Léonie Contat

Léonie Contat (1878 - 1969) Bou Saada, Algeria - Orientalist Switzerland

ca. 1950

Gustav Melcher (German, 1898-?) Segelschiffe vor Venedig - Sailing ships off Venice • India ink, water colour wash • Visible image ca. 11.5 x 18 cm • Glased Frame ca. 20 x 25 cm • Verso various inscriptions • Signed lower right Gustav Melcher was a German painter and a pioneer in film, film criticism and film theory and created this clever little picture of the skyline of Venice with various vessels. Going by the various inscriptions an the backing paper, this drawing was made in 1918 when Gustav was twenty years old and passed on three years later to Gertrud Melcher on the 1. 2. 1921. I have no reasons to doubt this information. The small drawing is still in its unopened frame, so maybe there is more information to be discovered , however this will be the privilege of the next owner. The picture also has retained its original antique frame – note that it has lost over the years various sections of the gesso decoration. The very precisely executed drawing is most enjoyable to look at and doing so, remember you are looking through the eyes of a young man, who saw this foreign sea cape over a century ago. Thank you for your interest and please note, that I offer free worldwide shipping on all my items. Gustav Melcher began his studies at the Düsseldorfer Kunstakademie under Peter Janssen and Eduard von Gebhardt. Originaly he was interested in figurative and portrait painting, but after time he decided to pursue the depiction of land- and marinescapes. Durin his studies the young artist undertook trips to visit England, Scotland, Belgium and France and he joined the artist society Malkasten. It was in those days he would hold speeches to his colleges about this new invention called ‘Kintopp’ – Melcher was a great advocate of the moving pictures...

Ludovico Zambeletti (Italian, 1881 - 1966) Barche da pesca - Fishing boats • Water colour on paper, visible image ca. 9 x 13.5 cm • Glased frame ca. 18 x 25 cm • Signed bottom right Ludovico Zambeletti was born on the 19th of April, 1881 into a wealthy industrialist Milanese family. He was classically educated in the arts, enrolled into the Studio all’Academia di Brera and then studied under Cessare Tallone, Guiseppe Mentessi, Vespassiano Bignami and Camillo Rapetti...

Charles George Nicholls (English, flourished 1792 - 1818) Picturesque Gangetic Landscape in India • Circa 1805 • Watercolour on thick paper, ca. 20 x 49.5 cm • Mounted behind a modern passpartout, visible image ca. 19 x 49 cm • Original Georgian frame (newly glassed) , ca. 39 x 70 cm • Signed lower left corner Worldwide shipping is complimentary - There are no additional charges for handling & delivery. Very detailed watercolor painting - note how light reflecting off the water surface was skillfully created by scratching the paper surface. Charles G(J)eorge Nicholls, originally a merchant seaman, was a contemporary of Thomas and William Daniell, and like them, he made several sketching trips whilst in India, including up the Dohab, which is from where this drawing appears to be of. He worked as draughtsman for the East India Company based in Calcutta and was also employed by the Office of the Surveyor-General, where he was involved in the Survey of Orissa, South Bengal. Unfortunately bad eyesight truncated his career and he returned to England in 1815. Nicholls signed his middle name’George’ using a ‘G’, aswell as a ‘J.’ Nicholl’s work surfaces from time to time and can command high prices at auction – especially for his Indian landscapes. For example, a drawing by Nicholls ( a page of an album) was auctioned by Sotheby's (Valuable Printed Books, June 1997, Lot 407), or a series of water coulours were auctioned by Christie's (Visions of India, June 1998) and in September 2000 two small drawings were auctioned again by Christie's (Exploration & Travel with Visions of India). Also, I know there is a unsigned water colour titled 'Bridge over the River Bama by Benares' in the collection of the Oriental & India Office Collections (OICO) at the British Library. Here is a rare opportunity, to acquire a large format watercolor (double album page), featuring a very impressive view of what India looked like over 200 years ago - seen through the eyes of a skilled artist, in employment by the famous East India Company. I also think that as India opens up more and more rapidly to the world and enjoys increasing prosperity, the interest in cultural heritage, trophy objects like the one I am offering here today, will find their way back to India, into a collection or onto a wall in a chic office or luxurious apartment. The water colour drawing...

Alfred Paul Emil Etienne Dumont (Swiss, * 13. Juni 1828 in Baulmes; † 7th August 1894 in Geneva) Vue de Cerlier au lac de Bienne avec Île Saint-Pierre (Figures at an open fire, wit...

Paul Schürch (Swiss, ∗ 14.2.1886 Wangen b. Olten, † 11.12.1939 Bern) Romantic Landscape in area of Solothurn, Switzerland • Charcoal/Pencil drawing delicately heightened in various...

Fanny Wimot Currey (Irish, 1848 - 1917) Via Crucis Via Lucis • Pencil on paper ca. 31 x 25 cm • Signed & dated lower right 1883 • The sheet measures ca. 31.2 x 23.2 cm • The image ...

This is an exclusive handprinted limited edition cyanotype. "Azure Clouds" is an cyanotype of the semi-abstract patterns of clouds in the sky, showing shad...

PLAN OF A PART OF NEWPORT, R.I. SHOWING CHANGES IN HIGHWAYS ASKED FOR BY O.H.P. BELMONT, ESQ. The original ink and watercolor plan on paper from 1907. The plan is extremely large; if fully assembled it would measure no less than 11.5 feet in height and 6.5 feet in breadth. Segmented and backed on modern linen in four sections – each section is 70 x 39 inches. This grand oversized folding map can be folded down to four sections each 17.5 x 11 inches and stored in a modern made leather and marble paper case 18 x 11.75 x 3 inches. Text continues, "Prepared for Charles Warren Lippitt at the office of J. P. Cotton, C.E. Newport, R.I. Oct. 28, 1907." A fine manuscript plan of the Bellevue neighborhood of Newport, depicting the street layout and the detailed footprints of the area’s many mansions. The plan was produced at the behest of Charles Warren Lippett (1846-1924), who served as governor of Rhode Island from 1895-1897. The Lippett “Breakwater” mansion is also shown on this plan, situated at the southernmost tip of the peninsula. Though the circumstances are unclear, Lippitt seems to have requested the plan be drawn out of some concern for road construction proposed by Oliver Hazard Perry...

Lighthearted Illustration of Outdoor Pursuits This one being cross country hiking signed "W. Steig" Provenance: from Mrs. Joseph B. Ryan, Commissioned by Joe Ryan for the bar at his ski resort, Mount Tremblant Lodge, in 1938. Mont Tremblant, P.Q., Canada Watercolor and ink on illustration board, sights sizes 8 1/2 x 16 1/2 in., framed. In 1938 Joe Ryan, described as a millionaire from Philadelphia, bushwhacked his way to the summit of Mont Tremblant and was inspired to create a world class ski resort at the site. In 1939 he opened the Mont Tremblant Lodge, which remains part of the Pedestrian Village today. This original illustration is on Whatman Illustration board. the board measures 14 X 22 inches. label from McClees Galleries, Philadelphia, on the frame backing paper. William Steig, 1907 – 2003 was an American cartoonist, sculptor, and, in his later life, an illustrator and writer of children's books. Best known for the picture books Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, Abel's Island, and Doctor De Soto, he was also the creator of Shrek!, which inspired the film series of the same name. He was the U.S. nominee for both of the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Awards, as a children's book illustrator in 1982 and a writer in 1988. Steig was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1907, and grew up in the Bronx. His parents were Polish-Jewish immigrants from Austria, both socialists. His father, Joseph Steig, was a house painter, and his mother, Laura Ebel Steig, was a seamstress who encouraged his artistic leanings. As a child, he dabbled in painting and was an avid reader of literature. Among other works, he was said to have been especially fascinated by Pinocchio.He graduated from Townsend Harris High School at 15 but never completed college, though he attended three, spending two years at City College of New York, three years at the National Academy of Design and a mere five days at the Yale School of Fine Arts before dropping out of each. Hailed as the "King of Cartoons" Steig began drawing illustrations and cartoons for The New Yorker in 1930, producing more than 2,600 drawings and 117 covers for the magazine. Steig, later, when he was 61, began writing children's books. In 1968, he wrote his first children's book. He excelled here as well, and his third book, Sylvester and the Magic Pebble (1969), won the Caldecott Medal. He went on to write more than 30 children's books, including the Doctor DeSoto series, and he continued to write into his nineties. Among his other well-known works, the picture book Shrek! (1990) formed the basis for the DreamWorks Animation film Shrek (2001). After the release of Shrek 2 in 2004, Steig became the first sole-creator of an animated movie franchise that went on to generate over $1 billion from theatrical and ancillary markets after only one sequel. Along with Maurice Sendak, Saul Steinberg, Ludwig Bemelmans and Laurent de Brunhofff his is one of those rare cartoonist whose works form part of our collective cultural heritage. In 1984, Steig's film adaptation of Doctor DeSoto directed by Michael Sporn was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. As one of the most admired cartoonists of all time, Steig spent seven decades drawing for the New Yorker magazine. He touched generations of readers with his tongue–in–cheek pen–and–ink drawings, which often expressed states of mind like shame, embarrassment or anger. Later in life, Steig turned to children's books, working as both a writer and illustrator. Steig's children's books were also wildly popular because of the crazy, complicated language he used—words like lunatic, palsied, sequestration, and cleave. Kids love the sound of those words even if they do not quite understand the meaning. Steig's descriptions were also clever. He once described a beached whale as "breaded with sand." Throughout the course of his career, Steig compiled his cartoons and drawings into books. Some of them were published first in the New Yorker. Others were deemed too dark to be printed there. Most of these collections centered on the cold, dark psychoanalytical truth about relationships. They featured husbands and wives fighting and parents snapping at their kids. His first adult book, Man About Town, was published in 1932, followed by About People, published in 1939, which focused on social outsiders. Sick of Each Other, published in 2000, included a drawing depicting a wife holding her husband at gunpoint, saying, "Say you adore me." According to the Los Angeles Times, fellow New Yorker artist Edward Sorel...

Lighthearted Illustration of Outdoor Pursuits This one being a Skiing scene, a boy and a girl on skis. signed W. Steig Provenance: from Mrs. Joseph B. Ryan, Commissioned by Joe Ryan for the bar at his ski resort, Mount Tremblant Lodge, in 1938. Mont Tremblant, P.Q., Canada Watercolor and ink on illustration board, sights sizes 8 1/2 x 16 1/2 in., framed. In 1938 Joe Ryan, described as a millionaire from Philadelphia, bushwhacked his way to the summit of Mont Tremblant and was inspired to create a world class ski resort at the site. In 1939 he opened the Mont Tremblant Lodge, which remains part of the Pedestrian Village today. This original illustration is on Whatman Illustration board. the board measures 14 X 22 inches. label from McClees Galleries, Philadelphia, on the frame backing paper. William Steig, 1907 – 2003 was an American cartoonist, sculptor, and, in his later life, an illustrator and writer of children's books. Best known for the picture books Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, Abel's Island, and Doctor De Soto, he was also the creator of Shrek!, which inspired the film series of the same name. He was the U.S. nominee for both of the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Awards, as a children's book illustrator in 1982 and a writer in 1988. Steig was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1907, and grew up in the Bronx. His parents were Polish-Jewish immigrants from Austria, both socialists. His father, Joseph Steig, was a house painter, and his mother, Laura Ebel Steig, was a seamstress who encouraged his artistic leanings. As a child, he dabbled in painting and was an avid reader of literature. Among other works, he was said to have been especially fascinated by Pinocchio.He graduated from Townsend Harris High School at 15 but never completed college, though he attended three, spending two years at City College of New York, three years at the National Academy of Design and a mere five days at the Yale School of Fine Arts before dropping out of each. Hailed as the "King of Cartoons" Steig began drawing illustrations and cartoons for The New Yorker in 1930, producing more than 2,600 drawings and 117 covers for the magazine. Steig, later, when he was 61, began writing children's books. In 1968, he wrote his first children's book. He excelled here as well, and his third book, Sylvester and the Magic Pebble (1969), won the Caldecott Medal. He went on to write more than 30 children's books, including the Doctor DeSoto series, and he continued to write into his nineties. Among his other well-known works, the picture book Shrek! (1990) formed the basis for the DreamWorks Animation film Shrek (2001). After the release of Shrek 2 in 2004, Steig became the first sole-creator of an animated movie franchise that went on to generate over $1 billion from theatrical and ancillary markets after only one sequel. Along with Maurice Sendak, Saul Steinberg, Ludwig Bemelmans and Laurent de Brunhofff his is one of those rare cartoonist whose works form part of our collective cultural heritage. In 1984, Steig's film adaptation of Doctor DeSoto directed by Michael Sporn was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. As one of the most admired cartoonists of all time, Steig spent seven decades drawing for the New Yorker magazine. He touched generations of readers with his tongue–in–cheek pen–and–ink drawings, which often expressed states of mind like shame, embarrassment or anger. Later in life, Steig turned to children's books, working as both a writer and illustrator. Steig's children's books were also wildly popular because of the crazy, complicated language he used—words like lunatic, palsied, sequestration, and cleave. Kids love the sound of those words even if they do not quite understand the meaning. Steig's descriptions were also clever. He once described a beached whale as "breaded with sand." Throughout the course of his career, Steig compiled his cartoons and drawings into books. Some of them were published first in the New Yorker. Others were deemed too dark to be printed there. Most of these collections centered on the cold, dark psychoanalytical truth about relationships. They featured husbands and wives fighting and parents snapping at their kids. His first adult book, Man About Town, was published in 1932, followed by About People, published in 1939, which focused on social outsiders. Sick of Each Other, published in 2000, included a drawing depicting a wife holding her husband at gunpoint, saying, "Say you adore me." According to the Los Angeles Times, fellow New Yorker artist Edward Sorel...

Charles Lewis Fussell (American, 1840–1909) Abandoned House on Country Road Watercolor on paper, 14 x 23 7/8 inches FRAMED: 31 1/4 x 39 1/4 inches Sig...

A Collection of Botanical Watercolours: Drawings of British Plants Emily Stackhouse (1811-1870) perfectly illustrates the Victorian fascination with the countryside in this remark...