Original Art from the Grand Age of American Illustration
A boldly colored and tightly rendered likely preliminary pastel pin-up illustration by Earl Moran, showing an art deco sailor girl living the life aquatic. This dates to the late 1930s, as the outbreak of war in Europe caused both a premonition of America’s eventual involvement into what would become World War II, and a boost in industrial production (particularly shipbuilding) […]
Artist: Earl Moran
One of the finest pastel pin-up illustrations ever created by Rolf Armstrong for the Brown & Bigelow Calendar Company, this appeared in 1940 with the title “The B & B Girl”. The model was Margery Crampton, Armstrong’s modernist streamlined muse and frequent sitter throughout the 1930s and early 1940s. Shortly after this pastel was […]
Artist: Rolf Armstrong
A gorgeous and very detailed framed preliminary graphite sketch by the legendary American pin-up artist Gil Elvgren, which was used in the making of the 1955 Brown & Bigelow calendar “Waiting For You”. As part of his process, Elvgren would pose a live model in his home studio and create a series of graphite sketches […]
Artist: Gil Elvgren
In May of 1919, on the advice of Sam Kingston, general manager for Florence Ziegfeld, Alberto Vargas applied to be the in-house artist for the Ziegfeld Follies. The rest, as they say, was history. At only 24 Vargas had already established himself as a freelance illustrator of beautiful women, with a sophisticated style inspired by Raphael […]
Artist: Alberto Vargas
An inventive stark modernist pin up mixed medium work by the Washington D.C. commercial artist and illustrator Russell Hill. The artist worked in gouache and airbrush to create sleek and unique images of the feminine form that found him much in demand in the advertising world of the 1940s. We have seen other examples […]
Artist: Russell Hill
An original oil painting by Earl Moran for the Brown & Bigelow Calendar Company used as a March 1947 calendar girl with caption that read “My teacher says I’m quite advanced – For one so young in years. And that the answers that I know – Should vanish all my fears.” This image also appeared […]
Artist: Earl Moran
A very large, bright and breathtaking nude pin-up created by Rolf Armstrong in 1939-40. Possibly deemed too risque for publication, this provocative work features a sensational rich cobalt blue and crimson red color palette. A wonderful candlelight view of a divine glamour girl seen scandalously nude through her crinoline wrap. This monumental pastel is one of only a handful of nudes by this iconic and prolific American illustrator and The Father of American Pin-up.
Artist: Rolf Armstrong
Alberto Vargas’ first work for Playboy Magazine appeared September of 1960, exactly one year before the publication of this artwork. In this flirtatious view, a pretty brunette in a diaphanous pink nightgown smiles to the viewer after applying red lipstick to her full lips. This was generously gifted by Hugh Hefner and Playboy Magazine to an Easter Seals charity telethon auction in Chicago in the 1970s. This work was chosen specifically by the foundation, which wanted an image that could be shown on TV.
Artist: Alberto Vargas
A delicately rendered pastel on illustration board by Henry Clive, capturing an exotic pretty nude pin-up model with ruby red lips envisioned as a sleeping beauty. This captures effortlessly the prolific artist’s unique take on feminine allure. We believe this to be an unpublished illustration, retains its handsome hand carved wood gallery frame and is handsomely cloth matted and lined behind glass.
Artist: Henry Clive
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
