William Frederick Paskell

“Waterfall with Birches”

Circa 1920

Here for your consideration is a well executed watercolor and gouache painting by the American artist, James Milton Sessions. Signed lower right. Circa 1955. The landscape is of a Novia Scotia pastoral landscape. Here you see horses grazing and two men fishing nearby. The watercolor is in excellent original condition and is beautifully double matted and framed in a thin gold leaf gallery frame in fine condition. Overall framed measurement 16 by 18.25 inches. James Milton Sessions (born September 20, 1882 in Rome, NY) received his initial exposure to art from his mother, who was an accomplished artist. He trained at the Art Institute of Chicago from 1903–1906 and initially supported himself as a wheelsman aboard Great Lakes ships from 1906–1914, later serving in the Illinois Naval Reserve during World War I. He also worked as a commercial illustrator. He was a master watercolorist of marine, sporting, and military World War II scenes. He developed a love of the sea and is probably best known as a painter of marine subjects. Sessions painted images of numerous locations, from the Bahamas to New England's busy fishing harbors, north to the raw fishing grounds of Nova Scotia, and ultimately to the Navajo reservations in New Mexico. Not only do his works document important World War II historical events, they visually portray and convey the spirit of the American fighting forces in both the Pacific and European campaigns, commencing with the bombing of Pearl Harbor, followed by D-Day Europe through to the final phases of the Pacific war, such as Jimmy Doolittle's daylight bombing raids of the Japanese mainland to the unconditional surrender of the Japanese military. The Chicago Tribune newspaper utilized his talents and Sessions is considered to be the greatest "brush reporter" of World War II. His works can be found in Presidential collections, numerous important corporate collections and military establishments throughout the country. Sessions created numerous wartime advertisements. Examples are a 1943 Willys Jeep ad showing the Coast Guard at Guadalcanal, and a Borg-Warner ad in 1945 showing the mass production of radiators and clutches for motorized warfare manufactured in Detroit. His work is highly collectible in the field of Militaria/WWII/1939-1945. In 1962 the New York Graphic Society commissioned him to make four paintings, reproductions of which were distributed as part of the Society's Works of Masters Group. Many of his other paintings have been reproduced over the years, issued as posters and as high quality reprints on watercolor paper. Sessions was married in Chicago, Illinois in 1946 to Chrysanthy G. Deamanthopulos. Although very prolific in the style of John Whorf and Ogden Pleissner...

Here for your consideration is a well executed watercolor and gouache painting on archival paper of a smoke house in Duck Cove, Maine. A flock of white geese are seen in the foreground. Signed lower left. Circa 1955. In excellent original condition. The artwork is housed in a thin custom gold leaf frame and is double mated. Condition of frame is also excellent. Overall framed measurements are 16 by 18.25 inches. James Milton Sessions (born September 20, 1882 in Rome, NY) received his initial exposure to art from his mother, who was an accomplished artist. He trained at the Art Institute of Chicago from 1903–1906 and initially supported himself as a wheelsman aboard Great Lakes ships from 1906–1914, later serving in the Illinois Naval Reserve during World War I. He also worked as a commercial illustrator. He was a master watercolorist of marine, sporting, and military World War II scenes. He developed a love of the sea and is probably best known as a painter of marine subjects. Sessions painted images of numerous locations, from the Bahamas to New England's busy fishing harbors, north to the raw fishing grounds of Nova Scotia, and ultimately to the Navajo reservations in New Mexico. Not only do his works document important World War II historical events, they visually portray and convey the spirit of the American fighting forces in both the Pacific and European campaigns, commencing with the bombing of Pearl Harbor, followed by D-Day Europe through to the final phases of the Pacific war, such as Jimmy Doolittle's daylight bombing raids of the Japanese mainland to the unconditional surrender of the Japanese military. The Chicago Tribune newspaper utilized his talents and Sessions is considered to be the greatest "brush reporter" of World War II. His works can be found in Presidential collections, numerous important corporate collections and military establishments throughout the country. Sessions created numerous wartime advertisements. Examples are a 1943 Willys Jeep ad showing the Coast Guard at Guadalcanal, and a Borg-Warner ad in 1945 showing the mass production of radiators and clutches for motorized warfare manufactured in Detroit. His work is highly collectible in the field of Militaria/WWII/1939-1945. In 1962 the New York Graphic Society commissioned him to make four paintings, reproductions of which were distributed as part of the Society's Works of Masters Group. Many of his other paintings have been reproduced over the years, issued as posters and as high quality reprints on watercolor paper. Sessions was married in Chicago, Illinois in 1946 to Chrysanthy G. Deamanthopulos. Although very prolific in the style of John Whorf and Ogden Pleissner...

Beautiful watercolor on archival paper by the British artist, Eyres Simmons. Signed lower left. The scene is of Fowey Harbour in Cornwall, England with schooners moored in harbor. ...

Here for your consideration is a beautifully executed watercolor of a bucolic New England series of village houses by the American artist, Gary Shepard. ...

Wonderful original watercolor of a bucolic scene with a farm with geese and a man on his horse driven wagon as the sun sets in the English countryside. Signed lower left by the British artist, Henry Charles Fox...

Original watercolor and gouache on archival paper of birch trees in winter along a fenced roadway with a quaint home in the background. Signed lower right. Condition is excellent. Circa 1960. The watercolor is in a solid mahogany frame under UV glass in fine condition. Overall framed measurements are 14 by 11 inches. Provenance: A East Hampton, Long Island, New York collector. Born in Queens, Long Island, NY, Impressionist landscape and seascape painter Francis Dixon studied at the Art Students League in New York City under Impressionists Frank Vincent DuMond, Cape Cod, Massachusetts artist, Charles W. Hawthorne, and modernist Robert Henri. Having a good singing voice Dixon was an Army and Navy Song Leader for the War Department during World War I. From 1915 to 1917 was living and painting in Los Angeles, Carmel and Point Lobos, California. Dixon exhibited his California paintings at Folson Galleries New York City in 1917. Dixon continued to travel and paint, visiting Bermuda in 1923 and 1925, and Europe in the mid-1920s. In the 1930s he was living on West 55th Street in Manhattan with a number of other artists. He was a member of the Allied Artists of America (NY); Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts; and the Salmagundi Club, NY. He exhibited at The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (1916); Folson Gallery (NY, 1917, solo); Society of Independent Artists (NYC, 1917-18, 1920-22, 1924); Salmagundi Club (NYC, 1917-1940, 1943, 1945); National Academy of Design (NYC, 1925); Studio Guild Galleries (NYC, 1937); Barbizon-Plaza Galleries NYC, 1939); Allied Artists of America (NYC, 1940); and Salons of America (NYC). Dixon’s solo exhibitions included Babcock Galleries (NYC, 1926 and 1927); Women's University Club...

Signed lower right, "M. Backman" for Muriel Backman (American, 1902-1996), titled verso and dated 1955. A vibrant Modernist work by this notable California woman artist who exhibit...

Summertime in Martha's Vineyard is drenched in saturated yellow and reds. People in the foreground look out to the sea. Two people on horseback are masterfully rendered in a loose b...

Summertime in Martha's Vineyard is drenched in saturated yellows and reds. People in the foreground look out to the sea. Two people on horseback are masterfully rendered in a loose ...

Signed lower right, 'V. Isbrand' for Victor Isbrand (Danish, 1897-1989) and titled, 'Venedig' (Venice). Precocious as a child, Victor Isbrand painted professionally from a young age...

Car rally. Fiat factory team. Marco Silombria (Savona, 1035- Turin, 2014) Mixed media: drawing, watercolor, pencils on paper, applied to hard support Around 1980. Marco Silombria...

Lighthearted 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...