Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Pioneering female abstract artist Elsie Driggs paints stylized abstract organic forms in a warm palette of orange browns and tope. She merges abstraction with some figuration. A structured face composed of lines and tone emerges from an orange background. It's 1939, and even though Driggs is not well known, she is preceding many of the marquee names of abstraction by a decade. Although under the radar, this is a major work and is titled on the back stretcher is " Egyptian Gothic." It features the artist's inventiveness with her fine pencil lines incorporated in flat washes of color and collage elements. Signed lower right and inscribed on frame verso with title, artist and the date of 1939. Provenance, Christie's, Freemans. Framed under glass.. Elsie Driggs (1898 – July 12, 1992 in New York City) was an American painter known for her contributions to Precisionism, America's one indigenous modern-art movement before Abstract Expressionism, and for her later floral and figurative watercolors, pastels, and oils. She was the only female participant in the Precisionist movement, which in the 1920s and 1930s took a Cubist-inspired approach to painting the skyscrapers and factories that had come to define the new American landscape. Her works are in the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Houston Museum of the Fine Arts, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the James A. Michener Art Museum in Pennsylvania, and the Columbus Museum of Art, among others. She was married to the American abstract artist Lee Gatch. Career Born in Hartford, Connecticut, Driggs grew up in New Rochelle, a suburb of New York City, in a family that was supportive of her artistic interests. After a summer spent painting with her sister in New Mexico in her late teens, she felt she had found her life's calling. At twenty, she enrolled in classes at the Art Students League of New York, where she studied under George Luks and Maurice Sterne, both of whom were charismatic, inspirational figures in her early life. She also attended the evening criticism classes held at the home of painter John Sloan. Driggs spent fourteen months in Europe from late 1922 to early 1924, drawing and studying Italian art. There she met Leo Stein, first in Paris and later in Florence, who became an important intellectual influence, and who urged her to study Cézanne. He also introduced her to the works of Piero della Francesca, the Renaissance artist for whom she felt throughout her life the greatest admiration.[1] Driggs eventually settled in New York City, where she found representation with the progressive Charles Daniel Gallery.[2] (Advised that the old-fashioned and misogynistic Daniel would be unlikely to take on a woman artist, she signed the works she left for his consideration simply "Driggs" and waited to meet him in person until he had expressed his eagerness to include her in his gallery.)[3] In sympathy with those artists Daniel represented who were part of the burgeoning Precisionist movement, such as Charles Demuth, Charles Sheeler, George Ault, Niles Spencer, and Preston Dickinson, she too painted "the modern landscape of factories, bridges, and skyscrapers with geometric precision and almost abstract spareness."Impressionism and academic or Ashcan realism represented the past, in Driggs' view, and she intended to be resolutely modern. She was an attractive and engaging woman, but her demeanor belied a strong ambition and a clear sense of what it would take to make her mark in the New York art world. Driggs was part of the pre-eminent first group of Precisionist painters, including Demuth and Sheeler, who exhibited at the Daniel Gallery in the 1920s. Although a later group of Precisionist painters, including Louis Lozowick, Ralston Crawford and others, came on the American Art scene during the 1930s, Driggs felt that the style came to an end with the 1929 stock market crash.[5] In 1926 she painted her most famous work, Pittsburgh, a dark and brooding picture now in the permanent collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art, which depicts the gargantuan smokestacks of the Jones & Laughlin steel mills in Pittsburgh. Its focus is an overpowering mass of black and gray smokestacks, thick piping, and crisscrossing wires with only clouds of smoke to relieve the severity of the image, yet it was an image in which she found an ironic beauty. She called the picture "my El Greco" and expressed surprise that viewers in later years interpreted the painting as a work of social criticism. Like the other Precisionists (e.g., Demuth, Charles Sheeler, Louis Lozowick, Stefan Hirsch), she was concerned with applying modernist techniques to renderings of the new industrial and urban landscape, not in commenting on potential dangers the overly mechanized modern world of 1920s America might present. If anything, Precisionism, like Futurism, was a celebration of man-made energy and technology. One year later, she painted Blast Furnaces, in a similar vein. As noted above, Piero della Francesca's mural depicting "The Story of the True Cross" in Arezzo, with its tubular, static and frozen forms was the major influence on Driggs' "Pittsburgh" (it may have been the major influence for "Blast Furnaces" as well).[7] After Pittsburgh, Driggs' most acclaimed work was probably Queensborough Bridge...

Byron Browne (American, 1907-1961) Abstract Collage, 1933 Collage, charcoal and ink on paper Signed and dated lower middle 16 x 19.5 inches 24 x 29 inches, framed Byron Browne was a...

A fantastic industrial drawing dated 1935, which depicts the former Plymouth Motor Company's Powerhouse in Buffalo, NY. Housed in a contemporary frame presentation this unique work ...

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Sonia Delaunay - Original Watercolor on paper Dimensions: 21 x 21 cm. Authentified by her son Charles Delaunay on the back. Sonia Delaunay was known for her vivid use of color and her bold, abstract patterns, breaking down traditional distinctions between the fine and applied arts as an artist, designer and printmaker. Born Sarah Stern on November 14, 1885 in Gradizhsk, Ukraine, she was adopted in 1890 by her maternal uncle, Henri Terk, a lawyer in St. Petersburg, where she grew up, exposed to music and art, and learning several foreign languages. In 1903, she moved to Germany to study drawing with Ludwig Schmidt-Reutler (1863–1909) at the Karlsruhe academy of fine arts; Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951), composer-to-be, was among her classmates there. In 1905, she traveled to Paris where she attended art classes at the Académie de la Palette, learned printmaking from Rudolf Grossman (1889–1941), and met Amédée Ozenfant (1886–1966), André Dunoyer de Segonzac (1884–1974), and Jean-Louis Boussingault (1883–1943). Sonia spent much of her time at exhibitions and galleries in Paris, which showed works by Paul Cézanne, Vincent Van Gogh, Pierre Bonnard, and Edouard Vuillard, as well as Les Fauves, Henri Matisse and André Derain. She did, however, maintain contact with Germany, exhibiting at the Galerie Der Sturm, Berlin, in 1913, 1920 and 1921. During her first year in Paris, Sonia met the German collector and art-dealer, Wilhelm Uhde (1874–1947), whom she married on December 5, 1908, and whose Montparnasse gallery, the Galerie Notre-Dame des Champs, showed her first solo exhibition. Through Uhde, Sonia encountered many painters, including Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Maurice de Vlaminck, and Robert Delaunay (1885–1941). In 1910, Sonia divorced Uhde by mutual agreement, married Delaunay that same year, and gave birth to their son, Charles, in January 1911. Together Sonia and Robert Delaunay pursued the study of color, influenced by theories of Michel-Eugène Chevreul (1786–1889). Sonia’s interest in simultaneous contrast, as evidenced in her early collages, book bindings, small painted boxes...

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Watercolor by British artist Noel Leaver (1889-1951). Beautiful Orientalist subject in excellent condition - framed. Measures: 11" H x 15" W. Frame: 19 3/4...

Ricard Opisso - Bar - Colored pencils Measurements drawing 11x13cm. Frame measures 35x37 cm. Son of Alfredo Opisso y Viñas, journalist, historian and critic, and of Antonia Sala y Gil, his sister Regina Opisso, was also a writer. He comes from an enlightened family full of artists. His paternal grandfather was Josep Opisso y Roig, journalist and director of the Diari de Tarragona, father of the also writers Antonia Opisso y Viña and Antoni Opisso y Viña. His maternal great-grandfather was the painter Pere Pau Montaña, his maternal grandfather the fabulist Felipe Jacinto Sala and his maternal uncle, the painter Emilio Sala y Francés. His nephew was Arturo Llorens y Opisso, a writer better known under his pseudonym Arturo Llopis. Although he was born in Tarragona, his family moved to Barcelona when Opisso was only two years old. In modernist Barcelona at the end of the 19th century, Opisso worked as an assistant to Antonio Gaudí in the works of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona since 1892. He was linked to the group Els Quatre Gats, along with Ramón Casas, Manuel Hugué, Isidre Nonell...

Gallant Proposals is an original watercolored ink drawing on ivory-colored paper, in the 1920s realized by Luigi Bompard (1879-1953). Hand-signed in pen on the lower margin. In go...

Industrial Man Working Mid 20th Century American Scene Social Realism Modern WPA Jo Cain (1904 - 2003) Hammering Nails 39 x 50 ½ inches Gouache on paper c. 19...

Graphite on paper Image size of rectangular works: 33 x 43 inches (84 x 109 cm) Image size of arched central work: 38 1/4 x 29 inches (97 x 73.5 cm) Provenance Private Collection of Seymour Stein, Vice President of Warner Bros Records Sotheby's 'Modern British and Irish Art,' London, 19 May 2004, lot 92 The three impressive drawings are studies for Stroudley’s ‘Olympic Games in a Demi-Lune’. From left to right the studies depict groups of athletes practicing diving, a conversing crowd of oarsmen, hurdlers mid jump and a collection of javelin throwers. This study was created in 1930 when Stroudley practiced in the British School in Rome. There are few surviving works from Stroudley’s short stay in Rome, with the compositions from his Rome period being among the last wholly successful decorative cycles produced by a Rome Scholar prior to World War II. Indeed, as can be seen here, his drawings from this period are technically brilliant and even bear comparison with those of Eric Kennington. James Stroudley Stroudley was born in London on 17 June 1906, the son of James Stroudley, showcard and ticket writer. He studied at Clapham School of Art (1923-27) and then at the Royal College of Art (1927-30), where his teachers included Alan Gwynne-Jones and William Rothenstein. As a recipient of the first Abbey Scholarship he was able to spend three years in Italy from 1930, where he absorbed the influences of Giotto and Piero della Francesca, and produced one of the last wholly satisfying decorative cycles by a Rome Scholar of the period. From 1934, he exhibited at the Royal Society of British Artists, and was elected to its membership in the following year. From the Second World War – in which he worked with the Camouflage Unit – Stroudley taught at St Martin’s School of Art and was a visiting lecturer at the Royal Academy Schools. Though he continued to live in London, his later work, exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1955, indicated regular painting trips to Kent and Sussex coasts. However, much of his later work was abstract. In 1971, his former student, Peter Coker, paid homage to Stroudley by including his work in the exhibition ‘Pupil & Masters’, held at Westgate House, Long Melford, Suffolk. Stroudley married three times, and his wives included the fashion artist to the Sun newspaper...

Léa Lafugie is a painter who has travelled extensively throughout Asia. She is renowned for her portraits. She studied at the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, then at the Ecole de...

Stella, Joseph. STUDY OF A MAN WITH A HAT AND OVERCOAT. Blue, red and black crayon on tan wove paper, c. 1920. 6 7/8 x 4 3/4 inches; 173 x 120 mm. Signe...

Pastel on paper, signed (lower left), 63cm x 49cm (framed 75cm x 60cm). Bouchéne was a Russian artist and costume and set designer for theatre, opera and ballet. Primarily working ...

This vintage 1938 ink drawing by Charles Bunnell (1897–1968) captures a stunning scene of a church nestled in the majestic Rocky Mountains of Georgetown, Colorado. Executed in bold black ink on creamy white paper, the piece is signed and dated by the artist in the lower right and titled in the lower left. The image size is 7 ¾ x 5 ¾ inches, and it is framed with archival materials, with outer dimensions measuring 16 ¼ x 14 ½ x 1 ¼ inches. Condition: The drawing is in good vintage condition, with no notable flaws. For a detailed condition report, please contact us directly. Provenance: This artwork comes from the estate of Charles Ragland Bunnell, ensuring its authenticity. About Charles Bunnell: Charles Bunnell was a prominent American artist whose career spanned multiple styles and influences. Born in Kansas City, Missouri, he moved to Colorado Springs around 1915, where he developed a love for art. After serving in World War I, Bunnell studied at the Broadmoor Art Academy (later renamed the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center), where he met his wife, Laura Palmer...

Bedford Park by LUDOVIC-RODO PISSARRO (1878-1952) Watercolour on paper 24.5 x 38 cm (9 ⅝ x 15 inches) Signed, inscribed and dated lower left, Bedford Park 1928 Ludovic Rodo Painted ...

Executed in 1930, this abstract yet representational biomorphic charcoal work by African American Artist Charles Henry Alston prefigures his ...

Chemists American Scene Mid 20th Century Modern Social Realism WPA Science Mural Jo Cain (1904 - 2003) Chemists 40 ½ x 31 ¾ inches Oil on paper, c. 1930s Signed lower right 49 x 40 ...

The iconic subject matter from Botke's oeuvre often features birds, particularly white peacocks, geese, egrets, and cockatoos. Women artists are on fire and very much in demand today...

Pencil and pastel drawing realized by Mino Maccari, on recto and verso of the sheet, in 1934 ca. Hand signed. Very good condition.

Magazine Cover Illustration Mid 20th Century Modern Theatre Broadway Realism WPA Ernest Hamlin Baker (1889 – 1975) “Today Magazine” Cover ...

The key element to this work is that it is much larger that most of the other works on paper by Lachaise and somewhat more delineated and refined . The figure exudes sexuality has a...

This 1938 watercolor painting by American Modernist artist Turner B. Messick depicts a serene winter landscape, likely set in Colorado. The scene features a bare tree in the foregrou...

Perhaps a study or a preliminary work for for "L'ombre d'une jeune fille en fleur", Lot 46 - Christie's, New York (February 14, 2007) Private Collection, Miami Gouache and pencil...

Costume for Aida is a drawing in tempera and watercolor on brownish paper realized in 1920 ca. by an Anonymous Italian artist of the early 20th Century. In very good condition. The...

Costume for Aida is a painting in tempera and watercolor on brownish paper realized in 1920 ca. by an Anonymous Italian artist of the early 20th Century. In very good condition. Th...

Old charcoal drawing on paper " nude lady with cigarette " Italian school 2Oth This exceptionally beautiful charcoal drawing sits in a brand new frame, and sealed under the authenti...

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Standing Nude drawing on gray paper Pencil signed and dated April 8, 21. Printmaker, painter and illustrator, George Kenneth Hartwell was born in Fitchburg 1891-1949, Massachusetts. He studied at the Art Students' League in New York City under Kenneth Hayes Miller, Edward Hopper, and George Bellows. His work was exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago (1923), the Society of Independent Artists (1923), Salons of America (1928 and 1934), Library of Congress (1944-46), the Laguna Beach Art...

Ashton, Ethel V. UNTITLED. Pastel on paper, circa 1930. Unsigned, but with the estate stamp, verso, as is typical for similar works by her. The image shows an African-American coupl...

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Literature: Alfonso Panzetta, Jared French by Jared French: 600 Unpublished Works from the Artist's Italian Years (Turin, Italy: Umberto Allemandi & C., 2010), no. 31, p. 60, illus. ...

Pencil and watercolor drawing realized by Karl Hanny (1879-1972) in 1935 ca. Not signed. Very good condition.

Clara Deike (American, 1881-1965) Capri, 1927 Watercolor on paper Signed and dated lower right 11 x 10 inches 14.25 x 13.25 inches, framed A graduate of the Cleveland School of Art ...

Medium: Charcoal, Pastel, and Watercolor on Board Signature: Signed Lower Right Sight Size 18.75" x 15.25;" Framed 27.50" x 15.25" circa 1920 Girl with Braids...

Medium: Oil on Canvas Signature: Signed Lower Right Saturday Evening Post Cover, April 19, 1930

Jules Andre Smith (American, 1880-1959) In the Art Gallery, 1936 Watercolor and pen and ink Signed Andre Smith, 1936 lower right 10.75 x 8.5 inches 20.25 x 17.25 inches, framed Jule...

"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...

Daphne and Chloe is a beautiful black and white lithograph on paper by Pierre Bonnard in 1930s. Not signed, as issued.

River Eure, Lyons la Forêt by Paulémile Pissarro (1884-1972) Watercolour and crayon on paper 31.5 x 48.5 cm (12 ³/₈ x 19 ¹/₈ inches) Titlted, signed and dated lower left, Lyons la Fo...

Pen, ink, watercolor and wash on paper by André Dunoyer de Segonzac, France, 1922-1924. Boating on the Morin River. Measurements : with frame: 52.5x65x2 cm - 20.7x25.6x0.8 inches / w...

Marsden Hartley ALPSPITZE #3 (with Zabriskie Gallery Label), 1933 Pencil on cream wove paper. In original vintage frame with Zabriskie Gallery label Sticker label, framed with Zabris...

Paysage by Ludovic-Rodo Pissarro (1878 - 1952) Watercolour on paper 28 x 36 cm (11 x 14 ⅛ inches) Signed lower right, Ludovic Rodo Executed circa 1920 This work is accompanied by a...

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Reginald Marsh, 1898 – 1954 Monseigneur News Theatre, 1925 Signed and dated at lower right: 'Reginald Marsh 1925' Watercolor on card 8 x 11 inches Born in Paris to parents who were American artists, Reginald Marsh became an adept illustrator at an early age. His family returned to the United States in 1900. Upon graduating from Yale University, Marsh moved to New York and in 1922 took a job as an illustrator at the New York Daily News. For the paper he provided cartoons of vaudeville and burlesque shows. In 1925 Marsh went to work for a new magazine -- The New Yorker -- as one of its original cartoonists. That same year he married Betty Burroughs, daughter of the paintings curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Later that year they traveled to Europe where Marsh discovered the work of the old masters at the Louvre in Paris and British museums. With a sketchbook always on hand, he wandered the streets of Europe and began depicting bums or what he called figures of failure. Upon the couple’s return, Marsh, now with a serious interest in pursuing art, enrolled at the Art Students League where he studied under George Luks, John Sloan, and Kenneth Hayes Miller. This work, Monseigneur News Theatre, is accompanied by a letter from Marsh Scholar Professor Norman Sasowsky, University of Delaware...

Original Painting Cathedral Interior New Yorker Cover Proposal 1939 Jesus Church Antonio Petruccelli (1907 – 1994) Cathedral New Yorker cover proposa...

Scène de rivière, près de Lyons-la-Forêt by Paulémile Pissarro (1884-1972) Watercolour and crayon on paper 31.5 x 48.3 cm (12 ³/₈ x 19 inches) Signed lower left, Paulémile - Pissarro...

La Promenade by Georges Manzana Pissarro (1871-1961) Charcoal and pastel on paper 49.5 x 63.5 cm (19 ⅜ x 25 inches) Signed lower left, Manzana Executed circa 1920 This work is accom...

"Painter" 20th Century American Scene Social Realism Working Man Modern WPA Era Jo Cain (1904 - 2003) Painter 41 ½ x 36 3/4 inches (sight) Gouache on paper c. 1930s Signed lower rig...

Vintage 1930s watercolor and ink painting of Estes Park, Colorado, by American artist James Russell Sherman (1906-1989). This captivating work features a detailed view of storefronts...

The Japanese Girl by Orovida Pissarro (1893-1968) Watercolour on paper 17.78 x 12.7 cm (7 x 5 inches) Signed lower right, Orovida Circa 1920 This high...

This original watercolor painting by acclaimed American artist Samuel Bolton Colburn captures a quiet farmstead nestled in a mountain valley. Rendered with Colburn’s signature contro...

Trompe-l'Oeil Study Watercolor on heavy wove paper, 1943 Signed with the artists initials, lower center of image; Dated 1943, lower center of image Provenance: Swann Galleries, 2007, realized $2,640 Condition: Excellent. Fresh colors. Framed with conservation glass. Sheet: 14 3/4 x 11 1/4" Frame size: 20 3/4 x 17 Berman brothers (painters) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Eugene Berman in Italy in the 1960s Eugène Berman (Russian: Евгений Густавович Берман; 4 November 1899, Saint Petersburg, Russia – 14 December 1972, Rome) and his brother Leonid Berman...

A ca. 1930s graphite on pencil drawing of Surrealist still life of an egg beater by notable artist artist Jan Matulka. Artwork size: 8 1/2" x 11". Archiv...

Wild Ducks by Georges Manzana Pissarro (1871 - 1961) Charcoal and pastel on paper 46 x 62 cm (18 ⅛ x 24 ⅜ inches) Estate stamp lower left Manzana Pissarro Executed circa 1920 This w...

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LOUIS MARCOUSSIS (1883-1941) (Ludwik Kazimierz Wladyslaw Markus) 1878 or 1883 Łódź, Poland – 1941, Cusset, France (Polish/French) Title: The Balcony (Drawing for Plate I, Plan...

Serge Tchekhonine was a Russian artist who studied applied drawing, ceramics, and pottery in St. Petersburg. He settled in France in 1928, gaining attention for his finely crafted ce...