American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

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...

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...

The Pin-Up of ravishing young beauties in mid-century America was a widely popular art form. The assumption that Pin-Up art was the exclusive domain of men is a misnomer. Female illu...

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...

"Men in Barracks" WPA Mid 20th Century American Scene Realism Gay Modernism WWII. 18 x 24 inches Watercolor on paper. c. 1940s. Signed lower right. BIO ...

Pen and black ink on watermarked Ingres laid paper, 9 1/4 x 12 1/4 inches (234 x 310 mm), signed, dated and titled in brown ink, and initialed and titled in black ink in the lower right corner. Light to moderate age tone and mat tone, and with the signature and notations in brown ink having become quite attenuated, although legible. Presented in a basic black wood frame with a label from the Country Art...

"Painter" 20th Century American Scene Social Realism Working Man Modern WPA Era Jo Cain (1904 - 2003) Painter 41 ½ x 36 3/4 inches (sight) Gouache on paper c. 1930s Signed lower rig...

Working Man WPA Social Realism Industrial Modernism 20th Century American Scene Jo Cain (1904 - 2003) Printing Press 40 ½ x 26 inches (sight) Oil o...

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 ...

Greenwich Village NYC WPA Mid 20th Century American Scene Ashcan Modern Realism Alfred Mira (1900-1981) Greenwich Village NYC 14 x 17 inches Oil on board,...

Pencil Study #13 2016 Graphite on paper 13 x 7 inches Jessica Keiser currently resides in New Haven, Connecticut. Keiser's style is Naturalistic, concer...

Original Magazine Illustration for a magazine like Harper's, Vanity Fair, Life, Look, and Judge Shinn was an American realist painter and member of the Ashcan School. He also exhibited with the short-lived group known as "The Eight," Work is framed in an attractive gilt frame Morris Weiss collection...

Woman with Bicycle: Two Views Graphite on paper, c. 1890 Unsigned Graphite study of standing female nude verso Provenance: Rookwood Pottery Factory Collection, Cincinnati Spanierman Gallery, New York (label) Drawings from the sketchbook are in the collections of the Munson Williams Proctor Institute in Utica, New York and the Picker Art Gallery, Colgate University, Hamilton, New York. A sister drawing from the same sketchbook was sold at Cowman’s Auction, Cincinnati, October 6, 2018. Accompanied by a letter from the Spanierman Gallery, dated 1997, stating that the drawing is from a sketchbook that was held in the Rookwood Factory Collection. Sister drawing provenance: Provenance: Terry DeLapp...

Original Painting. Colliers Magazine Cover Published 1933 Wedding Illustration Antonio Petruccelli (1907 - 1994) The Wedding Colliers published, June 17, 1933 17 1/4 X 11 1/2 inches (sight) Framed 23 1/4 X 17 1/2 inches Gouache on board Signed lower right BIOGRAPHY: Antonio Petruccelli (1907-1994) began his career as a textile designer. He became a freelance illustrator in 1932 after winning several House Beautiful cover illustration contests. In addition to 24 Fortune magazine covers, four New Yorker covers, several for House Beautiful, Collier’s, and other magazines he did numerous illustrations for Life magazine from the 1930s – 60s. ‘Tony was Mr. Versatility for Fortune. He could do anything, from charts and diagrams to maps, illustrations, covers, and caricatures,’ said Francis Brennan, the former art director for Fortune. Over the course of his career, Antonio won several important design awards, designing a U.S. Postage Stamp Commemorating the Steel Industry and designing the Bicentennial Medal...

Simkhovitch was a celebrated artist in New York City from the 1920's through the 1940's. Life Magazine did a story on him and he was having great success in the New York Galleries. ...

Nude Female Torso Charcoal on paper, c. 1920 Stamped and initialed in pencil "Asa Cheffetz/A.D.C" Estate signature by wife, A.D.C. Exhibited: Museum of F...

"Tobacco Road" Mid 20th Century Realism 1940 Drawing from the Novel WPA Literary 19 1/4 x 11 1/2 (sight), Signed David Fredenthal lower right. Framed by ...

Graphite on paper Signed and dated, l.r. 13.5 x 10.5 inches, sheet 21.25 x 17.25 inches, frame This drawing is offered by ClampArt, located in New York City. John Lear is an America...

This artwork is a watercolor on paper by noted artist Carolyn Bullis Blish, born 1928. It is signed at the lower right corner by the artist. The artwork size is 17 x 26 inches, framed is 28 x 37 inches. Framed in his original wooden gold and mahogany color frame. The artwork is in excellent condition, the frame is in very good condition, with very minor small dents and scratches, hardly visible. About the artist. A former model, actress, and newscaster, artist Carolyn Blish is known primarily for her watercolor landscapes. She received a very short training in painting under the tutelage of artist Edgar...

"Good Health Week" WPA American Scene Mid 20th Century Modern Social Realism Jo Cain (1904 – 2003) Good Health Week 10 ½ x 15 1/2 inches Oil on pape...

Vibrant figurative seascape of a beach in Mazatlan, Mexico with several figures and a catamaran reflecting beautifully in the shallow water by William A. Corbett (American. 1914-1960). Titled "Beach- Mazatlan" on verso. Signed "William Corbett" in lower left corner. Presented in a simple wood frame, with a double mat of off-white silk and royal blue with plexiglass. Image size: 22”H x 14.75”L William A. Corbett began drawing at an early age. He constructed signs and displays for theaters and nightclubs around Pittsburg. He studied art with Vincent Nesbert at the Pittsburg Art Institute and with Robert Gwathmoy, Roy Hilton, and Robert Laper at the Carnegie Institute of Technology. He also studied painting and sculpture at the Louisville Art Center. Corbett was in the Army Engineers at Fort Knox, Kentucky where he studied, practiced, and had exhibits with army artists there from 1941-1943. He was very much interested in materials and technique, content and style in painting. His favorite Artists were El Greco, Leonardo, Rembrandt, Renoir, Burchfield, and Andrew Wyeth, Jr. He studied two years at Boston museum School with Karl Zerbe, Daivid Aronson and others. He later designed and did art work for General Outdoor Advertising Co. In 1943, he married Ruth Osborne of Louisville and they had one son, Michael. In 1951 he moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida with his family. Exhibitions: Army Art Show--- 1st Prize in Landscape, 1942 Kentucky & southern Indiana Exhibition-- Honorable mentions for Fisherman's Curse 1949, Don Q...

Original Painting Cathedral Interior New Yorker Cover Proposal 1939 Jesus Church Antonio Petruccelli (1907 – 1994) Cathedral New Yorker cover proposa...

"Backyards" Early 20th Century Watercolor Fauvism Social Realism American Scene Note: We have three similar in style works from 1911 available now on 1stDibs. All are framed identic...

Two Men on a Street Early 20th Century w/c Fauvism Social Realism American Scene Note: We have three similar in style works from 1911 available now on 1stDibs. All are framed identi...

This artwork "Winter Landscape " c.1930 is a watercolor by noted American artist Raphael Senseman, 1870-1966 It is signed at the lower left corner by the artist. The artwork size is ...

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 artwork titled "Port Stephenson" c.1950 is a watercolor by noted American maritime artist Rockwell Smith Brank Jr. 1917-2007. It is signed at the lower right corner by the artis...

This artwork "Landscape with Cattle" c.1930 is a watercolor by noted American artist Raphael Senseman, 1870-1966 It is signed at the lower right ...

Al Hirschfeld (1903-2003) "Beat the Band" 22 x 26 1/2 inches ink on board published in The New York Times, October 11, 1942 The unframed work comes directly from the Al Hirschfeld F...

Illustrated for the 1949 Four Seasons Calendar, published by Brown and Bigelow. A young girl holds a freshly-picked bouquet of flowers as she strolls alongside a boy who carries he...

Fighter Boxing Woodstock American Scene WPA Era Mid 20th Century Social John Ruggles (1907-1991) Sight: 17 1/2 x 13 1/3 inches. Framed: 22 x 18 inches...

Published Thayer Stroller advertisement, 1951 Watercolor and gouache on board Signed lower left

Larry #5 2016 Charcoal on paper 22 x 10.5 inches Jessica Keiser currently resides in New Haven, Connecticut. Keiser's style is Naturalistic, concerned with the intimacy of the cre...

Bridge Painter WPA American Modernism Mid 20th-Century Realism Industrial Worker. Sight size: 18 x 23 1/4 inches. Estate stamped verso. This drawing is the study for a large oil we ...

Anthony Baus is an alumnus and instructor of the Grand Central Atelier in Long Island City, New York. His unique artistic vision, which mines the world of the Old Masters and antiqui...

42nd Street NYC 1923 Deco WPA Ashcan American Modern Cityscape Realism Broadway. 10 x 7 1/2 inches. Graphite on paper. Signed, titled "42nd Street" and dated July 26, 1923, lower l...

Aaron Berkman was born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1900. In 1916 Berkman attended the Connecticut League of Art Students, founded by Charles Noel Flagg. Beginning in 1919 he studied under Albertus E. Jones at the Hartford Art School. Berkman was influenced during this time by George Inness and John Singer Sargent and the Old Masters. He received a scholarship to the Museum Art School of Boston in 1921 and then traveled to Europe, remaining there from 1924 through 1925. He spent time in France, Italy, Spain, Holland and Belgium. In 1929 Berkman moved to New York City, continuing a friendship and painting relationship with Milton Avery. He was appointed by the W.P.A. as Director of the WPA Art Center at the 92nd Street Y in New York City. Berkman helped established the A.C.A. Gallery in New York City at 52 West 8th St., the first Artist Cooperative Gallery in New York City. He spent summers on Monhegan Island in...

Railroad Worker Industrial WPA American Scene Mid Century Modern Social Realism Jo Cain (1904 - 2003) Railroad worker 36 ¼ x 27 inches Oil on paper c. 1930s S...

Lets Find the Way #1 Watercolor on Arches wove paper, 2021 Signed with the artist's initials lower right Signed, titled and dated in pencil verso This watercolor is related to the ar...

Chemists American Scene Mid 20th Century Modern Social Realism WPA Science Mural Jo Cain (1904 - 2003) Chemists 40 ½ x 31 ¾ inches Oil on paper, c. 1930s Signed lower right 49 x 40 ...

This artwork titled "Evening Fog, Moss Landing, California" 1970, is a watercolor on paper by noted French/American artist Albert Bechely Crundall, 1906-1997. It is signed at the low...

Untitled (Seated Young Woman) Graphite on Veritable Papier d'Arches wove paper, 1970 Signed and dated lower right (see photo) Condition: Excellent Image/sheet size: 15 x 11 1/4 inch...

Hugo Gellert (Hungarian-American, 1892-1985), Study for "The New Masses". Mary Ryan Gallery 4. Signed in ink lower left: "Hugo / Gellert"; inscribed in crayo...

American Impressionist

Beautiful mid-century landscape watercolor with a tall, stately tree in the foreground, its many forking branches depicted with exceptional detail, and a verdant background of rollin...

Study of a sultry and seductive reclining platinum blond Pin Up with a wide-brimmed sun hat. Most likely done for Playboy. This work is very finely rendered and looks better the ...

Artist : Raphael Soyer Title : Woman Year: 1979 Drawing in Pencil Signed in pencil Drawing Size 11½" x 16 Inches Matted Size : inches 16" x 20" inches Born in 1899, Raphael So...

Meticulously rendered account of three prospectors trying to rustle up some water before they can dig up some gold. Magazine Illustration of the Old West, American West, Cowboys Casein on board, Western / Frontier Art...

Noel Daggett, American (1925 - 2005) - Good Takings, Year: 1991, Medium: Gouache on Board, signed and dated l.r., Size: 10 in. x 17 in. (25.4 cm x 43.18 cm), Frame Size: 17.5 x 2...

Meticulously and carefully rendered period piece that reenact this magicaly moment. Works on Paper, Gouache, Watercolor over traces of pencil heightened with white on illustration ...

If there ever were a perfect work in the canon of art history, this masterpiece study by Dean Cornwell would be it. Every line has meaning and not a line out of place, as Cornwell d...

The key element to this work is that it is much larger that most of the other works on paper by Lachaise and somewhat more delineated and refined . The figure exudes sexuality has a...

NYC Park Scene American Scene Social Realism WPA Woman Artist Ashcan Realism Isabel Bishop (American, 1902-1988) "NYC Park Scene" Pencil on paper Sight: 5 x 7-1/8 inches Signed l...

Artist: Raphael Soyer (1899-1987) Title: Two Reclining Nudes Year: Circa 1987 Medium: Watercolor & Pencil Drawing on Archival paper Size: 17 x 14 inches Condition: Excellent Inscript...

Jerry Berneche (1932 - 2016) was a painter and draftsman of representational scenes and portraits featuring extraordinary color work and extremely detailed mark-making. Locally he is...

"They paved paradise and put up a parking lot," Joni Mitchell said. - - Created in 1969, at the dawn of the American environmental movement, artist Richard Erdoes draws a sequential narrative in the form of a coil. From inception to destruction, it illustrates a list of things that humans are doing to destroy the world we live in. The work was commissioned for school-age humans and executed in a whimsically comic way. Yet the underlying narrative is sophisticated and foreshadows a world that could be on the brink of ecological disaster. Graphically and conceptually, this work exhibits an endless amount of creativity and Erdoes cartoony style is one to fall in love with. Signed lower right. Unframed 12.4 inches Width: 12.85 inches Height is the live area. Board is 16x22 inches. Richard Erdoes (Hungarian Erdős, German Erdös; July 7, 1912 – July 16, 2008) was an American artist, photographer, illustrator and author. Early life Erdoes was born in Frankfurt,to Maria Josefa Schrom on July 7, 1912. His father, Richárd Erdős Sr., was a Jewish Hungarian opera singer who had died a few weeks earlier in Budapest on June 9, 1912.After his birth, his mother lived with her sister, the Viennese actress Leopoldine ("Poldi") Sangora,He described himself as "equal parts Austrian, Hungarian and German, as well as equal parts Catholic, Protestant and Jew..."[4] Career He was a student at the Berlin Academy of Art in 1933, when Adolf Hitler came to power. He was involved in a small underground paper where he published anti-Hitler political cartoons which attracted the attention of the Nazi regime. He fled Germany with a price on his head. Back in Vienna, he continued his training at the Kunstgewerbeschule, now the University of Applied Arts, Vienna.[5] He also wrote and illustrated children's books and worked as a caricaturist for Tag and Stunde, anti-Nazi newspapers. After the Anschluss of Austria in 1938 he fled again, first to Paris, where he studied at the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere, and then London, England before journeying to the United States. He married his first wife, fellow artist Elsie Schulhof (d. xxxx) in London, shortly before their arrival in New York City. In New York City, Erdoes enjoyed a long career as a commercial artist, and was known for his highly detailed, whimsical drawings. He created illustrations for such magazines as Stage, Fortune, Pageant, Gourmet, Harper's Bazaar, Sports Illustrated, The New York Times, Time, National Geographic and Life Magazine, where he met his second wife, Jean Sternbergh (d. 1995) who was an art director there. The couple married in 1951 and had three children.[6] Erdoes also illustrated many children's books. An assignment for Life in 1967 took Erdoes to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation for the first time, and marked the beginning of the work for which he would be best known. Erdoes was fascinated by Native American culture, outraged at the conditions on the reservation and deeply moved by the Civil Rights Movement that was raging at the time. He wrote histories, collections of Native American stories...

Likely a study for an illustration for Harper's Weekly, for which Wiser was a Civil War-era illustrator, focusing on shipwrecks and battles occurring along the mid-Atlantic coast. ...

Allan Rohan Crite: 1910-2007. Very well listed and important african-American artist. He has Auction results as high as $20,000 for a drawing. He lived and worked most of his life in...

Emilio Sanchez (1921-1999) created the watercolor entitled “Schooner St. Croix” in 1952. This piece is signed in pen at the lower right and titled on the verso. The paper size is 16.88 x 22.25 inches. Stamped on verso "Estate of Emilio Sanchez." Good to very good condition. “Best known for his architectural paintings and lithographs, Emilio Sanchez (1921-1999) explored the effects of light and shadow to emphasize the abstract geometry of his subjects. His artwork encompasses his Cuban heritage...

This artwork titled "Danzantes de Colores from the "Colcha" series, 1989, is a watercolor and ink on hand made paper by noted American artist Amado Maurilio Pena...