Grapefruit Moon Gallery

Original Art from the Grand Age of American Illustration

WWII

Andre Durenceau, the French-American illustrator and muralist, mines his Jewish heritage in this symbolist 1950s imagining of the sanctuary of a synagogue. Evoking horror and hope, this severe surrealist image presents a vision of resurrection in the aftermath of World War II. The oil on canvas is technically refined, and filled with historically resonant Judaica imagery from biblical to modern times. This piece, titled Invitation, has both the scope of mural art and the narrative detail of magazine illustration.

Invitation

Artist: Andre Durenceau
Price:  $8,500.00

This original gouache painting by Henry Clive was used as the cover of Randolph Hearst's American Weekly Magazine, August 6, 1944. One from a series of covers that glorified the beauty of women from the cultures America found itself allied with during the dark days of World War II, Global Glamour presented a rare opportunity for Clive to depict women from a variety of races in the guise of pin up and glamour art.

Global Glamour - Alaska

Artist: Henry Clive
Price:  S O L D

Original cover art from a story by Ed Harbarcher from the pages of the July 1973 Adventure for Men . Story is titled I Nailed The Nazis From A Galloping Goose. Artwork is a gouache on illustration boardby the listed illustrator Bruce Minney. Men's adventure is a genre of magazines that had its heyday in the 1950s and 1960s. Catering to a male audience, these magazines featured pin-up photography and lurid tales of adventure that typically featured wartime feats of daring, exotic travel, or conflict with wild animals.

From A Galloping Goose

Artist: Bruce Minney
Price:  S O L D

A striking in technique light and shadow in composition rare surviving original pastel on illustration board by Earl MacPherson created in the 1940s for a Patriotic pin-up brochure with text on how to survive an enemy military air raid and subsequent blackout. We will be selling all of the pastels from this important commissioned homeland wartime "Blackout Brochure". This was a cheeky, lighthearted morale boosting effort making great use of double entendre and the talents of MacPherson to fight fear during World War II.

Incendiary Bombs

Artist: Earl MacPherson
Price:  S O L D

An electric in composition rare surviving original pastel on illustration board by Earl MacPherson created in the 1940s for a Patriotic pin-up brochure with text on how to survive an enemy military air raid and subsequent blackout. We will be selling all of the pastels from this important commissioned homeland wartime "Blackout Brochure". This was a cheeky, lighthearted morale boosting effort making great use of double entendre and the talents of MacPherson to fight fear during World War II.

Comfort Beside You

Artist: Earl MacPherson
Price:  S O L D

This radiant, fabulously large original pastel by Rolf Armstrong was created in 1941 for the Brown & Bigelow Calendar Company. Titled "Figured To Win," this original and previously undocumented beautiful illustration incorporates two of the artist's great loves in life; sailing and Jewel Flowers. This pastel was owned for many years by Jewel herself, who was Armstrong's favorite model and dearest friend for nearly two decades.

Figured To Win

Artist: Rolf Armstrong
Price:  S O L D

This original 1942 oil-on-board artwork by well listed female artist Bettina Steinke was commissioned for a United States Government WWII poster titled "Keep 'Em Flying". The image also became popular as a calendar art print titled "When They Came Marching Home" for The Louis F. Dow calendar company during the years of World War II and the immediate post-war period. The image became one of the enduring pictures of a changing America during wartime, featuring a victory girl nurse and armed forces servicemen working together to protect the nation.

Keep 'Em Flying

Artist: Bettina Steinke
Price:  S O L D

A mixed media work by Alton S. Tobey in pencil and oils depicting a pair of African American Navy Midshipmen toiling at work. This work from the WPA era is handsomely framed in a period wide profile gesso frame behind glass.

The Climbers

Artist: Alton Tobey
Price:  Sold

Featuring a Depression-era machinist at work creating a Pratt & Whitney aircraft engine, this 1940 artwork by WPA artist Alton Tobey combines the unusual muted palate and composition of the regionalist movement with the dystopian feel of the surrealists. This powerful oil on canvas was created for the East Hartford Pratt & Whitney plant, and presents a deeply moving picture of industrialism in the lead up to World War II.

WPA Machinist

Artist: Alton Tobey
Price:  S O L D

 

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