Original Art from the Grand Age of American Illustration
In this original oil on canvas painting by the prolific American artist Forrest H. Clough, a blond pirate girl styled pin-up beauty discovers a bounty of buried treasures from a previous shipwreck. This fresh to the market vintage calendar artwork is titled on the verso “Pirate’s Treasure” and is a published vintage example of the great American pin up.
Artist: F. H. Clough
This sassy secretary pin up pastel was created by Earl Moran for the Brown & Bigelow Calendar Company in about 1940. The work appeared as a mutoscope card with the title “A Sweet Job”. Office girl pin-up depictions were common during the pre-WWII lean economic years of the Great Depression, and this is an inspired example of that genre. A published mutoscope card of the image is included in the sale.
Artist: Earl Moran
This important and defining oil on canvas portrait features a stylized Mata Hari in the midst of one of her sensual, almost trance-like dances. The highly moody piece is a wonderful example of the 1900-1915 century Spanish modernismo movement by Anselmo Miguel Nieto, one of its brightest talents. This classically inspired yet fully modern painting applies formal chiaroscuro technique (the exaggerated use of light and dark to create a dramatic perspective) to one of the great courtesans of early 20th century Europe to create a sexually and politically subversive yet beautiful work.
Artist: Anselmo Miguel Nieto
Legendary American pin-up illustrator Earl Moran was one of the first to discover a muse in the iconic Hollywood legend Marilyn Monroe. During the late 1940s Monroe famously worked as a pin-up model for the Blue Book agency, posing under her real name of Norma Jeane Dougherty. After Moran transitioned away from the hectic life of a calendar artist to focus on his fine art painting, he revisited Marilyn, who was by then a platinum blonde Hollywood bombshell, through an arrangement with The Aaron Brothers Galleries, Laguna Beach CA.
Artist: Earl Moran
A kinetic art deco era flapper girl bathing beauty is captured frolicking in the waves in this original oil on canvas pin-up painting by William Soare. Likely created for a pin-up calendar, the work is signed lower left and also marked on the back canvas in the artists hand. William Fulton Soare was a versatile illustrator who was prolific during the 1920s – 30s creating covers for many pulp magazines titles and Boy’s Adventure Magazines. His first assignments were illustrations for calendar reproduction.
Artist: William Soare
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This early original pin-up pastel which Earl Moran created for the Brown & Bigelow Calendar Company of Saint Paul Mn is a variation of the 1942 mutoscope card “Easy To Take”. It is unclear whether Moran liked his naughty nurse themed offering so much that he created this similarly styled image soon after its publication, or if this was Moran’s original idea, and Brown & Bigelow asked for him to turn from the French Maid homecoming piece seen here into an example of the popular candy striper pin up which was published as a hotcha girl image.
Artist: Earl Moran
In her most erotically charged, fur clad pose, Marie Prevost is the epitome of the jazz age flapper in this rare early 1920s view. One of Edwin Bower Hesser’s classic portraits, this showgirl inspired Hollywood glamour portrait captures a soft-focus and decadent view of the scandal-ridden star, who is now as much remembered for her tragic death as her glorious career. This large-format, double weight, matte finish photograph is an unusual and important look at the cult icon in her prime.
Artist: Edwin Bower Hesser
An early offering by legendary American pin-up artist and cover illustrator Peter Driben likely created in the late 1920s when the artist was a resident of Paris France and contributed popular illustrations in various French showgirl magazines chronicling the exciting Parisian nightlife and its lovely erotic burlesque Follies Dancers. Nicely matted and framed behind glass; from the famed collection of Charles Martignette.
Artist: Peter Driben
An enchanting watercolor painting by Alex Luders depicting a smoldering nude yet concealed flapper girl in the art deco manner. The detail on this is sensational. The artist Alex Luders did much commercial Hollywood advertising poster art for Fox Films including Shirley Temple and Jack Holt’s starring turn in the 1935 feature film The Littlest Rebel. This is presumed to also be a commissioned work for an as of yet undetermined art deco era movie campaign.
Artist: Alex Luders
A large and well rendered oil painting by William Medcalf, likely created for The Brown & Bigelow Calendar Company. This dates from the 1940s to early 50s; an era of situationally challenged cheesecake themed entanglements. In this instance, a red head bathing beauty has been startled (or perhaps merely amused) by a green frog. William Medcalf was a leading and prolific illustrator who worked in a variety of styles. His surviving pin-up commissions are especially coveted and this is a fresh-to-the-market, masterful work.
Artist: William Medcalf
