James McBey

Greetings from 1. Holland Park Avenue, London

1931

Thunderstorm over Boston. July 14, 1930. Ink and watercolor on paper. 10 5/8 x 17 5/8 (sheet 12 x 19 1/4). Signed and dated and titled in ink, lower right; titled verso and annotated...

Gathering Vraic on a Jersey Shore. c. 1937. Ink and watercolor on 'Castle Linen Tolli & Harvey LD London' countermarked paper. 7 1/8 x 13 1/2 (sheet 12 1/2 x 16 1/4). Good condition, apart from small professionally repaired paper losses at the corners, from previous hinges. Dedicated 'To my friend Harold James Bailey E.B.' and annotated 'To wish you a glad glow of happiness for Christmas and the New Year'. From the collection of the famous Blampied scholar and collector, Harold J. Bailey, who wrote an article, 'Edmund Blampied: Artist and Philosopher' in the Print Collector's Quarterly 24 (1937). Housed in a 15 1/2 x 21 1/2-inch Whistler style gold wood frame. In the left rear section is a Martello or Conway tower, built as a fortiffiction. A Jersey Round Tower Coastal towers stand all along the coast of the island. The British built 22 round towers, one similar square tower, and eight Martello towers towards the end of the 18th Century and in the early to mid-19th Century, but now only 24 remain, including seven of the Martellos. Vraic is a seaweed found in the Channel Islands. The main use of vraic is for spreading over potato fields during the winter. It is then ploughed into the soil before the potatoes are planted in late winter and spring. Vraic was traditionally gathered by horse and cart in Grouville Bay and St Ouen's Bay, and in smaller quantities at Le Hocq and Havre des Pas. The practice continues using...

Gravesend. August 1928. Ink and watercolor on paper. 13 1/2 x 21. Signed and dated in ink, lower left; and titled in ink, verso. Housed in a 24 1/2 x 31-inch Whistler-style gold frame. Gravesend is a town in northwest Kent, England, on the south bank of the Thames, opposite Tilbury in Essex, about 15 miles southeast of London. Born in Newburgh near Aberdeen, James McBey attended evening classes at Graydon's School of Art and taught himself etching, building his own press at the age of fifteen. He moved to London to prepare for a one-man show at Goupil's Gallery, and shortly after this highly successful first show, he traveled to Morocco with James Kerr Lawson...

Rio della Misericordia. October 1924. Watercolor. 14 x 8 3/4. McBey did a striking nocturnal view of the bridge in his 1926 drypoint, The Bridge by Night Carter 232. Signed and dated, lower right; titled verso. Housed in a French mat and a 22 x 16 1/2-inch gold leaf frame. The Rio Della Misericordia ( from the Venetian to the Misericordia Canal ) is a canal from Venice in the sestiere of Cannaregio, Contrada San Marzillan in Italy. The river runs along the old Servite convent. The canal is crossed by two bridges, from east to west: the San Marziale spawning linking the campo of the same name with the Fondamenta de la Misericordia and the dei dei Servi or Betania linking the Mensa di Betania to the Fondamenta de la Misericordia . Born in Newburgh near Aberdeen, James McBey attended evening classes at Graydon's School of Art and taught himself etching, building his own press at the age of fifteen. He moved to London to prepare for a one-man show at Goupil's Gallery, and shortly after this highly successful first show, he traveled to Morocco with James Kerr...

Mejdel Yaba. 20 September, 1918 Pencil, ink and watercolour on paper. 8 1/8 x 22. Provenance: The Fine Art Society. Annotated, upper left, "due N at ???' Dated on the ink drawing on ...

Tree Peonies. Watercolor and sumi ink on paper mounted on silk. Image: 29 x 11 1/2. Signed with the artist's red seal. Text: "You can smell the fragrances with the spring breeze touc...

Airacuda Fighter Planes Art Deco Machine Age 20th Century American Modernism Arthur Rosenman Ross (1913 - 1981) Bell YFM-1 Airacuda Fighter Planes 17 1/2 x 26 1/2 inches Gouache, Airbrush and Ink on Illustration Board, 1938 Signed A. Ross lower right Provenance: Estate of the artist. BIO Arthur Rosenman Ross was a key figure in automotive design at General Motors during America's "Golden Age" of auto design, the 1930's through the 1950s. He attended the Art Institute of Chicago from age 17, exhibiting a special interest for automotive renderings and the female figure. In 1934, he changed his name from Rosenman to Ross, fearing his Jewish ancestry could prejudice his career prospects. At age 20, he turned down job offers from MGM Studios in Hollywood and Duesenberg to work at General Motors alongside the Legendary Harley Earl in 1935. He was hand picked by Mr. Earl and assigned to GM's War and Camouflage Division in 1937 through WW2. It was during this pivotal period in which he executed some extraordinary military aircraft artworks, likely used between GM and America's military aeronautics companies in design preparation for WW2. General Motors played an important role in helping America's aircraft manufacturers preceding and during the war. Just after the war in 1945, Mr. Ross was rewarded by GM, being made Chief Designer of Cadillac, then two years later becoming Chief at Oldsmobile until his retirement in 1959. He was in large part responsible for some of GM's classic Cadillac designs such as the Cadillac Sixty Special, Fleetwood, LaSalle and GM's first concept car, the extraordinary Buick Y-Job. Mr. Ross was an exceptionally charismatic and vivacious man who quite by chance, befriended His idol, Salvador Dali at GM in 1955. They talked about art, cars and girls late into the evening, according to his son, Carter Ross. He had a gift in rendering the erotic arts...

Early 1960s work on paper of a group of trees at Buckfast Abbey in Devon, England, by Alban Atkins. Signed bottom left, titled and dated to the reverse. There is also a collection or accession number to the backboard. Atkins has captured the sculptural nature of the tree trunks as they have grown in the landscape giving the work a feeling of living, writhing things as well as an abstract feel in the composition. Atkins was one of the group of important artists chosen and commissioned by Sir Kenneth Clark...

A ca. 1931 charming watercolor forest scene; a study in yellow by artist Harold Haydon. Harold Emerson Haydon was born in Fort William, Ontario, Canad...

Signed lower right, "M. Backman"; additionally signed verso, titled 'Corporation Yard' and painted circa 1960. This notable California woman artist exhibited widely and with success...

Signed lower right, 'Gilberg' for Robert George Gilberg (American, 1911-1970) and painted circa 1965. Born in Oakland, Robert George Gilberg first studied at the Oakland Art Center during the 1930s. Following service during WWII, he settled in Nevada City, California where he lived and painted until shortly before his death in San Francisco. Gilberg exhibited widely and with success and was the recipient of numerous medals, prizes and juried awards, including at the San Francisco Museum of Fine Arts...

Hungarian/American artist/illustrator depicts a charming scene of sledding in the snow in Central Park. The work is abstract in its design as it's functional in its narrative - Unpublished New Yorker...