Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 6

David Fredenthal
NYC Watercolor Drawing American Modern 20th Century Modernism Mid-Century WPA

c. 1948

About the Item

NYC Watercolor Drawing American Modern 20th Century Modernism Mid-Century WPA. David Fredenthal (1914-1958) "View of New York from New Jersey,"7 x 10 inches. Watercolor on Paper, c. 1948. Signed lower right. David Fredenthal (1914 - 1958) was one ot America's most respected watercolor artists. He was famous for his bold, intensely vigorous and complex paintings and drawings that expressed his deep feeling for excitement with life and living. He was a draftsman with seemingly a special gift for catching anything, physically and emotionally on the spot, and he never went anywhere without three or four loaded pens and a sketchbook in his pocket. As part of the WPA project he executed a number of murals including the Sports Pavilion on the Heinz Building of the New York World's Fair 1939. Some of his fresco and mural techniques were inspired by his friendship with Diego Rivera who had admired and encouraged him in the early 1930's. After he won a traveling scholarship to Europe from The Museum of Modern Art at age 19, he was the recipient of two Guggenheim grants in Painting. He had his first solo exhibition at the Downtown Gallery in New York in 1937 at age 23, and many others after that including the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1947. Because of Fredenthal's prodigious drawing gifts, he was chosen by Erskine Caldwell to illustrate his novel "Tobacco Road" in 1940. He was a War Artist Correspondent for both the State Department (the European and Asian fronts) and Life magazine from 1943 to 1946 and his work was featured in Life magazine regularly during the war and after until the end of his life. Also featured in Life in 1956 were drawings that Fredenthal had vividly recorded on his sketch pad, of the entire filming of the movie, The Pride and the Passion, starring Cary Grant, Sophia Loren, and Frank Sinatra, along the treacherous mountain passes of Spain. Though he was fiercely committed to an art that expressed deeply human social values and issues and was quite hostile to abstraction, he was friendly with a number of abstract artists such as David Smith, Ad Reinhardt, Philip Guston, Paul Feeley, and Herman Cherry.
  • Creator:
    David Fredenthal (1914-1958, American)
  • Creation Year:
    c. 1948
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 11 in (27.94 cm)Width: 14 in (35.56 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    New York, NY
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU115626923012

More From This Seller

View All
"Manhattan Bridge" NYC American Scene Modernism Watercolor WPA Urban Realism
By Reginald Marsh
Located in New York, NY
Reginald Marsh "Manhattan Bridge" NYC American Scene Modernism Watercolor WPA Urban Realism, 20 x 14 inches. Watercolor and pencil on paper, 1938. Signed...
Category

1930s American Modern Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor, Pencil

Reginald Marsh "Brooklyn Bridge" NYC Modernism WPA Mid-Century Watercolor Modern
By Reginald Marsh
Located in New York, NY
Reginald Marsh "Brooklyn Bridge" NYC Modernism WPA Mid-Century Watercolor Modern Reginald Marsh (American, 1898-1954) Brooklyn Bridge, 1940, Signed and dated Reginald Marsh May 1940 (lr), Watercolor over traces of pencil on paper , 15 x 22 inches sight. Reginald Marsh was born in Paris, France in 1898, the child of artist parents. He was born over a small cafe on Paris' Left Bank. He was brought to the United States in 1900 and was drawing before he was three. He studied art at Yale University and the Art Students League, during which time he worked primarily as an illustrator for New York newspapers and magazines. After studying in Paris in 1925 and 1926, he turned seriously to painting. In 1929 he was introduced to the egg-tempera medium, which he used extensively the rest of his life. Marsh's gusto for painting the bottom crust of society contrasted curiously with his background. His parents, both well-known artists, were steeped in academic traditions. He attended Lawrenceville Academy and Yale; perhaps this elite background made it possible to paint the earthy people he did with a journalist's objectivity. An admirer of Rubens and Delacroix, he disliked modernist art; indeed, his lifelong preoccupation was with people - enjoying themselves at beaches, at amusement parks, or on crowded city streets. Marsh was a second-generation Ash Can School painter and printmaker, best known as an urban regionalist. He spent his days sketching in small notebooks...
Category

1940s American Modern Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

"Through the Trees" Watercolor Mid-20th Century Modern Excellent Provenance
By Arthur Dove
Located in New York, NY
"Through the Trees" Watercolor Mid-20th Century Modern Excellent Provenance Arthur Dove (1880-1946) "Through the Trees" 5 x 7 Watercolor on paper, 1938 Singed lower center Framed: 1...
Category

1930s American Modern Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

"Barns" Watercolor Mid-20th Century Modern Abstract Realism Excellent Provenance
By Arthur Dove
Located in New York, NY
"Barns" Watercolor Mid-20th Century Modern Abstract Realism Excellent Provenance Arthur Dove (1880-1946) "Barns" 5 x 7 inches Watercolor on paper, 1940 Singed lower center Framed: 9...
Category

1940s American Modern Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

"Rail Yard" Urban Industrial WPA American Scene Drawing NYC Mid-Century
By Joseph Solman
Located in New York, NY
"Rail Yard" Urban Industrial WPA American Scene Drawing NYC Mid-Century. Initialed "JS" upper right Solman was a pivotal figure in the development of 20th century American art. He ...
Category

1930s American Modern Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Gouache

Magazine Cover Illustration Mid 20th Century Modern Theatre Broadway Realism WPA
By Ernest Hamlin Baker
Located in New York, NY
Magazine Cover Illustration Mid 20th Century Modern Theatre Broadway Realism WPA Ernest Hamlin Baker (1889 – 1975) “Today Magazine” Cover ...
Category

1930s American Modern Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Gouache, Paper, Watercolor, Ink

You May Also Like

Oil Tanks, Alameda Street, Los Angeles
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Oil Tanks, Alameda Street, Los Angeles, c. 1930-33, watercolor on paper, 14 ¼ x 21 ¼ inches (image), inscribed verso: “watercolor by Ruth Zimmerman 1912 – 1968 / Practice work for sc...
Category

1930s American Modern Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Canyon with Bridge
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Gordena Parker Jackson (1900 - 1993), Canyon with Bridge, 1939, watercolor on paper, signed and dated lower right, 17 ½ x 13 inches (sight), inscription verso reads: “Watercolor Competition Show / Washington D. C. 1940 [or 1941] F. W. A.” Gordena Parker Jackson was a California painter, graphic artist, craftsperson, and designer. A native of Pleasanton, Jackson studied at the California College of Arts & Crafts and lived much of her life in the Bay Area. In 1925, she married fellow artist Frederic Osman Jackson...
Category

1930s American Modern Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Maples in Autumn Foliage
By John Marin
Located in Bryn Mawr, PA
John Marin’s long and prolific career is best marked by his fervent love of painting and abiding belief that art must relate to lived experiences. His best work strikes a delicate ba...
Category

1940s American Modern Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Leaping Marlin (with fisherman on the boat Islander) by John Whorf
By John Whorf
Located in Hudson, NY
John Whorf captures one of the thrilling moments of fishing in this watercolor – when the fish is on the line, but still trying to escape. One of the fastest fish in the world, marlin fishing...
Category

1950s American Modern Animal Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Green Landscape, Watercolor and Ink on Paper, circa 1926
By Leon Kelly
Located in Doylestown, PA
"Green Landscape" by Philadelphia born modernist and surrealist painter Leon Kelly, is a framed and matted landscape painting. The 17.5" x 23.5" watercolor and ink on paper is signed...
Category

1920s American Modern Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Archival Ink, Watercolor, Archival Paper

Mid Century "Napa Valley Landscape" Watercolor Painting
By Frederick Pomeroy
Located in Arp, TX
Frederick Pomeroy "Napa Valley Landscape" c. 1960s Watercolor on paper 17"x14" brown wood frame float mount over linen mat Signed in paint lower ...
Category

1960s American Modern Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor, Archival Paper

Recently Viewed

View All