Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 8

Maurice Freed
Modernist Landscape 'Portugal' Watercolor Painting

About the Item

Genre: Modern Subject: Landscape Medium: watercolor Surface: Paper Country: United States Dimensions w/Frame: 23.75" x 30.75" Maurice Freed (1911‑1981), a native of Pottsville, PA and a graduate of the Philadelphia College of Art, lived and painted in Philadelphia during most of his life. At the age of nineteen, he won a scholarship to the Cape School of Art in Provincetown where he studied with Henry Hensche, Morris Davidson, and Albert Alcalay. At twenty‑one, he sketched on the beaches of Atlantic City, NJ. At twenty-two, he traveled to Paris to paint and then in 1934, at the age of twenty‑three, his talents were recognized when he was invited to Chicago to become Art Director of Esquire magazine. Following his early professional success at Esquire and as a contributor to the New Yorker, Holiday, Stage, Saturday Evening Post, and Fortune magazines, and after fourteen years of operating a successful advertising art service, Freed turned to his real love, the fine arts. He returned to France to paint and from 1960 until his death in 1981, he devoted himself to his painting and to the world of art around him. In addition to the time spent working in his studio and exhibiting, he taught drawing and painting, served as president of the Philadelphia Chapter of Artists Equity Association, and from 1979‑1981 attended seminars at the Barnes Art Foundation. Freed gained international recognition from his year‑long sojourn in France in 1960, being featured in a lead article in Information Artistique (Paris, 1961) and upon his return, in The American Artist (New York, 1962). Extensive travel throughout his life brought to Freed’s work an extraordinary diversity of subject matter and mood. In the 1930’s, he traveled and sketched in Mexico; in the 1950’s he was in Haiti. He journeyed and painted throughout Europe, first in 1933 and then at regular intervals from 1959‑1979. He spent considerable periods of time in France: first in 1933, from 1960‑1961, in 1967 and again in 1979. He painted while in Portugal in 1969, 1970, 1971, in Spain, in Israel in 1974, in England in 1979. Freed worked most exuberantly in the out of doors where the richness of changing landscapes and the customs and century‑old buildings of his surroundings could find their way onto his canvases. The European influence of the Old Masters, of the French Impressionists and the early Cubists clearly shows itself in his work. Freed has been described in various ways. John Groth (of Esquire magazine) called him “the millionth oyster ‑‑ the one that has a pearl.” Groth went on to say: “If you’re a fiend for sources, chalk up Degas, Laurencin, and Bellows ‑‑ one part each. The other fourth is thank god mongrel: the portion of unassignable originality. At twenty‑two, that’s a large portion.” Henry Pitz in The American Artist, described his work as follows: “A native color sense has luxuriated in freedom; a command of pigmented textures keeps every surface alive. He has absorbed the wiser teachings of modernism and uses them knowingly. …the forms have a tantalizing freshness as they hover between the abstract and the concrete and nudge the mind to recall something half remembered.” Jack Bookbinder stated that Freed’s work “reflects a lifetime of search and experience. He is equally at home with poetic realism, vigorous semi‑abstraction and occasional excursions into experimental assemblages ‑‑ and always with a distinctive sense of color and design. Using a variety of approaches, his paintings may be witty, happy, solemn ‑ but never casual; they are sincere expressions of his multifaceted interests.” The work of Maurice Freed is represented in private collections here and abroad. He exhibited widely in solo and group shows at such places as La Boutique d’Art in Nice, the Newman Contemporary Art Gallery, the Philadelphia Art Alliance, the Woodmere Art Museum, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the Chicago Art Institute and Butler Institute. He was the recipient of many awards and prizes, the last of which was presented in April 1981, from the Woodmere Art Museum (Philadelphia, PA) just four months before his death. The Maurice Freed Memorial Prize (for oil and/or mixed media) was established in 1981 and is awarded annually at the Woodmere Art Museum Annual Juried Exhibition. Pitz, Henry. February 1962. “Maurice Freed, Painter.” American Artist. Pages 42-47, (continued p. 67). EMPLOYMENT: 1934 – 1935 Art Director: Esquire Magazine 1933 – 1981 Contributor: New Yorker, Fortune, Holiday, Stage, Saturday Morning Post 1948 – 1960 Artist/ Owner: Freed Studios, Inc. 1965 – 1981 Taught drawing and painting: Graphic Sketch Club (Fleisher Memorial) Cheltenham High Adult School Private SOLO EXHIBITIONS: 1947 Cheltenham Art Centre (Phila.,PA) 1957 YMHA Galleries (Phila.,PA) 1961 Galerie la Boutique d’Art (Nice, France) 1962 Newman Galleries (Phila.,PA) 1965 Woodmere Art Gallery (Phila.,PA) 1967 Philadelphia Art Alliance (Phila.,PA) 1971 Woodmere Art Gallery (Phila.,PA) 1976 Newman Galleries (Phila.,PA) 1982 Philadelphia Art Alliance (Retrospective) (Phila.,PA) GROUP SHOWS: Partial list: (national) Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (Phila.,PA) Butler Institute (Youngstown, OH) Chicago Art Institute (Chicago, IL) Philadelphia Museum of Art (Phila.,PA) AWARDS: Philadelphia Sketch Club Philadelphia Water Color Club Abington Art Center Old York Road Art Guild 28th Anniversary Exhibition Irma Rosenau Prize Painting Woodmere Art Gallery (1981) COLLECTIONS: (Public and Private) California, Florida, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island; London, England; Cannes, Nice, Paris, Vence, France
  • Creator:
    Maurice Freed (1911 - 1981, American)
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 23.75 in (60.33 cm)Width: 30.75 in (78.11 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
    size includes frame. original frame has some wear. mat has age toning to it.
  • Gallery Location:
    Surfside, FL
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU38212850642
More From This SellerView All
  • Mid Century Modernist French Painting Landscape With Forest, River, Path
    By Roger Etienne
    Located in Surfside, FL
    Beautiful gouache on paper, Moody atmospheric landscape in shades of black, blue green and gold by French artist, Roger Etienne Everaert Ret, signed on top right. Roger Etienne, Fren...
    Category

    20th Century Modern Landscape Paintings

    Materials

    Gouache

  • European Architectural Colonnaded Arcade Watercolor Painting
    By Boris Vassiloff
    Located in Surfside, FL
    Boris Vassiloff, Russian/American (1906 - 2000) Artist Boris Vassiloff was born on March 24, 1906 to Julia Nikolaevna and Boris Ivanovich Vassiloff in Russia. He died peacefully on D...
    Category

    Mid-20th Century Expressionist Landscape Paintings

    Materials

    Watercolor, Board

  • French Modernist Vivid Bright Fauvist Landscape Watercolor Gouache Painting
    By Claude Hemeret
    Located in Surfside, FL
    signed lower right. size includes frame. The French artist Claude Hemeret was born on May 23, 1929. After classical studies at the lycée du Parc Imperial in Nice, he started at the l...
    Category

    20th Century Post-Impressionist Landscape Paintings

    Materials

    Watercolor, Gouache

  • Large Pastel Landscape Purple Mountains Landscape American Modernist Painting
    By Larry Horowitz
    Located in Surfside, FL
    LARRY HOROWITZ (American b. 1956) "Purple Mountains," 1988, pastel on paper Hand signed and dated L/R, "Horowitz '88," Dimensions sight 19 1/2" x 23", framed, 26 1/2" x 30 1/2". Larry Horowitz is an American landscape painter. He was born in 1956 in New York City and graduated from SUNY Purchase and immediately won the prestigious and coveted position as apprentice to Wolf Kahn. Horowitz's work captures the beauty of the American landscape with expert use of texture and color that invites imagination and discovery. Although he paints en plein air, he has a firm grounding in abstract expressionism through his education with former students from the Bauhaus and Hans Hofmann school. He has combined both points of view to develop his unique language. His work follows in the tradition of great Modernist American landscape painters Arthur Dove, Georgia O'Keefe and Charles Burchfield but with a more modern, Fauvist color palette. He was included in the show "In the Country, By the Sea" at Madelyn Jordan Gallery along with David Kimball Anderson, Stanley Boxer, Byron Browne, Derek Buckner, Richard Diebenkorn, Larry Kelsey, Gary Komarin, and Susan Wides. Horowitz has also shown at Images Gallery along with Gary Bukovnik, Helen Frankenthaler, Larry Horowitz, Alex Katz, Robert Motherwell, Don Nice, Philip Pearlstein, Joseph Raffael, Hunt Slonem, Carol Summers and Neil Welliver. Horowitz has exhibited extensively both in the US and Canada and is included in numerous private, corporate and public collections. LARRY HOROWITZ Born in 1956 in New York City EDUCATION 1971-76 Private study with Maxim Bugzester, New York, NY 1974 Art Students League, New York, NY 1974-78 B.F.A., State University of New York, Purchase, NY ART FAIRS 2019 Art New York Pier 94 presented by Art Miami, New York, NY 2017 Art Market SF, San Francisco, CA 2017 Seattle Art Fair, Seattle, WA 2015 Art Silicon Valley, CA 2014 Boston International Art Fair, Boston, MA ONE-PERSON EXHIBITIONS 2022 Franklin Bowles Galleries, New York, NY 2022 Hagan Fine Art, Charleston, SC 2021 Elder Gallery, Charlotte, NC 2021 Trinity Galleries, St. John, New Brunswick, Canada ​2020 Cove Gallery, Wellfleet, MA 2020 Lorimer Gallery, Prince Edward Island, Canada 2019 Eisenhauer Gallery, Edgartown, MA 2018 Elder Gallery of Contemporary Art, Charlotte, NC 2016 Art Gallery at the Rockefeller Park Preserve, Pleasantville, NY 2015 Newbury Fine Art, Boston, MA ​2015 Chandon Winery Gallery, Yountville, CA 2013 Meredith Long & Co., Houston, TX 2011 Munson Gallery, Chatham, MA 2010 Franklin Bowles Galleries, San Francisco, CA 2010 Cove Gallery, Wellfleet, MA 2010 Aerie Art Gallery, Rehoboth Beach...
    Category

    1980s Post-Impressionist Landscape Paintings

    Materials

    Pastel

  • Original Pastel Drawing Flowers, Wallpaper Pattern and Decoration Pop Art
    By Joanne Seltzer
    Located in Surfside, FL
    Joanne Seltzer was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and raised in Charleston, West Virginia. After having majored in journalism at Northwestern University (she graduated in 1963), she gained her fine arts degree at the University of Michigan. Ms. Seltzer has also attended the New School for Social Research, the Pratt Institute and New York University, at Which she gained invaluable experience in photography, silkscreen and design. In Addition, Ms. Seltzer has lectured at several institutions, including the school of Visual Arts in New York, the University of Virginia and the University of Iowa. she is in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum and the Indianapolis Museum of Art and has showed at Un jardin secret - Collection Monique Dorsel et Emile Lanc - Centre de la Gravure et de l'Image imprimée, La Louvière along with Jean Tinguely, Francois Morellet, Georg Baselitz, Berto Lardera...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

    Materials

    Pastel, Archival Paper

  • Original Pastel Drawing Flowers, Wallpaper Pattern and Decoration Pop Art
    By Joanne Seltzer
    Located in Surfside, FL
    Joanne Seltzer was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and raised in Charleston, West Virginia. After having majored in journalism at Northwestern University (she graduated in 1963), ...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

    Materials

    Pastel, Archival Paper

You May Also Like
  • 'Pontoons , Amalfi, Italy' Mixed media on paper. Circa 2005.
    Located in Frome, Somerset
    A fine mixed media plien air painting by Gradwell. The Amalfi coast, Italy . An evening study in low light. mixed media on paper: 34cmx 54cm Glazed gallery frame: 52cm x 73cm
    Category

    Early 2000s Modern Landscape Paintings

    Materials

    Watercolor

  • 'Amalfi, Italy', mixed media on paper c2005
    Located in Frome, Somerset
    'Amalfi, Italy'. Mixed media on paper . circa 2005. painting 41cm x 54cm glazed frame 62cmx 82cm Atmospheric view of the seafront topography and buildings of the famous coastal town...
    Category

    Early 2000s Modern Landscape Paintings

    Materials

    Watercolor

  • Original Painting Fortune Cover Published 1937 American Modern - Met Museum
    By Antonio Petruccelli
    Located in New York, NY
    Original Painting Fortune Cover Published 1937 American Modern - Met Museum NEWS: A printed copy of this magazine is included in The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s recent exhibition, “Art for the Millions: American Culture and Politics in the 1930s” Antonio Petruccelli...
    Category

    1930s American Modern Landscape Paintings

    Materials

    Board, Gouache

  • Airacuda Fighter Planes Art Deco Machine Age 20th Century American Modernism
    Located in New York, NY
    Airacuda Fighter Planes Art Deco Machine Age 20th Century American Modernism Arthur Rosenman Ross (1913 - 1981) Bell YFM-1 Airacuda Fighter Planes 17 1/2 x 26 1/2 inches Gouache, Airbrush and Ink on Illustration Board, 1938 Signed A. Ross lower right Provenance: Estate of the artist. BIO Arthur Rosenman Ross was a key figure in automotive design at General Motors during America's "Golden Age" of auto design, the 1930's through the 1950s. He attended the Art Institute of Chicago from age 17, exhibiting a special interest for automotive renderings and the female figure. In 1934, he changed his name from Rosenman to Ross, fearing his Jewish ancestry could prejudice his career prospects. At age 20, he turned down job offers from MGM Studios in Hollywood and Duesenberg to work at General Motors alongside the Legendary Harley Earl in 1935. He was hand picked by Mr. Earl and assigned to GM's War and Camouflage Division in 1937 through WW2. It was during this pivotal period in which he executed some extraordinary military aircraft artworks, likely used between GM and America's military aeronautics companies in design preparation for WW2. General Motors played an important role in helping America's aircraft manufacturers preceding and during the war. Just after the war in 1945, Mr. Ross was rewarded by GM, being made Chief Designer of Cadillac, then two years later becoming Chief at Oldsmobile until his retirement in 1959. He was in large part responsible for some of GM's classic Cadillac designs such as the Cadillac Sixty Special, Fleetwood, LaSalle and GM's first concept car, the extraordinary Buick Y-Job. Mr. Ross was an exceptionally charismatic and vivacious man who quite by chance, befriended His idol, Salvador Dali at GM in 1955. They talked about art, cars and girls late into the evening, according to his son, Carter Ross. He had a gift in rendering the erotic arts...
    Category

    1930s American Modern Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

    Materials

    Ink, Gouache, Board

  • Notre Dame de Paris Cathedral Blue Watercolor Painting by M. Godier
    Located in Atlanta, GA
    This lovely blue watercolor painting is by M. Godier, France (20th Century). The artwork is signed in the bottom right corner. The composition features an unusual representation of t...
    Category

    Mid-20th Century Modern Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

    Materials

    Watercolor

  • Modernist Watercolour On Paper, Trees At Buckfast Abbey
    Located in Cotignac, FR
    Early 1960s work on paper of a group of trees at Buckfast Abbey in Devon, England, by Alban Atkins. Signed bottom left, titled and dated to the reverse. There is also a collection or accession number to the backboard. Atkins has captured the sculptural nature of the tree trunks as they have grown in the landscape giving the work a feeling of living, writhing things as well as an abstract feel in the composition. Atkins was one of the group of important artists chosen and commissioned by Sir Kenneth Clark...
    Category

    1960s Modern Landscape Paintings

    Materials

    Watercolor, Paper, Pastel, Ink

Recently Viewed

View All