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American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

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Style: American Realist
NYC Subway Mid 20th Century American Scene Social Realism WPA Modern 1930s
Located in New York, NY
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 ...
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1930s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Ink, Gouache

Untitled (Joe Louis knocking out Max Schmeling in 1938 rematch)
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Untitled (Joe Louis knocking out Max Schmeling in 1938 rematch) Pen and ink with wash on heavy wove sketchbook paper, 1938 Signed lower right: Fletcher Martin Directly related to Martin's famous painting of 1942 entitled "Lullaby", which was also used in the lithograph of the same name. (see photo) The drawing depicts the third and final knockdown of Max Schmeling in their rematch of 1938. Condition: Mat staining at the edges of the sketchbook page edges Toning to verso from previous framing. Does not affect framed presentation "It was here that Louis first used sport to bridge America's cavernous racial divide. With Hitler on the march in Europe and using Schmeling's victory over Louis as proof of “Aryan supremacy,” anti-Nazi sentiment ran high in the States. Louis had long grown accustomed to the pressures of representing his race but here the burdens were broader and deeper. Now he was shouldering the hopes of an entire nation. A few weeks before the match Louis visited the White House and U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, whose tenure lasted even longer than Louis' would, told him, “Joe, we need muscles like yours to beat Germany.” Those muscles certainly beat Schmeling on fight night...
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1930s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Ink

"Good Health Week" WPA American Scene Mid 20th Century Modern Social Realism
Located in New York, NY
"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...
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1940s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Oil

"Going to the Festival" WPA Ashcan 20th Century American Scene Modern Realism
Located in New York, NY
"Going to the Festival" WPA Ashcan 20th Century American Scene Modern Realism Daniel Celentano (1902 - 1980) "Going to the Festival," 14 1/2 x 10 1/2. Watercolor on paper, c. 1930s....
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1930s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Young Love: Walking to School, Four Seasons Calendar Illustration
Located in Fort Washington, PA
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...
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1940s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Ink, Watercolor

"Men in Barracks" WPA Mid 20th Century American Scene Realism Gay Modernism WWII
Located in New York, NY
"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 ...
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1940s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Original Painting. Colliers Magazine Cover Published 1933 Wedding Illustration
Located in New York, NY
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...
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1930s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Gouache, Board

NYC Subway Mid 20th Century American Scene Social Realism WPA Modern 1930s
Located in New York, NY
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 ...
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1930s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Ink, Gouache

Dancer in White
Located in Mc Lean, VA
American Impressionist
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1940s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Pastel, Cardboard

Pin Up Girl in Red Dress, Mid-Century, Female Artist
Located in Miami, FL
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...
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1940s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor, Illustration Board

Fighter Boxing Woodstock American Scene WPA Era Mid 20th Century Social Realism
Located in New York, NY
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...
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1930s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Oil, Board

"Self Portrait / Sketch on verso" Robert Henri, Ashcan Self-Portrait Work
Located in New York, NY
Robert Henri Self Portrait / Sketch on verso Estate stamped lower right Ink on paper, graphite on paper 12 1/2 x 8 inches Born Robert Henry Cozad in Cincinnati, Ohio, Robert Henri became one of the leading personalities in American art, known for his teaching skills, ethnic portraits, especially spirited children, and insistence that artists should adhere to social realism and give rein to their own artistic instincts. During his growing up years, he lived between Cincinnati and Cozad, Nebraska, founded by his father John Jackson Cozad, a gambler and real estate promoter. When Robert was about 10 years old, his family moved to Cozad in Dawson County. Tension existed between John Cozad and the established ranchers who resented development, and a rancher attacked Cozad, who in self defense shot the man to death. Fearing for his life, he, his wife and two sons sneaked out of town and re convened in Atlantic City where they disguised their identity by taking other names. The father was later cleared of the charge, but he changed his name to Richard H. Lee, and passed his two sons off as adopted children named Frank Southern and Robert Henri. Robert chose a variation of his middle name to rhyme with "buckeye" to symbolize his Ohio roots. From Atlantic City, as a young man, he attended boarding school in New York City. He, having shown early art talent, studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts as a student of Thomas Anschutz and Thomas Hovenden...
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Early 1900s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Ink

"Head Em Home", Mid Century Cowboy on Horse Western Figurative Landscape
Located in Soquel, CA
Mid Century figurative landscape of a cowboy on his horse at sundown titled "Head Em Home" by Stanley M. Long (American, 1892-1972). Signed “Stanley M. Long” in bottom right corner. Displayed in a simple wood frame and off-white mat with glass. Image size: 22.75”H x 30.25”L. Frame is 1.5" deep. Stanley M. Long was a watercolorist who was born in Oakland, CA on May 4, 1892. He spent his childhood on a ranch in Napa where he broke wild horses. He began sketching when quite young and at age 15 enrolled at the San Francisco Institute of Art. He continued at the California College of Arts and Crafts, where he was awarded a scholarship for further study at Académie Julian in Paris. Long served in the camouflage corps in both world wars. Long taught art in San Francisco at Mission High School and for 17 years at Polytechnic High School. His western illustrations were featured in Sunset Magazine and the Los Angeles Times. Having worked with horses all his life, they were to become the main theme of his paintings. Member: Society of Western Artists, Napa Valley Art...
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1950s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Circus Rider, Acrobat
Located in Greenwich, CT
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. ...
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1920s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Graphite

Barnyard Chat
By John B. Lear
Located in New York, NY
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...
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1990s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Graphite

"Men in Barracks" WPA Mid 20th Century American Scene Realism Gay Modernism WWII
Located in New York, NY
"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 ...
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1940s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

I am Human Watercolor on Paper
Located in Lake Worth Beach, FL
I am Human Watercolor, ink on paper 49"x42" framed Keith Carrington Keith Carrington’s experiences have led him to express his talents through the fluid a...
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1990s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor, Ink

"Tobacco Road" Mid 20th Century Realism 1940 Drawing from the Novel WPA Literary
Located in New York, NY
"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 ...
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1930s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Ink, Watercolor

Untitled
By Carolyn Bullis Blish
Located in San Francisco, CA
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...
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Late 20th Century American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor

La Loire
Located in Middletown, NY
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...
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Mid-20th Century American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Ink, Handmade Paper, Pen

"Dragon, " Original Pastel Drawing
Located in Denver, CO
"Dragon," by Quang Ho, is a secondary market work with one previous owner. It is signed and dated (1988) on the lower left. The painting comes with it's original frame (measures 50 x...
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20th Century American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Pastel

Greenwich Village NYC WPA Mid 20th Century American Scene Ashcan Modern Realism
Located in New York, NY
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,...
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1930s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Oil, Board

Cowboys Horses Cattle WPA American Scene Social Realism Mid 20th Century Modern
Located in New York, NY
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...
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1930s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Oil

"Danzantes de Colores" from the "Colcha" series
Located in San Francisco, CA
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...
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Late 20th Century American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor

Man Working Mid 20th Century American Scene Social Realism Industrial WPA Modern
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...
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1930s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Gouache

Landscape with Cattle
Located in San Francisco, CA
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 ...
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Mid-20th Century American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor

Fort Stephenson
Located in San Francisco, CA
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...
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Mid-20th Century American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor

The New Dreamliner: Biggest Baby News in Years!
Located in Miami, FL
Published Thayer Stroller advertisement, 1951 Watercolor and gouache on board Signed lower left
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1950s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Gouache

Sitting Nude exudes sexuality
Located in Miami, FL
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...
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1920s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Pencil

American Art Deco 20th Century Modernism Social Realism WPA Era Scene Pin-Up
Located in New York, NY
American Art Deco 20th Century Modernism Social Realism WPA Era Scene Pin-Up Arthur Rosenman Ross (1913 - 1981) 'Edward, This Man Insulted Me. Do Something" Sight: 20 x 15 inches Wa...
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1930s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor, Board

Sunburst
Located in Pine Plains, NY
Formally trained at the Pennsylvania Academy of Art, Cockrill is well know and respected for his use of the watercolor medium. Watercolor lends itself to melting, fluid brush stroke...
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Early 2000s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor

Man Working Mid 20th Century American Scene Social Realism Industrial WPA Modern
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...
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1930s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Gouache

Winter Landscape
Located in San Francisco, CA
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 ...
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Mid-20th Century American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor

Mid Century Mazatlan Beach Catamaran Figurative Landscape Watercolor
By William A. Corbett
Located in Soquel, CA
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...
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1960s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

42nd Street NYC 1923 Deco WPA Ashcan American Modern Cityscape Realism Broadway
Located in New York, NY
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...
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1920s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Pencil

Bridge Painter WPA American Modernism Mid 20th-Century Realism Industrial Worker
Located in New York, NY
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 ...
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1930s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Androscoggin River Falls, study for The Manufacturers National Bank of Lewiston-
Located in Miami, FL
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...
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1950s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Pastel

Pencil Study #15
Located in Columbia, MO
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...
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21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Graphite

"Lobstermen in Gloucester, Mass." Lionel Reiss WPA Social Realism Fishermen
By Lionel S. Reiss
Located in New York, NY
Lionel S. Reiss (1894 - 1988) Lobstermen in Gloucester, Massachusetts, circa 1943 Watercolor on paper Sight 17 1/2 x 23 inches Signed lower left Provenance: Private Collection, Las Vegas, Nevada In describing his own style, Lionel Reiss wrote, “By nature, inclination, and training, I have long since recognized the fact that...I belong to the category of those who can only gladly affirm the reality of the world I live in.” Reiss’s subject matter was wide-ranging, including gritty New York scenes, landscapes of bucolic Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and seascapes around Gloucester, Massachusetts. However, it was as a painter of Jewish life—both in Israel and in Europe before World War II—that Reiss excelled. I.B. Singer, the Nobel Prize winner for Literature, noted that Reiss was “essentially an artist of the nineteenth century, and because of this he had the power and the courage to tell visually the story of a people.” Although Reiss was born in Jaroslaw, Poland, his family immigrated to the United States in 1898 when he was four years old. Reiss's family settled on New York City’s Lower East Side and he lived in the city for most of his life. Reiss attended the Art Students League and then worked as a commercial artist for newspapers and publishers. As art director for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, he supposedly created the studio’s famous lion logo. After World War I, Reiss became fascinated with Jewish life in the ‘Old World.’ In 1921 he left his advertising work and spent the next ten years traveling in Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. Like noted Jewish photographers Alter Kacyzne and Roman Vishniac, Reiss depicted Jewish life in Poland prior to World War II. He later wrote, “My trip encompassed three main objectives: to make ethnic studies of Jewish types wherever I traveled; to paint and draw Jewish life, as I saw it and felt it, in all aspects; and to round out my work in Israel.” In Europe, Reiss recorded quotidian scenes in a variety of media and different settings such as Paris, Amsterdam, the Venice ghetto, the Jewish cemetery in Prague, and an array of shops, synagogues, streets, and marketplaces in the Jewish quarters of Warsaw, Lodz, Krakow, Lublin, Vilna, Ternopil, and Kovno. He paid great attention to details of dress, hair, and facial features, and his work became noted for its descriptive quality. A selection of Reiss’s portraits appeared in 1938 in his book My Models Were Jews. In this book, published on the eve of the Holocaust, Reiss argued that there was “no such thing as a ‘Jewish race’.” Instead, he claimed that the Jewish people were a cultural group with a great deal of diversity within and between Jewish communities around the world. Franz Boas...
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1940s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

"Good Health Week" WPA American Scene Mid 20th Century Modern Social Realism
Located in New York, NY
"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...
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1940s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Oil

Working Man WPA Social Realism Industrial Modernism 20th Century American Scene
Located in New York, NY
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...
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1930s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Oil

"Backyards" Early 20th Century Watercolor Fauvism Social Realism American Scene
Located in New York, NY
"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...
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1910s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Larry No. 5
Located in Columbia, MO
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...
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21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Charcoal

"Tobacco Road" Mid 20th Century Realism 1940 Drawing from the Novel WPA Literary
Located in New York, NY
"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 ...
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1930s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Ink, Watercolor

Man looking into Window
Located in Miami, FL
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...
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1910s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Acrylic Polymer, Gouache, Pencil, Watercolor

Railroad Worker Industrial WPA American Scene Mid Century Modern Social Realism
Located in New York, NY
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...
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1930s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Oil

"Going to the Festival" WPA Ashcan 20th Century American Scene Modern Realism
Located in New York, NY
"Going to the Festival" WPA Ashcan 20th Century American Scene Modern Realism Daniel Celentano (1902 - 1980) "Going to the Festival," 14 1/2 x 10 1/2. Watercolor on paper, c. 1930s....
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1930s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Al Hirschfeld "Beat the Band" New York Times Broadway Theatre Illustration 1940s
Located in New York, NY
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...
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1940s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Ink, Board

Cowboys Horses Cattle WPA American Scene Social Realism Mid 20th Century Modern
Located in New York, NY
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...
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1930s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Oil

American Art Deco 20th Century Modernism Social Realism WPA Era Scene Pin-Up
Located in New York, NY
American Art Deco 20th Century Modernism Social Realism WPA Era Scene Pin-Up Arthur Rosenman Ross (1913 - 1981) 'Edward, This Man Insulted Me. Do Something" Sight: 20 x 15 inches Wa...
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1930s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor, Board

Untitled (Seated Young Woman)
Located in Fairlawn, OH
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...
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1970s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Graphite

Eileen Lake
Located in Fairlawn, OH
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...
Category

1930s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Oil Crayon

Female Torso, Nude
Located in Fairlawn, OH
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...
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1920s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Charcoal

Two Men on a Street Early 20th Century w/c Fauvism Social Realism American Scene
Located in New York, NY
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...
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Early 1900s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Lets Find the Way #1
Located in Fairlawn, OH
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...
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2010s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor

Chemists American Scene Mid 20th Century Modern Social Realism WPA Science Mural
Located in New York, NY
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 ...
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1930s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Gouache

Industrial Man Working Mid 20th Century American Scene Social Realism Modern WPA
Located in New York, NY
Industrial Man Working Mid 20th Century American Scene Social Realism Modern WPA Jo Cain (1904 - 2003) Hammering Nails 39 x 50 ½ inches Gouache on paper c. 19...
Category

1930s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Gouache

Evening Fog, Moss Landing, California
Located in San Francisco, CA
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...
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Late 20th Century American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor

Woman Graphite Pencil Drawing 1979 Signed Unique
Located in Rochester Hills, MI
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...
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1970s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Graphite

Manhattan Arch
Located in New York, NY
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...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Ink, Pen, Paper

Original Painting Cathedral Interior New Yorker Cover Proposal 1939 Jesus Church
Located in New York, NY
Original Painting Cathedral Interior New Yorker Cover Proposal 1939 Jesus Church Antonio Petruccelli (1907 – 1994) Cathedral New Yorker cover proposa...
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1930s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Gouache, Board

"Painter" 20th Century American Scene Social Realism Working Man Modern WPA Era
Located in New York, NY
"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...
Category

1930s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Gouache

Bridge Painter WPA American Modernism Mid 20th-Century Realism Industrial Worker
Located in New York, NY
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 ...
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1930s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

"Head Em Home", Mid Century Cowboy on Horse Western Figurative Landscape
Located in Soquel, CA
Mid Century figurative landscape of a cowboy on his horse at sundown titled "Head Em Home" by Stanley M. Long (American, 1892-1972). Signed “Stanley M. Long” in bottom right corner. Displayed in a simple wood frame and off-white mat with glass. Image size: 22.75”H x 30.25”L. Frame is 1.5" deep. Stanley M. Long was a watercolorist who was born in Oakland, CA on May 4, 1892. He spent his childhood on a ranch in Napa where he broke wild horses. He began sketching when quite young and at age 15 enrolled at the San Francisco Institute of Art. He continued at the California College of Arts and Crafts, where he was awarded a scholarship for further study at Académie Julian in Paris. Long served in the camouflage corps in both world wars. Long taught art in San Francisco at Mission High School and for 17 years at Polytechnic High School. His western illustrations were featured in Sunset Magazine and the Los Angeles Times. Having worked with horses all his life, they were to become the main theme of his paintings. Member: Society of Western Artists, Napa Valley Art...
Category

1950s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Strike Breakers — social realism, Great Depression
Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
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...
Category

1930s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Pencil

"Painter" 20th Century American Scene Social Realism Working Man Modern WPA Era
Located in New York, NY
"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...
Category

1930s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Gouache

Pirate Ship - Skull-and-Crossbones Seven Seas Illustration in White and Blue
Located in Miami, FL
The Skull-and-Crossbones flag flies atop this illustration of a Pirate Ship. Two palm trees flank it, and it floats in a cropped stylized sea. A single hatted figure is seen looking ...
Category

1970s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Pastel, Ink, Board

Biblical Story illustration Art for Religious Magazine Cover
Located in Miami, FL
Miriam Story Hurford was a prolific and major American female illustrator in the 1930s to the 1950s. Her work was for cover art for women's magazines and home magazines and religious magazines. This work depicts t the wise men being guided by the star of Bethleham to the birth of the Christ child for a Christmas magazine...
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1930s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Gouache, Pencil

Seductive Platinum Blond Hair and Blue Eyed Pin Up in Turquoise Hat
Located in Miami, FL
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 ...
Category

1960s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor, Pencil

Court Jester - Golden Age of Illustration
Located in Miami, FL
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 ...
Category

1940s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor

Water Hunters ( Cowboys in the Old West
Located in Miami, FL
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...
Category

1940s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Casein

Dancer in Pink
Located in Mc Lean, VA
American Impressionist
Category

1940s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Pastel, Cardboard

Environmental Prognostication Coil Narrative "Homo Sapiens R.I.P."
Located in Miami, FL
"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...
Category

1960s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Ink, Gouache, Illustration Board

American Realist figurative drawings and watercolors for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic American Realist figurative drawings and watercolors available for sale on 1stDibs. Works in this style were very popular during the 21st Century and Contemporary, but contemporary artists have continued to produce works inspired by this movement. If you’re looking to add figurative drawings and watercolors created in this style to introduce contrast in an otherwise neutral space in your home, the works available on 1stDibs include elements of blue, purple and other colors. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including Peter Emanuel Goldman, Joseph Yeager, Everett Shinn, and David Fredenthal. Frequently made by artists working with Paint, and Watercolor and other materials, all of these pieces for sale are unique and have attracted attention over the years. Not every interior allows for large American Realist figurative drawings and watercolors, so small editions measuring 4.25 inches across are also available. Prices for figurative drawings and watercolors made by famous or emerging artists can differ depending on medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $60 and tops out at $85,000, while the average work sells for $1,640.

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