Grapefruit Moon Gallery

Original Art from the Grand Age of American Illustration

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Grapefruit Moon Gallery is honored to offer “They Shall Obtain Mercy,” a large and important gouache which served as preparation for one of 11 allegorical murals Savage created for The Elks Veteran Memorial in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood. The works are still on display at this landmark destination. This deeply moving and symbolic work reflects on the hardships and loss of World War I. This poignant, decorative, important artwork is beautifully matted and framed, and the art has a room-commanding presence.

They Shall Obtain Mercy

Artist: Eugene Savage
Price:  Sold

The tenth and final proposed mural painting by Mahlon Blaine for a New York City interior showroom for industrial designer Paul Ritter MacAlister, created in 1939 under the pseudonym G.Christopher Hudson. In this original gouache painting a nude uses a movie camera to capture assorted gadgets working together to become a Rube Goldberg machine, in a pointed commentary on the needless complexities of life in the machine age. Painting is handsomely framed and matted behind glass and is initialed lower left from the estate of Paul Ritter MacAlister.

The Chain Reaction

Artist: Mahlon Blaine
Price:  Sold

The ninth of ten proposed mural paintings by Mahlon Blaine created for a never completed Paul Ritter MacAlister interior space in New York City. Under the pseudonym G. Christopher Hudson Blaine developed this sequence of dystopian views of the machine age. In this work a nude hand feeds dollar bills to an animate yet robotic cash register which serves as the greedy symbolic manifestation of industry. Again the artist employs a patriotic red & white and blue color palette to alarming effect.

Feeding The Man

Artist: Mahlon Blaine
Price:  $5,500.00

The fourth of ten 1939 mural designs by Mahlon Blaine, which were intended to become murals for the studio or showroom of noted New York City interior designer Paul MacAlister. In “The Toast of Manhattan” a nude goddess with serpents for hair pours a martini for a tuxedo clad robot as the adjoining stone masonry watches on disapprovingly. Even the tenements have eyes in this surrealist and inspired visionary artwork. Marked on verso design #4, this comes beautifully matted and framed from the estate of Paul MacAlister.

The Toast of Manhattan

Artist: Mahlon Blaine
Price:  Sold

The third of ten gouache paintings created by Mahlon Blaine in 1939 under the pseudonym G. Christopher Hudson, offering a dark and pessimistically erotic take on the skyscraper landscape that was taking over Manhattan. In this scene a nude Medusa like creature ball dances with a robot in a high wire styled act on scaffolding high above the city. Blaine treated each individual painting in the series as its own completed stand alone artwork, with painstaking detail and inspired yet terrifying imagery.

Nude Dancing with Robot

Artist: Mahlon Blaine
Price:  Sold

In this work, the first of the series, and the image that was to greet visitors as they entered the room, a nude showgirl dancer does a sad burlesque, her shadow duplicated in silhouette in a Coney Island funhouse style. Both evoking and critiquing the sordid and semi-underground world of Depression-era girlie shows, the artwork lures the viewer into the underbelly of the city that is explored in the nine images that follow.

The Sad Burlesque

Artist: Mahlon Blaine
Price:  $4,000.00

A colorful estate fresh pastel sketch by Rolf Armstrong C. 1930 of his lithe modernist pin-up model Margery Crampton, posed on the bow of a well rendered Chris-Craft Runabout art deco boat. This was a preliminary sketch for the August 1930 issue of College Humor Magazine. While unsigned, pastel is guaranteed to be by the hand of Rolf Armstrong, from the collection of Ken Galente former owner of Silver Screen Gallery in New York.

The Boating Type

Artist: Rolf Armstrong
Price:  Sold

In this nostalgic themed oil and graphite on board, Bill Medcalf offers a view of a sleigh arriving at a rural family home. Evoking memories of ancestral Christmases past, the scene features a smiling group of three generations of kin enjoying a snowy morning. The mustached man and woman holding a baby are featured in many images created by Medcalf, and presumably these were intended to become a year long calendar, which tells a story of a family through time.

Winter Wonderland

Artist: William Medcalf
Price:  S O L D

Capitalizing on the mid-1950s nostalgia for a lost vision of the American heartland, William Medcalf presents a view of a 19th century midwest barn dance, with smiling couples who appear plucked straight of out of the 1955 Academy Award winning musical Oklahoma!. This large, colorful, highly expressive oil on board with graphite highlights was created as the final preliminary painting for a published Brown & Bigelow calendar image. During the 50s, Bil Medcalf was known as one of the company’s star illustrators, and created numerous 12 page calendar series based around themes of classic Americana.

Barn Dance

Artist: William Medcalf
Price:  S O L D

During the 50s, Bil Medcalf was one of Brown & Bigelow’s star illustrators, creating 12 page calendar series based around themes of classic Americana. Here, he evokes a classic 4th of July celebration with revelers enjoying a day at Riverside Park. From the soldier checking out the ravishing redhead disembarking her carriage, to the new parents cooing over their baby buggy, the scene evokes a vision of a simpler time, and a patriotic and nostalgic sense of 19th century America.

Riverside Park, 4th of July

Artist: William Medcalf
Price:  S O L D

 

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