1940s Figurative Paintings

Monumental, important WPA painting by Percy Albee. The painting is oil canvass measuring 36" x 48". Titled verso "New Americana", this WPA painting was exhibited at the Carnegie Inst...

Artist: Pál Fried (Hungarian, 1893-1976) Title: "Hortense (Ballerina)" *Signed by Fried lower left Circa: 1940 Medium: Original Oil Painting on Canvas Framing: Framed in a light gold...

The White Horse - Abstracted Landscape, In The Style Of Charles Heaney Abstracted landscape oil painting depicting a white horse. Attributed to and painted in the style of Charles Edward Heaney (American, 1897-1981). A white horse grazes alone in a grass field, as mountains of brown are intertwined with abstracted white clouds. Deep greens, browns and reds make up this piece. Presented in a distressed wooden frame. Frame: 21.5"H x 39"W Image: 15.5"H x 32.5"W Unsigned. Charles Heaney lived in Oregon and was primarily known for his landscapes of Oregon and Nevada. From 1917 until well into the 1920s, Heaney studied intermittently at the Pacific Northwest College of Art. One of his primary instructors was legendary painter Harry Wentz, who befriended and inspired him. A fellow student was Kyuzo Furuya who, Heaney recalled, goaded him into taking himself seriously as an artist. But Heaney's deepest friendship was with Clayton Sumner (C.S.) Price, an artist twenty-three years Heaney's senior who settled in Portland in 1929 and who would become a pioneering figure in Oregon modern painting. Heaney admired and emulated Price's dedication to art-making and found in the older man an important companion. Heaney's prints of the 1920s and 1930s were mostly woodcuts, a technique he learned from Catherine DeWitt MacKenzie, a fellow student at the Pacific Northwest College of Art. In the 1930s, he experimented with etchings with his friend William McIlwraith and studied intaglio processes with William Givler...

Oil Painting Portrait of Ashcan Artist John Sloan. Signed I. Holtz. The youngest of four children, Holtz was born and spent his early childhood in Skierniewice, Poland, a small town near Warsaw. His father was a hat maker and a furrier. In 1935, prior to World War II, when Holtz was ten years old, his family moved to Jerusalem, Israel, where they settled in the Geula neighborhood near Meah Shearim. Itzhak Holtz's passion for art began early. When he was five years old, in Poland, his father first drew a picture of a horse and sled in the snow for him. The young Holtz looked at the drawing and studied it in wonderment. From that moment on, Holtz remembers, he constantly begged his father to draw for him. His enthusiasm for art grew and Holtz longed to study art. In 1945, he enrolled at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem, where he primarily studied lettering and poster work in a program geared toward commercial art Holtz became interested in painting, prompting him to move to New York City in 1950 to study at the Art Students League of New York under Robert Brackman and Harry Sternberg, and then at the National Academy of Design under Robert Philipp. Holtz has stated that his artwork, which primarily but not exclusively, depict scenes of Jewish spirituality and tradition, is driven by his Orthodox Jewish beliefs: "You have to live that religious life to fully capture it on canvas." He has been classified in the school of genre painting, often depicting street scenes of ordinary people in everyday Jewish life in the back alleys and markets of Jerusalem neighborhoods such as Me'ah Shearim and Geula; and in New York neighborhoods and hamlets such as Monsey, Boro Park and Williamsburg. Along with street scenes, his work includes portraits of scribes, tailors, cobblers and fishmongers, and images such as shtetls, lighthouses, and wedding scenes. He started out painting mostly portraits in order to support his family, before expanding to include street scenes. His beloved subject matter is painting scenes of Jewish life, his childhood memories when his mother took him along shopping for the Sabbath to the markets of Meah Shearim, has left a deep impression on him and influenced many of his works. Holtz has experimented in the abstract, but then reverted to representational and figurative art to which he devoted himself exclusively. His Israeli street scenes are said to combine “an affectionate recollection of the past with the brilliance of the color of modern Israel.” Holtz has stated that he struggled at first when he arrived to the USA because of financial reasons and because he only knew Polish, Yiddish and Hebrew, but then made good ties with his instructor who greatly influenced him Robert Philipp who helped him make friends and referred him to paint portraits. Examples of Holtz's work throughout the years include: Yerusalem Wedding (2010), depicting a Chuppa in Jerusalem on early evening, oil on canvas; The Funeral(1966), depicting five stoic Hasidim carrying a body on a bier over to a gravesite, with the people behind them crying, in charcoal on paper and oil on canvas; Rejoicing (1974), an image of religious men dancing, in felt pen and marker on paper; and the oil painting Shamash Learning in Shul (2003), a portrait of a pious Jew studying the Talmud inside a claustrophobic synagogue scene. Throughout the years Holtz has created hundreds of works in many art mediums, including, genre scenes, portraits, still lifes and landscape scenery, his works are sought after by art collectors worldwide, and he has been called the greatest living Jewish artist. It is said that no artist ever explored the Jewish subject like Holtz. Today some of his oil paintings have been commanding over $100,000. Holtz creates his scenes after researching locations, and often uses locals as models. He paints slowly and with great care, but with a swift Impressionistic style. The people in his portraits and scenes are generally more cheerful and optimistic than standard portraits of Hassidic individuals. He paints oils and watercolors, and also does felt pen, pastel, marker, ink and charcoal drawings, as well as woodcuts. His oil paintings typically have a brown hue, while his work with felt pen is often in sepia tones, and on some of his works he used very bright colors, with a strong emphasis on the interplay of light and shadow. He is heavily influenced by the ancient staircases and alleyways of Jerusalem, with its modest religious population, which has made a strong impression on him in his youth, the streets of Tzfat, and the works of Rembrandt, Johannes Vermeer and Peter Bruegel, as well as Jewish artists Moritz Daniel Oppenheim...

Jack Levine: 1915-2010. Well listed American social realist painter with auction results over $220,000. This fabulous gem was most likely painted between 1942 and 1945 as he was serv...

Artist: Pál Fried (Hungarian, 1893-1976) Title: "Intermission (Ballerina)" *Signed by Fried lower left Circa: 1940 Medium: Original Oil Painting on Canvas Framing: Recently framed in a gold Louis XV style frame Framed size: 39" x 33" Canvas size: 30" x 24" Condition: In excellent condition Notes: Provenance: private collection - Port Orange, FL; acquired from Herbert Arnot Gallery, New York, NY in the early 1970's. Titled by Fried on verso. The artist's copyright stamp and various reference number on verso. Biography: Pál Fried was born in Budapest in 1893. He received his art education at the Académie hongroise des arts (Hungarian Academy of Arts) where he was a pupil of Hugo Pohl who became one of his major influences. While under Pohl's direction, he executed many portraits of female nudes and Orientalist works. Later he studied in Paris at the Académie Julian, where he was the pupil of Claude Monet and Lucien Simone. In Paris, he was greatly influenced by the French Impressionists, especially Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Edgar Degas. This inspired him to prepare many paintings of ballerinas...

Rabbit Hunters, egg tempera on Masonite, 12 x 9 inches, 1947, signed and dated lower left, signed, titled and dated verso “Rabbit Hunters Egg Tempera Roger Medearis 1947,” exhibited at Medearis' solo show at Kende Galleries, New York, in 1949 (Medearis’ record book, a copy of which is held by Vose Galleries in Boston, MA, indicates this is painting “No. 23” and that is was completed in 1947 and sold via Kende Galleries (at Gimbel Brothers...

Na Kumuwaiwai Hohonu, Underwater Spirt - Hawaiian Symbolist Figurative Hawaiian symbolist nocturnal figurative of glowing whispy figure underwater with mountains and red coral garden by Marguerite Louis Blasingame (American; 1906-1947), circa 1940-45. Marguerite and her husband Frank Blasingame...

Beautiful and arresting oil painting of women in an abstracted springtime forest bringing flower leis to Hawaiian Island Earth Spirit by Marguerite Louis Blasingame (American, 1906-...

1-4086 A large scale vintage figurative painting, original oil on canvas in shades of blue .Unframed. Signed on verso G.Pascal Rocca

Hawaii "Future Dreams" - Surrealist Mid Century Modern Abstract 1940 Hawaiian Symbolistic and romantic mid century modern abstract with figure coming out of the mist...

Everett Spruce (1908 - 2002) Austin Artist Image Size: 18 x 15 Frame Size: 28 x 25 Medium: Oil on paper / Mixed Exhibited at a University of Texas Faculty art show in 1947 Unsigned Biography Everett Spruce (1908 - 2002) The following, submitted by a researcher of the Ashworth Collection of Native American and Western Art, is from the artist's obituary in the Fort Smith, Arkansas "Times Record" newspaper, October 20, 2002. Everett F. Spruce, well-known artist, teacher, professor emeritus, died Friday, Oct. 18, 2002, at age 94. Everett Spruce was born on a farm in Conway to William E. and Fannie McCarty Spruce. He came to Dallas, at age 17, on a scholarship to study at the Dallas Art Institute, under Olin Travis and Thomas M. Stell Jr. In 1931, he became gallery assistant at the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts and in 1934 married Alice V. Kramer, a fellow art student. He was one of the "Dallas Nine" group of Southwest artists...

Symbolic Hawaiian nocturnal figurative of whispy angel figures with mountains and bridge by Marguerite Louis Blasingame (American; 1906-1947), circa 1940-45. Marguerite and her husband Frank Blasingame...

Hawaii "The Journey - Anti-matter" - Mid Century Abstract Hawaiian Mythology Symbolistic and romantic 1940s figurative of pasteled figures journeying down path titled "Journey - Anti...

Adolf Dehn: 1895-1968. Well listed American artist with a high auction record of $20,000 which was achieved this year. He was born in Minnesota and studied at Minneapolis School of F...

Nahum Tschacbasov was born in Baku, in the southeast of Russia. When he was eight years old, he came to America, where his family settled in Chicago. His career, spanning more than five decades from the 1930’s to the 1980’s, is a kaleidoscope of influences, from modernism to the Byzantine style and expressionism of his Russian roots. Tschacbasov’s paintings of the 1930’s reflect the social and political preoccupations of the times. He received considerable critical attention for his powerful dramatic satirical depiction of social injustice. In the 1940’s he gained wider recognition when his style evolved into a fusion of Cubism and Surrealism. Through the influence of Jung, as well as currents brought to America by the newly arrived group of European Surrealists, he created a powerful personal iconography in which the inner workings of the psyche are revealed as myth and metaphor. His first encounters with modern art are the works of Cezanne, Van Gogh, and Rouault. 1932-33 Tschacbasov moves for a short time to New York City in order to be in a modern art center and then to Paris, where he adopts the name Tschacbasov, an anagram of different family names. He studies with Leopold Gottlieb for eight months, then with Marcel Gromaire, who teaches him pictorial structure, and briefly with Fernand Leger. Working in his studio on the edge of Montmartre and later in the Hotel de Sante in Montparnasse, he produces a large body of work, retaining fifty paintings. After trips to North Africa, Spain, and the Balearic Islands, he travels often from Paris to New York City, where he spends six months painting a series of Depression-inspired pictures after finding that his American business has gone bankrupt in his absence. 1934 In Paris, Galerie Zak exhibits landscapes from his trip to Majorca in the first one-man exhibition of Tschacbasov paintings; Salon de Tuileries also exhibits his work. His savings exhausted, he returns to New York via Tunisia in the midst of the Depression. 1935 Living on Pineapple Street in Brooklyn Heights, Tschacbasov works on the WPA Federal Arts Project, Easel Division, where he meets other artists and becomes politically involved. His works are shown at Galerie Secession with those of Mark Rothko, Adolph Gottlieb, and other modernist and expressionist painters. Tschacbasov, Rothko, Gottlieb, Joseph Solman and others from Galerie Secession form a group called The Ten combining common aims of social consciousness with an expressionist and abstract style. Themes of social injustice are more dominant in Tschacbasov's work than in that of others of The Ten, as he draws on his own childhood experiences of the harsh realities of immigrant life in industrial Chicago. In the summer, a one-man exhibition of his non-objective paintings is held at Galerie Secession, and in December, Montross Gallery in New York City holds the first exhibition of The Ten, including two works by Tschacbasov, "Handout" and "Three Graces." 1936 In January, an exhibition of The Ten is held at Municipal Art Galleries in New York City, and later in the fall an exhibition, also of The Ten, is held at Galerie Bonaparte in Paris. 1936-38 Among the paintings exhibited in the "Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting" at the Whitney Museum of American Art are Tschacbasov's "Deportation", "Clinic", "Friday Night", "Harbor Sunset", and "The Matriarch". 1936-37 Tschacbasov is appointed business manager of Art Front Magazine, a publication associated with the Artists' Union. His circle of friends at this time include Philip Evergood, Milton Avery, Stuart Davis, David Burliuk, William Gropper, the Soyer brothers, Robert Gwathmey, Marsden Hartley, and Max Weber. Due to cut-backs in WPA funding, he teaches at his 38 West 22nd Street studio and at the American Artists' School. On the faculty are David Burliuk and the Soyer brothers, as well as Elaine de Kooning and other artists with similar aesthetic and social points of view. Personal and artistic crises lead to his entering into Jungian psychoanalysis, which provides new impetus and direction to his painting. Under the influence of analysis, he starts to write portions of a surrealistic autobiography, The Moon is My Uncle. His paintings, "Refugees" and "Friday Night" are shown with works by Avery, Burliuk, and DeHirsh Margules in a group exhibition at Albright Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York. In September, the Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield, Massachusetts focuses on themes of social criticism in an exhibition entitled "The World Today", curated by Elizabeth McCausland, which includes Tschacbasov's, "Little Red School House". 1940 Tschacbasov takes up photography. Photographing the works of friends and other artists, he builds a collection of color slides...

Sketch n. 13 is an original modern artwork realized by Giovanni Brancaccio in 1948. Mixed colored oil on canvas. Hand signed and dated on the lower margin. Good conditions.

Robert Alexander Darrah “R.A.D.” Miller (1905 - 1966) Robert Alexander Darrah Miller, called “RAD” by his friends, was born in Philadelphia. He enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts from 1923 to 1927 under the tutelage of Daniel Garber. In 1928, Miller moved to Bucks County where he would meet and marry Celia Belden Marshall, daughter of Dr. George M. Marshall, who at that time owned the Phillips Mill property. Nearly a year later, in 1929, a committee headed by artist, William Lathrop, negotiated to purchase the Mill property from Dr. Marshall for the purpose of holding art exhibitions. Thus, the Phillips Mill Art Association was formed. RAD Miller was a regular exhibitor at the Phillips Mill with the traditional New Hope Impressionists. Many of the original founders of the New Hope Art Colony, set in their ways, frowned upon the concept of modernist painting. A decision was made by the Association to not include the growing group of modernist painters in the area to exhibit with them at Phillips Mill. Although clearly not a traditional impressionist, Miller was not being excluded with the others, largely because his father-in-law formerly owned the mill and was one of the Association’s board of directors. RAD was sympathetic to his fellow modernists. In 1933, he was one of the original members of the Independents, a group formed for modernist artists who chose to embark on a more non-traditional creative path. They would exhibit in tandem with the Impressionists but at different locations. Around the time of his arrival to New Hope in 1928, Miller struck up a friendship with Thomas Hart Benton, and in 1932 he worked under Benton on a mural project. RAD’s paintings...

Saint-Germain-des-Prés. 1946. Oil on canvas, 73x92 cm

Russell Sambrook: 1891-1956. Well listed American illustrator with auction results as high as $23,900. This fantastic illustration is an oil on board. I believe this was used for an ...

Signed on plate. Edition of 450 prints, belonging to the suite “Miserere”, considered as the most important religious graphic work of XX century. The single prints, realized with a s...

Still Life is an original modern artwork realized by the Italian painter Giuseppe Canali (Pseudonym Enrico Alià) in 1940. Original oil on board. Signed and dated on the lower right...

Signed lower left: FANTUZZI. Archived in the General Catalogue of Eliano Fantuzzi, No. A-6, order number 15/76741. Very good conditions. This artwork is shipped from Italy. Under ex...

Ponte Garibaldi is an original oil on canvas realized by the Italian artist Antonio Vangelli (Rome, 1917 – Rome, 2003) in 1941. Hand-signed and dated by the artist on the lower righ...

Hawaiian Symbolism Figurative & Landscape Oil painting of Huakai Hui (Journey Together) Symbolic and surreal landscape of a female and male figure ascending stairway flanked by to...

Hawaiian Symbolism Figurative & Landscape Oil painting of Mauna Uhane (Mountain Spirit) Symbolic and surreal landscape with a figure of spirit ascen...

Shooting Gallery Mid 20th Century American Scene Social Abstract Realism Modern *William Kienbusch (1914 – 1980) Shooting Gallery, Sixth Avenue Post...

By French famous Transgender artist, Michel Marie Poulain (Born Paris December 5, 1906. Died 1991) this rare oil on canvas it represents the Queen and he...

Eric Johansson's "Woman with Red Bow" (1940) We are delighted to present for sale the evocative portrait “Woman with Red Bow” by the distinguished artist Eric Johansson, painted in ...

5-3288 Oil on board set in a gilt wood frame Image size 19.5x15.5"

Figurative worksk by Miette Braive are very rare.

Work on canvas

*UK BUYERS WILL PAY AN ADDITIONAL 5% IMPORT DUTY ON TOP OF THE ABOVE PRICE Jeune Fille à l'Accordéon by ISMAEL DE LA SERNA (1898-1968) Oil on masonite 88.9 x 115.6 cm (35 x 45 ¹/₂ i...

Fantastic magazine cartoon illustration by American Artist, Leo Nowak (1907-2001). Ink, gouache and crayon in illustration paper, image measures 7.5 x 9.5 inches. Framed measurement...

William Meyerowitz (American, 1887 - 1981) Oil painting on canvas Two Girls Hand signed lower right 29.25 x 25.25 Frame. 22 x 18 canvas. (It does not have the gold outer frame) Pr...

5084 Mirror reflections of a French recling woman

5088 Oil of a young girl with her new Dress

Symbolic and surreal landscape with three women in a mystical garden setting walking toward a plaque "The dream and the dreamer are one" by Marguerite Louis Blasingame (American; 190...

Symbolic and surreal landscape with a Makaula or seer and a woman seeking to know her future by Marguerite Louis Blasingame (American; 1906-1947), circa 1940-45. Marguerite and her h...

The aesthetics of the human figure in art offer a captivating perspective for artists and enthusiasts, a delicate balance between simplicity and subtlety. In this oil painting, a you...

Expressionism, a revolutionary art movement of the early 20th century, aimed to elicit emotional responses, often exposing the harshest and most tumultuous aspects of the human condi...

"Four Generations" is a 30 x 40 inches landscape with figures and animals, painted by female, American Realist painter, Molly Luce. The painting is signed M...

A Redheads Dream - Figurative Nude With Butterflies and Flowers Original figurative nude painting of a redhead woman surrounded by butterflies and magenta flowers, by possibly an u...

FRANCISCO BORES Spanish, 1898 - 1972 SANS TITRE signed and dated "Borès 42" (lower left) oil on panel 13-3/4 x 10-5/8 inches (35 x 27 cm.) framed: 19 x 15-3/4 inches (48 x 40 cm.) B...

*Dimensions include the frame This French artwork from around 1940 exhibits a vivid, expressive style, reminiscent of Vincent van Gogh's post-Impressionist works. The robust, swirli...

Dorothy King was born and lived in London in 1907. She studied at the Hornsey School of Art under JC Moody, then briefly at the Slade School of Fine Art with Randolph Schwabe. She to...

Oil on canvas dating from 1946 by Jean-René Chatelain. Beautiful canvas of a neo-realism soothed. Measurements : with frame: 81x72x7.5 cm - 31.9x28.3x3 inches, without frame: 68x58 c...

Frame size 42 x 52.5 inches ELISABETH RONGET "AU CAFE” OIL ON CANVAS, SIGNED FRANCE, C.1940 Elisabeth Ronget 1886-1962 Elisabeth Boehm Ronget was born in 1896 in Conitz, Polan...

"Parade" Social Realism Mid 20th Century Modern American Scene WPA Regionalism Gerrit Van Sinclair (1890 – 1955) Parade 20 x 15 inches Oil on board, c. 1940s Signed lower right Fram...

Joaquín Asensio Mariné (1890-1961) - Beach - Oil on canvas Oil measures 65x81 cm. Frame measures 81x96 cm. Asensio Mariné (Barcelona, 1890-1961) was a painter who specialized in lan...

Riders of Pigeon Hill, c. 1940s, oil on canvas, signed lower right, 24 x 36 inches, label verso with title, artist’s name and address; same information inscribed verso; ex-collection...

Date: 1940 Medium: Oil on Canvas Signature: Signed Lower Right Dimensions: 26.00" x 26.00" Fertilizer advertisement, image of a man, girl, boy and dog. This illustration was also a...

JJ Nowotny Untitled, 1944 (date partially obscured but appears to be '44) Oil on canvas 24 x 30 in. Framed: 31 x 37 x 2 in. Signed and dated lower right

This work is part of our exhibition - America Coast to Coast: Artists of the 1940s Army Poker, c. 1943, probably tempera on board, signed upper right, 16 x 20 inches, inscribed verso a) “Army Poker / Mervin Honig / 421 W 42 St. N.Y.C.,” b) “Mervin Honig / US Army Air Force – Seymour Johnson Field – Goldsboro, NC / Circa 1943,” and c) “(This painting was done before men was (sic) shipped off to the Mariana Islands (Saipan) The Second World War.” Note: four pencil sketches for this work included Mervin Honig was a New York-based painter and illustrator who is best known for his realistic depictions of everyday life and sports themes. Honig was raised in Brooklyn and recalled almost never being without a paintbox in hand from the time he started elementary school. Honig had a deep reverence for the Old Master painters, Vermeer and Bellini, as well as the Americans Winslow Homer and Thomas Eakins. He initially studied art from 1939 through 1941 with Francis Criss. At the outbreak of World War II, Honig worked as a mechanic for Republic Aviation, but in August 1942, he enlisted in the US Army Air Corps and was stationed at Seymour Johnson Field in Goldsboro, North Carolina. During the war, Honig began to exhibit nationally, including as part of the Portrait of America exhibitions which originated at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and traveled around the country, as well as at the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh. He painted Army Poker in 1943 while stationed at Johnson Field. In this work, Honig draws inspiration from Paul Cezanne's The Card Players (Metropolitan Museum of Art), with a similar placement of the four figures, but Cezanne's table is replaced with an Army cot, the pipe rack with a soldier's mess kit and the drapery in the right background with a heap of discarded uniforms. Unlike the vibrancy of Cezanne's composition, the limited palette of Honig's work suggests the drabness and monotony of stateside Army life. After being discharged from military service, Honig furthered his studies with Amadee Ozenfant in 1946 and Hans Hoffman from 1947 through 1950. Additional exhibitions included the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the National Academy of Design, the Wadsworth Atheneum, the Provincetown Art Association, and the National Academies Galleries of the Allied Artists Association. He was represented by the venerable Frank Rehn...

"At the Opera" WPA Social Realism Mid 20th Century Modern Theatre American Scene John Winters (1904 - 1983) "At the Opera" 17 x 14 inches oil on canvas Signed and dated 1943 lower r...

Georges Louis Claude (1879-1963) A bouquet of blue flowers signed with the initials GLC and dated "II 40" in the lower right oil on paper 62 x 47 cm In good condition traces of pins...

This work is part of our exhibition - America Coast to Coast: Artists of the 1940s Untitled (Transcendental Composition), oil on board, 1947, oil on board, signed and dated lower r...

Old World, by 1943, oil on canvas, signed lower right, 43 ½ x 30 ½ inches, artist’s name and title inscribed verso; exhibited 1) Romantic Painting in America, Museum of Modern Art, N...