Oct 15, 2020 - Sale 2547

Sale 2547 - Lot 127

Price Realized: $ 1,750
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,500 - $ 3,500

ARTHUR C. RADEBAUGH (1906-1974)

UNITED AIR LINES / THE MAIN LINE AIRWAY COAST - TO - COAST. Circa 1938.


42 3/4x27 inches, 108 1/2x68 1/2 cm.
Condition B+ / B: losses, small tears and repaired tears at edges; creases and scuffing in margins and image; darkening at edges; pin holes in corners. Paper.

This highly-detailed, realistic depiction of a Douglas DC-3 taking off is a masterpiece of mid-century American Modernism and Machine-Age airbrush technique. Radebaugh's love of the airbrush began with his studies at the Art Institute in Chicago. Although virtually unknown in the poster community, he became a prolific illustrator for magazines including Esquire, Fortune, Motor and Advertising Agency, and produced advertising for Coke and United Airlines as well as the auto industry. His trademark style was the ultimate in "luminous Art Deco . . . a sense of industrial design that was both pragmatic and prescient; he took what was cutting edge . . . and made them more elegant, functional and fantastical to behold" (http://arthur-radebaugh.blogspot.com/).