Pair of early 20th Century silhouette ink pictures of a procession of fairies

Circle of Austin Osman Spare (British, 1888 – 1956) Bohemian Fantasy Pen and gouache on paper 13.1/2 x 19.5/8 in. (34.3 x 50 cm.)

Jean Dupas (French, 1882 – 1964) The angel of light Pen and ink and charcoal on paper 14.3/4 x 12.1/2 in. (37.5 x 31.8 cm.) One of the leading artists of the Art Deco period, Jean Théodore Dupas was the son of a merchant marine captain and began his adult life as a merchant seaman. Poor health meant that he had to abandon this career and he enrolled in art school instead, first in his native Bordeaux and later in Paris. He won the Prix de Rome in the category of painting in 1910 and studied at the Académie de France in Rome, from where he sent several paintings to the Paris Salons, although his studies were interrupted by the outbreak of war. Dupas’s work came to public prominence on the occasion of the seminal Exposition des Arts Décoratifs in Paris in 1925. He was chosen by the furniture designer Jacques-Emile Ruhlmann to provide paintings for the latter’s Maison d’un collectionneur, alongside furniture by Ruhlmann and objects by many of the leading Art Deco craftsmen of the day, while other paintings by Dupas were also displayed to great effect elsewhere in the Exposition. In the late 1920’s and 1930’s Dupas won a number of important and prestigious commissions. In 1926 he worked alongside Ruhlmann and the sculptor Alfred Jeanniot on the decoration of the tearoom of the ocean liner Ile-de-France; the first of the grand transatlantic ships to be built in France after the First World War. By this time Dupas had firmly established his reputation. Writing in 1927, his fellow artist George Barbier could already note that ‘Few artists have at such an early age attained such a degree of success, or gathered around them such swarms of imitators and disciples.’ Dupas reached the height of his fame in the mid 1930’s, and in 1934 he received his most important commission to date; a series of large glass murals...

Four outrigger proa’s on the beach of Kusambe, Bali, 1937 Signed with initials, dated and described with location bottom left Pencil and ink on paper, 29.7 x 35 cm In ebonized frame with white mount WILLEM OTTO WIJNAND NIEUWENKAMP (1874-1950) Nieuwenkamp was born on July 27th 1874 in Amsterdam. His father owned sailing ships sailing to Indonesia and hearing the stories of the returning captains evoked in the young Nieuwenkamp an obsession for distant lands and adventure. After a failed attempt by his father to have his son make a career in his business, Nieuwenkamp attended the Academy for Decorative Art in Amsterdam. However, he left within one year to go his own way. He was an autodidact and a great experimenter with new techniques, particularly in the art of etching. Nieuwenkamp was a very focused man with the discipline of a scientist tempered by the sensitivity of an artist, a lust for adventure, a natural appreciation for ethnic arts and an enormous ambition to tread new paths. In 1898 he visited Indonesia for the first time and on his second visit in 1903-1904 he went on to Bali and became the first foreign artist to love Bali and the Balinese with a passion. Having secured agreements with several museums in the Netherlands to obtain Balinese art and objects for their collections, Nieuwenkamp immediately started to purchase and order a wide range of ethnographic art and objects from local artists and craftsmen. Through his drawings and books, he gave an excellent impression of Balinese art and culture at that time. Since 1854 Northern Bali was under Dutch...

Felician Myrbach (1853-1940) Poèmes magyars, Magyar poems bears the monogram "M" on the lower left, titled in the upper right Ink on paper 29,8 x 19,8 cm in good condition, the sheet is slightly yellowed In a modern frame : 33 x 23 cm This is an illustration project by Felician Myrbach for François Coppée's work, "Poèmes magyars". He leaves the space to be occupied by the text blank on the sheet and arranges his composition accordingly. It is interesting to see the artist imagine his drawing with this constraint. Felician Myrbach (also Felicien de Myrbach, Felician von Myrbach, from 1919 Freiherr von Rheinfeld) was born on 9 February 1853 in Zalishchyky, he died 14 January 1940 in Klagenfurt He was an Austrian painter, graphic designer and illustrator. He was a founding member of the Vienna Secession and the director of the Applied Arts School in Vienna (now the University of Applied Arts Vienna), and was instrumental in the creation of the Wiener Werkstätte. Myrbach's father was Franz Myrbach (1818–1882), the Administrator of Bukovina in 1865–70. His older brother Franz Xaver (1850–1919) was an economist and professor at the University of Innsbruck. He attended the Theresian Military Academy in 1868–71, graduating as a Leutnant, then at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna under August Eisenmenger. In 1875, he joined the 19th Feldjäger Battalion, and in 1877 became an Oberleutnant in the Military Geographic Institute, then, after campaigning in Bosnia in 1878, he taught drawing at the Infantry Cadet School in Vienna. He continued his artistic studies under C R Huber. In 1881, he went on military leave and moved to Paris, retiring totally from the military in 1884 as a Hauptmann, 2nd Class. He stayed in Paris until 1897, working as an illustrator, including illustrating the works of Alphonse Daudet, Victor Hugo and Jules Verne. Myrbach was a founding member of the Vienna Secession in 1897. In the same year, he became the a professor of the Applied Arts School at the Museum of Art and Industry; Arthur von Scala, another reformer Modernist, was made head of the Museum. In 1889, Myrbach became the director of the school. He brought an enthusiastic Modernist attitude and encouraged an integration between art, design and production. He added Koloman Moser and Josef Hoffmann to the staff, amongst other Secession artists. This would lead to the foundation of the Wiener Werkstätte in 1903. Myrbach leant more towards an aesthetic approach than von Scala, but both worked together to bring about their combined vision of successful, popular Austrian applied art. Myrbach was a voice for reform towards Modernist ideals in the School, which was started 1899 with the support of Alfred Roller, and completed by 1901.The reform of the school has been described as his "lasting merit". Ludwig Hevesi called Myrbach "probably the best [illustrator] in Vienna", partially for his work (with Moser) in the Secession magazine Ver Sacrum. Myrbach visited America on a state-funded study trip in 1904, part of which was to represent the Applied Arts School at the 1904 World...