Illustration Board Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Early 20th century Italian figurative landscape of a traditional wheat field harvest scene, by S. Frosini (Italian, 20th Century). This figurative landscape in gouache depicts in gre...

Stately portrait of George Arliss by Ivan Opffer (Danish, 1897-1980). Mr. Arliss is depicted wearing his signature monocle, looking directly at the viewer. Although this piece appears to be done rapidly, there is a clear confidence in Opffer's work - he was an accomplished portrait artist - and the resemblance to the subject is unmistakable. George Arliss (born Augustus George Andrews; 10 April 1868 – 5 February 1946) was an English actor, author, playwright, and filmmaker who found success in the United States. He was the first British actor to win an Academy Award – which he won for his performance as Victorian-era British prime minister Benjamin Disraeli in Disraeli (1929) – as well as the earliest-born actor to win the honour. He specialized in successful biopics, such as Disraeli, Voltaire (1933), and Cardinal Richelieu (1935), as well as light comedies, which included The Millionaire (1931) and A Successful Calamity (1932). Signed and dated "Ivan Opffer 1934" in the lower right. Titled "Mr. Arliss" in the lower left. Presented in a new off-white mat with foamcore backing. Mat size: 22"H x 16"W Art size: 17.5"H x 12"W Ivan Opffer (Danish, 1897-1980) was born in Nyborg, Denmark, on June 4, 1897, to a family of Danish scholars and journalists. His brother was Emil Opffer, a Danish merchant seaman and journalist who was known for his relationship with American writer Hart Crane. Ivan was raised in Mexico City and New York, where his anarchist father was the editor of a radical Danish-language newspaper. His involvement in painting and drawing began at an early age. At a summer workshop, he met and studied drawing with Winslow Homer, then went on to study at the National Academy of Design and the Art Students League of New York. When the US entered World War I, Opffer was one of the members of the American Army Camouflage Corps, headed by Homer Saint-Gaudens (whose mother was a relative of Winslow Homer), the son of Augustus Saint-Gaudens. As a camoufleur, Opffer served with other artists and architects, some of whom became well-known, including Barry Faulkner, Sherry Edmundson Fry, Kimon Nicolaides, Robert Lawson, Abraham Rattner, Kerr Eby, and others. It was this same unit, while still in training in at Camp American University in Washington DC, that launched a camp newspaper called The Camoufleur. Only three issues were published before the unit’s deployment to France in late 1917. In the October 31 issue, a satirical portrait by Opffer of Homer Saint-Gaudens (titled “Our Boss”) was published on page 5. After the war, Opffer returned to New York, where he became known for his caricatures of leading Modern writers, among them James Joyce, Edgar Lee Masters, Siegfried Sassoon, George Bernard Shaw, Carl Sandburg, G.K. Chesterton, and Thomas Mann. In the years between the wars, Opffer married Betty à Beckett Chomley, and settled in Paris, where he was a student at the Academie Julliard. He also lived in London and Copenhagen, where his drawings were frequently published in newspapers and magazines. With the outbreak of World War II, he and his family returned to New York and lived in Greenwich Village. Among his friends in that era were William Butler Yeats, F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald...

French Coastal Scene in Brittany with a merchant ship onloading fish and people by an unknown artist. A sailing vessel is anchored at a beach. A ramp extends from the ship yo to the ...

Harvest Time The Hills of Mt Tamalpais near Lake Bon Tempe 1890s The Hills around San Rafael in the 19th century were a time of work and play as seen in this watercolor near Lake Bon...

Historical late 19th century portrait of Hiram H. Hobbs, Foreman of the Grand Jury of San Francisco y Richard Langtry Partington (American, ...

A significant early 20th century landscape watercolor of the paradisical gardens at San Anton Palace in Attard, Malta by Nicholas Krasnoff, 1920 (Russian, 1864-1939). This beautiful piece is a wonderful example of the renowned Russian architect's prized watercolors, created while he was exiled to Malta in the early 1920's. Depicting a lush garden full of blooming, colorful flowers and a stately fountain at the San Anton Palace in Malta, one can see the deft hand and attention to detail rendered by the proficient artist and architect's hand. Signed "N. Krasnoff" lower right. Titled and dated "Malta, St. Antonio 1920". Unframed. Measures 10.25"H x 14.25"W. Right corner has a crease from being bent. Nikolay Petrovich Krasnov, also known as Nicholas Krasnoff or Peter Nicholas Krasnoff, was a Russian Serbian architect and painter. He served as Chief Architect of Yalta, Crimea (1887-1899). From 1922 he lived and worked in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, and was a key figure in the architectural development of Belgrade. Attending the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in 1876, aged 12. As a young artist he received patronage from Sergey Tretyakov, brother of the founder of Moscow's Tretyakov Gallery, and entrepreneur Petar Gubonyin. In 1887 Krasnov became Chief Architect in Yalta. At the age of 23, Krasnov had large responsibility for the rapid growth of the city. He expanded the promenade, which by 1913 became the city's main street, before creating a new city plan in 1889 (including a new sewer system, planning regulations, new streets, prevention of unregulated construction, a school and children's hospital, and the construction of the Pushkin Boulevard). Two concrete bridges were built over the river, and the embankment strengthened. Krasnov also ran a private practice in Yalta until 1911. Among his most famous work is the Livadia Palace, later the location of the 1945 Yalta Conference. Designed over 60 buildings in Crimea, blending a modernist style with local traditions. Also of note: Dulber Palace, Koreiz (1895-97), Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Yalta (1902), Yusupov Palace, Koreiz (1909), Kokkoz Jami Mosque, Sokolyne (1910). In 1913, he presented a collection of illustrations he had produced of his works to the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts, where he held the title of academician. An opponent of the Russian Revolution, he left Yalta with his family in 1919 for Malta, alongside the Dowager Empress Marie Feodorovna, sister of Queen Alexandra, and over 600 members of the Russian aristocracy. Nikolay was in a group housed in the empty Villa St Ignatius, which had been a Jesuit college and then a hospital during World War I. To earn money, Nikolay painted many scenes of Malta, signing his paintings as N. Krasnoff. He is known as Nicholas Krasnoff in Malta. In May 2016 MaltaPost issued a commemorative set of stamps in his honor. In 1922 Krasnov moved to Belgrade, then part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, where he became head of the Department of Monumental Architectural Developments and Monuments. His building designs in Serbia number around 60, and were created under the name Nikola Krasnov, as a mark of respect to his adopted homeland. His key works in Belgrade include: Ministry of Forestry building (now Ministry of Foreign Affairs) (1923) which bears a memorial plaque...

Signed verso, 'George Wilburton Colby' (American, 1859-1922) and dated 1920. George Colby was a member of the old Art League and a life member of the Chicago Art Institute. After hi...