Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 12

Herman Rose
"Manhattan Looking East, " Herman Rose, WPA New York City View from Midtown

1954

About the Item

Herman Rose (1909 - 2007) Manhattan Looking East (View from Midtown), 1952-54 Oil on canvas 26 x 28 inches Signed lower right Fairfield Porter wrote an essay in ArtNews on this exact painting in 1955. Please inquire for a copy of the article. Literature: Fairfield Porter, "Herman Rose Paints a Picture," ArtNews, April 1955 Volume 54, Number 2, illustrated. Herman Rose was best known for his depictions of cityscapes of New York City. Herman Rappaport was born in Brooklyn, New York. in 1909. Herman Rose was the professional pseudonym of Herman Rappaport. Originally trained as a draftsman and studied at the National Academy of Design from 1927 to 1929, he was later employed by the Works Progress Administration's Murals Division under Arshile Gorky from 1934 until 1939. In 1939, after experimenting with a variety of contemporary expressionistic styles, Rose decided to paint from life. Working mostly in East New York and East Canarsie in Brooklyn, and in Manhattan, Rose began to paint roof tops and street scenes. Rappaport began using the name Herman Rose when he held his first solo art exhibition in 1946 at the Charles Egan Gallery in New York City. Although he initially began as an Expressionistic painter, he became known for small, light-filled Impressionist paintings of still life, cityscapes and skies by the early 1950s. His paintings and images were often composed of very small dabs of paint and tiny, blurry "squares," which combined to create the image on canvas, his favorite medium. Often described as a "lyrical painter" Rose's work "interpreted traditional subjects: landscape, still life and the figure like the Post-Impressionists from whom he developed his own style, Rose built up forms from distinct touches of color that don't entirely blend in the viewer's eye. This gives his surfaces an active quality that flattens forms, one of the great lessons of modernism." Herman Rose's work received official recognition when Ms. Dorothy Miller of Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) included his work in an exhibition called, "15 Americans," alongside work by Clyfford Still, Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock. New York Times art critic Hilton Kramer wrote of Rose's work in 1981, "{he} must surely be counted among the most beautiful works anyone has produced in this challenging medium for many years." The Art in America art critic Lawrence Campbell wrote of his work in 1990, "Herman Rose, who is, in my opinion, the greatest living painter of landscape and still life in the U.S., has never for a moment abandoned the practice of painting from direct observation. Yet when Rose looks at anything, he seems able to participate with his entire being in the scene 'out there,' seeing beyond the relationships of space, distance and comparative size, or even of reflected light. It is this intensity of perception that becomes the true subject of his painting, rather than the subject itself as it is seen by others." Over the next forty years Rose's works were featured in over 20 separate solo art exhibitions, including a group show, at the Louis Stern Gallery in Beverly Hills, CA which featured Marc Chagall, Henri Fantin-Latour, Alberto Giacometti, Robert Maplethorpe, Henri Matisse, Edwin Dickinson, Georgia O'Keeffe and Pablo Picasso. His last solo exhibition took place at the Mercury Gallery in 2007. His work is in the collections of several major museums including the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Smithsonian Institution, and the National Academy of Design. Rose also worked as an art teacher and professor. He taught at Brooklyn College from 1949 until 1951. He held additionally posts at Hofstra University, Pratt Institute and Queens College before taking a teaching position at The New School from 1963 until his retirement in 1990.
  • Creator:
    Herman Rose (1909 - 2007, American)
  • Creation Year:
    1954
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 34 in (86.36 cm)Width: 36 in (91.44 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    New York, NY
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU184129906042
More From This SellerView All
  • "Tree, Trunk, and Roots, New York" Joseph Stella, American Modernism
    By Joseph Stella
    Located in New York, NY
    Joseph Stella (1877 - 1946) Tree, Trunk, and Roots, Bronx, New York, circa 1924 Oil on canvas 12 x 16 inches inscribed in another hand Joseph Stella/Estate and bears Joseph Stella Estate stamp (on the reverse) Provenance: The Estate of the Artist Rabin & Kreuger, New Jersey Parke Bernet Galleries, New York, March 14, 1968, Lot 147 ACA Galleries, New York Thence by descent Stella was born June 13, 1877 at Muro Lucano, Italy, a mountain village not far from Naples. He became painter laureate of Muro Lucano when he was in his teens with a representation of the local saint in the village church. Stella immigrated to America in 1896 and studied medicine and pharmacology, but upon the advice of artist friend Carlo de Fornaro, who recognized his undeveloped talent, he enrolled at the Art Students League in 1897. Stella objected to the rule forbidding the painting of flowers, an indication of his lifelong devotion to flower painting. He also studied under William Merritt Chase in the New York School of Art and at Shinnecock Hills, Long Island in 1901-1902, displaying the bravura brushwork and dark Impressionist influence of Chase. Stella liked to paint the raw street life of immigrant society, rendering this element more emotionally than the city realists, the Aschcan School headed by Robert Henri. Stella went through a progression of styles--from realism to abstraction--mixing media and painting simultaneously in different manners, reviving styles and subjects years later. The "Survey" sent Stella to illustrate the mining disaster of 1907 in Monongah, West Virginia, and in 1908 commissioned him to execute drawings of the Pittsburgh industrial scene. Steel and electricity became a major experience in shaping his responses to the modern world, and Stella succeeded in portraying the pathos of the steelworkers and the Pittsburgh landscape. Stella went abroad in 1909 at the age of thirty-two, lonely for his native land. He returned to Italy, traveling to Venice, Florence and Rome. He took up the glazing technique of the old Venetian masters to get warmth, transparency, and depth of color. One of Stella's paintings was shown in the International Exhibition in Rome in 1910 and was acquired by the city of Rome. The influence of the French Modernists awakened his dormant individuality. His friendship with Antonio Mancini, a Futurist, also played a role in his new style. At the urging of Walter Pach...
    Category

    1920s American Modern Landscape Paintings

    Materials

    Canvas, Oil

  • "Buttermilk Bay, Cape Cod, " Georgina Klitgaard, Woodstock School Female WPA
    By Georgina Klitgaard
    Located in New York, NY
    Georgina Klitgaard (1893 - 1976) Buttermilk Bay, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, 1933 Oil on canvas 18 x 30 inches Signed lower right Provenance: Frank K. M. Rehn Galleries, New York Harold Ordway Rugg Private Collection, Western New York Georgina Berrian was born in Spuyten Duyvil, New York in 1893. She was educated at Barnard College...
    Category

    1930s American Modern Landscape Paintings

    Materials

    Canvas, Oil

  • "Mexican Mountains, " Hendrik Glintenkamp, Modernist Landscape
    By Hendrik Glintenkamp
    Located in New York, NY
    Hendrik (Henry) J Glintenkamp (1887 - 1946) Mexican Mountains, 1940 Oil on canvas 32 x 26 inches Signed lower left; signed and dated on the reverse T...
    Category

    1940s American Modern Landscape Paintings

    Materials

    Oil, Canvas

  • "New York City Harbor, " Modernist View of Port and Boats on a Cloudy Day
    By Bela de Tirefort
    Located in New York, NY
    Bela De Tirefort (1894 - 1993) New York City Harbor, 1932 Oil on canvasboard 14 x 18 Signed and dated lower left: De Tirefort 32 Bela de Tirefort was born in Eastern Europe, painted...
    Category

    1930s American Modern Landscape Paintings

    Materials

    Board, Oil, Canvas

  • "Colorado Landscape, " Western Precisionist Regionalism American Scene Painting
    By William Sanderson
    Located in New York, NY
    Reminiscent of an Edward Hopper or Andrew Wyeth scene, or even Charles Demuth with its cubist elements. William Sanderson (1905 - 1990) Colorado Landscape Oil on canvas 23 1/2 x 31 1/2 inches Signed lower right: Sanderson Born in Dubbeln, near Riga, Latvia in 1905, his personal journey from Czarist Russia, to New York City, and finally to Colorado, is one of remarkable courage and perseverance. Sanderson exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions throughout Colorado and the West between 1945 and 1985, and he was voted one of Colorado's influential artists of the 20th Century. Sanderson's paintings are represented in many museums and are sought after by collectors who appreciate his composition and precise use of color. The year 2005 marked the Centennial of Sanderson's birth, and he is now recognized as a major contributor to the development of modern art in Colorado. As a student at the National Academy of Design in 1927, Sanderson exemplifies an individual dedicated to creativity and the life-long passion for art. Known primarily as a Colorado artist, Sanderson first developed his skills as a graphic illustrator in New York City, and his work has appeared in numerous magazines, including New Yorker and New Masses. Notable book illustrations include The Jumping Off Place - 1929, by Marion Hurd McNeely, Jews Without Money - 1930, by Michael Gold...
    Category

    Mid-20th Century American Modern Landscape Paintings

    Materials

    Canvas, Oil

  • "Bucolic Landscape, " Sally Michel Avery, Female American Modernist Bright Pastel
    By Sally Michel-Avery
    Located in New York, NY
    Sally Michel Avery (1902 - 2003) Bucolic Landscape with Cows, 1963 Oil on canvasboard 9 x 12 inches Signed and dated lower left Provenance: The art...
    Category

    1980s American Modern Landscape Paintings

    Materials

    Board, Oil, Canvas

You May Also Like
  • Stars
    By Dale Nichols
    Located in New York, NY
    Signed and dated lower right: DALE NICHOLS 1953; on stretcher bar: “STARS” by Dale Nichols
    Category

    Mid-20th Century American Modern Landscape Paintings

    Materials

    Canvas, Oil

  • Lindy’s
    Located in New York, NY
    In this artwork by Alec Montroy entitled “Lindy’s,” the artist paints the iconic Times Square in New York City and the numerous electronic signs above it.
    Category

    Late 20th Century American Modern Landscape Paintings

    Materials

    Oil, Canvas

  • December 25th
    Located in New York, NY
    In his artwork entitled, “December 25th,” Alec Montroy paints a New York City street blanked with snow but illuminated still by the numerous neon signs ab...
    Category

    Late 20th Century American Modern Landscape Paintings

    Materials

    Oil, Canvas

  • Thru a Glass Brightly
    Located in New York, NY
    “Thru a Glass Brightly” by artist Alec Montroy is a view of Times Square from a unique elevated perspective.
    Category

    Late 20th Century American Modern Landscape Paintings

    Materials

    Canvas, Oil

  • The Big News is Always on 42nd Street
    Located in New York, NY
    Alec Montroy depicts a group of figures standing on a street corner a few blocks from Times Square in his work entitled “ The Big News is Always on 42nd S...
    Category

    Late 20th Century American Modern Landscape Paintings

    Materials

    Oil, Canvas

  • Orbs, Spiritual and Abstract Landscape
    Located in Doylestown, PA
    "Orbs" is a 38 x 50 inches, oil on canvas painting by American modernist and surrealist, female artist Peter Miller. The work is estate stamped 202141 on verso. The painting has been...
    Category

    1950s American Modern Abstract Paintings

    Materials

    Canvas, Oil

Recently Viewed

View All