Academic Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Charles Spencelayh 1865-1958 British The Buttonhole Signed “C.SPENCELAYH” (lower left) and inscribed “This Drawing was accepted into the Royal Academy but crowded out for want of ...

A portrait of a male head, in profile by BenFenske. The artist uses a variety of colors to convey a naturalist impression. Artist Bio Ben Fenske (b. 1978) although a native of Minn...

Small-scale yet bold multi-colored abstracted figurative landscape of a horse rider in a canyon (a study after Edgar Payne’s works) by Tiffanie Mang (Ameri...

An early work on paper, by American Impressionist painter, Ben Fenske. It's rare to see a drawing like this from Fenske, especially of a self portrait. Fenske uses classical draftin...

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...

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 large sketch-study of a female figure. 19th Century. The young woman is depicted nude , with her hand seemingly calling for attention. The figure inserted into a niche. Large drawi...

Victor François Éloi BIENNOURRY (1823-1893) Study of Christ, hands crossed Three pencils on blue paper Signed "V. Biennourry" and located in "Paris" at the top right 10 x 8,5 inch Fr...

New Orleans/Washington State artist Lue Isaac shows off her remarkable draftsmanship with this classical nude figure drawing. Note that this is from her ske...

A rare work on paper by Ben Fenske. A sketch of a female nude, posing. Drawn from direct observation using a live model. White chalk is used to create highlights. Not framed. Wrapped...

Eleanor Park Custis painted scenes as varied as the artist's travels: from her hometown of Washington, D.C., to the coastal towns of New England; from the prosperous fishing villages of Brittany, to Venice and the mountain villages and lakes of northern Italy. While Custis's subjects are diverse, her style is consistent and distinctive throughout this body of work. Her use of flat areas of color delineated by dark contours is reminiscent of the aesthetics of woodblock printing. Like many artists of the day, she was profoundly influenced by Japanese woodblock prints, and her adaptation of the aesthetic by 1924 led to her most productive artistic period. Eleanor Custis hailed from a socially prominent Washington, D.C., family. She was distantly related to Martha Custis Washington, America's first First Lady. Custis began three years of formal art training in the autumn of 1915 at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, and was guided and inspired by Impressionist artist Edmund C. Tarbell, one of the Ten American Painters, who became the Corcoran School's principal in 1918. Custis exhibited widely in many of the Washington art societies and clubs for much of her career. She was also a frequent exhibitor at the Grand Central Art Galleries in New York City; her last one-woman show there was in April 1945. Custis's mature style emerged in scenes of the streets, wharves, and drydocks of seacoast villages from Maine to Massachusetts, which she visited during the summers of 1924 and 1925. She was working in Gloucester, Massachusetts in August 1924, and painted several gouaches of the town's wharves and winding streets, including In Gloucester Harbor and At the Drydock, Gloucester. During her stay, Custis may have met Jane Peterson or at least must have seen her work, the best of which was executed in Gloucester during the preceding ten years. The similarity between their styles is unmistakable, but, while it may be tempting to suggest that Custis was influenced by Peterson during her summer in Gloucester, the connection between their work is probably more a case of shared aesthetics and common European influences. Custis expanded her subject repertoire with three trips to Europe between 1926 and 1929, and was inspired by the Old World charm of Holland, northern France, Switzerland, and Italy, leading to such works as New Kirk, Delft, Holland, Market Day in Quimper, At the Foot of the Matterhorn, and The Town Square, Varenna. A Mediterranean cruise in 1934 introduced her to the Near East, and the bustling, colorful streets and bazaars of Cairo, captured in works like A Street in Cairo, Egypt and A Moroccan Jug...

Original watercolor with graphite tracings of a solitary hunter in the field by the British artist, George Anderson Short. Signed bottom right. ...