Original Advertising Art

The Grapefruit Moon Gallery collection of original advertising art features commissioned artwork created by illustrators for poster design or for print ads in American mainstream magazines. In their day, these colorful full-page ads in publications like The Saturday Evening Post were as anticipated as the cover art, news, or human interest stories. Illustrators readily lent their craft to a wide array of products and placements, and the artwork and product often at times became synonymous as in the case of the Campbell's Soup Kids by Grace Drayton and the series of Hires Root Beer ads by Maxfield Parrish.

Golden Gallery featured pieces
cream of wheat, rastus, americana, advertising, brewer
Lest We Forget
B. Cory Kilvert

cream of wheat, rastus, americana, advertising, brewer
Breakfast's Ready Li'l Missy
William V. Cahill

Recently Added to Original Advertising Art
Vacation Requirement
American Artist (C. 1910 )
Dating to approximately 1910, this large and expertly rendered gouache painting likely was used as magazine advertising art for Kodak Cameras in American weekly magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post. This bears a Forbes Litho Company of Boston ad agency verso label and bears the name of "Thompson" on the back of the illustration board, the artist is unidentified at this point. Titled "Vacation Requirement" this is great early 20th century advertising Americana treasure with a stylish Edwardian attired family cooling off at the beach.

The 1927 Cadillac Convertible
Cardwell Higgins (1927 )
A decorative and extreme Art Deco/Machine Age pen and ink advertising drawing by Cardwell Higgins for the 1927 Cadillac Convertible. Work is signed and dated lower right and beautifully framed and matted behind glass; from the estate of Charles Martignette. Higgins was an accomplished draftsman and had a keen eye for design and graphics as seen in this smartly rendered work.

Sand Man's Coming Soon
School of Grace Drayton (1930s)
Grapefruit Moon Gallery just unearthed a small collection of original Campbell's Soup Kids illustrations. These appeared as print ads in countless American mainstream publications such as The Saturday Evening Post in the 1930s. In this offering a Dolly Dingle-type Campbell's Soup Kid puts her doll to bed. Accompanying text reads; "Not a drop of Campbell's left upon her spoon, So the good old sand man's Coming mighty soon!" Nicely matted and framed behind glass with typewritten caption window.

Dandy To Me
School of Grace Drayton (1930)
One of the more surreal takes on the 1929 stock market crash which led to the Great Depression is on view in this October 1930 Campbell's Soup advertisement which appeared in The Saturday Evening Post. A Campbell's Soup Kid reads the latest stock news from a state of the art glass domed stock ticker machine. Wishful text reads "The news that I'm reading look's dandy to me. Like a plateful of Campbell's Which fills me with glee." This original illustration painting is a supremely odd example of Americana advertising.

Campbell's Soup Kid Railroad Scene
School of Grace Drayton (1933)
Grapefruit Moon Gallery just unearthed a small collection of original Campbell's Soup Kids illustrations. These appeared as print ads in countless American mainstream publications such as The Saturday Evening Post in the 1930s. In this offering a Dolly Dingle-type character Campbell's Soup Kid doubles as a railroad flagbearer with lantern ablaze attesting to the importance of the railroad in 20th century American history. Verso is stamped with a usage print date of 10/11/33. Painting is nicely matted and framed behind glass and ready to hang.

Campbell's Soup Kid Aviator
In the style of Grace Drayton (1931 -1933)
Grapefruit Moon Gallery just unearthed a small collection of original Campbell's Soup Kids illustrations. These appeared as print ads in countless American mainstream publications such as The Saturday Evening Post in the 1930s. In this offering a Dolly Dingle character Campbell's Soup Kid is putting the finishing touches on his or her soapbox derby bi-plane early aviation age-inspired racing car. Nicely matted and framed behind glass and ready to hang.

Aris Britland Doeskins
Cardwell Higgins (1934 )
An inventive stylized colorful dated gouache advertising painting by Cardwell Higgins for "Aris Britland Doeskin" gloves. An inventive color palette and attention to fashion style details make this a compelling and inventive example. A tear sheet of the printed work from the artist's scrapbook is included in the sale.

Secret To A Lovely Figure
Cardwell Higgins (1942)
A 1942 original pastel on board by Cardwell Higgins created for an advertising display sign for "Adola Brassieres". Higgins executed a series of these images all with erotically charged pin-up girl style and often times set in Hawaii as in this example. This is the only known surviving pastel from this campaign, the text on the die-cut display created from the artwork read "The Secret To a Lovely Figure".

He Sure Thinks He's Hiding
Edward V. Brewer (1916)
An early original commissioned painting by The Saint Paul Minnesota artist Edward V. Brewer for The Cream of Wheat Company. Image appeared in countless magazines in 1916 and was one of 102 works the artist created for the cereal giant. Titled "He Sho' Thinks He's Hiding" the work appears as a full page color-plate (page 68) in Dave Stivers collectors book, "The Nabisco Brands Collection of Cream of Wheat Advertising Art."

Elegant Woman & Wolfhounds
Unknown (1920s )
An elegant art deco gouache-on-board created for General Motors who commissioned this work for their Cadillac ad campaign during the late 1920s-early 30s. This remarkable composition features a modernist, jazz age, formally attired woman flanked by majestic wolfhounds. She is shown entering a castle as her Cadillac touring sedan rests among palm trees in the background. Work is unsigned, in the manner of Edouard Benito or George Wolfe Plank.

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