20s NEGATIVE PHOTOGRAPH FROM GOLDEN AGE ILLUSTRATOR CHARLES SHELDON ESTATE FAB

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20s NEGATIVE PHOTOGRAPH FROM GOLDEN AGE ILLUSTRATOR CHARLES SHELDON ESTATE FAB :
$144.27

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ITEM: This is an original sepia toned camera negative from the estate of Charles Gates Sheldon the Golden Age of Illustration frequent cover artist for Photoplay and other Silent Movie magazine titles. Sheldon maintained a Studio at Carnegie Hall in New York City during the 1920s-30s, and photographed the glamorous Hollywood film stars of the era for his cover work. Stars that sat for Sheldon include, Jean Harlow, Clara Bow, Greta Garbo, Marion Davies, Gloria Swanson, Pola Negri, Olive Borden, Mary Pickford, Joan Crawford and literally dozens of others. What makes this collection so interesting is these stills were never meant for public consumption, they were taken to be used for his pastel portraiture work. Many are unscripted - Sheldon was an amateur photographer essentially and it is unique to see such glamorous stars posed often times so informally. For whatever reason many stars appeared in the nude or partially undressed, as this was the absolute zenith of The Ziegfeld Follies and New York City had caught the bug - the Burlesque Showgirl Roaring Twenties craze had taken Manhattan by storm.
Please note this listing is the original camera negative it was converted to a positive image shown here using our Epson Expression 11000XL scanner, the sale is for the negative.
You are offerding on a C. 1920s sepia 5\" by 7\" inch sepia negative photograph - a spirited Roaring Twenties flower girl pose of one of the illustrator\'s most frequently shot models, Mary Wesson we believe to be her name. The original pastel of this pose and setting was sold some years ago by our gallery - I included an image of that pastel for your viewing pleasure but it is not included in the sale of course!
This image is previously unseen and unpublished and as contained in a estate find suitcase of original stills and negatives taken by Charles Gates Sheldon. Just an incredible document, and very rare treasure that sells .
We have come into an extraordinary collection of antique Hollywood and assorted erotic photographs and memorabilia and are happy to combine multiple wins at no additional cost. 100% guaranteed original and vintage.

Here is the completed pastel of this setting previously sold by Grapefruit Moon gallery.

CONDITION: Some handling and storage wear and soiling lines as seen - these negatives were not at all carefully stored or archived, sadly the majority were completely destroyed. A few such as these camera negatives such as this listing, have stood the ravishes of time fairly well and remains a compelling document that is without parallel.Charles Sheldon was a prolific and gifted early1900\'s American Illustrator who specialized in \"pretty woman\" themedcover portraiture and advertising in the Art Nouveau and Edwardianstyles. After studying at the Art Students League, he went to Paris tostudy under the legendary Alphonse Mucha. He returned to America andset up a studio at Carnegie Hall in New York City.In 1918 Sheldon received his first pin-upcommission, a series of ads for La Vogue lingerie. He went on to do aseries of work for the Fox Shoe Company as well as front covers for Collier\'s Magazine, The Saturday Evening Post and Photoplay. By 1921 he was contributing high fashion portraitsto Woman\'s Home Companion and Theater magazine. Famous women all overthe world arranged to sit for portraits in his studio in Carnegie Hallin New York.The pastels he created for Photoplay 1925- 1930launched his career as a portrait cover artist. During this time periodmost of the stars sat three or four times for each of these portraits,later came cover art commissions for Screenland, Movie Classic and Radio Digest magazines.His glamorous interpretations of Clara Bow, MaeWest, Jean Harlow, Greta Garbo, Gilda Gray, Mary Pickford, ShirleyTemple and hundreds of other early tinsel town enchantresses were inhigh demand for these attention grabbing newsstand viewed publications.Charles Sheldon like many of his contemporaryillustrators was also a competent photographer, Grapefruit Moon Galleryrecently acquired a large archive of his Carnegie Hall studio portraitsthat we will be offering for sale on our site in the coming months.In 1936, Breck Shampoo asked this famous portraitartist to develop a national ad campaign and the ever-successful \"BreckGirl\" advertisements were born, Sheldon is known to have created 109portraits for them until his retirement in the late 1950\'s.Charles Sheldon was one the highest paid illustrators of his time andhis cover illustrations were ingrained in the minds and eyes of theAmerican people. He died in 1961 at his home in Springfield with hisbeloved summer gardens.