Original Art from the Grand Age of American Illustration
The story behind this original art deco pin up pastel by Rolf Armstrong provides a window into the artist's biography and the inner workings of the illustration business during the Great Depression. The work originally appeared as a Brown & Bigelow calendar with the title You'd Be Surprised. Like several other of Armstrong's surviving pastel […]
Artist: Rolf Armstrong
Price: $18,500.00
An early and exceptional original pastel by Rolf Armstrong which was marketed under the name Dream Girl or Dream Girl II and reproduced as an early calendar print by Brown & Bigelow. Appeared on a 1928 Calendar but was most likely done several years earlier. A defining and important early example by the " Father of American Pin-up". A printed Brown & Bigelow advertising calendar from the year 1930 is included in the sale.
Artist: Rolf Armstrong
Price: $23,500.00
For Sale: signed and inscribed pastel by Rolf Armstrong showcasing Jewel Flowers, his most iconic model, muse, closest friend and confidant.
Artist: Rolf Armstrong
Price: $6,500.00
On offer is the final original preliminary pastel by Rolf Armstrong for his late 1950s Brown & Bigelow Calendar Company calendar "Delightful".
Artist: Rolf Armstrong
Price: $5,500.00
A charming and warmly fraternal charcoal portrait of Jewel Flowers dated 1945, that was inscribed by the American artist Rolf Armstrong and given to the models parents - Mr. & Mrs. Colton Flowers. As a teenager Jewel Flowers was crowned "Miss Lumberton, North Carolina", she moved to New York City at 17 after graduating […]
Artist: Rolf Armstrong
Price: Sold
Early Rolf Armstrong artwork, created as 1919 sheet music cover. Provenance includes the collection of Kenneth Anger, author of Hollywood Babylon.
Artist: Rolf Armstrong
Price: $11,500.00
In part one of our blog series on Jewel Flowers, we explored how the model rose from teenaged North Carolina beauty queen to become muse and adored friend to illustrator and Father of American Pin-Up, Rolf Armstrong as well as how the pair's keen eye for fashion translated into the gorgeous costumes seen in Armstrong's pastels. […]
This alluring jazz age portrait of Evelyn Brent by Rolf Armstrong of silent film star Evelyn Brent was commissioned as original artwork for the cover of the March 1930 issue of Screenland Magazine. Armstrong executed a series of covers for this title between 1929 - 1930; he once remarked that Brent had the most perfect face he had ever portrayed. Pastel is matted and framed behind glass and in a fine state of original conservation.
Artist: Rolf Armstrong
Price: $8,500.00
Carmen, painted in 1929, is one of four monumental and epic, larger than life oil paintings created by Rolf Armstrong after his return from a yearlong excursion to Paris, where the artist was inspired by the fine art salon movement nudes which were on display in museums, galleries, and private homes throughout France. Known as the Paris […]
Artist: Rolf Armstrong
Price: SOLD
Earlier this year, the Society of Illustrators inducted American illustrator and pin-up artist Rolf Armstrong into their Illustrator's Hall of Fame. Since 1958, the Society of Illustrators has elected to its Hall of Fame artists recognized for their distinguished achievement in the art of illustration. Artists are elected by former presidents of the Society and […]
