Mid-20th Century Figurative Paintings

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

Emilio Grau Sala (1911-1975) - La Rochelle - Mixed media Artwork 49x65 cm. Frame measures 69x85 cm. Son of cartoonist Juan Grau Miró, he was born in Barcelona in 1911. Although he a...

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

"Last Civil War Veteran" is an oil painting on panel made by Larry Rivers in 1961. The artwork size is 9 1/2 x 7 inches. The framed size is 12 3/4 x 10 1/4 x 1 1/2 inches. The work i...

Large magnificent colorful Ruth Schloss oil painting of a child with a wagon with a doll or a baby in a carriage stroller.. Signed in Hebrew size measures 31x43 with frame , 23x35.25 without the frame. (this is being sold unframed). Ruth Schloss (22 November 1922 – 2013) was an Israeli painter and illustrator who mainly depicted neglected scenes such as Arabs, transition camps, children and women at eye-level as egalitarian, socialist view via social realism style painting and drawing. Schloss became Israeli painting’s sensitive, conscious, remembering eye. Ruth Schloss was born on 22 November 1922, in Nuremberg, Germany, to Ludwig and Dian Schloss, as the second of three daughters of bourgeois assimilationist Jewish family well-integrated into German culture. As the Nazis came into power in 1933, her family immigrated to Israel in 1937, and settled in Kfar Shmaryahu, then an agricultural settlement. Schloss studied at the Department of Schloss graphic design at "Bezalel" from 1938 to 1942 alongside Friedel Stern and Joseph Hirsch. She was a realistic painter who focused on disadvantaged people in the society and social matters as an egalitarian. Her realism was thus an “inevitable realism,” motivated by an inner necessity: the need to observe reality as it is. Her painting repeatedly addressed the door pulled from its frame, employing drawing’s unique ability to stop time and prolong the image’s persistence in the retina, she repeatedly committed to paper - in a matter-of-fact, non-evasive manner devoid of mystery – man’s tendency to generate chaos, suffering and pain. Throughout her life, Schloss remained minimalist. Painting about human fate was the main subject of her artworks. Her natural inclination was to describe the darker aspect of human existence. 1930s The Schloss household was characterized by open, liberal spirit, in keeping with the parents’ progressive views. It deeply influenced Ruth’s mental development, as she learned to tie culture and art with sensitivity towards the weak and underprivileged. In Jerusalem, she joined a commune of Hashomer Hatzair in which she shaped her socialist views, which she maintained throughout her long career. 1940s In this period she mainly depicted landscapes of kibbutz and wretched women living hard life, children in huger, older people, refugees. After completing her art studies, Schloss joined a training group at Kibbutz Merhavia in 1942, and after two years moved to Karkur region, the nucleus established Kibutz Lehavot Habashan in the Upper Galilee. Through this time, she fell in love with the surroundings and drew landscapes. They are simple and direct with fresh, lucid lines. These paintings were selected as the main works of her first exhibition in 1949. In early 1945, Schloss started to draw illustrations in the children’s magazine Mishmar Leyeladim, and designed the logo of Al Hamishmar, the paper’s new name in 1948. In 1948, upon the founding of Mapam (United Workers’ Party), she designed her party’s emblem, which became a well-known icon. She kept working as an illustrator for Mishmar Layeladim until 1949. "Mor the Monkey" project yielded financial profits and this income was used for a study trip to Paris for two years. She was succesfull as illustrator however, she had inner conflicts of her identity as witnessed painter toward neglected class in Israeli society. First Exhibition at Mikra-Studio Gallery, 1949 She presented forty drawings on paper in her first solo exhibition, representing a selection of the themes of kibbutz landscape, its lifestyle. Schloss confidently proposed her direction through simplicity without using colors in her drawings. 1950s Between 1949 and 1951, she studied at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris. She began working in oils, with which she continued throughout the 1960s. The exhibition “Back from Paris” opened in November 1951 at Mikra-Studio Gallery . In 1951 she married Benjamin Cohen, who served as chairman of the national leadership of Hashomer Hatzair Workers Party in Tel Aviv. He was a theoretician and a man of principle, highly esteemed by its leaders who became a professor of history at Tel Aviv University. In 1953, following the Mordechai Oren affair and the publication of Moshe Sneh 's followers from Kibbutz Artzi, she and her husband left the kibbutz and moved to the agricultural farm, Kfar Shmaryahu, where she lived until her death. At a certain point in Israeli history, segments of the socialist movement felt that Israel should become part of the Communist bloc, rather than seek the support of the western world. Because the Schloss couple support of Moshe Sneh’s left-wing party, they had to leave the kibbutz. She loved to depict ordinary women as figurative on her painting without hiding or making up anything. The poet Natan Zach wrote about her works in 1955: “Her motto remains that which has been all these years: life as it is, without bluffing." Schloss’s “Pietà” (1953) became a universal cry expressing the pain of mothers on either side of the divide. In the late 1950s, she was the mother of two daughters. When she drew her daughters, unlike the universal babies she depicted, naked and with clenched fists, the painting of her children employed babyish sweetness to the full in a quiet, peaceful and heart-stirring filling rather than urgency. She also painted children in the transition camp and Jaffa in the 1950s and 1960s. 1960s-1980s – The period of Studio in Jaffa Schloss painted at a studio in Jaffa from 1962 till 1983. In this time, she turned her interest to people around her more than kibbutz – the children, mothers, and poor workers, the alleys and houses. She opened the space to the street and its dwellings, built interactions around it, and was nurtured by the presence of the outside in her work. 1960s Schloss familiarized to an Arab woman, Nabava, lived in poor. Schloss returned to painting images of old people later, and she called her painting figurative elderly people in the old age homes “waiting”. In the late 1960s, Ruth discovered acrylic paint and never turn back to oil painting. In 1965 Schloss devoted a series “Area 9 (1965)”, dedicated to the demolition of Israeli-Arab houses and the expropriation of the land, and carried a definite socio-political messages. The series was exhibited at Beit Zvi, Ramat Gan, in 1966. She was the only artist who addressed the result of the Six-Day War immediately afterward. In 1968, Schloss and Gansser-Markus presented “Drawing of War” in Zurich gallery. She expressed the war as an ultimate expression of destruction and ruin, regardless of victors and vanquished. 1970s In late 1970s Schloss began printing the selected photograph directly on the canvas, posterior reworking it in acrylic. She decided to print her work at Har-El Printers in Jaffa, and these became the surface of her painting. This technique was mainly adopted in two large series: Anne Frank (1979-1980) and Borders (1982). Through this technique she placed the figure of elder Frank next to that of the famous young Frank, and released it at the exhibition at Bet Ariela Cultural Center, Tel Aviv, in 1981. The series touched upon the Nazi Holocaust. 1980s The Lebanon War raised the question of “The Good Fence” and the effect of the war. She dedicated a large series Boarders, one of the most powerful image linked to the series is the figure of Yemenite woman raising her hand. She was the first to raise the Black Panthers demonstration to the level of a social icon. In the 1980s and again in 2000, the Intifada uprisings also led Schloss to the easel to render a good number of representational and symbolic works that in their way denounced Israel's political and military actions. 1990s – 2000s Ruth Schloss never had an exhibition in a major Israeli museum. Her works were presented in private galleries and small museums. The main museums, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art and the Israel Museum, included her works only in group exhibitions, and only in 1991 was her retrospective exhibited at the Herzliya Museum. In the 2000s, Schloss’s metaphors turned into animal kingdom and Bedouins in the south. A huge rhinoceros, birds of prey, and other "bad animals," as Cohen Evron, daughter of Ruth, calls them and "I connected this to the Nazis," said Schloss. Schloss' work after she didn't find human expression able to transmit the endless cruelty she saw in Israel's political mentality. Schloss also continued to follow and collect documentary photographs of destructions of houses from the war, the Intifada, the sequence of her work about ruin from 1949 to 2005, was a cumulative testimony about the painful history of Israel and Palestine. In 2006, a large retrospective exhibition of her work was presented at the Museum of Art in Ein Harod, curated by Tali Tamir. Education 1938-41 Bezalel Art Academy, Jerusalem, with Mordecai Ardon 1946 painting course for Kibbutz Artzi artists with Yohanan Simon and Marcel Janco 1949-51 Académie de la Grande Chaumière, Paris Awards and recognition 1965 Silver Medal, International exhibition in Leipzig, Germany 1977 Artist-in-Residence, The Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris Selected solo exhibitions 2004 “Micha...

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

A stunning and pertinent example of Berthelsen's charming New York City winter scenes depicting Saint Paul's Chapel in the snow. It was built in 1766 as the chapel building of Trinit...

Impressionist oil painting of female nudes cavorting in a river landscape. The painting is signed with initials 'EH' bottom left and dated '66'. It is also initialled and dated to th...

Composition Cubiste aux Pecheurs by Marguerite Lacroux (French/ Swiss 1898-1972) signed oil on canvas, framed in original wooden studio frame framed: 32.5 x 40 painting: 31.75 x 39 ...

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

Le Grand Basin des Tuileries. Oil on canvas, 74x93 cm

This artwork "Western Scene" c.1960, is an oil painting on canvas by noted Western artist Charles Damrow, 1916-1989. It is signed at the lower left corne...

*Dimensions include the frame Claude Grosperrin's artwork is a vivid exploration of texture and abstraction, capturing the essence of a rustic landscape with a palpable sense of ene...

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

This mural study is part of our exhibition America Coast to Coast: Artists of the 1930s San Pedro Post Office: History of Writing Mural South, Preliminary Mural Maquette right panel...

This artwork titled "Venice" 1964 is an oil painting on canvas by noted French artist Regis Bouvier de Cachard, 1929-2013. It is signed and dated at the upper right corner by the artist. The canvas size is 30 x 40 inches, the framed size is 38 x 48 inches. It is framed in the original light wood color rustic distressed frame, with gold color fillet and fabric liner. It is in excellent condition. About the artist: Regis de Bouvier de Cachard...

This artwork titled "Medieval City" c.1960 is an oil painting on canvas by Czech/American artist Alois Lecoque 1891-1981 It is signed at the lower right corner by the artist. The canvas size is 24 x 32 inches, framed is 30.35 x 38.25 inches. Framed in a wooden gold frame, with gold color bevel and fabric liner. It is in excellent condition. This artwork is a perfect example of the work of Alois Lecoque whom continued through the end of the 20 Century, the style of the famous French impressionists like Manet, Renoir, Cezanne and Monet. About the artist. Alois Lecoque was born in Prague in 1891 as Alois Kahout. His father, an engineer specializing in the regulation of rivers and hydraulic stations, wanted him to follow in his footsteps but Alois wanted to be an artist and his father wisely assented. After six years of formal study at Prague's Real Schule, he went to Zagreb to study at the Art Institute under Professor Crncic. There he mastered the technique of capturing scenic objects in effervescent color. Alois Kahout was such an outstanding student who applied himself assiduously that he left the institute with high honors. So pleased was his father that he agreed to allow his son the dream for opportunity to go to Paris where the art world was in such an excited ferment. In Paris he attended the Academie Julian studying under professors Baschet, Emile Bernard and others who were highly respected by the Post Impressionist school of painting. Kahout now became Lecoque - the French name for Rooster, which had the same meaning in the Czech language. Renoir, the great master took a liking to the young artist and taught him many of his secrets; predicting that his drive and originality would one day make him famous. Establishing his own studio in "La Ruche des Artistes" located in the famed Vauguirard quarter, he met and became friends with many artists whose works have since achieved world acclaim, including the sculptor Zadkine, Miossi Kogan, Modigliani, Soutine and many others. In 1913, his works were exhibited at the Anglo German Exhibition at the Crystal Palace in London. In 1914, Lecoque returned to Prague where he was highly honored by winning the first prize of Frs.3,000 in gold by Architect Turek. The press raved with acclaim and Lecoque basked in the glory of local celebrity. His paintings were in great demand and as befits a successful painter he moved into an entire floor of the Coloredo Mansfeld Palace. Here he played well the role of social lion and entertained lavishly like a Seigneur. Important personages found it fashionable to be linked with his name. But World War I exploded and so did Lecoque's high style of living. He spent the war years in Prague because of a medical exemption, and the Austrian government realized that it was better to keep such a famous painter home than to send him to the front. Meanwhile Lecoque endured an unhappy marriage and left Prague in 1920 to journey to Algiers at the invitation of his friend Dinet in Bou - Sada, deep in the heart of the Sahara desert. He remained for two years in different places of North Africa and then his restless soul compeled him to return to Paris, which he loved and missed intensely. There - at the Rue Jacob - Lecoque concentrated on scenes of the Siene River, the Cathedral of Notre Dame and the interesting bridges. He worked feverishly, and in two years he had enough paintings for an exhibit at the Andree Galarie where his works were avidly snapped up by collectors. Restless again, he went to the coast of Brittany, Brignogan, where he painted with such fury that he was able to go back to Paris with enough works for a second showing that brought such favorable reviews from the critics and such financial rewards that his friends urged him to remain in Paris and reap his due there. However, Emile Bernard longed for his company and beckoned him to Venice. On the Canal Rio del Piombo he occupied a studio in one of the palaces and here he settled down to serious work. Evenings were spent in the company of Emile Bernard, the Russian painter Resrodni and the Italian poet, Luigi Gentina. They debated politics, art, women, and not necessarily in that order. One of his crowning achievements was capturing vividly a few gondolas lazily moving over the surface of the Canale Grande, while white snow fell over the Bysantine-like rooftops. This and other paintings were accepted for the exhibit in the Biennale of Venice in 1926 and again in 1928. But as much as he enjoyed Venice, Lecoque had to depart hastily, due to his innocent involvement in a plot to assassinate Benito Mussolini. Back to Prague he went in 1925 where he settled down to enjoy 13 of the most exciting years of his life. Here in his beloved home city, Lecoque's popularity rose immensely. Overnight his paintings increased in value and many of his works were purchased by the government. Meanwhile he exhibited in Prague, Ostrava and Bratislava and often traveled to Paris to meet his friends, George Kars, Kupka, Utrillo and others. He also took time to remarry and find happiness for a while with his second wife. The clouds of War descended again on Europe and because of his bold and controversial political philosophies Lecoque again was forced to flee. Hunted like an animal by the Nazis, he escaped to free Yugoslavia, where he boarded his yacht, "Angela," sailing from one picturesque harbor to another down the Dalmatian coast and the Greek islands. Then both Yugoslavia and Greece were occupied by the Nazis and fascist armies, Lecoque saved his life in Dubrovnik, in the Italian zone. However after the capitulation of the Italian army in Dalmatia, Lecoque was captured by the Germans and sent to Sarajevo where he spent many months in prison. After a trial the military confined him to Dubrovnik. But, before the end of the war he was again arrested by the Gestapo and together with 43 partisans, imprisoned. One morning, when the Gestapo came to execute Lecoque and his friend Spitzer the director of Police, a Croate who liked Lecoque's paintings very much, surrendered only Spitzer to the Germans. That same morning, one of the Partisan women came to bring Lecoque food. Under her shawl she was hiding a machine gun and a large rusted can with some cooked vegetables for him. When Lecoque went to the cell with all the forty three Partisans he noticed that inside the can were three hand grenades. As he did not know how to handle the grenades he learned that his companions had also received various weapons and in this way he was able to exchange the grenades for a Mauser pistol. Then Lecoque called for help and the guard came. When he opened the door Lecoque forced him inside, pressing his gun to the guard's chest, he ordered him to call the other guard. Lecoque promised him he would live providing he followed Lecoque's orders explicitly. They immediately handed over their guns as well as the entire prison arsenal, which Lecoque distributed amongst his fellow partisans. Then, well armed, they all escaped to a medieval tower where they waited until all the Germans had left the city. Dubrovnik, was already occupied by partisans, and they were more than happy to see Lecoque and his fellows alive. They had feared for their lives. Thus with Guile, audacity, genius and multi-language as his arsenal, Lecoque managed to keep his neck intact while his poetic elegance expressed itself in the innumerable canvasses he managed to paint. Finally in the Fall of 1944, the Partisan's whom he had aided in their battled against the Germans, spirited him aboard a Naval vessel in the harbor of Split. It took him to the harbor of Bari in Southern Italy, now in the hands of the Allies. From there an American truck convoy took him to Rome where he was joyously received by the Czechoslovakian Legation. From 1945 to 1951 Lecoque's colorful career as an artist gained new luster and his personal life was enriched by new challenges and opportunities. Rome, Milan, Florence, and Capri now became sources of inspiration for his prolific paint brush and his unique canvases of scenes in those famous cities won him acclaim in numerous exhibits. His keen and perceptive eye, said one critic, "had revealed the splendor of the Italian cities to the Italians." Two of his books were published there but another art form beckoned his versatile talents. His commanding presence and flair for dramatic expression caught the eye of the famed movie director, Carmen Galloni, and he won a role in the motion picture Avanti a lui tremava tuta Roma. His role was that of General Melzer, in charge of the Nazi occupation of Rome. Ironic indeed for the man who strenuously fought the Nazis. The great Italian actress, Anna Magnani, who starred in the film, profusely commended his performance and they became good friends. The picture was highly successful at the box office and brought Lecoque new friends and funds that enabled him to live in a spacious villa on the enchanting Isles of Capri. He settled down there for a while to paint and host elaborate parties. With a studio in Rome, a villa in Capri, once again Lecoque played well his favorite role - that of the Grand Seigneur. Now he could move to the intellectual circles to which he was quite at ease with. Among his friends were Enrico Prampolini, Giorgio de Chirico, Mario Mafai, Josef Jarema, Guttuso Renato and Monachesi Sante. In 1945 he exhibited at the Galleria San Marco in Rome and in 1946 at the Galleria Salvetti in Milano. In 1948 new honors cascaded upon him for his stunning exhibit at the Al Blu de Prussia in Naples and at the Studio de Guillio Parisio. His last exhibit in Italy was held at the elegant Galleria Nazionale de Arte Moderna in Rome, which drew capacity crowds. The sunny skies of Italy, the warmth and animation of the Italians in all walks of life and the sumptuous living made Lecoque's existence there quite endurable - for a while. But the Gods of Adversity had other plans for Lecoque. A hard core of Fascist carry-overs attained some influence in the shaky Italian Government, and Lecoque's alleged part in the attempted assassination plot against Mussolini was not forgotten. A move was made to deport him, and he was sent to the Campo de Capua, a displaced persons camp. He could not go back to Prague which was clamped under the despotic rule of the hated Communists, who were anathema to everything he believed in and fought for. All of the property that he had in Prague was lost. Because of his age, which made immigration impossible to every country he attempted to enter, even his beloved France, he became a man without a country. After many heartbreaking and humiliating experiences in Switzerland, Sweden, and France, he was finally granted permission to enter the United States. But more heartbreak awaited him in America. When he arrived in Chicago during a cruel harsh winter, at age 60, with five dollars in his pocket, he found that the job his sponsor had promised him was just a promise. The promise of full freedom was now ironically fraught with the promise of starvation and despair. But Lecoque's indomitable spirit again prevailed. Soon, with the help of the Czech community and especially Roderick A. Gorman, who became his friend and biographer, Lecoque began painting and exhibiting again. Subsequently, he went to California, and after several successful years in Laguna Beach, he settled in Los Angeles where he maintained an art gallery and frequently sponsored exhibits for other artists striving for recognition. In 1960 he gained one of the greatest treasures of his life - his American citizenship and thus his freedom to roam the world and exhibit his work in the countries of his choice. Paris - which once refused him - welcomed him with open arms when he returned to exhibit in 1961 at the Gallerie Benezit and in 1962 at the Galerie Mercel Bernheim. Again in 1963 he exhibited at the Palais Royal Galerie in Paris and sold one of his paintings to Sir James Farmer Norton, who invited him to visit England. During his visit with Sir James he finished a large painting of Venice...

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

Original Oil Painting of the North Rocky Coastline of Ireland by Northern Irish Artist, Joseph McLoughlin (1926-2018) Art measures 16 x 12 inches ...

Wilson Bigaud: 1931-2010. Well listed Haitian artist with auction results over $11,000. He is best known for his depiction of daily life in Haiti. This is the finest example of his w...

Nude 1960s. Oil on canvas. 60x73 cm "Nude" is a captivating and elegant artwork that celebrates the female form in a tasteful and artistic manner. Through skillful brushwork, the artist aims to convey the woman's beauty and allure, inviting viewers to appreciate the timeless fascination and artistic exploration of the nude human figure. Aleksandra Belcova...

Predominantly recognized as a self-taught painter, he also worked in architectural murals, sculptures, ceramics, prints and drawings. Vigas is one...

Very well painted oil on artist board painting by “Cappy” Amundsen who painted under many aliases, including F. H. McKay. Signed lower left F.H. McKay. Circa 1955. Condition is excellent. Recently professionally cleaned. Catalda Fine Arts copyright stamp verso. Overall very nicely framed in a period gold leaf ornate frame 15.75 by 13.75 inches in fine condition. The sheer volume of high quality sea and coastal village themed paintings that was on view at the Sag Harbor Whaling Museum several years ago was astounding. The work was by a select group of artists such as André Picot...

Morris Kantor, American, 1896-1974 Seaside View, 1930 Hand signed M. Kantor and dated 1930 lower right Oil on canvas 22 1/4 x 19 1/4 inches 24 1/2 x 21 (frame) Morris Kantor (Belarusian: Морыс Кантор) (1896-1974) was a Russian Empire-born American painter based in the New York City area. This is a beautiful boat scene with a river or lake probably on Long Island. Born in Minsk on April 15, 1896, Kantor was brought to the United States in 1906 at age 10, in order to join his father who had previously relocated to the states. He made his home in West Nyack, New York for much of his life, and died there in 1974. He produced a prolific and diverse body of work, much of it in the form of paintings, which is distinguished by its stylistic variety over his long career. Perhaps his most widely recognized work is the iconic painting "Baseball At Night", which depicts an early night baseball game played under artificial electric light. Although he is best known for his paintings executed in a realistic manner, over the course of his life he also spent time working in styles such as Cubism and Futurism, (influenced by the Art Deco movement) and produced a number of abstract or non-figural works. A famous cubist, Futurist, painting of his "Orchestra" brought over 500,000$ at Christie's auction house in 2018. Kantor found employment in the Garment District upon his arrival in New York City, and was not able to begin formal art studies until 1916, when he began courses at the now-defunct Independent School of Art. He studied landscape painting with Homer Boss (1882-1956). In 1928, after returning to New York City from a year in Paris, Kantor developed a style in which he combined Realism with Fantasy, often taking the streets of New York as his subject matter. He did some moody Surrealist Nude paintings and fantasy scenes. In the 1940's he turned towards figural studies. Later in his career, Kantor himself was an instructor at the Cooper Union and also at the Art Students League of New York in the 1940s, and taught many pupils who later became famous artists in their own right, such as Knox Martin, Robert Rauschenberg, Sigmund Abeles and Susan Weil...

At cafe 1950, cardboard, oil, 51x71 cm The main focus of the artwork is a stylized representation of a cafe scene. The artist's intention is to capture the vibrant and lively atmosphere of a bustling cafe setting. The painting features numerous figures dancing in the background, creating a sense of movement and excitement. The artist's stylized approach involves using bold and expressive brushstrokes, vibrant colors, and abstracted forms to depict the figures and the overall energy of the scene. In the foreground, there is a man sitting behind a table with wine bottles, adding a focal point to the composition. The red interior of the cafe provides a warm and inviting ambiance, adding to the overall atmosphere of the painting. Biruta Baumane...

From the estate of Jerry Opper & Ruth Friedman Opper Backside c. 1950's Gouache on Paper 15" x 18" Unframed *Custom framing available for additional charge. Please expect framing time between 3-5 weeks. From the estate of Ruth Friedmann Opper & Jerry Opper. Ruth was the daughter of Bauhaus artist, Gustav Friedmann. San Francisco Abstract Expression A free-spirited wave of creative energy swept through the San Francisco art community after World War II. Challenging accepted modes of painting, Abstract Expressionists produced highly experimental works that jolted the public out of its postwar complacency. Abstract Expressionism resulted from a broad collective impulse rather than the inspiration of a small band of New York artists. Documenting the interchanges between the East and West Coasts, she cites areas of mutual influence and shows the impact of San Francisco on the New York School, including artists such as Mark Rothko and Ad Reinhardt. San Francisco's Beat poets...

Jim's of Lambertville Fine Art Gallery is proud to present this piece by LeRoy Neiman (1921 – 2012). LeRoy Neiman was born in 1921 in St. Paul, Minnesota. He displayed a great talent for art at a young age, working as an illustrator for local grocery stores as a teenager. Even after being drafted into the Army in 1942, he spent his spare time painting murals on the walls of kitchens and mess halls, where he served as a cook. Once the Army’s Special Services Division took notice of his talents, he was sent to work on painting stage sets for Red Cross shows in Germany after the war. Upon returning to the United States, Neiman enrolled briefly at the St. Paul School of Art before attending the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and later, teaching figure drawing and fashion illustration there. While working at the Art Institute of Chicago, Neiman discovered his primary medium, enamel house paint, when a janitor threw out some half-empty cans of it next door to his apartment. From this medium, he embraced a technique of rapid paint application. While freelancing as an illustrator for the Chicago department store, Carson Pirie Scott, in the 1950s, Neiman met Hugh Hefner, who would become a great friend and help establish his artistic reputation. In 1954, Hefner showed Neiman’s paintings to Playboy’s Art...

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

Born in London, Peter studied at Hammersmith School of Art 1935-1938 & 1947-1950 and at the London Institute of Education 1951 & 1971. He was awarded the Art ...

French Mid 20th Century oil portrait of the actor Max Vigon. The sitter was a friend and collector of the works of Jean Cocteau. By repute this portrait is by Cocteau however it is n...

Lions is an oil painting realized by an unknown artist. Oil on canvas, signed lower right ''Lync...'' (last letter illegible), below dated 1945, patch with retouch on the nose of t...

Woman portrait. 1955, oil on canvas, 50.5 x 40.6 cm Provenance Bonhams

His first name sounds like a concerto. Vivacious, its name is reminiscent of an aperitif or a cyclist. The addition of the two evokes the Italianate. Indomitable and unavoidable. Mor...

"Leta and the Hill Myna" is a painting by American Pop artist Mel Ramos. The work is signed verso "Mel Ramos". Mel Ramos is a California based Pop artist best known for his paintings of superheroes and female nudes, including Marilyn Monroe and Scarlet Johansson, with pop culture imagery. Many of his subjects emerge from Chiquita bananas...

Frank Owen Salisbury (1874-1962) Male portrait painting, 1934 Oil on canvas 39 x 48

A fine mid 20th century post impressionist oil of a young woman sewing by lamplight circa 1960's oil on canvas 46cmx 70cm good gallery frame 63cmx 88cm Very atmospheric light effect painted in expressive colourfield palette creating a soft diffused atmosphere under the old lamp...

A painting by Irving Norman. "American Street Scene" is a macabre social surrealism city scape, oil on canvas in a bold palette of reds, blues, and yellows by artist Irving Norman. T...

Hans SEILER (Neuchâtel 1907 – 1986) The cliffs of Marqueyssac and Castelnaud, seen from La Roque Gageac Oil on canvas H. 40 cm; L. 83 cm Signed lower right, dated 1973 Provenance : ...

Parisian Street Scene. Oil on canvas, 32x46 cm

Lazzaro Donati (Italian, 1926-1977) Oil on board. Colorful Architectural Italian Landscape. Porto Azzurro, 1964 Hand signed upper right. signed, titled on back of panel. Dimensions: (Frame) H 37" x W 29", (Panel) H 27" x W 19" Lazzaro Donati was born in Florence and attended the Academy of Fine Arts. He began to paint in 1953, and in 1955 held his first exhibition at the Indiano Gallery in Florence. Within three years eleven exhibitions followed in Italy, and as his reputation grew he was invited to give major exhibitions in London, Paris, New York, Chicago, Rio de Janeiro and Montevideo. He is considered one of the foremost contemporary Italian painters and his paintings hang in museums and private collections throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. His work is recalling the works of the french Raoul Dufy, Dunoyer de Segonzac, Francois Gall and Jean Jansem. This particular work is reminiscent of the work of Manolo Valdes. Donati lived and worked at 24 Piazza Donatello in Florence, the square where generations of artists have created works worthy of the great Florentine tradition. As you entered the narrow hallway to his studio, a gilded life-size Venetian angel beckoned you to his door. Once inside, the present faded away and you found yourself in an atelier where early masters might have worked during the Renaissance. Within, luxurious Persian rugs set off the innumerable objects d’art and antique furnishings...

Rgrfinearts presents this oil on artist board "Kuniyoshi in a Crowd" with his unmistakable glasses and hat clearly showing. The painting is somewhat darker than shown in the photos ...

Sleeping woman  is an artwork realized by Antonio Feltrinelli in 1930s.  Oil on canvas, 110 x 160 cm.  Very good conditions Antonio Feltrinelli (Milan, 1887 - Gargnano, 1942) wa...

Mississippi River. Saul Haymond, Sr. (1947- ) of Pickens, Mississippi is a self-taught painter who has been documenting life in the African American...

Genre: Judaica Medium: Oil Surface: Canvas Country: United States Dimensions: 20" x 16" Chaim Goldberg -- born in the Polish shtetl of Kazimierz Dolny Chaim Goldberg has worked i...

Jim’s of Lambertville is proud to offer this artwork by: Vaclav Vytlacil (1892-1984) He was born to Czechoslovakian parents in 1892 in New York City. Living in Chicago as a youth, he took classes at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, returning to New York when he was 20. From 1913 to 1916, he enjoyed a scholarship from the Art Students League, and worked with John C. Johansen (a portraitist whose expressive style resembled that of John Singer Sargent), and Anders Zorn. He accepted a teaching position at the Minneapolis School of Art in 1916, remaining there until 1921. This enabled him to travel to Europe to study Cézanne’s paintings and works of the Old Masters. He traveled to Paris, Prague, Dresden, Berlin, and Munich seeking the works of Titian, Cranach, Rembrandt, Veronese, and Holbein, which gave him new perspective. Vytlacil studied at the Royal Academy of Art in Munich, settling there in 1921. Fellow students were Ernest Thurn and Worth Ryder, who introduced him to famous abstractionist Hans Hofmann. He worked with Hofmann from about 1922 to 1926, as a student and teaching assistant. During the summer of 1928, after returning to the United States, Vytlacil gave lectures at the University of California, Berkeley, on modern European art. Soon thereafter, he became a member of the Art Students League faculty. After one year, he returned to Europe and successfully persuaded Hofmann to teach at the League as well. He spent about six years in Europe, studying the works of Matisse, Picasso, and Dufy. In 1935, he returned to New York and became a co-founder of the American Abstract Artists group in 1936. He later had teaching posts at Queens College in New York; the College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, California; Black Mountain College in North Carolina; and the Art Students League. His paintings exhibit a clear inclination toward modernism. His still lives and interiors from the 1920s indicate an understanding of the art of Cézanne. In the 1930s, his works displayed two very different kinds of art at the same time. His cityscapes and landscapes combine Cubist-inspired spatial concerns with an expressionistic approach to line and color. Vytlacil also used old wood, metal, cork, and string in constructions, influenced by his friend and former student, Rupert Turnbull. He eventually ceased creating constructions as he considered them too limiting. The spatial challenges of painting were still his preference. During the 1940s and 1950s, his works indicated a sense of spontaneity not felt in his earlier work. He married Elizabeth Foster in Florence, Italy, in 1927 and they lived and worked in Positano, Italy for extended periods of time. Later on, they divided their time between homes in Sparkill, New York and Chilmark, Massachusetts, where Vyt, as he was affectionately called, taught at the Martha's Vineyard Art...

Lazzaro Donati (Italian, 1926-1977) Oil on board. Colorful woman. La Signora, Vestita Di Giallo, 1969 Hand signed upper right. signed, titled on back of panel. Dimensions: (Frame) H 38" x W 30", (Panel) H 28" x W 20" Lazzaro Donati was born in Florence and attended the Academy of Fine Arts. He began to paint in 1953, and in 1955 held his first exhibition at the Indiano Gallery in Florence. Within three years eleven exhibitions followed in Italy, and as his reputation grew he was invited to give major exhibitions in London, Paris, New York, Chicago, Rio de Janeiro and Montevideo. He is considered one of the foremost contemporary Italian painters and his paintings hang in museums and private collections throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. His work is recalling the works of the french Raoul Dufy, Dunoyer de Segonzac, Francois Gall and Jean Jansem. This particular work is reminiscent of the work of Manolo Valdes. Donati lived and worked at 24 Piazza Donatello in Florence, the square where generations of artists have created works worthy of the great Florentine tradition. As you entered the narrow hallway to his studio, a gilded life-size Venetian angel beckoned you to his door. Once inside, the present faded away and you found yourself in an atelier where early masters might have worked during the Renaissance. Within, luxurious Persian rugs set off the innumerable objects d’art and antique furnishings...

Lazzaro Donati (Italian, 1926-1977) Oil on board. Colorful woman. Hand signed upper right. signed, titled on back of panel. Dimensions: (Frame) H 37" x W 29", (Panel) H 27.5" x W 20" Lazzaro Donati was born in Florence and attended the Academy of Fine Arts. He began to paint in 1953, and in 1955 held his first exhibition at the Indiano Gallery in Florence. Within three years eleven exhibitions followed in Italy, and as his reputation grew he was invited to give major exhibitions in London, Paris, New York, Chicago, Rio de Janeiro and Montevideo. He is considered one of the foremost contemporary Italian painters and his paintings hang in museums and private collections throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. His work i faucist recalling the works of the french Raoul Dufy, Dunoyer de Segonzac, Francois Gall and Jean Jansem. This particular work is reminiscent of the work of Manolo Valdes. Donati lived and worked at 24 Piazza Donatello in Florence, the square where generations of artists have created works worthy of the great Florentine tradition. As you entered the narrow hallway to his studio, a gilded life-size Venetian angel beckoned you to his door. Once inside, the present faded away and you found yourself in an atelier where early masters might have worked during the Renaissance. Within, luxurious Persian rugs set off the innumerable objects d’art and antique furnishings. Light poured in through the sloping glass wall on the north side. A dramatic stairway led to an overhanging balcony which served as a private gallery where the artist hung some of his favorite early works. To the left of the entrance was a smaller studio where Donati sculpted, with a window overlooking the famous old English cemetery where tourists laid flowers on the grave of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. In the main studio itself, where Donati received his clients in an atmosphere as polished as an office of a top executive, one hardly realized that it was here that the artist actually painted. His easel was covered with Persian blue velvet, the painting on the easel was already framed, his chair was upholstered in red velvet and on his palette the colors were arranged with the precision of a Byzantine mosaic. In a corner stand were his latest works, framed and ready to be sent off to his next exhibition in Europe or America. He spoke fluent French and English as well as some Spanish and German. “After all”, he said, “you've got to know how to sell...

Restaurant terrace at evening in Montmartre, Paris. Oil on canvas, 46x38 cm

Seated Nude is an artwork realized by Antonio Feltrinelli, in 1930s.  Oil on canvas, 108 x 75 cm. Provenance: Galleria Pesaro, Milan. Good conditions! The nudes and portraits w...

Uprising - a huge and incredibly powerful and topical painting by Jamaican master painter Barrington Watson (1931-2016). It depicts the 1865 Moran...

This artwork "Still Life Flowers in a Vase" c.1960 is an oil painting on canvas by noted California artist John William Orth, 1889-1976. It is signed at the lower right corner by the artist. The canvas size is 36 x 30 inches, framed size is 46.5 x 40.5 inches. Custom framed in a wooden gold with brown patina frame, with fabric and gold liner. It is in excellent condition. About the artist: John W. Orth was born in Bavaria in 1889. He sold his first painting, a water color, when he was 13. At age 15 studied under a scholarship at Nuremberg's College of Fine Arts. Three years later, again on a scholarship, he attended Munich's Academy of Fine Arts. From there he went on to study at the Art Academy Julien in Paris and then traveled throughout Europe, studying work by the Old Masters. For Nuremberg's Albrecht Durer Museum, he was commissioned to reproduce a number of Durer's paintings, and representatives of The Rhineland's Barmen Museum purchased his painting of The Prodigal Son. In 1922, Louis Mayer, an accomplished artist himself, purchased Orth's The Prophet from among thousands of paintings displayed at Munich's Glas Palast. He declared Orth's painting "the work of a genius," and for three years The Prophet was hung, by invitation, in the Brooklyn Art Museum. Already an established artist at age 34, Orth left his troubled country in 1923 to escape certain persecution for his outspoken liberal views on race, religion and politics. He came to America to start anew. Here, he felt certain, his restless spirit could continue to grow, his career to flourish in an environment of freedom, which encouraged individual expression and unrestrained thought. In the United States, John Orth did portraits of notables including Winston Churchill, Albert Einstein, John F. Kennedy, Richard M. Nixon, Marian Anderson...

This artworl "Landscape" c. 1935 is an oil painting on hardboard by renown California artist Frank Joseph Girardin, 1856-1945. It is signed at the lower right corner. The hardboard size is 20 x 30 inches, framed size is 30.5 x 40.5 inches. Framed in a wooden beige frame, with fabric liner. It is in excellent condition. About the artist: Born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1856, Frank joseph Girardin began his art instruction in 1870 under Frank Noble and later Frank Duveneck at the Cincinnati Art Academy. A semi-pro baseball player in Cincinnati, he was best known for his beautiful landscapes of both Indiana and California. An extremely active participant in the development of the Art Association of Richmond and original member of the local Sketch Club, he served on the Board of Directors of Art Association for several years. He was considered ranked next to the late John E. Bundy in talent and skill by the former Art Association Director, Mrs. Ella Bond Johnston. It was during his time in Indiana, that he received the most recognition for his work. In 1903, he won first prize for his painting, "Lingering Snow" at the Cincinnati Art Club Show. This would be one of numerous prizes and awards the he would receive during his time in Indiana, including the coveted Mary T...

Woman is an original modern artwork realized by Eliseu Visconti (1866-1944) in 1930. Mixed colored oil painting. Hand signed and dated on the lower margin.

Still life is an original modern artwork realized by Valentino Ghiglia in the mid-20th Century. Mixed colored oil on board. Hand signed on the back. Includes frame.

La Camacunta Eduardo Arranz-Bravo, Spanish (1941) Date: 1966 Oil on Canvas, signed Size: 29.5 x 24.5 in. (74.93 x 62.23 cm) Frame Size: 30.5 x 25.5 inches

Mid 20th Century Italian Futurist, Novecento Italiano, work on paper, signed bottom right and with dedication top right (see photos). The subject is bathers enjoying the delights of a spa and sauna with colourful tiling to the background. The classical figures languorously positioned in repose but the central 'white' figure in stark contrast. The play on colours gives the work a vibrancy. The drawing is possibly a preparatory sketch for a larger work or mural. A vibrant, exciting and colourful work incorporating the styles of Futurism and the Novecento Italiano movement and with the influences or artists such as Anselmo Bucci, Adami, Jean Helion, Maryan, Achille Funi and Ugo Guidi. Anselmo Bucci was born in 1887 in Fossombrone in the district of Pesaro. Even though he studied Classics, right from a tender age he showed a talent for drawing and, when his parents moved near to Florence, he was taught by the artist Francesco Salvini. In 1904 the family settled in Monza and so the boy was able to study for a year at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera, but he did not follow up this educational experience and in 1906 he left Italy for Paris where he came into contact with the Parisian avant-garde, met fellow Italian artists such as Severini and Modigliani, and made friends with Picasso, Utrillo and Apollinaire. In 1907 he showed a painting at the Salon, but these Parisian years were most important for his love of engraving techniques – etching and dry point that enabled him to fully develop his themes characterised by movement. On the outbreak of war in 1915 he returned to Italy and he enlisted in the same battalion as several Futurist artists such as Martinetti, Boccioni, Sant’Elia and Carlo Erba. In 1914 he won the silver medal at the Mostra dell’Incisione (Exhibition of Engravings) at Florence. In 1917 in Paris he published pictures of war scenes entitled “Croquis du Front Italien”. In 1919 he printed twelve lithographs entitled “Finis Austriae” again showing events from the war. At the end of the war he lived between Milan and Paris and he dedicated his time completely to his art with personal exhibitions, exhibiting at all the most important Italian and French shows, in Belgium, Holland and England. In 1922, he established the group “Movimento del Novecento”, (Novecento Italiano), (20th century Movement) a joint venture with the artists Sironi, Funi, Oppi, Malerba, Dudreville and Marussig. Their aim was to return to figurative art in contrast with the growing extremism of the Avant-gardists. In 1925 he worked on the illustration of the first edition of Kipling’s The Jungle Book producing eight dry point plates. In the early 30’s he lived in Bucci, Trieste, where he worked on the furnishing of the steamships for the Trieste Navigazione Libera, at the same time he continued to work on many book illustrations. During the second European war he adapted to being a war artist recording the events of the war as he had done previously. Indeed the engravings depicting battles of the Marines and the Air Force belong to this period. In 1945, following the bombing of his house in Milan, he returned to Monza to his father’s home where he remained until his death. Futurism was an Italian art movement of the early twentieth century that aimed to capture in art the dynamism and energy of the modern world. Futurism was launched by the Italian poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti in 1909. On 20 February he published his Manifesto of Futurism on the front page of the Paris newspaper Le Figaro. Among modernist movements futurism was exceptionally vehement in its denunciation of the past. This was because in Italy the weight of past culture was felt as particularly oppressive. In the Manifesto, Marinetti asserted that ‘we will free Italy from her innumerable museums which cover her like countless cemeteries’. What the futurists proposed instead was an art that celebrated the modern world of industry and technology: We declare…a new beauty, the beauty of speed. A racing motor car…is more beautiful than the Victory of Samothrace. (A celebrated ancient Greek sculpture in the Louvre museum in Paris.) Futurist painting used elements of neo-impressionism and cubism to create compositions that expressed the idea of the dynamism, the energy and movement, of modern life. Chief artists associated with futurism were Giacomo Balla, Umberto Boccioni, Gino Severini. After the brutality of the first world war, many artists rejected the avant-garde notions of futurism and other pre-war movements, by using more traditional and reassuring approaches, a phenomenon described as the ‘return to order’. Novecento Italiano was founded by Anselmo Bucci (1887–1955), Leonardo Dudreville (1885–1975), Achille Funi, Gian Emilio Malerba (1880–1926), Pietro Marussig, Ubaldo Oppi, and Mario Sironi. Motivated by a post-war "call to order", they were brought together by Lino Pesaro, a gallery owner interested in modern art, and Margherita Sarfatti, a writer and art critic who worked on Italian dictator Benito Mussolini's newspaper, The People of Italy (Il Popolo d'Italia). Sarfatti was also Mussolini's mistress. The movement was officially launched in 1923 at an exhibition in Milan, with Mussolini as one of the speakers. The group was represented at the Venice Biennale of 1924 in a gallery of its own, with the exception of Oppi, who exhibited in a separate gallery. Oppi's defection caused him to be ejected from the group, which subsequently split and was reformed. The new Novecento Italiano staged its first group exhibition in Milan in 1926. Several of the artists were war veterans; Sarfatti had lost a son in the war. The group wished to take on the Italian establishment and create an art associated with the rhetoric of fascism. The artists supported the fascist regime and their work became associated with the state propaganda department, although Mussolini reprimanded Sarfatti for using his name and the name of fascism to promote Novecento. The name of the movement (which means 1900s) was a deliberate reference to great periods of Italian art in the past, the Quattrocento and Cinquecento (1400s and 1500s). The group rejected European avant garde art and wished to revive the tradition of large format history painting in the classical manner. It lacked a precise artistic programme and included artists of different styles and temperament, for example, Carrà and Marini. It aimed to promote a renewed yet traditional Italian art. Sironi said, “if we look at the painters of the second half of the 19th century, we find that only the revolutionary were great and that the greatest were the most revolutionary”; the artists of Novecento Italiano “would not imitate the world created by God but would be inspired by it”. Despite official patronage, Novecento art did not always have an easy ride in Fascist Italy. Mussolini was personally uninterested in art and divided official support among various groups so as to keep artists on the side of the regime. Opening the exhibition of Novecento art in 1923 he declared that “it is far from my idea to encourage anything like a state art. Art belongs to the domain of the individual. The state has only one duty: not to undermine art, to provide humane conditions for artists, to encourage them from the artistic and national point of view." The movement was in competition with other pro-Fascist movements, especially Futurism and the regionalist Strapaese movement. Novecento Italiano also met outright opposition. Achille Starace, the General Secretary of the Fascist Party, attacked it in the Fascist daily press and there was virulent criticism of its “un-Italian" qualities by artists and critics. In the 1930s, a group of professors and students at the Accademia di Brera established an opposition group to Novecento Italiano. Among them was the director of the academy Aldo Carpi, and students Afro, Aldo Badoli, Aldo Bergolli, Renato Birolli, Bruno Cassinari, Cherchi, Alfredo Chighine, Grosso, Renato Guttuso, Dino Lanaro, Giuseppe Migneco, Mantica, Ennio Morlotti, Aligi Sassu, Ernesto Treccani, Italo Valenti, and Emilio Vedova (and later Giuseppe Ajmone...

Lazzaro Donati (Italian, 1926-1977) Oil on board. Colorful woman. La Regina (the Queen) Hand signed upper right. signed, titled on back of panel. Dimensions: (Frame) H 37" x W 29", (Panel) H 27.5" x W 20" Lazzaro Donati was born in Florence and attended the Academy of Fine Arts. He began to paint in 1953, and in 1955 held his first exhibition at the Indiano Gallery in Florence. Within three years eleven exhibitions followed in Italy, and as his reputation grew he was invited to give major exhibitions in London, Paris, New York, Chicago, Rio de Janeiro and Montevideo. He is considered one of the foremost contemporary Italian painters and his paintings hang in museums and private collections throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. His work is recalling the works of the french Raoul Dufy, Dunoyer de Segonzac, Francois Gall and Jean Jansem. This particular work is reminiscent of the work of Manolo Valdes. Donati lived and worked at 24 Piazza Donatello in Florence, the square where generations of artists have created works worthy of the great Florentine tradition. As you entered the narrow hallway to his studio, a gilded life-size Venetian angel beckoned you to his door. Once inside, the present faded away and you found yourself in an atelier where early masters might have worked during the Renaissance. Within, luxurious Persian rugs set off the innumerable objects d’art and antique furnishings. Light poured in through the sloping glass wall on the north side. A dramatic stairway led to an overhanging balcony which served as a private gallery where the artist hung some of his favorite early works. To the left of the entrance was a smaller studio where Donati sculpted, with a window overlooking the famous old English cemetery where tourists laid flowers on the grave of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. In the main studio itself, where Donati received his clients in an atmosphere as polished as an office of a top executive, one hardly realized that it was here that the artist actually painted. His easel was covered with Persian blue velvet, the painting on the easel was already framed, his chair was upholstered in red velvet and on his palette the colors were arranged with the precision of a Byzantine mosaic. In a corner stand were his latest works, framed and ready to be sent off to his next exhibition in Europe or America. He spoke fluent French and English as well as some Spanish and German. “After all”, he said, “you've got to know how to sell...

Paris, Montmartre, Rue Lepic. 1965, oil on canvas 50x61 cm Expressive street view. Impasto painting Włodzimierz Zakrzewski (1916–1992) was a Polish painter, graphician and poster a...