#vintage illustration
All Saints’ Day in New Orleans – Decorating the Tombs in One of the City Cemeteries - John Durkin, for Harper’s Weekly, November 1885
Trimming the Tree by George Hughes. Detail from cover December 24, 1949 Saturday Evening Post.
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Lot 191. Anemici, by Anonymous, 1909.
49 ½ x 64 ½ in./125.7 x 163.8 cm
That scarlet blush of health you see on the lady’s cheeks and gown, and the strength of the dog she carries with her – all to promote iron pills to combat anemia, with a 15-day regimen. Available at all the best pharmacies.
Available at auction June 26. Learn More>>
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Cycles Gladiator. ca. 1895. Anonymous.
51 7/8 x 38 1/8 in./131.7 x 96.8 cm
A lithographic masterpiece. Acclaimed as one of the world’s greatest posters, this image of a flame-tressed sylph, propelled among the stars by the Gladiator and its winged pedals, has been appropriated throughout culture ever since its debut in 1895. Shockingly, it remains anonymous, despite the presence of faint initials L.W. in the lower right corner.
Available at auction June 26. Learn More>>
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Dirnentragodie (“Tragedy of the Street”). 1927. Josef Fenneker.
36 ½ x 72 1/8 in./92.7 x 183.2 cm
You can already see, in this riveting two-sheet poster, why the Danish actress Asta Nielsen was the first international star of silent film: the large dark eyes, a haunted face, her boyish figure. She often portrayed headstrong, passionate women trapped by tragic circumstances: transforming this melodramatic trope with naturalism and overt eroticism – leading her films to be heavily censored in the U.S. “Dirnentragodie,” or ‘Tragedy of the Street,’ was Nielsen’s final silent role. The film epitomizes the Weimar movement called The New Objectivity, which tried to create a middle ground between Brechtian alienation and Expressionist emotionalism by forcing middle-class characters into the oppressive social circumstances of the street. “Dirnentragodie” features Nielsen as an aging prostitute who takes in a young man running away from his middle-class family. She fantasizes about a different future; the man returns to his family; she’s accused of murdering her pimp. This 1927 Fenneker design was used for the release of the film in Vienna.
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Pullman / Vacation Lands Are Calling. 1936. William P. Welsh.
20 ¾ x 27 3/8 in./52.8 x 69.4 cm
She stands on the top of the world, painting on a mountaintop as the seagulls wave in semaphore. “Vacation lands are calling.”
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After the holiday presents, thank-you notes should follow.
This charming note from “Your little friends” Katie and Elizabeth was written on January 2, 1926.
From the Adèle Goodman Clark papers, 1849-1978, Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library.
[Image Description: A penciled note on children’s stationery thanks “Mrs. Clark” for her gift of beads, basket and handkerchief.]
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