American Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
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Style: American Modern
Man In The Moon Drawing by O. Casio
Located in Larchmont, NY
O. Casio
Untitled (Moon Man), c. 20th Century
Mixed media on paper
Sight: 10 x 13 1/4 in.
Framed: 16 x 20 in.
Signed lower right: O. Casio
Category
20th Century American Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Mixed Media, Paper
Mid Century Self Portrait of the Original Drawing on Paper
Located in Soquel, CA
Portrait of the Artist by the Artist Original Charcoal Drawing on Paper 1960
Excellent detailed original drawing of the artist by Eugene Hawkins (American, b. 1933). A realistic dep...
Category
1960s American Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Paper, Charcoal
Cafe Society: The Smoker, male portait Closerie des Lilas, Lost Generation Paris
By John Wentworth Russell
Located in Norwich, GB
A strong portrait, and a piece of history. It was confidently sketched in 1923, during the heyday of the "Lost Generation" in Paris, at the Closerie des Lilas - Ernest Hemingway's favourite haunt and home-from-home in the City. This historical café is where Hemingway first read The Great Gatsby with his friend F. Scott Fitzgerald and where he wrote most of The Sun Also Rises...
Category
1920s American Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Paper, Graphite
Young Man with Flower
By Andy Warhol
Located in Toronto, Ontario
Andy Warhol (1928-1987) is arguably the most important American artist of the 20th century. He not only defined Pop Art but had an unrivaled influence on artists and image-making.
In recent years there has been new scholarship and increasing commercial interest in Andy Warhol's early works, material created prior to Pop Art.
During the 1950's Warhol established himself in New York City as a trendy illustrator contributing to a wide number of fashion publications and retailers. His simple line drawings were modern and gentle, with a subtle but unmistakably gay touch. In a short period of time, he created an aesthetic that was both versatile and distinctively his.
Like the consummate artist that he was, Warhol was frequently drawing. The images he created during this era, independent from his fashion commissions, were romantic, hopeful, and unabashedly gay. It is worth emphasizing that Warhol was almost exclusively dedicated to drawing during this period, only creating a handful of paintings - which were intended to be used for window displays.
Taschen, the legendary art book publisher, recently released the book Andy Warhol: Love, Sex, and Desire 1950-1962 which celebrates his drawings of the male form from the pre-Pop era.
This portrait is a paradigm of Warhol's mastery of line and visionary framing. A man's profile commands the composition as he gazes forward with his hand raised towards his mouth, holding a delicate flower. With the lightest touch, Warhol masterly portrays this male ideal with the details of his chiseled jawline, softened gaze, and timeless elegance.
Warhol drawings from the 1950s are marked by a gentle whimsy that embodies Warhol's vivid imagination. With fanciful details such as exaggerated lips and eyebrows, "Young Man with Flower...
Category
1950s American Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Ballpoint Pen
"The Secretary" Minimalist Portrait in Ink on Paper by Geraldine Heib
Located in Soquel, CA
"The Secretary" Minimalist Illustrative Portrait in Ink on Paper
This charming portrait by Jerry O'Day (American, 1912), depicts a tight-lipped woman with stern eyebrows in a fun and simplistic style. Her lips pop in red and the fine line detail of her hair gives texture and movement to the piece. Her rounded figure is created using basic shapes cleverly placed, dressed in a turtleneck with dangling earrings. She is looking sideways, drawing the viewer's eyes in that direction.
Unsigned, but was acquired with a collection of the artist's work.
Presented in a new blue mat.
Mat size: 32"H x 26"W
Paper size: 28.5"H x 22.5"W
Image size: 15.5"H x 11.5"W
Jerry O'Day is also known as Geraldine Heib. Born in Oakland, California, on June 17, 1912. Geraldine Heib assumed the name Jerry O'Day at an early age. She grew up in Washington and studied in Seattle at the Cornish School of Fine Arts. Upon moving to the San Francisco Bay area in 1938, she further studied with Bufano as a muralist for two years. O'Day wed sculptor David Lemon and had a gallery in a converted cod fishery in Belvedere from 1942 until 1963. At that time, the couple moved to a houseboat in Sausalito, where she remained until her demise on March 30, 1986.
Post War California artist, Jerry O'Day studied at the Cornish School of Fine Arts in Seattle; studied with Beniamino Bufano for two years. She lived in the artist's colony at the Cod fishery with artist David Lemon on Belvedere Island in the San Francisco Bay Area from 1942 - 1963.
Solo Exhibitions: City of Paris, Rotunda Gallery; Lucien Labaudt Gallery, 1963; Torrance Gallery, San Anselmo, 1955; Marin Art Gallery, Sausalito, 1956; Palace of The Legion of Honor, San Francisco, 1962; East & West Gallery, Fillmore Street, San Francisco; Landmarks Gallery, Marin County, 1991.
Selected Group Exhibitions: 65th Annual Painting and Sculpture Exhibition of the San Francisco Art Association at the San Francisco Museum of Art, 1945; Fourth Winter Invitational, California Palace of The Legion of Honor, San Francisco, 1963.
Source:
David J Carlson...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Ink, Paper
"Spa Hair" Minimalist Illustrative Portrait in Ink on Paper by Geraldine Heib
Located in Soquel, CA
"Spa Hair" Minimalist Illustrative Portrait in Ink on Paper
In this illustrative portrait by Jerry O'Day (American, 1912), a person is depicted in a continuous line contour style. The fine line detail of the hair gives texture and movement to the piece, with half-closed eyelids, giving the sense of calm and relaxation.
Unsigned, but was acquired with a collection of the artist's work.
Presented in a new black mat.
Mat size: 36"H x 30"W
Paper size: 28.5"H x 22.63"W
Image size: 25.5"H x 20"W
Jerry O'Day is also known as Geraldine Heib. Born in Oakland, California, on June 17, 1912. Geraldine Heib assumed the name Jerry O'Day at an early age. She grew up in Washington and studied in Seattle at the Cornish School of Fine Arts. Upon moving to the San Francisco Bay area in 1938, she further studied with Bufano as a muralist for two years. O'Day wed sculptor David Lemon and had a gallery in a converted cod fishery in Belvedere from 1942 until 1963. At that time, the couple moved to a houseboat in Sausalito, where she remained until her demise on March 30, 1986.
Post War California artist, Jerry O'Day studied at the Cornish School of Fine Arts in Seattle; studied with Beniamino Bufano for two years. She lived in the artist's colony at the Cod fishery with artist David Lemon on Belvedere Island in the San Francisco Bay Area from 1942 - 1963.
Solo Exhibitions: City of Paris, Rotunda Gallery; Lucien Labaudt Gallery, 1963; Torrance Gallery, San Anselmo, 1955; Marin Art Gallery, Sausalito, 1956; Palace of The Legion of Honor, San Francisco, 1962; East & West Gallery, Fillmore Street, San Francisco; Landmarks Gallery, Marin County, 1991.
Selected Group Exhibitions: 65th Annual Painting and Sculpture Exhibition of the San Francisco Art Association at the San Francisco Museum of Art, 1945; Fourth Winter Invitational, California Palace of The Legion of Honor, San Francisco, 1963.
Source:
David J Carlson...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Ink, Paper
Lounge Chair Nap - Vintage Illustration in Ink and Watercolor
Located in Soquel, CA
Lounge Chair Nap - Vintage Illustration in Ink and Watercolor
A man lazes in a lounge chair, book still in hand, as he dozes off with a content e...
Category
1950s American Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
India Ink, Pen, Paper
African Mama - Vintage Illustration in Ink and Watercolor
Located in Soquel, CA
African Mama - Vintage Illustration in Ink and Watercolor
A charming illustration, by Irene Pattinson (American, 1909-1999), shows a woman with a...
Category
1950s American Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Paper, India Ink, Watercolor, Pen
Indian Dancer - Vintage Illustration in Ink and Watercolor
Located in Soquel, CA
Indian Dancer - Vintage Illustration in Ink and Watercolor
A stoic, dark-haired woman in elaborate dress is sitting cross-legged in this illustration by Irene Pattinson (American, 1909-1999). Pattinson uses fine ink line detail and a vibrant pink watercolor for a splash of color.
Signed at the bottom, "Irene Pattinson."
Provenance: The Artist, Estate of Irene Pattinson: David Carlson; Estate of Larry Miller Fine Art, Robert Azensky Fine Art.
Presented in a new white mat with foam core backing.
Mat size: 16"H x 12"W
Paper size: 11.75"H x 8.5"W
Image size: 7.5"H x 6.5"W
Irene Pattinson (American, 1909-1999) studied at the California School of Fine Art (now The San Francisco Art Institute), San Francisco State College and The Marion Hartwell School of Design. She was President of the San Francisco Woman Artists Association 1955-56.
Provenance: The Artist, Estate of Irene Pattinson: David Carlson; Estate of Larry Miller Fine Art, Robert Azensky Fine Art.
Solo Exhibitions: Lucien Labaudt Gallery 1955; San Francisco Museum of Art, 1961 (39 works).
Selected Group Exhibitions: San Francisco Art Association Annual 1948, 54, 55; San Francisco Woman Artists, 1957-1960; Oakland Art Museum Annual, 1951, 58; California Palace of the Legion of Honor, 1960; Richmond Art Center, 1955, 56, 57, 58; San Francisco Art Institute 1959, 60. The Art Bank of the San Francisco Art Association, 1958, 59, 60, 62, 63; Winter Invitational, California Palace of The Legion of Honor, San Francisco, 1960; Fourth Winter Invitational, California Palace of The Legion of Honor, San Francisco, 1963.
Awards: First Place, San Francisco Woman Artists Assoc., 1957, 1959; San Francisco Art Festival 1957;Literature: San Francisco Art Institute - A catalog of the Art Ban 1962/63; San Francisco and the Second Wave: The Blair Collection
Exhibitions:
1963 The Art Bank of the San Francisco Art Association, San Francisco, CA
1963 California Palace of The Legion of Honor: Forth Winter Invitational, San Francisco, CA
1962 The Art Bank of the San Francisco Art Association, San Francisco, CA
1961 San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco, CA
1960 California...
Category
1950s American Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
India Ink, Paper, Watercolor, Pen
Portrait Drawing of a Man at a Desk in India Ink on Tan Paper
Located in Soquel, CA
Portrait Drawing of a Man at a Desk in India Ink on Tan Paper
Figurative drawing of a man at a desk by Jerry O'Day (American, 1912). The man is seated, about to pick up a pen. His features are somewhat exaggerated, showing foreshortening in the arms and legs. This piece is executed with confident strokes but nonetheless feels loose and playful.
Signed in the bottom right corner, "Jerry O'Day."
Mat size: 20"H x 16"W
Paper size: 12"H x 8"W
Image window size: 11.25"H x 7.25"W
Jerry O'Day is also known as Geraldine Heib. Born in Oakland, California, on June 17, 1912. Geraldine Heib assumed the name Jerry O'Day at an early age. She grew up in Washington and studied in Seattle at the Cornish School of Fine Arts. Upon moving to the San Francisco Bay area in 1938, she further studied with Bufano as a muralist for two years. O'Day wed sculptor David Lemon and had a gallery in a converted cod fishery in Belvedere from 1942 until 1963. At that time, the couple moved to a houseboat in Sausalito, where she remained until her demise on March 30, 1986.
Post War California artist, Jerry O'Day studied at the Cornish School of Fine Arts in Seattle; studied with Beniamino Bufano for two years. She lived in the artist's colony at the Cod fishery with artist David Lemon on Belvedere Island in the San Francisco Bay Area from 1942 - 1963.
Solo Exhibitions: City of Paris, Rotunda Gallery; Lucien Labaudt Gallery, 1963; Torrance Gallery, San Anselmo, 1955; Marin Art Gallery, Sausalito, 1956; Palace of The Legion of Honor, San Francisco, 1962; East & West Gallery, Fillmore Street, San Francisco; Landmarks Gallery, Marin County, 1991.
Selected Group Exhibitions: 65th Annual Painting and Sculpture Exhibition of the San Francisco Art Association at the San Francisco Museum of Art, 1945; Fourth Winter Invitational, California Palace of The Legion of Honor, San Francisco, 1963.
Source:
David J Carlson...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
India Ink, Paper
Headdress Procession
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Headdress Procession
Watercolor, c. 1950's
Signed by the artist in ink, lower right
The Headdress Procession occurs every year as part of the Christmas celebrations in Oaxaca.
Guilbe...
Category
1950s American Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Watercolor
Alfred Bendiner, (Baseball Hitter and Pitcher -- The Philadelphia Phillies?)
Located in New York, NY
Of course it's possible that these baseball players aren't from a Philadelphia team, but I doubt it. There was so much drama and intrigue with both the Philadelphia Phillies and the ...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
India Ink, Watercolor
Alfred Bendiner, Johnny Hodges (Johnny Hodges, Bass Fiddle & Traps)
Located in New York, NY
Did Bendiner ever miss a performance, show, concert, play? Was there anyone he didn't know?
This double-side drawing in blue crayon shows Johnny Hodges (jazz saxophonist extraordina...
Category
1950s American Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Crayon
Alfred Bendiner, (Supper at the Oak Room, Plaza Hotel, NYC)
Located in New York, NY
Bendiner always took drawing materials with him when he traveled. And a beautiful piece of 'found' paper was never wasted. (Once in Greece on a bus trip he had to acquire paper from ...
Category
1960s American Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Ink
Alfred Bendiner, La Alsacienne (pair)
Located in New York, NY
Leave it to the Bendiners to find an Alsatian restaurant in Paris (La Taverne Alsacienne) and use it's stationary to such a great end! And thank goodness that the paper required two ...
Category
1960s American Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Watercolor
Black and White Abstract Figurative Drawing of Men with Text Elements
Located in Houston, TX
Monochromatic abstract figurative drawing by Texas artist Ike E. Morgan. The drawing depicts two figures in profile and some textual elements around them. Signed by the artist at the...
Category
1990s American Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Pencil, Archival Paper
Tiger, Lion, Panther, Wolf, Bear, Cat Predator Silhouette Illustration
Located in Miami, FL
Pioneering Woman Illustrator Margery Stocking Hart draws a pen-and-ink story depicting a round table of predators encircling a vulnerable bunny rabbit. ...
Category
1920s American Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Ink, Pen
'Self-Portrait with Black Hat' — 1940s American Impressionism
Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
Robert Philipp, 'Self-Portrait with Black Hat', ink and color pastel, c. 1945. Signed in ink, lower right. A fine, spontaneous drawing, on heavy, buff wove paper; the artist's tack holes in the top and bottom left sheet corners, minor rippling in the bottom sheet edge; otherwise in good condition. Image size 16 1/4 x 11 1/4 inches; sheet size 19 1/4 x 12 3/4 inches. Matted to museum standards, unframed.
Provenance: Art Students League, from the artist’s personal portfolio.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Robert Philipp (1895–1981) was a celebrated American Post-Impressionist painter known for his nudes, still lifes, and portraits. Noted art critic Henry McBride named Philipp one of America's top six painters of his generation. Philipp was an instructor of painting at the Art Students League, New York, for 33 years. Philipp was Secretary of the National Academy of Design, a National Academician, and a Benjamin Franklin Fellow at the Royal Society of Arts in London. His composition and painting style has been compared to the art of Edgar Degas and Pierre Auguste Renoir.
In 1940, Philipp was invited to Los Angeles by Hollywood producer Louis B. Mayer to paint portraits of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer movie stars. The same year, Walter Wanger, producer of ‘The Long Voyage Home’, directed by John Ford and based on plays by Eugene O'Neill, contracted with Reeves Lewenthal, head of the Associated American Artists gallery in Manhattan, to bring nine well-known artists to the set and paint scenes from the movie and portraits of the actors in character. The artists included Robert Philipp, Thomas Hart Benton, Grant Wood, Ernest Fiene, George Schreiber, Luis...
Category
1940s American Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Pastel, Ink
Surprised Woman with Cactus 1920s Female Illustrator
By Susan Flint
Located in Miami, FL
The postman's delivery of a limp cactus creates a big emotional response the female recipient. Most likely an interior illustration for a newsstand magazine. Signed lower right Sus...
Category
1930s American Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Paper, Graphite
Samuel Wood Gaylor American Modernist Watercolor
Located in Larchmont, NY
Samuel Wood Gaylor (American, 1883 - 1957)
Untitled (Woman in Mirror), 1930
Watercolor on paper
Sight size: 14 1/4 x 10 1/4 in.
Framed: 20 3/4 x 16 1/4 in...
Category
1930s American Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Paper, Watercolor
Lover Boy
By Andy Warhol
Located in Toronto, Ontario
Andy Warhol (1928-1987) is arguably the most important American artist of the 20th century. He not only defined Pop Art but had an unrivaled influence on artists and image-making.
...
Category
1950s American Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Ink
Chaim Gross Judaica Jewish Watercolor Painting Rabbi Klezmer Music WPA Artist
By Chaim Gross
Located in Surfside, FL
Chaim Gross (American, 1904-1991)
Watercolor with pencil painting
Rabbi Klezmer music concert, flute player.
Hand signed
framed: 15 X 28.5, paper: 9.5 X 23
Chaim Gross (March 17, 1904 – May 5, 1991) was an American modernist sculptor and educator.
Gross was born to a Jewish family in Austrian Galicia, in the village of Wolowa (now known as Mezhgorye, Ukraine), in the Carpathian Mountains. In 1911, his family moved to Kolomyia (which was annexed into the Ukrainian USSR in 1939 and became part of newly independent Ukraine in 1991). When World War I ended, Gross and brother Avrom-Leib went to Budapest to join their older siblings Sarah and Pinkas. Gross applied to and was accepted by the art academy in Budapest and studied under the painter Béla Uitz, though within a year a new regime under Miklos Horthy took over and attempted to expel all Jews and foreigners from the country. After being deported from Hungary, Gross began art studies at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Vienna, Austria shortly before immigrating to the United States in 1921. Gross's studies continued in the United States at the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design, where he studied with Elie Nadelman and others, and at the Art Students League of New York, with Robert Laurent. He also attended the Educational Alliance Art School, studying under Abbo Ostrowsky, at the same time as Moses Soyer and Peter Blume.
In 1926 Gross began teaching at The Educational Alliance, and continued teaching there for the next 50 years. Louise Nevelson was among his students at the Alliance (in 1934), during the time she was transitioning from painting to sculpture. In the late 1920s and early 1930s he exhibited at the Salons of America exhibitions at the Anderson Galleries and, beginning in 1928, at the Whitney Studio Club. In 1929, Gross experimented with printmaking, and created an important group of 15 linocuts and lithographs of landscapes, New York City streets and parks, women in interiors, the circus, and vaudeville. The entire suite is now in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Gross returned to the medium of printmaking in the 1960s, and produced approximately 200 works in the medium over the next two decades. For more than sixty years Chaim Gross's art has expressed optimistic, affirming themes, Judaica, balancing acrobats, cyclists, trapeze artists and mothers and children convey joyfulness, modernism, exuberance, love, and intimacy. This aspect of his work remained consistent with his Jewish Hasidic heritage, which teaches that only in his childlike happiness is man nearest to God.
In March 1932 Gross had his first solo exhibition at Gallery 144 in New York City. For a short time they represented Gross, as well as his friends Milton Avery, Moses Soyer, Ahron Ben-Shmuel and others.
Gross was primarily a practitioner of the direct carving method, with the majority of his work being carved from wood. Other direct carvers in early 20th-century American art include William Zorach, Jose de Creeft, and Robert Laurent. Works by Chaim Gross can be found in major museums and private collections throughout the United States, with substantial holdings (27 sculptures) at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. A key work from this era, now at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, is the 1932 birds-eye maple Acrobatic Performers, which is also only one and one quarter inch thick.
In 1933 Gross joined the government's PWAP (Public Works of Art Project), which transitioned into the WPA (Works Progress Administration), which Gross worked for later in the 1930s. Under these programs Gross taught and demonstrated art, made sculptures that were placed in schools and public colleges, made work for Federal buildings including the Federal Trade Commission Building, and for the France Overseas and Finnish Buildings at the 1939 New York World's Fair. Gross was also recognized during these years with a silver medal at the Exposition universelle de 1937 in Paris, and in 1942, with a purchase prize at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's "Artists for Victory" exhibition for his wood sculpture of famed circus performer Lillian Leitzel.
In 1949 Gross sketched Chaim Weizmann, Israeli President, at several functions in New York City where Weizmann was speaking, Gross completed the bust in bronze later that year. Gross returned to Israel for three months in 1951 (the second of many trips there in the postwar years) to paint a series of 40 watercolors of life in various cities. This series was exhibited at the Jewish Museum (Manhattan) in 1953. He also did some important Hebrew medals.
In the 1950s Gross began to make more bronze sculptures alongside his wood and stone pieces, and in 1957 and 1959 he traveled to Rome to work with famed bronze foundries including the Nicci foundry. At the end of the decade Gross was working primarily in bronze which allowed him to create open forms, large-scale works and of course, multiple casts. Gross's large-scale bronze The Family, donated to New York City in 1991 in honor of Mayor Ed Koch, and installed at the Bleecker Street Park at 11th street, is now a fixture of Greenwich Village. In 1959, a survey of Gross's sculpture in wood, stone, and bronze was featured in the exhibit Four American Expressionists curated by Lloyd Goodrich at the Whitney Museum of American Art, with work by Abraham Rattner, Doris Caesar, and Karl Knaths. In 1976, a selection from Gross's important collection of historic African sculpture, formed since the late 1930s, was exhibited at the Worcester Art Museum in the show The Sculptor's Eye: The African Art Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Chaim Gross. Gross was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate member, and became a full Academician in 1981. In 1984, he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, with Jacob Lawrence and Lukas Foss. In the fall of 1991, Allen Ginsberg gave an important tribute to Gross at the American Academy of Arts and Letters, which is published in their Proceedings. In 1994, Forum Gallery, which now represents the Chaim Gross estate, held a memorial exhibition featuring a sixty-year survey of Gross's work.In March 1932 Gross had his first solo exhibition at Gallery 144 in New York City. For a short time they represented Gross, as well as his friends Milton Avery, Moses Soyer, Ahron Ben-Shmuel and others.
Gross was primarily a practitioner of the direct carving method, with the majority of his work being carved from wood. Other direct carvers in early 20th-century American art include William Zorach, Jose de Creeft, and Robert Laurent. Works by Chaim Gross can be found in major museums and private collections throughout the United States, with substantial holdings (27 sculptures) at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. A key work from this era, now at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, is the 1932 birds-eye maple Acrobatic Performers, which is also only one and one quarter inch thick.
In 1933 Gross joined the government's PWAP (Public Works of Art Project), which transitioned into the WPA (Works Progress Administration), which Gross worked for later in the 1930s. Under these programs Gross taught and demonstrated art, made sculptures that were placed in schools and public colleges, made work for Federal buildings including the Federal Trade Commission Building, and for the France Overseas and Finnish Buildings at the 1939 New York World's Fair. Gross was also recognized during these years with a silver medal at the Exposition universelle de 1937 in Paris, and in 1942, with a purchase prize at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's "Artists for Victory" exhibition for his wood sculpture of famed circus performer Lillian Leitzel.
In 1949 Gross sketched Chaim Weizmann, President of Israel, at several functions in New York City where Weizmann was speaking, Gross completed the bust in bronze later that year. Gross returned to Israel for three months in 1951 (the second of many trips there in the postwar years) to paint a series of 40 watercolors of life in various cities. This series was exhibited at the Jewish Museum (Manhattan) in 1953.
In the 1950s Gross began to make more bronze sculptures alongside his wood and stone pieces, and in 1957 and 1959 he traveled to Rome to work with famed bronze foundries including the Nicci foundry. At the end of the decade Gross was working primarily in bronze which allowed him to create open forms, large-scale works and of course, multiple casts. Gross's large-scale bronze The Family, donated to New York City in 1991 in honor of Mayor Ed Koch, and installed at the Bleecker Street Park at 11th street, is now a fixture of Greenwich Village. In 1959, a survey of Gross's sculpture in wood, stone, and bronze was featured in the exhibit Four American Expressionists curated by Lloyd Goodrich at the Whitney Museum of American Art, with work by Abraham Rattner, Doris Caesar, and Karl Knaths. In 1976, a selection from Gross's important collection of historic African sculpture, formed since the late 1930s, was exhibited at the Worcester Art Museum in the show The Sculptor's Eye: The African Art Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Chaim Gross. Gross was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate member, and became a full Academician in 1981. In 1984, he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, with Jacob Lawrence and Lukas Foss. In the fall of 1991, Allen Ginsberg gave an important tribute to Gross at the American Academy of Arts and Letters, which is published in their Proceedings. In 1994, Forum Gallery, which now represents the Chaim Gross estate, held a memorial exhibition featuring a sixty-year survey of Gross's work.
Gross was a professor of printmaking and sculpture at both the Educational Alliance and the New School for Social Research in New York City, as well as at the Brooklyn Museum Art School, the MoMA art school, the Art Student's League and the New Art School (which Gross ran briefly with Alexander Dobkin...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Paper, Watercolor
Self Portrait #1, colorful gestural abstracted portrait
By Tom Bennett
Located in Brooklyn, NY
Oil on paper
About Tom Bennett:
With quick brushstrokes, Tom Bennett creates representational images of human figures and animals, emphasizing movement in a manner reminiscent of Lucien Freud, Edgar Degas and the photographer Eadweard Muybridge. Elongated and blurry, the horse racing up a hill (Canter Fritz, 2002) and the sinister cat landing a leap (Chien Blanc, 1998) elicit a sense of foreboding enhanced by Bennett’s somber palette; his female figures too reflect a grim sense of humor with their distorted nude bodies. The face of Untitled Figure (1997), for example, is obscured by layers of dark paint. Classically trained as a painter, he initially worked in oil on canvas but discovered that monotype printing enabled him to “literally push the image around,” creating an essential element of motion. To overcome the limited scale of monotypes, however, he switched to painting on slick-surfaced plastic.
Tom Bennett’s practice is rooted in the classical tradition where painting and drawing from life is highly regarded. Bennett’s work is heavily influenced by Francis Bacon, Frank Auberbauch and foremost his father, Harry Bennett, who was also an artist. Tom’s time living abroad in Spain and traveling through Eastern Europe and Africa provided the artistic freedom to explore many of the techniques and subject matter that continue to define his practice. Bennett was born and raised in Connecticut.
His mediums include monotypes, oil on paper, canvas or styrene board. In a technique that Tom started over 4 years ago, several of his monotypes have been painted over with oil paint using a palette knife, brush, or his fingers to re-purpose the underlying image. These works are a testament to Bennett’s ability to quickly and concisely compose an image with expressive brush strokes, foreshortened figures and expertly rendered light.
Tom’s work has been featured in group and solo exhibitions worldwide. Bennett lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. He is currently represented by Tabla Rasa...
Category
2010s American Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Monotype, Oil, Paper
Chaim Gross Mid Century Mod Judaica Jewish Watercolor Painting Rabbis WPA Artist
By Chaim Gross
Located in Surfside, FL
Chaim Gross (American, 1904-1991)
Watercolor painting
Rabbinical Talmudic Discussion
Hand signed
17 x 29 framed, paper 10 x 22
Chaim Gross (March 17, 1904 – May 5, 1991) was an American modernist sculptor and educator.
Gross was born to a Jewish family in Austrian Galicia, in the village of Wolowa (now known as Mezhgorye, Ukraine), in the Carpathian Mountains. In 1911, his family moved to Kolomyia (which was annexed into the Ukrainian USSR in 1939 and became part of newly independent Ukraine in 1991). When World War I ended, Gross and brother Avrom-Leib went to Budapest to join their older siblings Sarah and Pinkas. Gross applied to and was accepted by the art academy in Budapest and studied under the painter Béla Uitz, though within a year a new regime under Miklos Horthy took over and attempted to expel all Jews and foreigners from the country. After being deported from Hungary, Gross began art studies at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Vienna, Austria shortly before immigrating to the United States in 1921. Gross's studies continued in the United States at the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design, where he studied with Elie Nadelman and others, and at the Art Students League of New York, with Robert Laurent. He also attended the Educational Alliance Art School, studying under Abbo Ostrowsky, at the same time as Moses Soyer and Peter Blume.
In 1926 Gross began teaching at The Educational Alliance, and continued teaching there for the next 50 years. Louise Nevelson was among his students at the Alliance (in 1934), during the time she was transitioning from painting to sculpture. In the late 1920s and early 1930s he exhibited at the Salons of America exhibitions at the Anderson Galleries and, beginning in 1928, at the Whitney Studio Club. In 1929, Gross experimented with printmaking, and created an important group of 15 linocuts and lithographs of landscapes, New York City streets and parks, women in interiors, the circus, and vaudeville. The entire suite is now in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Gross returned to the medium of printmaking in the 1960s, and produced approximately 200 works in the medium over the next two decades. For more than sixty years Chaim Gross's art has expressed optimistic, affirming themes, Judaica, balancing acrobats, cyclists, trapeze artists and mothers and children convey joyfulness, modernism, exuberance, love, and intimacy. This aspect of his work remained consistent with his Jewish Hasidic heritage, which teaches that only in his childlike happiness is man nearest to God.
In March 1932 Gross had his first solo exhibition at Gallery 144 in New York City. For a short time they represented Gross, as well as his friends Milton Avery, Moses Soyer, Ahron Ben-Shmuel and others.
Gross was primarily a practitioner of the direct carving method, with the majority of his work being carved from wood. Other direct carvers in early 20th-century American art include William Zorach, Jose de Creeft, and Robert Laurent. Works by Chaim Gross can be found in major museums and private collections throughout the United States, with substantial holdings (27 sculptures) at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. A key work from this era, now at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, is the 1932 birds-eye maple Acrobatic Performers, which is also only one and one quarter inch thick.
In 1933 Gross joined the government's PWAP (Public Works of Art Project), which transitioned into the WPA (Works Progress Administration), which Gross worked for later in the 1930s. Under these programs Gross taught and demonstrated art, made sculptures that were placed in schools and public colleges, made work for Federal buildings including the Federal Trade Commission Building, and for the France Overseas and Finnish Buildings at the 1939 New York World's Fair. Gross was also recognized during these years with a silver medal at the Exposition universelle de 1937 in Paris, and in 1942, with a purchase prize at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's "Artists for Victory" exhibition for his wood sculpture of famed circus performer Lillian Leitzel.
In 1949 Gross sketched Chaim Weizmann, Israeli President, at several functions in New York City where Weizmann was speaking, Gross completed the bust in bronze later that year. Gross returned to Israel for three months in 1951 (the second of many trips there in the postwar years) to paint a series of 40 watercolors of life in various cities. This series was exhibited at the Jewish Museum (Manhattan) in 1953. He also did some important Hebrew medals.
In the 1950s Gross began to make more bronze sculptures alongside his wood and stone pieces, and in 1957 and 1959 he traveled to Rome to work with famed bronze foundries including the Nicci foundry. At the end of the decade Gross was working primarily in bronze which allowed him to create open forms, large-scale works and of course, multiple casts. Gross's large-scale bronze The Family, donated to New York City in 1991 in honor of Mayor Ed Koch, and installed at the Bleecker Street Park at 11th street, is now a fixture of Greenwich Village. In 1959, a survey of Gross's sculpture in wood, stone, and bronze was featured in the exhibit Four American Expressionists curated by Lloyd Goodrich at the Whitney Museum of American Art, with work by Abraham Rattner, Doris Caesar, and Karl Knaths. In 1976, a selection from Gross's important collection of historic African sculpture, formed since the late 1930s, was exhibited at the Worcester Art Museum in the show The Sculptor's Eye: The African Art Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Chaim Gross. Gross was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate member, and became a full Academician in 1981. In 1984, he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, with Jacob Lawrence and Lukas Foss. In the fall of 1991, Allen Ginsberg gave an important tribute to Gross at the American Academy of Arts and Letters, which is published in their Proceedings. In 1994, Forum Gallery, which now represents the Chaim Gross estate, held a memorial exhibition featuring a sixty-year survey of Gross's work.In March 1932 Gross had his first solo exhibition at Gallery 144 in New York City. For a short time they represented Gross, as well as his friends Milton Avery, Moses Soyer, Ahron Ben-Shmuel and others.
Gross was primarily a practitioner of the direct carving method, with the majority of his work being carved from wood. Other direct carvers in early 20th-century American art include William Zorach, Jose de Creeft, and Robert Laurent. Works by Chaim Gross can be found in major museums and private collections throughout the United States, with substantial holdings (27 sculptures) at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. A key work from this era, now at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, is the 1932 birds-eye maple Acrobatic Performers, which is also only one and one quarter inch thick.
In 1933 Gross joined the government's PWAP (Public Works of Art Project), which transitioned into the WPA (Works Progress Administration), which Gross worked for later in the 1930s. Under these programs Gross taught and demonstrated art, made sculptures that were placed in schools and public colleges, made work for Federal buildings including the Federal Trade Commission Building, and for the France Overseas and Finnish Buildings at the 1939 New York World's Fair. Gross was also recognized during these years with a silver medal at the Exposition universelle de 1937 in Paris, and in 1942, with a purchase prize at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's "Artists for Victory" exhibition for his wood sculpture of famed circus performer Lillian Leitzel.
In 1949 Gross sketched Chaim Weizmann, President of Israel, at several functions in New York City where Weizmann was speaking, Gross completed the bust in bronze later that year. Gross returned to Israel for three months in 1951 (the second of many trips there in the postwar years) to paint a series of 40 watercolors of life in various cities. This series was exhibited at the Jewish Museum (Manhattan) in 1953.
In the 1950s Gross began to make more bronze sculptures alongside his wood and stone pieces, and in 1957 and 1959 he traveled to Rome to work with famed bronze foundries including the Nicci foundry. At the end of the decade Gross was working primarily in bronze which allowed him to create open forms, large-scale works and of course, multiple casts. Gross's large-scale bronze The Family, donated to New York City in 1991 in honor of Mayor Ed Koch, and installed at the Bleecker Street Park at 11th street, is now a fixture of Greenwich Village. In 1959, a survey of Gross's sculpture in wood, stone, and bronze was featured in the exhibit Four American Expressionists curated by Lloyd Goodrich at the Whitney Museum of American Art, with work by Abraham Rattner, Doris Caesar, and Karl Knaths. In 1976, a selection from Gross's important collection of historic African sculpture, formed since the late 1930s, was exhibited at the Worcester Art Museum in the show The Sculptor's Eye: The African Art Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Chaim Gross. Gross was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate member, and became a full Academician in 1981. In 1984, he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, with Jacob Lawrence and Lukas Foss. In the fall of 1991, Allen Ginsberg gave an important tribute to Gross at the American Academy of Arts and Letters, which is published in their Proceedings. In 1994, Forum Gallery, which now represents the Chaim Gross estate, held a memorial exhibition featuring a sixty-year survey of Gross's work.
Gross was a professor of printmaking and sculpture at both the Educational Alliance and the New School for Social Research in New York City, as well as at the Brooklyn Museum Art School, the MoMA art school, the Art Student's League and the New Art School (which Gross ran briefly with Alexander Dobkin...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Paper, Watercolor
"March Avery in Beret, " Milton Avery, American Modernism, Portrait of Artist
By Milton Avery
Located in New York, NY
Milton Clark Avery (1885 - 1965)
March Avery in a Beret, 1951
Black crayon and graphite on cream wove paper
11 x 8 3/8 inches
Signed and dated lower left; ...
Category
1950s American Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Graphite, Crayon, Paper, Pencil
Study for "The Jade Necklace"
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Study for the painting "The Jade Necklace"
Silver point drawing on prepared paper, n.d.
Stamp lower right: "J Stella/JML Coll" (see photo)
The painting of the...
Category
20th Century American Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Pencil
1950s "Upclose Portrait" Mid Century Ink Portrait Drawing Pratt
By Donald Stacy
Located in Arp, TX
Donald Stacy (1925-2008) New Jersey
"Upclose Portrait"
1953
Ink on paper
14" x 16.5" unframed
Signed and dated in pencil lower right
Came from artist estate
*Custom framing available...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Paper, Ink
1950s "Purple Head" Mid Century Oil and Pastel Portrait Original Drawing
By Donald Stacy
Located in Arp, TX
Donald Stacy
"Purple Head"
c.1950s
Gouache and oil pastel on paper
13.75" x 17" unframed
Unsigned
Came from artist's estate
Donald Stacy (1925-2008) New Jersey
Studied: Newark School of Fine Art
The Art Students League
Pratt Graphic Arts Center
University of Paris 1953-54
University of Aix-en-Provence 1954-55
Faculty: Art Department of the New School
Museum of Modern Art
School of Visual Arts
Stacy Studio Workshop
Exhibitions: Grand Central Moderns
George Wittenborn
The New School
Print Exhibitions, Chicago
University of Oklahoma
Honolulu Museum
Monclair Museum
Wisconsin State College
Louisiana Art Commission
Philadelphia Print...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Paper, Oil Pastel, Gouache
Alfred Bendiner, Baccaloni in Rosenkavalier
Located in New York, NY
The Italian opera singer, Salvatore Baccaloni (1900-1969) often took comic roles. He worked with several opera companies in Philadelphia between 1951 and 1966. Bendiner was a world t...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
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Mission Impossible Original TV Guide Drawing Illustration Caricature Mid Century
Located in New York, NY
"Mission Impossible" Original TV Guide Drawing Illustration Caricature Mid Century NYC with Greg Morris, Barbara Bain, and Steve Hill. This original drawing...
Category
1960s American Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Ink, Board
Swim Team
Located in Saint Louis, MO
Jay Alan Babcock is a St. Louis-based graphic designer and painter. His work exhibits his interest in the visual language of Americana, including old ...
Category
2010s American Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Carbon Pencil
Balloon Heads
Located in Saint Louis, MO
Jay Alan Babcock is a St. Louis-based graphic designer and painter. His work exhibits his interest in the visual language of Americana, including old ...
Category
2010s American Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Carbon Pencil
Divers
Located in Saint Louis, MO
Jay Alan Babcock is a St. Louis-based graphic designer and painter. His work exhibits his interest in the visual language of Americana, including old ...
Category
2010s American Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Carbon Pencil
"Marc Chagall" Original Drawing Illustration Caricature William Saroyan book
Located in New York, NY
"Marc Chagall" Original Drawing Illustration Caricature William Saroyan book
This drawing was published in the 1976 edition of William Saroyan's SONS ...
Category
1970s American Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Ink, Board
The Scapegoat II, Court Drawing by Marshall Goodman
Located in Long Island City, NY
The Scapegoat II
Marshall Goodman, American (1916–2003)
Watercolor on paper
Size: 10 x 10 in. (25.4 x 25.4 cm)
For the last ten years of his life Mr. Goodman worked as a Courtroom Illustrator. for high profile trials such as John Gotti...
Category
1990s American Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Watercolor
Pensive Dancer, Ink Drawing by Raphael Soyer
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Raphael Soyer, Russian/American (1899 - 1987)
Title: Pensive Dancer
Year: circa 1956
Medium: Pencil on Paper, signed lower right
Paper Size: 8 x 5 inches
Frame: 11.5 x 9.5 i...
Category
1950s American Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Archival Paper, Ink
Meryl Streep & Cher, Caricature Drawing by Marshall Goodman
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Marshall Goodman, American XXth
Title: Meryl Streep and Cher
Year: circa 1980
Medium: Watercolor on Paper, Signed
Image Size: 20 x 25.5 inches
Category
1980s American Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Watercolor
Girl with Bonnet, Pastel Portrait by Thomas Strickland
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Thomas Strickland, American (1923 - 1999)
Title: Girl with Bonnet
Year: circa 1970
Medium: Pastel on Paper, signed u.r.
Size: 25.5 in. x 19.7...
Category
1970s American Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Oil Pastel
Mixed Media Portrait Painting of a Man
Located in Houston, TX
A mixed media painting of an older man deep in thought in black and white on a yellow background circa 1990s by Theadius McCall. Signed in lower right ...
Category
1990s American Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Mixed Media
Two Dueñas.
By Donn Russell
Located in Storrs, CT
Two 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
Materials
Watercolor, Gouache
'Portrait of a Young Navajo', Native American, Arizona, California Woman artist
By Victoria Creech Stewart
Located in Santa Cruz, CA
Signed lower left 'Creech PSWC' and created circa 1975
A compelling pastel study showing the subject dressed in brightly-colored ceremonial robes and gazing past the viewer. An eleg...
Category
1970s American Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Pastel, Archival Paper
"Isadora Duncan (Blue), " Pen, Ink, & Watercolor signed by Abraham Walkowitz
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Isadora Duncan (Blue)" is an original mixed media drawing created by Abraham Walkowitz. It is made with pen & ink, graphite, and watercolor piece on cream paper. The artist signed t...
Category
1920s American Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Paper, Ink, Watercolor, Graphite
UNTITLED PORTRAIT
By John Heliker
Located in Portland, ME
Heliker, John. (American, 1909-2000). UNTITLED PORTRAIT. Ink on paper, not dated, likely 1930s. The image is of a man, likely a factory worker, seated, wearing a cap, leaning his face on one hand, with factory structures in the background. Signed, lower right. c. 8 x 8 inches 0n a larger sheet. In excellent condition.
Heliker was born in Yonkers and spent his adult life dividing his time between Manhattan, where he taught art for decades, and Great Cranberry Island...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Ink
"Isadora Duncan (Orange), " Pen, Ink, & Watercolor signed by Abraham Walkowitz
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Isadora Duncan (Orange)" is an original pen & ink, graphite, and watercolor piece on cream paper by Abraham Walkowitz. The artist signed the piece in the lower center. The drawing d...
Category
1920s American Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Ink, Paper, Watercolor, Graphite
Reefer Madness, Marajuana - Pot - Cannabis - Cover Atlantic Monthly Magazine
Located in Miami, FL
Gouache, Crayon, Pencil, Film on Paper, not framed
Cover Atlantic Monthly Magazine August 1994
Category
1990s American Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Gouache
Women's World Magazine Cover Illustration , Children Sledding
Located in Miami, FL
Children Sledding, Women's World Magazine Cover, December 1939
Signed lower center image
watercolor, gouache, pencil, and wash on paper
Category
1930s American Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Gouache
Untitled
By Mark Tobey
Located in New York, NY
Tobey's work resembles Abstract Expressionism and Asian calligraphy.
Category
1920s American Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Charcoal
Portrait of Robert Nathaniel Dett (1882-1943)
By Winold Reiss
Located in New York, NY
Signed (at lower right): WINOLD/REISS
Category
20th Century American Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Pastel
Japanese Girl
By Winold Reiss
Located in New York, NY
Signed (at lower right): WINOLD/REISS
Category
20th Century American Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Pastel
"Spiritual Self-Portrait" Watercolor, Ink, Portrait, Nude, Linear Grid, Colors
By Artis Lane
Located in Detroit, MI
"Spiritual Self-Portrait" is a portrait of the artist by the artist. She has presented herself nude gazing boldly and directly at the viewer not so much challenging, but inviting dia...
Category
Late 20th Century American Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Watercolor, Paper, Ink
American Modern portrait drawings and watercolors for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a wide variety of authentic American Modern portrait drawings and watercolors available for sale on 1stDibs. Works in this style were very popular during the 21st Century and Contemporary, but contemporary artists have continued to produce works inspired by this movement. If you’re looking to add portrait drawings and watercolors created in this style to introduce contrast in an otherwise neutral space in your home, the works available on 1stDibs include elements of orange and other colors. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including Alfred Bendiner, Irene Pattinson, Albert Al Hirschfeld, and Andy Warhol. Frequently made by artists working with Ink, and Paint and other materials, all of these pieces for sale are unique and have attracted attention over the years. Not every interior allows for large American Modern portrait drawings and watercolors, so small editions measuring 3.5 inches across are also available. Prices for portrait drawings and watercolors made by famous or emerging artists can differ depending on medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $85 and tops out at $34,000, while the average work sells for $1,375.
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