1930s Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

A Fine, 1930s Modern Academic Anatomical Figure Study Drawing of a Seated Male Nude Model (Torso) by Notable Chicago Artist, Harold Haydon (Am. 1909-1994). An exceptionally well exe...

A Fine 1930s, Modern Academic Pastel Figure Study of a Seated Male Nude Model by Notable Chicago Artist, Harold Haydon (Am. 1909-1994). An exceptionally well executed, early 1930s p...

A Very Finely Drawn 1930s Figure Study of a Young Male Nude Model (Shoulder, Arm & Torso) by Notable Chicago Modern Artist, Harold Haydon (Am. 1909-1994). An early charcoal drawing...

A Fine 1930s, Modern Academic Figure Study Drawing of a Standing Male Nude Model by Notable Chicago Artist, Harold Haydon (Am. 1909-1994). An exceptionally well executed, early 1930...

A Fine 1930s Modern Academic Figure Study Drawing, Seated Male Nude Model by Notable Chicago Artist, Harold Haydon (Am. 1909-1994). An exceptionally well executed early 1930s charco...

'The Agony in the Garden' by Jais Nielsen, 1938. Paris, Salon d’Automne, Section d'Or, Gethsemane ----- Signed lower left, 'Jais' for Johannes Knud Ove Jais-Nielsen (Danish, 1885-19...

A Fine 1930s, Art Deco Modern Academic Figure Study Drawing of a Standing Male Nude Model by Notable Chicago Artist, Harold Haydon (Am. 1909-1994). An exceptionally well executed ea...

Ricard Opisso - Crowd in Barcelona - Watercolor drawing Drawing measurements 19x24 cm. Frame measurements 30x35 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...

Frank Nelson Wilcox (American, 1887–1964) At Isleta, New Mexico, c. 1937 Watercolor on paper Signed lower right, titled verso 15 x 20 inches Frank Nelson Wilcox (October 3, 1887 – A...

A Fine, 1930s Modern Academic Figure Study of a Standing Young Male Nude Model by Notable Chicago Artist, Harold Haydon (Am. 1909-1994). An exceptionally well executed early 1930s c...

The Endeavour. c.1935. Pencil and watercolor on watercolor board. 14 3/8 x 20 7/8. Signed in pencil, lower right; titled in pencil, verso. Housed in a subtle 23 1/2 x 36-inch light ...

A Fine 1930's, Depiction of a Boxing Match by Francis Chapin. This dynamic drawing captures overlapping human forms rendered in expressive, gestural lines. There is a clear sense of ...

A Fine 1930s, Modern Academic Anatomical Figure Study Drawing of a Nude Male Model by Notable Chicago Artist, Harold Haydon (Am. 1909-1994). An exceptionally well executed early 193...

Daniel Ralph Celentano, Untitled (Strike Breakers) pencil, c. 1934. Signed, lower right. A fine, social-realist drawing, on cream wove paper, with margins (1 1/2 to 2 1/2 inches), in...

A Fine, Modern 1930s Academic Anatomical Figure Study Drawing of a Seated Young Male Nude Model by Notable Chicago Artist, Harold Haydon (Am. 1909-1994). An exceptionally well execu...

Frank Nelson Wilcox (American, 1887–1964) California Valley, Near Capistrano, c. 1937 Watercolor on paper Signed lower right, titled verso 15 x 20 inches 18.5 x 24 inches framed Fr...

A Charming, Vintage 1930s Charcoal Drawing of a Saxophone Player, Jazz Musician, by Notable Chicago Modern Artist, Harold Haydon (Am. 1909-1994). A striking and lively figure study ...

A Fine 1930s, Modern Academic Anatomical Pastel Figure Study Drawing of a Female Nude Model (Study of Shoulder, Arm & Legs) by Notable Chicago Artist, Harold Haydon (Am. 1909-1994). ...

A Fine, Modern 1930s Academic Anatomical Figure Study Drawing of a Standing Young Male Nude Model by Notable Chicago Artist, Harold Haydon (Am. 1909-1994). An exceptionally well exe...

A Fine 1930s Modern Academic Figure Study Drawing, Depicting an Artist's Sketch Class and a Seated Young Male Mode by Notable Chicago Artist, Harold Haydon (Am. 1909-1994). An excep...

A Very Finely Drawn 1930s Figure Study of a Young Male Nude Model (Torso Study) by Notable Chicago Modern Artist, Harold Haydon (Am. 1909-1994). An early charcoal drawing by Haydon...

Costume for an opera is an original artwork realized by Taho in the 1930s. Beautiful pencil and watercolor drawing on cardboard. Good conditions.

Hopeless is a Colored lithograph realized on japan paper by Jean Cocteau (1889 -1963) in 1930 ca. French draftsman, poet, essayist, playwright, librettist, ...

A Fine 1930s, Modern Academic Pastel Figure Study of a Standing Male Nude Model (Back) by Notable Chicago Artist, Harold Haydon (Am. 1909-1994). An exceptionally well executed, earl...

A Fine, 1930s Modern Academic Figure Study of a Seated Young Male Nude Model (Torso) by Notable Chicago Artist, Harold Haydon (Am. 1909-1994). An exceptionally well executed early 1...

Jean Cocteau ( 1889 - 1963 ) " le Rappel à l'Ordre " (1930-1932) certificat de Madame Annie Guedras N° 6355 F. dessin à l'encre Bleu foncé et encre noire exécuté sur la page de fa...

Figure of Man is a Colored lithograph realized by Jean Cocteau (1889 -1963) in 1930 ca.  French draftsman, poet, essayist, playwright, librettist, film director. Good conditions. ...

A Fine 1930s, Modern Academic Figure Study Drawing of a Standing Male Nude Model by Notable Chicago Artist, Harold Haydon (Am. 1909-1994). An exceptionally well executed, early 1930...

Eileen Lake Crayon on paper, early1930's Initialed in pencil lower right (see photo) Titled and annotated verso "Eileen Lake, early 1930s girlfriend" Note: Eileen Hall Lake was an American poet and Adolf Dehn's girlfriend in the early 1930s. Provenance: Estate of the artist By descent Adolf Dehn, American Watercolorist and Printmaker, 1895-1968 Adolf Dehn was an artist who achieved extraordinary artistic heights, but in a very particular artistic sphere—not so much in oil painting as in watercolor and lithography. Long recognized as a master by serious print collectors, he is gradually gaining recognition as a notable and influential figure in the overall history of American art. In the 19th century, with the invention of the rotary press, which made possible enormous print runs, and the development of the popular, mass-market magazines, newspaper and magazine illustration developed into an artistic realm of its own, often surprisingly divorced from the world of museums and art exhibitions, and today remains surprisingly overlooked by most art historians. Dehn in many regards was an outgrowth of this world, although in an unusual way, since as a young man he produced most of his illustrative work not for popular magazines, such as The Saturday Evening Post, but rather for radical journals, such as The Masses or The Liberator, or artistic “little magazines” such as The Dial. This background established the foundation of his outlook, and led later to his unique and distinctive contribution to American graphic art. If there’s a distinctive quality to his work, it was his skill in introducing unusual tonal and textural effects into his work, particularly in printmaking but also in watercolor. Jackson Pollock seems to have been one of many notable artists who were influenced by his techniques. Early Years, 1895-1922 For an artist largely remembered for scenes of Vienna and Paris, Adolf Dehn’s background was a surprising one. Born in Waterville, Minnesota, on November 22, 1895, Dehn was the descendent of farmers who had emigrated from Germany and homesteaded in the region, initially in a one-room log cabin with a dirt floor. Adolf’s father, Arthur Clark Dehn, was a hunter and trapper who took pride that he had no boss but himself, and who had little use for art. Indeed, during Adolf’s boyhood the walls of his bedroom and the space under his bed were filled with the pelts of mink, muskrats and skunks that his father had killed, skinned and stretched on drying boards. It was Adolf’s mother, Emilie Haas Dehn, a faithful member of the German Lutheran Evangelical Church, who encouraged his interest in art, which became apparent early in childhood. Both parents were ardent socialists, and supporters of Eugene Debs. In many ways Dehn’s later artistic achievement was clearly a reaction against the grinding rural poverty of his childhood. After graduating from high school in 1914 at the age of 19—an age not unusual in farming communities at the time, where school attendance was often irregular—Dehn attended the Minneapolis School of Art from 1914 to 1917, whose character followed strongly reflected that of its director, Munich-trained Robert Kohler, an artistic conservative but a social radical. There Dehn joined a group of students who went on to nationally significant careers, including Wanda Gag (later author of best-selling children’s books); John Flanagan (a sculptor notable for his use of direct carving) Harry Gottlieb (a notable social realist and member of the Woodstock Art Colony), Elizabeth Olds (a printmaker and administrator for the WPA), Arnold Blanch (landscape, still-life and figure painter, and member of the Woodstock group), Lucille Lunquist, later Lucille Blanch (also a gifted painter and founder of the Woodstock art colony), and Johan Egilrud (who stayed in Minneapolis and became a journalist and poet). Adolf became particularly close to Wanda Gag (1893-1946), with whom he established an intense but platonic relationship. Two years older than he, Gag was the daughter of a Bohemian artist and decorator, Anton Gag, who had died in 1908. After her husband died, Wanda’s mother, Lizzi Gag, became a helpless invalid, so Wanda was entrusted with the task of raising and financially supporting her six younger siblings. This endowed her with toughness and an independent streak, but nonetheless, when she met Dehn, Wanda was Victorian and conventional in her artistic taste and social values. Dehn was more socially radical, and introduced her to radical ideas about politics and free love, as well as to socialist publications such as The Masses and The Appeal to Reason. Never very interested in oil painting, in Minneapolis Dehn focused on caricature and illustration--often of a humorous or politically radical character. In 1917 both Dehn and Wanda won scholarships to attend the Art Students League, and consequently, in the fall of that year both moved to New York. Dehn’s art education, however, ended in the summer of 1918, shortly after the United States entered World War I, when he was drafted to serve in the U. S. Army. Unwilling to fight, he applied for status as a conscientious objector, but was first imprisoned, then segregated in semi-imprisonment with other Pacifists, until the war ended. The abuse he suffered at this time may well explain his later withdrawal from taking political stands or making art of an overtly political nature. After his release from the army, Dehn returned to New York where he fell under the spell of the radical cartoonist Boardman Robinson and produced his first lithographs. He also finally consummated his sexual relationship with Wanda Gag. The Years in Europe: 1922-1929 In September of 1921, however, he abruptly departed for Europe, arriving in Paris and then moving on to Vienna. There in the winter of 1922 he fell in love with a Russian dancer, Mura Zipperovitch, ending his seven-year relationship with Wanda Gag. He and Mura were married in 1926. It was also in Vienna that he produced his first notable artistic work. Influenced by European artists such as Jules Pascin and Georg Grosz, Dehn began producing drawings of people in cafes, streets, and parks, which while mostly executed in his studio, were based on spontaneous life studies and have an expressive, sometimes almost childishly wandering quality of line. The mixture of sophistication and naiveté in these drawings was new to American audiences, as was the raciness of their subject matter, which often featured pleasure-seekers, prostitutes or scenes of sexual dalliance, presented with a strong element of caricature. Some of these drawings contain an element of social criticism, reminiscent of that found in the work of George Grosz, although Dehn’s work tended to focus on humorous commentary rather than savagely attacking his subjects or making a partisan political statement. Many Americans, including some who had originally been supporters of Dehn such as Boardman Robinson, were shocked by these European drawings, although George Grocz (who became a friend of the artist in this period) admired them, and recognized that Dehn could also bring a new vision to America subject matter. As he told Dehn: “You will do things in America which haven’t been done, which need to be done, which only you can do—as far at least as I know America.” A key factor in Dehn’s artistic evolution at this time was his association with Scofield Thayer...

This beautiful British Art Deco 1930's water colour and ink painting on paper is by well respected artist Averil Mary Burleigh. Painted circa 1935 the composition is of three female figures with flowing robes and head dresses with slender tree trunks beyond them and vivid blue of the sky meeting the sea. (Caerula pertains to the colour of the sky and sea). They are playing between them with two balls or globes. A beautiful painting full of fun and movement and that amazing blue. Signed lower left, and inscribed on a label verso. Provenance: Surrey estate. Condition. Water colour and ink on paper. Image size is 24 inches by 16 inches and in excellent condition. Frame. Housed in a gilt frame. Framed size is 30 inches by 22 inches and in good condition. Averil Mary Burleigh born Averil Mary Dell (1883 – 1949) was a British artist and painter. Based in Sussex, Burleigh was known for painting in egg tempera with the subject usually involving a central figure. Her husband and daughter also painted but she is the best regarded of the three. Burleigh was born in 1883 in Hassocks in West Sussex and went on to study at the Brighton School of Art. She married the painter Charles Burleigh and they lived and worked together as artists in Hove and Sussex. They designed a house with a large sun-lit top floor studio. Their daughter Veronica, who would also become a notable artist, was born there in 1909. The family never became rich from their works, and often relied on Burleigh's flair for buying and selling shares. In 1911 Burleigh illustrated a book of John Keats' poetry and went on to illustrate plays by Shakespeare. In 1913 she was featured in Studio magazine. In 1927 Burleigh illustrated Thistledown by Leolyn Louise Everett. From 1939 she was a member of the Royal Society of Painters in Watercolours. Burleigh became very ill in the 1940s, dying in 1949. Shortly before she died, Burleigh was elected an associate of the Royal Watercolour Society. Burleigh specialised in tempera painting, although she also worked in chalk and watercolour. Her works tend to have a bright colour palette with contrasting colours to lead the eye around the picture. A sharp luminosity and strong sense of design govern Burleigh's tempera and watercolour paintings. Frequently, her works portray decorative renaissance subjects, usually dominated by a female figure who is regularly modelled on her daughter, Veronica Burleigh...

Marcel BLOCH 1920's Elegant Couple in the Snow Original watercolor with gouache enhancement Handsigned bottom left c. 1930 On vellum 35 x 24 cm at view (c. 14 x 10 in) Information ...

A Fine, 1930s Modern Academic Anatomical Figure Study Drawing of a Standing Male Model (Torso) by Notable Chicago Artist, Harold Haydon (Am. 1909-1994). An exceptionally well execut...

A Fine 1930s Modern Academic Figure Study Drawing, Standing Male Nude Model by Notable Chicago Artist, Harold Haydon (Am. 1909-1994). An exceptionally well executed early 1930s cha...

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...

A Fine, Modern 1930s Academic Anatomical Figure Study of a Male Foot by Notable Chicago Artist, Harold Haydon (Am. 1909-1994). A well executed, early 1930s charcoal study highlighti...

Erotic Drawing n. 17 is an original black China ink drawing on "British" ivory-colored paper. Hand-signed "Vertés" in black China ink on the lower righ...

Lucien-Victor Guirand de Scevola (1871-1950) Portrait of a Lady Signed upper right Pastel on paper 46 x 38 cm Framed under glass: 57.5 x 50 cm The vintage frame is not in perfect ...

Erotic is an original pencil drawing realized by Maurice Vertès in 1930s. The little drawing is in good condition on a yellowed paper. On the back the stamp of the collection by Comtesse Anna Laetitia...

A Fine 1930s Modern Academic Figure Study Drawing, Seated Male Nude Model (Back) by Notable Chicago Artist, Harold Haydon (Am. 1909-1994). An exceptionally well executed early 1930s...

David Margolis (b.1911). Outdoor Market, ca. 1935. Charcoal on paper, image measures 7 x 9.5 inches. Framed measurement 13 x 15.5 inches. Signed lower right. David Margolis (Septem...

A Fine 1930s Modern Academic Figure Study Drawing, Seated Male Nude Model (Back) by Notable Chicago Artist, Harold Haydon (Am. 1909-1994). An exceptionally well executed early 1930s...

Landscape is an original modern artwork realized by Ardengo Soffici in 1930s. Pencil on paper. Hand signed lower right. Includes frame.

'The Church of Saint-Nicolas du Chardonnet, Paris', gouache on art paper by Lucien Génin (circa 1930s). In Paris' 5th Arrondissement the site in which Saint-Nicolas du Chardonnet is ...

John Ayres Head in Hand May 1, 1937 Charcoal on Paper 25"x19", unframed $1250 Signed and dated in charcoal top right *Custom framing available for additional charge. Please expect fr...

Frog is a drawing in pencil realized in the early 1930s by Emmanuel Gondouin, (Versailles, 1883 - Parigi, 1934) The artwork is depicted through strong strokes. Emmanuel Gondouin is a French Cubist...

Our Gallery acquired the estate of a Northern California artist, Thelma Terrell. Terrell lived in Oakland and was an illustrator and profes...

Jean Cocteau ( 1889 - 1963 ) " Profil d'homme " circa 1930 . signé et daté . certificat Annie Guedras Le Livre Blanc ( ouvrage N°1 ) de jean Cocteau collection Anne-marie Julien . ...

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...

Erotic Scene is an original pencil drawing realized by Maurice Vertès in the 1930s. The little drawing is in good condition with some folding on yellowed paper. On the back is the ...

'Sacré-Coeur, Montmartre at Willette Square, Paris', gouache on art paper (circa 1930s), by Lucien Génin. Created by the Director of Public Ways and Promenades under Napoleon III, Sq...

NYC Subway Riders Mid 20th Century American Scene Social Realism WPA Modern 1930s Daniel Celentano (1902 - 1980) Subway Scene, 1930s 8 x 9 inches Ink and wash on paper Singed lower ...

This striking vintage 1939 original painting, titled Man In His Search for God, is a powerful piece from Charles Bunnell’s renowned Black and Blue Series. The artwork is painted in i...

Jean Cocteau ( 1889 - 1963 ) Nijinsky dancer in Shéhérazade . circa 1930 . dessin original encre de chine et crayon . certificat Madame Annie Guedras . dessin : 27 x 21 cm encadr...

A Fine 1930s, Art Deco Modern Academic Figure Study Drawing of a Standing Male Nude Model by Notable Chicago Artist, Harold Haydon (Am. 1909-1994). An exceptionally well executed ea...

RCA Design Art Deco Streamline Mid Century Modern American Scene Architectural John Vassos (1898-1985) RCA 50 D Transmitter and Control Desk 12 x 19 1/2 (sight) Mixed media on boar...

China ink and watercolor drawing realized by Mino Maccari in 1932 ca. Hand signed lower right. Very good condition.

Getting Ready for the Revolution - Learning How to Ride in the Subway Litho crayons on illustrator’s board, c. 1932 Signed: Adolf Dehn (VED) lower right corner (signed by Virginia Dehn, the artist’s widow) Tilted along the upper edge of the recto in pencil by the artist Verso inscriptions: “VF 3168.D” in a circle, also annotated in red pencil “32” in a circle and “699 Provenance: Mary Ryan Gallery, exhibition entitled Adolf Dehn Lithographs, 1927-1940, Nov. 16 to Dec. 12, 1982. The original exhibition notice us affixed to the backing board of the frame Note: A drawing intended or used in the publication Vanity Fair, for whom Dehn worked in the mid 1920’s to the 1930’s. Adolf Dehn, American Watercolorist and Printmaker, 1895-1968 Adolf Dehn was an artist who achieved extraordinary artistic heights, but in a very particular artistic sphere—not so much in oil painting as in watercolor and lithography. Long recognized as a master by serious print collectors, he is gradually gaining recognition as a notable and influential figure in the overall history of American art. In the 19th century, with the invention of the rotary press, which made possible enormous print runs, and the development of the popular, mass-market magazines, newspaper and magazine illustration developed into an artistic realm of its own, often surprisingly divorced from the world of museums and art exhibitions, and today remains surprisingly overlooked by most art historians. Dehn in many regards was an outgrowth of this world, although in an unusual way, since as a young man he produced most of his illustrative work not for popular magazines, such as The Saturday Evening Post, but rather for radical journals, such as The Masses or The Liberator, or artistic “little magazines” such as The Dial. This background established the foundation of his outlook, and led later to his unique and distinctive contribution to American graphic art. If there’s a distinctive quality to his work, it was his skill in introducing unusual tonal and textural effects into his work, particularly in printmaking but also in watercolor. Jackson Pollock seems to have been one of many notable artists who were influenced by his techniques. Early Years, 1895-1922 For an artist largely remembered for scenes of Vienna and Paris, Adolf Dehn’s background was a surprising one. Born in Waterville, Minnesota, on November 22, 1895, Dehn was the descendent of farmers who had emigrated from Germany and homesteaded in the region, initially in a one-room log cabin with a dirt floor. Adolf’s father, Arthur Clark Dehn, was a hunter and trapper who took pride that he had no boss but himself, and who had little use for art. Indeed, during Adolf’s boyhood the walls of his bedroom and the space under his bed were filled with the pelts of mink, muskrats and skunks that his father had killed, skinned and stretched on drying boards. It was Adolf’s mother, Emilie Haas Dehn, a faithful member of the German Lutheran Evangelical Church, who encouraged his interest in art, which became apparent early in childhood. Both parents were ardent socialists, and supporters of Eugene Debs...

A Fine, Modern 1930s Academic Anatomical Figure Study Drawing by Notable Chicago Artist, Harold Haydon (Am. 1909-1994). A well executed, early 1930s charcoal study of crossed legs a...

Our Gallery acquired the estate of a Northern California artist, Thelma Terrell. Terrell lived in Oakland and was an illustrator and profes...

A Fine 1930s, Modern Academic Anatomical Figure Study Drawing of a Standing Male Nude Model (Shoulder and Arm) by Notable Chicago Artist, Harold Haydon (Am. 1909-1994). An exception...