spiritual

Grapefruit Moon Gallery is delighted to offer “Out of the Darkness” by the well listed Brandywine School female artist Edith Ballinger Price. This ethereal view was painted in 1920 and exhibited in 1925 at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Arts annual. Image features a really inventive and inspired angelic mother enveloping her young children, one of whom is depicted as blind as was the artist’s young adopted daughter. Fans of the American Arts & Crafts movement have become attracted to the Brandywine school, as the aesthetic of the artwork complements Bungalow and Prairie School interiors.

Out of the Darkness

Artist: Edith Ballinger Price
Price: $6,500.00

A sophisticated, topical Orson Lowell pen & ink drawing featuring a Japanese soldier bowing before a mythically inspired goddess of death (named by Lowell Mortise, a play on the latin word for death) with the caption So Sorry – have made mistake. The age of this piece, which dates to the first years of the 20th century, makes this by all accounts a commentary on the massive casualties ensued during the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-1905, a war Japan won, but at a human price much too high.

The Spoils of War

Artist: Orson Lowell
Price: $1,500.00

A grotesque and unsavory gathering of creatures is assembled in this inventive signed work which is disguised as a children’s fairy tale – in this mixed medium drawing from the German expressionist artist Heinrich Kley. Here two nude nymphs shower yellow flowers upon the body of an upright champion in the heroic mold, while an […]

The Jealousy of Man

Artist: Heinrich Kley
Price: Sold

What is Man That Thou Art Mindful of Him? asks this inspirational and spiritual large male nude oil painting by the well-listed New Rochelle based illustrator and artist Walter Beach Humphrey. This new to the market, prize-winning ‘Rock of Ages’ scene was owned for many years by the artist’s daughter, Constance June Humphrey. As a young child in the late 1920s, Constance was a favored model of her father’s friend Norman Rockwell. Humphrey and Rockwell shared a New Rochelle hayloft when they were both starting out. The exceptional provenance and history of the painting evoke the spirit of when it was painted and the special talents and life of the painter.

What Is Man?

Artist: Walter Beach Humphrey
Price: $4,000.00

An allegorical angelic scene by noted American fine artist, muralist, and illustrator Charles Allen Winter titled “Liberty Unchained.” Our research leads us to believe this was an interior magazine illustration for Cosmopolitan, which ran a series of spiritually relevant writings by Roycroft founder and early twentieth century philosopher Elbert Hubbard under the title “Little Sermons”–all illustrated by Winter. Several of Winter’s “Sermons” paintings were then reproduced in Hubbard’s own publication “The Fra.” From the estate of Charles Martignette, the sadly departed author of the “The Great American Pin-Up.”

Liberty Unchained

Artist: Charles Winter
Price: Sold

A lyrical Golden Age of Illustration dated 1921 oil on canvas painting by Edwin John Prittie for The Mary Frances Story Book – a children’s book by Jane Eayre Fryer published by John C. Winston. In this whimsical lush rendering a child with a fishing net joists with a red dragon in a fantasy-scape surround […]

“Wow,” Shrieked The Dragon

Artist: Edwin John Prittie
Price: SOLD !!

This dark and cleverly conceived and technically brilliant tinted pen & ink drawing with gouache highlights exemplifies the German expressionist artist Heinrich Kley’s brooding and satirical vision of mankind. At first take, we see a bear, ogre, and frog cavorting in a circus-like atmosphere, but on further reflection the scene turns darker. Kley’s pessimism […]

Bizarre Idea

Artist: Heinrich Kley
Price: Sold

A finely executed dated 1927 pen & ink illustration on board by Cardwell Higgins with inventive art deco style. A Persian attired Orientalist showgirl is depicted in a burlesque vaudeville-era Ziegfeld Follies inspired theatrical production. The work recalls the erotic and stylized pen & ink works of British artist Aubrey Beardsley.

A Persian Orientalist Showgirl

Artist: Cardwell Higgins
Price: Sold

A large ethereal and transcendent fantasy themed pastel by Frederick Stuart Church firmly planted in the then dominant Art Nouveau movement. Four angelic maidens emerge from graceful flowing lines conjured mid flight, the artwork highlights the artist’s soothing and decorative palette and imaginative sense of composition.

Four Celestial Angels

Artist: Frederick Stuart Church
Price: Sold

Grapefruit Moon Gallery is proud to offer several scarce original paintings from the American Illustrator Charles Bosseron Chambers, including this large, dazzling, and spiritually evocative work titled Guardian Angel and Boy. Compositionally, this is a complex, stark, and questioning work. Thematically, the young boy–holding a model airplane–represents the machine age and ongoing industrialization. The angel is shown in a soft focused diffused and ethereal otherwordly world, while the boy is almost photo-realist in appearance. Their interaction calls into question the relationship between modernity and spirituality. Oil is titled on verso and framed in a wonderful carved gold gesso frame.

The Guardian

Artist: Charles Bosseron Chambers
Price: Sold