Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 7

Jo Cain
Cowboys Horses Cattle WPA American Scene Social Realism Mid 20th Century Modern

1930s

$5,000
£3,809.24
€4,392.20
CA$6,997.40
A$7,818.43
CHF 4,089.90
MX$95,878.98
NOK 52,261.21
SEK 49,557.48
DKK 32,781.36
Shipping
Retrieving quote...
The 1stDibs Promise:
Authenticity Guarantee,
Money-Back Guarantee,
24-Hour Cancellation

About the Item

Cowboys Horses Cattle WPA American Scene Social Realism Mid 20th Century Modern Jo Cain (1904 – 2003) Cowboy 33 3/4 x 36 inches Oil on paper, c. 1930s Signed lower left 40 x 42 inches framed Our gallery is pleased to present the exhibition, "Jo Cain: Echoes of an Era," a tribute to the enduring legacy of Joseph Lambert Cain and a celebration of his art that transcends time and remains relevant today. The exhibition features mural studies, works on paper and paintings from the 1930s and 40s, all are available on 1stDibs. BIO JOSEPH LAMBERT CAIN (1904–2003) A painter, muralist, and art educator, Joseph Cain's work was consistently infused by the color and vibrancy of his native New Orleans, even as he pursued a career that took him far from home. Beginning at the age of sixteen, his educational journey led him first to the Art Institute of Chicago and then to the Art Students League in New York, where he was instructed by Kenneth Hayes Miller, Kimon Nicolaides and Vaclav Vytlacil. He later studied under the Abstract Expressionist Hans Hoffman. A 1929 Carnegie Fellowship funded a year's enrollment at the Sorbonne in Paris and travel throughout Europe; Cain also received multiple Tiffany Foundation Fellowships. Using thickly applied paint, layered color planes, and multiple perspectives, Cain created paintings, including streetscapes, marine scenes, and landscapes, which were sometimes categorized as "decorative expressionism" beginning in the late 1930s. In 1932, Cain's entry to the First Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting at the Whitney Museum of American Art hung in the exhibition's entry way; other works were shown at such prestigious venues as the Museum of Modern Art, American Art, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, National Academy of Design, and Carnegie Institute. He also executed a monumental mural at New York State Training School where he was employed as a teacher. While living in New York during this period, Cain was an integral member of a contemporary art collective known as "The Group," whose participants included Milton Avery, George Biddle, Robert Gwathmey, Marsden Hartley, John Marin, and many other important modernists. Jo’s work evolved continuously. Moving from realism in the ‘20’s, he developed a highly personal, cubism based, abstract style similar in spirit to that of Stuart Davis and clearly influenced by Leger, Matisse and Picasso. In 1944, Cain joined the faculty at the University of Rhode Island, establishing and chairing the art department for over two decades. He continued creating art until his death.
  • Creator:
    Jo Cain (1904)
  • Creation Year:
    1930s
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 40 in (101.6 cm)Width: 42 in (106.68 cm)Depth: 2 in (5.08 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
    creases.
  • Gallery Location:
    New York, NY
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU1156213251542

More From This Seller

View All
WPA Post Office Mural Study Native American Scene Regionalism Social Realism
By Louise Ronnebeck
Located in New York, NY
WPA Post Office Mural Study Native American Scene Regionalism Social Realism Louise Emerson Ronnebeck (1901 - 1980) Proposal Sketch for Worland Wyoming Post Office WPA Mural Project Image: 7 x 15 inches Board 14 x 22 inches Watercolor on paper, attached to black/gray cardboard/thick paper c. 1937 Signed lower right Written in Louise's hand on mounting paper in white chalk/pencil: "Sketch for Mural...
Category

1930s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor, Cardboard

Bronx Post Office Mural Study WPA Horse Social Realism Mid 20th Century Modern
By Jo Cain
Located in New York, NY
Bronx Post Office Mural Study WPA Horse Social Realism Mid 20th Century Modern Jo Cain (1904 - 2003) Couriers of History Bronx Post Office Mural Study Horse in the Sun (with two ad...
Category

1930s American Realist Animal Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Ink, Gouache, Board

Man Working Mid 20th Century American Scene Social Realism Industrial WPA Modern
By Jo Cain
Located in New York, NY
Man Working Mid 20th Century American Scene Social Realism Industrial WPA Modern Jo Cain (1904 - 2003) Telephone Pole Worker 38 1/4 x 18 1/2 inches Oil on pap...
Category

1930s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Gouache

Sand Pit Hungarian American Painting Workers Horses European Modernism 1928 WPA
By Stephen Csoka
Located in New York, NY
Sand Pit Hungarian American Oil Painting Workers Horses European Modernism 1928 WPA The board measure 10 3/4 x 15 1/2 inches. The work was painted in Hunga...
Category

1920s Expressionist Landscape Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

"History of US Postal Service" American Scene Social Realism WPA Modern Chicago
By Harold Haydon
Located in New York, NY
"History of US Postal Service" American Scene Social Realism WPA Modern Chicago Harold Haydon "History of the U.S. Postal Service" 21 x 25 1/2 inches O...
Category

1930s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

WPA Landscape American Scene Social Realism Mid 20th Century Modern Farm Rural
By James McCracken
Located in New York, NY
WPA Landscape American Scene Social Realism Mid 20th Century Modern Farm Rural James McCracken (1875 – 1967) WPA Landscape 28 x 36 inches Oil on canvas, c. 1930s Signed lower right ...
Category

1930s American Modern Landscape Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

You May Also Like

Western Scene (Cowboy on Horseback)
By Denes de Holesch
Located in Surfside, FL
This is an oil on artist board (unframed) by the important Hungarian-born and internationally celebrated Denes de Holesch (1910-1983). Denes de Holesch was an international equestrian artist. His works have been exhibited all over the world, including in New York, Beverly Hills, Boston, Chicago, Paris, Mexico City, Montreal, Tokyo, Sydney, and Madrid. His horse paintings fall into one of seven themes, including polo, cowboys, circus, rodeo, hunt, bull-fight, race-course and running free. His mastery of the subject has been compared to that of Picasso, Delacroix and Franc Marc. 1910 Denes Dezo George de Holesch was born on 9 February, 1910 at Banska-Bystrica, Northern Hungary. He was the third child and youngest son of Hugo de Holesch, an architect and Margit, nee Wagner. Many generations of the de Holesch family had worked as professional architects. He studied at the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest on a scholarship. Early in his career he traveled to China, Japan, Philippines, Java, Bali and Australia, where his reputation grew rapidly. Here he produced portraits in oils, and lithographs of the Chinese, as well as landscape works in oils,depicting the local countryside, and canal, street and city scenes. His exposure to the arts of the Chinese, with their simplicity of line, greatly influenced his later works. In 1939 he established a studio at Lavender Bay near Sydney. In 1940 he exhibited at the Macquarie Galleries in Sydney. In 1944 he married Joyce Greer, the Melbourne concert pianist. In 1945 the couple moved to New York where his interest in horses grew. He held exhibitions at Gallery Wildenstein, Herve, and FAR Gallery. In 1946 Holesch moved to Montreal where he exhibited at the National Gallery of Montreal. In 1947 he moved to Boston where he continued painting portraits and horses. He exhibited there at the Ehrmann and Vose galleries. Later in the year he moved to San Francisco where he was invited to participate in the "Renoir to Picasso" Exhibition held at the Maxwell Gallery.1946 He moved to Montreal, Canada and exhibited at the National Gallery of Montreal. (Frederic Remington and Charles Russell) 1947 Early in the year he moved to Boston and continued painting portraits and horses. In June, he painted the portrait of Harvard Law School Dean, Erwin N. Griswold, and in October his works were exhibited at Margaret Brown's Galerie Intime, Newbury Street, Boston. 1948 He produced a clay sculpture head of Egon Petri, one of a number of clay sculptures that he produced. He also produced a number of wood carvings. His paintings were chosen for inclusion in a Group Exhibition in the National Gallery of San Francisco, and in the important and prestigious 'Renoir to Picasso' Exhibition held at Maxwell's Galleries, 372 Sutter Street, San Francisco. 1953 His works were included in a Group Impressionists Exhibition held at the Ohana Gallery, London 1954 He travelled to New York, where he was commissioned to paint Herbert Gasser, Nobel Prize Winner in Biochemistry. 1955 He returned to England, and then travelled to Paris to exhibit works in the Galerie Marcel Lenoir. 1956 He again returned to New York to work on portrait commissions and for exhibitions of his works, mainly of horses. These exhibitions were held in New York, Boston, San Francisco and late in the year at the Galleries of Frank J. Oehlschlaeger at 107 East Oak Street, Chicago. During this year, visits with his family to Ringling Circus and to a rodeo in Tucson, Arizona must have impressed him greatly, for images of these events soon appeared on his canvases. His work was greatly admired by Hollywood film- stars, such as Ann Rutherford and Burt Lancaster, and David Niven purchased one of the horse paintings to give as his wedding present to Grace Kelly on her marriage to Sovereign Prince Rainier III of Monaco. 1959 The prints of 'Courtship' and 'Chargers' were produced. It has been estimated that close to a million copies of his prints were sold over the next ten years, with 'Courtship' being advertised by Stern's Book Dpt. on 5th Avenue, New York along with prints by Picasso, Degas, Goya, Modigliani, Renoir and Van Gogh. 1960 He moved to Antibes, on the French Riviera in the South-East of France. An exhibition of his works was held in the Galerie des Etats-Unis, Cannes and his works were now permanently exhibited at Galerie Madsen, Rue St. Honore, Paris and Galerie Davis, Place Vendome, Paris. 1961 Known to Picasso, he was invited to attend a special bull-fight held in the South of France, which was organized for Pablo Picasso's 80th birthday. 1975 He moved from Voulangis to Castelfontana in the Dorf Tirol overlooking Merano, Italy. He remained there for close to a year and exhibited his works in a group exhibition in Merano in which works by Salvador Dali and Annigoni were also displayed. 1979 He returned to the old farmhouse at Voulangis. During this time he painted the portrait of Pope John Paul II. 1989 a catalog and biography of Holesch entitled Holesch Horse Paintings 1910-1983 was published by Andrew Mackenzie...
Category

20th Century American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Realist Blue, Green & Brown Western Landscape of Cowboys Roping a Horse Stampede
Located in Houston, TX
Realist painting of a pair of cowboys attempting to rope a group of running horses set against an open landscape of rocky mountains. Signed by the artist in the front lower right cor...
Category

Late 20th Century American Realist Animal Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Mid Century Watercolour of the Wild West, Here Come The Cavalry
Located in Cotignac, FR
Mid Century pencil, chalk, watercolour and gouache painting of an American cavalry officer riding his horse across the dessert. This artwork captures the dynamic energy of a lone c...
Category

Mid-20th Century Outsider Art Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Chalk, Crayon, Watercolor, Cardboard, Pencil

"King of the Range" - Mid Century Western Fighting Stallions
By Bernard Preston Thomas
Located in Soquel, CA
Wonderful and dynamic western painting of two wild fighting stallions by listed artist Bernard Preston Thomas (American, 1918-1992), dated 1951. Signed and dated lower left corner and on verso. Image size: 28"H x 36"W. Presented in rustic painted frame size: 34"H x 41"W x 3"D. Originally from Sheridan, Wyoming, he loved football and art, giving up the sport to concentrate on a career in art. Thomas graduated from Woodbury College in Los Angeles with a Bachelor of Science degree, earning the Leo Youngsworth Award for outstanding senior art student at Woodbury. He became a camouflage technician at the outbreak of WWII and caught the attention of General Patton...
Category

1950s American Modern Animal Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Horseman and cattle
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork "Horseman with Cattle" c.1990 is an oil painting on canvas by noted American artist John Stanford. It is signed at the lower right corner by...
Category

Late 20th Century American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

American Western Watercolor By James Lee Colt "Cowboys"
Located in Norwood, NJ
Watercolor by American Western artist James Lee Colt (1922-2005 Palm Springs, CA) Original signed gouache watercolor painting featuring cowboy scene by Western Artist James Colt...
Category

1990s American Paintings

Materials

Wood, Paint