Items Similar to Two Studies of Henriette (Head of the artist's wife & The Artist's wife writing
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 7
Leon KellyTwo Studies of Henriette (Head of the artist's wife & The Artist's wife writing1928-1930
1928-1930
About the Item
Two Studies of Henriette (Left: Head of the artist's wife, Right: The Artist's wife writing a letter)
Watercolor and graphite on paper, 1928-1930
Signed in pencil lower right (see photo)
Image/sheet size: 9 3/8 x 11 inches
Condition: Excellent
Colors fresh and unfaded
Provenance: Estate of the artist
The Orange Chicken
The influence of Renoir is seen in the study of the head of Henriette, and the strong influence of Bonnard is seen in the vignette of Henriette writing a letter.
Kelly was influenced by the art collection of this patron Albert Barnes, the famous collector
Leon Kelly (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
Leon Kelly (October 21, 1901 – June 28, 1982) was an American artist born in Philadelphia, PA. He is most well known for his contributions to American Surrealism, but his work also encompassed styles such as Cubism, Social Realism, and Abstraction. Reclusive by nature, a character trait that became more exaggerated in the 1940s and later, Kelly's work reflects his determination not to be limited by the trends of his time. His large output of paintings is complemented by a prolific number of drawings that span his career of 50 years. Some of the collections where his work is represented are: The Metropolitan Museum in New York, The Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Boston Public Library.
Biography
Kelly was born in 1901 at home at 1533 Newkirk Street, Philadelphia, PA. He was the only child of Elizabeth (née Stevenson) and Pantaleon L. Kelly. The family resided in Philadelphia where Pantaleon and two of his cousins owned Kelly Brothers, a successful tailoring business. The prosperity of the firm enabled his father to purchase a 144-acre farm in Bucks County PA in 1902, which he named "Rural Retreat" It was here that Pantaleon took Leon to spend every weekend away from the pressures of business and from the disappointments in his failing marriage. Idyllic and peaceful memories of the farm stayed with Leon and embued his work with a love of nature that emerged later in the Lunar Series, in Return and Departure, and in the insect imagery of his Surrealist work. "If anything," he once said,"I am a Pantheist and see a spirit in everything, the grass, the rocks, everything."
At thirteen, Leon left school and began private painting lessons with Albert Jean Adolphe, a teacher at the School of Industrial Art (now the University of the Arts) in Philadelphia. He learned technique by copying the works of the old masters and visiting the Philadelphia Zoo, where he would draw animals. Drawings done in 1916 and 1917 of elephants, snakes and antelope, as well as copies of old master paintings by Holbein and Michelangelo, heralded an impressive emerging talent. In 1917, he studied sculpture with Alexander Portnoff but his studies came to an abrupt halt with the start of World War I. Being too young to enlist, he joined the Quartermaster Corp at the Army Depot in Philadelphia, where he served for more than a year loading ships with supplies and, along with other artists, working on drawings for camouflage.
By 1920, the family's fortunes drastically changed. His father's business had failed due to the introduction of ready made clothing and his marriage, unhappy from the beginning, dissolved. Broken by circumstance Pantaleon left Philadelphia to begin a wandering existence looking for work leaving Leon to support his mother and grandmother. He found a job in 1920 at the Freihofer Baking Company where he worked nights for the next four years. Under these circumstances Leon continued to develop his skills in drawing and painting and learned of the revolutionary developments in art that were taking place in Paris.
During the day he was granted permission to study anatomy at the Philadelphia School of Osteopathy where he dissected a cadaver and perfected his knowledge of the human figure. He also met and studied etching with Earl Horter, a well known illustrator, who had amassed a significant collection of modern art which included work by Brancusi, Matisse, and Cubist works by Picasso and Braque. Among the artists around Horter was Arthur Carles, a charismatic and controversial painter who taught at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Leon enrolled in the Academy in 1922, becoming what Carles described as, "his best student".
In the next three years Leon work ranged from academic studies of plaster casts, to pointillism, to landscapes of Fairmount Park in Philadelphia, as well as a series of pastels showing influences from Matisse to Picasso. Clearly influenced by Earl Horter's collection and Arthur Carles he mastered analytical cubism in works such as The Three Pears, 1923 and 1925 experimented with Purism in Moon Behind the Italian House. In 1925 Kelly was awarded a Cresson Scholarship and on June 14 he left for Europe.
Paris
The first trip to Europe lasted for approximately three and a half months and introduced Kelly to a culture and place where he felt he belonged. Though he returned to the Academy in the Fall, he left for Europe again a few months later to begin a four-year stay in Paris. He moved into an apartment at 19 rue Daguerre in Paris and began an existence intellectually rich but in creature comforts, very poor. "I kept a cinderblock over the drain in the kitchen sink to keep the rats out of the apartment" he once explained. He frequented the cafes making acquaintances with Henry Miller, James Joyce and the critic Félix Fénéon as well as others. His days were split between copying old master paintings in the Louvre and pursuing modernist ideas that were swirling through the work of all the artists around him. The Lake, 1926 and Interior of the Studio, 1927, now in the Newark Museum.
Patrons during this time were the police official Leon Zamaran, a collector of Courbets, Lautrecs and others, who began collecting Kelly's work. Another was Alfred Barnes of the Barnes Collection in Philadelphia.
In 1929 Kelly married a young French woman, Henriette D'Erfurth. She appears frequently in paintings and drawings done between 1928 and the early 1930s.
Philadelphia
The stock market crash of 1929 made it impossible to continue living in Paris and Kelly and Henriette returned to Philadelphia in 1930. He rented a studio on Thompson Street and began working and participating in shows in the city's galleries. Work from 1930 to 1940 showed continuing influences and experimentation with the themes and techniques acquired in Paris as well as a brief foray into Social Realism. The Little Gallery of Contemporary Art purchased the Absinthe Drinker in 1931 and in 1932 exhibited Judgement of Paris, 1932, an ambitious painting with a classical theme. In October 1934, "Interior of a Slaughter House" and several other works were included in "Second Regional Exhibition of Painting and Prints by Philadelphia Artists" at the Whitney Museum in New York.
Kelly joined the Philadelphia Public Works of Art Project and worked on sketches for a mural destined for the School Administration Building. While some sketches survived, one is in the Metropolitan, the mural is lost. The harsh financial conditions of Kelly's life continued and by the late 1930s, Henriette, who spoke no English and whose only companionship outside the home was Helen Lloyd Horter (who spoke French), returned to France permanently When his divorce was finalized, Kelly began seeing Helen Lloyd Horter, a Philadelphia painter and a fellow student at the Academy and who was now the ex-wife of Earl Horter. In 1941 they married.
Kelly continued to work in his studio on Brandywine Street in Philadelphia teaching small classes to gain some income. Kelly's study of the masters in the Louvre collection resulted in great admiration for the Renaissance painter Leonardo Da Vinci. His influence is evident in Kelly's notebooks of this time which are full of drawings for World War II battlements and weaponry which echo DaVinci's drawings for the mechanisms of war. He also shared Leonardo's fascination with science and the underlying dynamics of how things work. His interest of the nervous system and sensory aspects of human anatomy would later come important components of his abstract figures of the 1950s and '60s.
For the complete article on Kelly, see Wikipedia
In the 1930s, he exhibited in Philadelphia and was connected with the avant-garde group aligned to the colorist Arthur Beecher Carles. Albert Barnes, the collector and patron of the arts, admired Kelly’s work and helped finance him through some difficult times. Julian Levy, a prominent art dealer in New York also took note of Kelly and showed his work in his gallery during the 1940s and 1950s.
- Creator:Leon Kelly (1901-1982, American)
- Creation Year:1928-1930
- Dimensions:Height: 9.38 in (23.83 cm)Width: 11 in (27.94 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:Fairlawn, OH
- Reference Number:
Leon Kelly
Leon Kelly, born in 1901, studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia. Awarded a traveling scholarship from that institution in 1924, he studied in Paris, France at the Grande Chaumiere. Other teachers included Arthur B. Carles, Jean Auguste Adolphe, Earl Horter and Alexandre Portinoff. Essentially a Surrealist painter, Kelly did wide-ranging work that went from painterly to meticulous Surrealism, Cezanne-inspired watercolors, and Cubist painting. In the 1940s, Julian Levy, the Surrealist dealer, handled Kelly's work in New York City. Kelly also exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Art Annuals (1933-34, 1939-46, 1966); Corcoran Gallery Biennials, Washington, D.C. (three times from 1935-47); Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois; had a 1965 retrospective exhibition at the International Gallery, Baltimore, Maryland; Long Beach, New Jersey (1968); Richard Feigen Gallery, Chicago, Illinois (1968, 1970); Newark Museum, New Jersey (1969); and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Kelly's paintings are in the collections of three New York city museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Whitney Museum of American Art; and Museum of Modern Art; as well as Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut; Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia; Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University, Palo Alto, California; Sara Roby Foundation Collection at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Massachusetts; Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, Lincoln, Nebraska; Newark Museum, New Jersey; and the Tel Aviv Museum, Israel.
About the Seller
5.0
Recognized Seller
These prestigious sellers are industry leaders and represent the highest echelon for item quality and design.
Platinum Seller
These expertly vetted sellers are 1stDibs' most experienced sellers and are rated highest by our customers.
Established in 1978
1stDibs seller since 2013
713 sales on 1stDibs
Typical response time: 1 hour
Associations
International Fine Print Dealers Association
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Ships From: Fairlawn, OH
- Return PolicyA return for this item may be initiated within 10 days of delivery.
More From This SellerView All
- Lonly (Lonely)By Stephen LongstreetLocated in Fairlawn, OHSigned lower right Provenance: Joseph M. Erdelac, Cleveland, OH Possibly deaccessed from the Columbus Museum of Art THOMAS FRENCH FINE ART, LLC Stephen Longstreet (1907-2002) A...Category
20th Century American Modern Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
MaterialsWatercolor
- Girl in ProfileBy William SommerLocated in Fairlawn, OHGirl in Profile Lithographic crayon and watercolor on thin wove paper, c. 1930 Signed twice in pencil (see photos) Provenance: Estate of the Artist Edward Somme...Category
1930s American Modern Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
MaterialsWatercolor
- Wire Haired Girl and CatBy William SommerLocated in Fairlawn, OHWire Haired Girl and Cat Pen and ink with watercolor, c. 1930 Signed with the Estate stamp "B" Provenance: Estate of the Artist By d...Category
1930s American Modern Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
MaterialsWatercolor
- Head of a Young Woman with Blond HairBy William SommerLocated in Fairlawn, OHHead of a Young Woman with Blond Hair Watercolor on paper mounted on rag paper support, c. 1930 Signed with the Estate Stamp B Provenance: Estate of the Artist ...Category
1930s American Modern Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
MaterialsWatercolor
- Chain Gang MusicBy Stephen LongstreetLocated in Fairlawn, OHChain Gang Music Watercolor on paper, dated '39, but created in the 1970's Signed "Longstreet" lower left corner Titled and annotated "George - '39" in pencil at top of sheet Provenance: Acquired from the artist Joseph M. Erdelac, friend and patron of the artist Born Henri Weiner (sometimes spelled Wiener), the artist tried alternate names and personae including Paul Haggard, Thomas Burton, and David Ormsbee before settling on the name Stephen Longstreet in 1939. Longstreet dates his art based on the period he means to represent, not the actual date of execution. Stephen Longstreet (1907-2002) The artist’s own grandchildren attempt to fathom the real life and nature of Stephen Longstreet, prolific author, artist, screenplay writer, and jazz aficionado. Born Chauncy Weiner (sometimes spelled Wiener) in New York City in 1907, Longstreet reinvented himself on a regular basis. Changing his name first to “Henry,” then “Henri,” he started his career as a commercial artist for a department store. In various public biographies he claimed to have studied in New York, London, and Paris, and said he was a student of cartoonist Ralph Barton...Category
1970s American Modern Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
MaterialsWatercolor
- Untitled (Double sided watercolor) Recto: Figures seated at a tableBy Ben ShahnLocated in Fairlawn, OHWatercolor on paper Most probably related to the artist's creation of images surrounding Haggadah (Passover) which he started in 1930 and finished with the publication of his book in...Category
1960s American Modern Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
MaterialsWatercolor
You May Also Like
- "Manhattan Bridge" NYC American Scene Modernism Watercolor WPA Urban RealismBy Reginald MarshLocated in New York, NYReginald Marsh "Manhattan Bridge" NYC American Scene Modernism Watercolor WPA Urban Realism, 20 x 14 inches. Watercolor and pencil on paper, 1938. Signed...Category
1930s American Modern Landscape Drawings and Watercolors
MaterialsPaper, Watercolor, Pencil
- "Country Haircut"By Milton AveryLocated in Lambertville, NJJim’s of Lambertville Fine Art Gallery is proud to offer this piece by Milton Avery (1885 – 1965). Milton Avery was a prominent Modernist painter whose work combined abstraction and...Category
1940s American Modern Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
MaterialsWatercolor, Gouache, Paper
- "Woman in Fancy Costume Estate #752, " Watercolor & Graphite signed by SpicuzzaBy Sylvia SpicuzzaLocated in Milwaukee, WI"Woman In Fancy Costume Estate #752" is a watercolor and graphite signed by Sylvia Spicuzza. A woman stands with arms stretched out. The lady is wearing a red and white stripped outf...Category
1950s American Modern Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
MaterialsGraphite, Watercolor
- Two Dueñas.By Donn RussellLocated in Storrs, CTTwo Dueñas. c. 1960. Watercolor and gouache. 13 x 17. Signed and annotated 'SPAIN' lower right. Housed in a 21 x 25-inch black wood frame. Donn Russell is one of Nantucket Island's...Category
1950s American Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
MaterialsWatercolor, Gouache
- Whimsical Fishing Illustration Cartoon 1938 Mt Tremblant Ski Lodge William SteigBy William Steig (b.1907)Located in Surfside, FLLighthearted Illustration of Outdoor Pursuits This one of a fisherman signed "W. Steig" Provenance: from Mrs. Joseph B. Ryan, Commissioned by Joe Ryan for the bar at his ski resort, Mount Tremblant Lodge, in 1938. Mont Tremblant, P.Q., Canada Watercolor and ink on illustration board, sights sizes 8 1/2 x 16 1/2 in., framed. In 1938 Joe Ryan, described as a millionaire from Philadelphia, bushwhacked his way to the summit of Mont Tremblant and was inspired to create a world class ski resort at the site. In 1939 he opened the Mont Tremblant Lodge, which remains part of the Pedestrian Village today. This original illustration is on Whatman Illustration board. the board measures 14 X 22 inches. label from McClees Galleries, Philadelphia, on the frame backing paper. William Steig, 1907 – 2003 was an American cartoonist, sculptor, and, in his later life, an illustrator and writer of children's books. Best known for the picture books Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, Abel's Island, and Doctor De Soto, he was also the creator of Shrek!, which inspired the film series of the same name. He was the U.S. nominee for both of the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Awards, as a children's book illustrator in 1982 and a writer in 1988. Steig was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1907, and grew up in the Bronx. His parents were Polish-Jewish immigrants from Austria, both socialists. His father, Joseph Steig, was a house painter, and his mother, Laura Ebel Steig, was a seamstress who encouraged his artistic leanings. As a child, he dabbled in painting and was an avid reader of literature. Among other works, he was said to have been especially fascinated by Pinocchio.He graduated from Townsend Harris High School at 15 but never completed college, though he attended three, spending two years at City College of New York, three years at the National Academy of Design and a mere five days at the Yale School of Fine Arts before dropping out of each. Hailed as the "King of Cartoons" Steig began drawing illustrations and cartoons for The New Yorker in 1930, producing more than 2,600 drawings and 117 covers for the magazine. Steig, later, when he was 61, began writing children's books. In 1968, he wrote his first children's book. He excelled here as well, and his third book, Sylvester and the Magic Pebble (1969), won the Caldecott Medal. He went on to write more than 30 children's books, including the Doctor DeSoto series, and he continued to write into his nineties. Among his other well-known works, the picture book Shrek! (1990) formed the basis for the DreamWorks Animation film Shrek (2001). After the release of Shrek 2 in 2004, Steig became the first sole-creator of an animated movie franchise that went on to generate over $1 billion from theatrical and ancillary markets after only one sequel. Along with Maurice Sendak, Saul Steinberg, Ludwig Bemelmans and Laurent de Brunhofff his is one of those rare cartoonist whose works form part of our collective cultural heritage. In 1984, Steig's film adaptation of Doctor DeSoto directed by Michael Sporn was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. As one of the most admired cartoonists of all time, Steig spent seven decades drawing for the New Yorker magazine. He touched generations of readers with his tongue–in–cheek pen–and–ink drawings, which often expressed states of mind like shame, embarrassment or anger. Later in life, Steig turned to children's books, working as both a writer and illustrator. Steig's children's books were also wildly popular because of the crazy, complicated language he used—words like lunatic, palsied, sequestration, and cleave. Kids love the sound of those words even if they do not quite understand the meaning. Steig's descriptions were also clever. He once described a beached whale as "breaded with sand." Throughout the course of his career, Steig compiled his cartoons and drawings into books. Some of them were published first in the New Yorker. Others were deemed too dark to be printed there. Most of these collections centered on the cold, dark psychoanalytical truth about relationships. They featured husbands and wives fighting and parents snapping at their kids. His first adult book, Man About Town, was published in 1932, followed by About People, published in 1939, which focused on social outsiders. Sick of Each Other, published in 2000, included a drawing depicting a wife holding her husband at gunpoint, saying, "Say you adore me." According to the Los Angeles Times, fellow New Yorker artist...Category
1930s American Modern Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
MaterialsIndia Ink, Watercolor, Illustration Board
- Early Drawing and Watercolor Painting Figurative AbstractionBy Mitch BeckerLocated in Surfside, FLMitchell Mitch Becker, painter, born November 12, 1938, Chicago, Illinois. 1972, Emigrated to Israel. Education 1961 - School of the Art Institute, Chicago, Illinois. Bachelor of Art Education, 1971 - University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, Master of Fine Arts, Teaching 1968-1972 High School, Skokie, USA. 1973-1974 Thelma Yellin Art School, Givatayim 1974-1976 Institute of Visual Art, Beersheba 1977-1981 Art Teachers College, Ramat Hasharon 1981-1982 Bezalel, Jerusalem Awards And Prizes 1958-61, Anna Tucson Scholarship, USA Mitchell Becker emerged into the art world of late 1950s Chicago, between gestures of Abstract Expressionism and declarations about the "death of painting." The hot names of his youth, such as Willem De Kooning, Mark Rothko, and Larry Rivers, provided him with interest and challenges for years to come, and his awe for them is still evident in his voice to date, many years after drawing away from them. This work is reminiscent of the work of Saul Steinberg and Philip Guston. Heroes - Past and Present, Yad Labanim Museum, Petach-Tikva Artists: Shalom Moskowitz, (Shalom of Safed) Yohanan Simon, Boris Schatz, Motti Mizrachi, Hanan Milner, Mitchell Becker, Edith Samuel, Ludwig Schwerin, Igael Tumarkin, Talia Tokatly. EDUCATION: 1971 Master of Fine Arts,University of Chicago, Illinois 1961 Bachelor of Art Education School...Category
1960s American Modern Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
MaterialsWatercolor
Recently Viewed
View AllMore Ways To Browse
Photos Of Artists
Name Of Artist
Artists Purchase
The Artist Mother
The Artists Wife
Antique Head Study
The Retreat
The Tailor Art
Head Study Painting
Thompson Street
Louvre Collection
Matisse Style Of
Fortune Artist
Lost City Of Arts
Study Of Young Child
Pencil Sketch Of Woman
English Renaissance Painting
Renoir Artist