Italian School Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

If you are interested in African American Art and in Women in the Arts, I will certainly not need to introduce Lois Mailou Jones (1905-1988). Often associated with the Harlem Renaiss...

A mid-sized work with bright colors and depths. The artist captures a stone seaside house - possibly in the Old World. The work has a calming energy no doubt aided by the backgroun...

"Rejuvenation" by Don Athay, gouache, 10 1/2 X 14 1/2 inches "At this point in my life as an aspiring artist, I find myself composing paintings that reflect my feelings, when standi...

This Ink and watercolour masterpiece is featured in Bloomsbury's 2011 publication, showcasing the artist's sketchbook (Note 1). Created en plein air, Shizico Yi painted this piece in...

Scottish artist Robert Carrick (1829-1904) is renowned for his landscape and figurative paintings in oil and watercolor. This painting features detailed drawings of figures in the foreground with wagon, and the town and scenery in the background, painted over in watercolor in rich raw umber and red-brown tones in the foreground and blue green tones in the background. Carrick showed promise at a young age, exhibiting his work at the Royal Academy age 16. He was a member of the Royal Institute. This two-toned watercolor work has detailed figures, wagon with hay in the forefront above a view of Dunoon town near Glasgow as it was long ago. Signed by the artist, lower left with an inscription that reads: 'View of Dunoon, Argyllshire drawn by Robert Carrick, Glasgow, for David Allan'. Verso includes a copy of the same inscription. Saltire Gallerie replaced the cracked and dirty plain glass with art glass and added an acid-free paper behind the work. While doing this work we found an art giclee, included with the painting. Presented in a patterned wooden frame with art glass. Dunoon was a thriving town on the river at the time of this work, and later became part of Glasgow. The view from above the town is a popular one, as Saltire Gallerie has another view of Dunoon from above by Scottish artist Patrick Downie...

Themistokles von Eckenbrecher (1842 Athens - 1921 Goslar), Norwegian pine grove, 1901. Watercolor on blue-green paper, 30 x 22 cm. Signed, dated and inscribed in his own hand "TvE. Fagermes [i.e. Fagermes]. 26.6.[19]01." - Slight crease throughout at left margin, otherwise in good condition. About the artwork Themistokles von Eckenbrecher often traveled to Norway to study the nature that fascinated him there. On June 26, 1901, near the southern Norwegian town of Fagernes, in the summer evening sun, he saw a small pine grove, which he immediately captured in a watercolor. He exposed the trees growing on a small hill in front of the background, so that the pines completely define the picture and combine to form a tense motif. The tension comes from the contrast of form and color. The trunks, growing upward, form a vertical structure that is horizontally penetrated by the spreading branches and the pine needles, which are rendered as a plane. This structural tension is further intensified by the color contrast between the brown-reddish iridescent trunks and branches and the green-toned needlework. Themistokles von Eckenbrecher, however, does not use the observed natural scene as an inspiring model for a dance of color and form that detaches itself from the motif and thus treads the path of abstracting modernism. Its inner vitality is to be brought to light and made aesthetically accessible through the work of art. It is precisely in order to depict the inner vitality of nature that von Eckenbrecher chooses the technique of watercolor, in which the individual details, such as the needles, are not meticulously worked out, but rather a flowing movement is created that unites the contrasts. The trees seem to have formed the twisted trunks out of their own inner strength as they grew, creatingthose tense lineations that the artist has put into the picture. The inner strength continues in the branches and twigs, culminating in the upward growth of the needles. At the same time, the trunks, illuminated by the setting sun, seem to glow from within, adding an almost dramatic dimension to the growing movement. Through the artwork, nature itself is revealed as art. In order to make nature visible as art in the work, von Eckenbrecher exposes the group of trees so that they are bounded from the outside by an all-encompassing contour line and merge into an areal unity that enters into a figure-ground relationship with the blue-greenish watercolor paper. The figure-ground relationship emphasizes the ornamental quality of the natural work of art, which further enforces the artwork character of the group of trees. With the presentation of Themistokles von Eckenbrecher's artistic idea and its realization, it has become clear that the present watercolor is not a study of nature in the sense of a visual note by the artist, which might then be integrated into a larger work context, but a completely independent work of art. This is why von Eckenbrecher signed the watercolor. In addition, it is marked with a place and a date, which confirms that this work of nature presented itself to him in exactly this way at this place at this time. At the same time, the date and place make it clear that the natural work of art has been transferred into the sphere of art and thus removed from the time of the place of nature. About the artist Themistocles' parents instilled a life of travel in their son, who is said to have spoken eleven languages. His father, who was interested in ancient and oriental culture, was a doctor and had married Francesca Magdalena Danelon, an Italian, daughter of the British consul in Trieste. During a stay in Athens - Gustav von Eckenbrecher was a friend of Heinrich von Schliemann and is said to have given him crucial clues as to the location of Troy - Themistokles saw the light of day in 1842. After an interlude in Berlin, where Themistokles was educated at the English-American School, the journey began again. From 1850 to 1857 the family lived in Constantinople, after which the father opened a practice in Potsdam, where Themistokles, who wanted to become a painter, was taught by the court painter Carl Gustav Wegener. In 1861 the von Eckenbrechers left Potsdam and settled in Düsseldorf. There Themistokles received two years of private tuition from Oswald Aschenbach, who greatly admired the talented young artist. After his artistic training, he undertook extensive travels, often accompanied by Prince Peter zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, which took him to northern and eastern Europe, but above all to the Middle East and even to South America. The paintings that resulted from these journeys established his artistic reputation and led to his participation in large panoramas such as the 118 x 15 metre Entry of the Mecca Caravan into Cairo, painted for the City of Hamburg in 1882. 1882 was also the start of a total of 21 study trips to Scandinavia, most of them to Norway, and the unique Norwegian landscape with its rugged fjords became a central motif in his work. Along with Anders Askevold and Adelsteen Normann...

Otto Eglau (1917 Berlin - 1988 Kampen), Raft Landscape in Sweden, 1956. Watercolor and ink on paper, 45 x 60 cm, signed in his own hand lower right with "Eglau" and dated "[19]56". - somewhat darkened Exposé as PDF - Temporary structures - About the artwork A wide river landscape stretches out before us, its horizon line running across the upper part of the picture, creating the impression of enormous depth. The depth is further extended by the dark tree trunks, most of which spill into the picture, and at the same time rhythmized by their different positions. This sequence of movements gives the landscape a strong dynamic moment. Indeed, the landscape seems to be "fleeing" from beneath us. To keep the gaze on the foreground alone requires a real visual effort. By looking at the foreground, we have already arrived at the background. Therefore, we cannot speak of pictorial grounds in the classical sense. Rather, we are confronted with a structurally rhythmic continuum of space, the dynamics of which are further accelerated by the cut tree trunks in the foreground and the upright trunks in the background, which function as target marks. Since the narrow strip of sky has the same white tonality as the ice, this area also fits seamlessly into the spatial structure, so that a deserted "structural landscape" unfolds before us. The structure, however, is not - as in the case of Piet Mondrian - completely abstract and thus something that exists independently of itself, removed from the time of natural space. The structures that Otto Eglau discovered in nature remain bound to it, which is why they exhibit a temporality that corresponds to the 'course of things'. Even if they correspond to an architecture of nature brought to representation, the structures are not substantial, but contingent. Artistically uncovered, they present themselves to Eglau at the very moment he captures them. In nature itself, these structures will never be repeated in the same way. Panta rhei - everything flows, even if the flow of time is frozen by his artistic representation and the image, for all its dynamism, radiates calm at the same time. "The structures I put behind things, and the lines that hold my paintings, are signs of transient life. They are random like the trace a wave leaves in the sand, blurred like the border between sea and land, ephemeral like the life of a shell I hold in my hand." - Otto Eglau About the artist After his release from captivity in 1947, Otto Eglau studied at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Berlin. He was a student of Oskar Nerlinger, Max Kaus and Wolf Hoffmann. From 1953 he taught free drawing for architects at the Technical University of Berlin. In the years that followed, Eglau undertook numerous study trips that took him to Scandinavia, the Arab world, the Far East and even Macau. During these travels he cultivated the technique of watercolour, which allowed him to work quickly in the open air, while retaining a strong painterly quality. Scholarships enabled Eglau to stay in Japan from 1962 to 1963 and in Naples in 1970. From 1969 to 1976 Eglau was professor of etching at the International Summer Academy of Fine Arts in Salzburg. Between 1983 and 1988 Eglau worked simultaneously in his Berlin studio at Lietzensee, which had its own printing press, and in his studio in Kampen on the island of Sylt. Otto Eglau's work has been shown in more than 100 solo exhibitions worldwide and in more than 120 group exhibitions. "I love the vastness of the island. The mudflats off Kampen are my treasure trove; here I discover new shapes and colors every day. Without Sylt, I would be like a fish without water." - Otto Eglau Selected Bibliography Hanns Theodor Flemming: Otto Eglau. Das graphische Werk, Flensburg 1966. Heinrich Seemann (Einführung): Otto Eglau. Inselskizzen, Hamburg 1982. Heinrich Seemann (Einführung): Otto Eglau. Japan, Nepal, Sylt. Aquarelle. Zeichen und Strukturen. Einführung von Heinrich Seemann, Hamburg 1986. Otto Eglau: Watt-Tagebuch. Ausgewählte Aquarelle aus den Skizzenbüchern Otto Eglaus. Kampen 1996. GERMAN VERSION Otto Eglau (1917 Berlin – 1988 Kampen), Floßlandschaft in Schweden, 1956. Aquarell und Tusche auf Papier, 45 x 60 cm, unten rechts eigenhändig in Blei mit „Eglau“ signiert und mit „[19]56“ datiert. - etwas nachgedunkelt Exposé als PDF - Temporäre Strukturen - zum Werk Vor uns erstreckt sich eine weite Flusslandschaft, deren Horizontline im oberen Bereich des Bildes verläuft, wodurch der Eindruck einer enormen Tiefenerstreckung entsteht. Die Tiefe wird von den dunklen, zumeist ins Bild hineinfluchtenden Baumstämmen zusätzlich geweitet und – durch ihre verschiedenartigen Lagen – dabei zugleich rhythmisiert. Durch diese Bewegungsabfolge weist die Landschaft ein starkes dynamisches Moment auf. Und tatsächlich stellt sich der Eindruck ein, als ob die Landschaft unter uns ‚hinwegfluchten‘ würde. Den Blick einzig im Vordergrund zu halten, verlangt regelrecht eine visuelle Anstrengung. Auf den Vordergrund schauend sind wir bereits im Hintergrund angelangt. Daher kann gar nicht von Bildgründen im klassischen Sinne gesprochen werden. Vielmehr steht hier ein strukturell rhythmisiertes Raumkontinuum vor Augen, dessen Dynamik von den angeschnittenen Baumstämmen vorne und den als Zielmarken fungierenden aufgerichteten Stämmen hinten zusätzlich beschleunigt wird. Da der schmale Himmelstreifen dieselbe Weißtonalität wie die Wasserlandschaft aufweist, fügt sich auch dieser Bereich bruchlos in das Raumgefüge ein, so dass sich vor uns eine menschenleere ‚Strukturlandschaft‘ ausbreitet. Die Struktur ist aber nicht – wie dies bei Piet Mondrian der Fall ist – gänzlich abstrakt und dadurch etwas eigenständig für sich Bestehendes, das der Zeit des Naturraums enthoben ist. Die von Otto Eglau in der Natur entdecken Strukturen bleiben an diese zurückgebunden, weshalb sie eine dem ‚Lauf der Dinge‘ entsprechende Temporalität aufweisen. Auch wenn sie einer zur Darstellung gebrachten Architektur der Natur entsprechen, sind die Strukturen nichts Substanzielles, sondern kontingent. Künstlerisch aufgedeckt, bieten sie sich Eglau in eben jenem Moment dar, den er festhält. In der Natur selbst werden diese Strukturen niemals in derselben Art wiederkehren. Panta rhei – alles fließt, auch wenn sich der Fluss der Zeit durch seine künstlerische Darstellung verfestigt hat, wodurch das Bild – trotz aller Dynamik – zugleich auch Ruhe ausstrahlt. „Die Strukturen, die ich hinter die Dinge setze, und die Linien, die meine Bilder halten, sind Zeichen des vergänglichen Lebens. Sie sind zufällig wie die Spur, die eine Welle im Sand hinterlässt, unscharf wie die Grenze zwischen Meer und Land, vergänglich wie das Leben einer Muschel, die ich in der Hand halte.“ - Otto Eglau zum Künstler Nach seiner Entlassung aus der Kriegsgefangenschaft 1947 nahm Otto Eglau ein Studium an der Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Berlin auf. Dort war wer Schüler von Oskar Nerlinger, Max Kaus und Wolf Hoffmann. Ab 1953 unterrichtete er freies Zeichnen für Architekten an der Technischen Universität Berlin. In den Folgejahren unternahm Eglau zahlreiche Studienreisen, die ihn nach Skandinavien, in den arabischen Raum, nach Fernost und bis nach Macau führten. Auf diesen Fahrten kultivierte er die Technik des Aquarellierens, die eine zügige Bildschöpfung im Freiraum erlaubt und dennoch eine stark malerische Qualität aufweist. Stipendien ermöglichten es Eglau, sich von 1962 bis 1963 in Japan aufzuhalten und 1970 länger in Neapel zu verweilen. Von 1969 bis 1976 hatte Eglau die Professur für Radierung an der Internationalen Sommerakademie für Bildende Kunst in Salzburg inne. Zwischen 1983 und 1988 war Eglau parallel in seinem Berliner Atelier am...

Theodor Scheerbaum (1897 Reichenbach im Vogtland), Wind Dodgers at the Baltic Sea. Watercolor on strong yellowish grained paper, 44 x 56 cm, signed by hand "Th[eodor] Scheerbaum" at ...

Atsuko Honda (b.1984, Osaka) utilizes traditional techniques and methods that are increasingly rare among 21st-century practitioners. Honda has been focusing on printmaking since 200...

"Brick Layers" WPA American Scene Mid 20th Century Modern Drawing Men Working. 21 x 15 inches Watercolor on paper. c. 1938. Signed lower left. BIO David Fredenthal (1914 - 1958) was one ot America's most respected watercolor artists. He was famous for his bold, intensely vigorous and complex paintings and drawings that expressed his deep feeling for excitement with life and living. He was a draftsman with seemingly a special gift for catching anything, physically and emotionally on the spot, and he never went anywhere without three or four loaded pens and a sketchbook in his pocket. As part of the WPA project he executed a number of murals including the Sports Pavilion on the Heinz Building of the New York World's Fair 1939. Some of his fresco and mural techniques were inspired by his friendship with Diego Rivera who had admired and encouraged him in the early 1930's. After he won a traveling scholarship to Europe from The Museum of Modern Art at age 19, he was the recipient of two Guggenheim grants in Painting. He had his first solo exhibition at the Downtown Gallery in New York in 1937 at age 23, and many others after that including the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1947. Because of Fredenthal's prodigious drawing gifts, he was chosen by Erskine Caldwell to illustrate his novel "Tobacco Road" in 1940. He was a War Artist Correspondent for both the State Department (the European and Asian fronts) and Life magazine from 1943 to 1946 and his work was featured in Life magazine regularly during the war and after until the end of his life. Also featured in Life in 1956 were drawings that Fredenthal had vividly recorded on his sketch pad, of the entire filming of the movie, The Pride and the Passion, starring Cary Grant, Sophia Loren, and Frank Sinatra, along the treacherous mountain passes of Spain. Though he was fiercely committed to an art that expressed deeply human social values and issues and was quite hostile to abstraction, he was friendly with a number of abstract artists such as David Smith, Ad Reinhardt, Philip Guston, Paul Feeley, and Herman Cherry.

View of St. Marks Basilica, Venice Italy Landscape Watercolor with Gondolas Beautifully detailed landscape watercolor of an iconic ...

A painter who has lived amid and loved the subject matter of his art, Jorgensen’s pictures of the Yosemite Valley and the Missions of California are monuments of early art in this co...