with a sense for fashion eye a possible future as one as they gaze out together over the Eastern seaboard. The artist worked extensively for romance themed titles for Street & […]
Artist: Modest Stein
This dark and mesmerizing oil painting was created as cover art for the 1955 Pyramid paperback book title For I Have Sinned – The Confession Of A Paris Streetwalker by Ruth Sachs. The image shows a pretty brunette perched at her vanity as she readies herself to face the darkness hidden in Paris, the city of light. The […]
Artist: Attributed to Victor Olson
This oil on illustration board Pyramid Books paperback cover painting was created by by Victor Olson for a 1953 edition of Houseboy by Edison Marshall written under the nom de plum Walton Fairbank (ostensibly because of the controversial topic of interracial relationships explored in the title).The story was originally written as a Jim Crow title in the late […]
Artist: Victor Olson
A bawdy smoking redheaded bad girl finds herself proverbially “on the fence” and garnering the attention of a pair of well articulated convincing hayseeds in this large and wonderful original paperback book cover illustration by Sam Cherry. Painted in the 1950s, an oil on illustration board which was created for an as of yet unidentified paperback title exploring […]
Artist: Sam Cherry
Unquestionably, Carney’s Burlesque was one of the weirder cover offerings from the lurid sleaze paperback publishers Uni-books; a reissue of a British pulp story that changed both the name of the protagonist and author to Steve Harragan. Uni-books created the private eye Harragan character out of thin air, the only thing connecting him from one adventure […]
Artist: Walter Popp
A signed gouache on illustration board painting by Harry Barton, created as the cover for Dorine Clark’s 1959 novel Hell Cat. This original artwork is a prime example of the boundary pushing, subversive imagery that helped draw readers to the taboo and lurid stories put out by pulp paperback publishers. These titles often pushed the boundaries of […]
Artist: Harry Barton
This uninhibited and seedy painting by Raymond Johnson appeared as the cover of the 1953 Avon Books Paperback edition of The Untamed Wife Of Louis Scott. Originally published in 1950 under the title The Gift Of Glory, this W. Carrol Monroe novel told the story of Susan Scott, a dope fiend hedonist living a wanton life in post war America. Though […]
Artist: Raymond Johnson
An inventive example of modern abstract art by the prolific pulp artist Virgil Finlay, signed and dated 1966 and titled on verso “Gambling Man”. Notations found on the back of the painting in Virgil Finlay’s handwriting read “The buttons of the jailer,”January 6, 1966, on reading Brian Moore re Caffey.)
Artist: Virgil Finlay
