1950s Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

A captivating Mid-Century watercolor of an old Chicago house (with a female figure standing in the window) by Chicago artist George Yelich. The watercolor bears its original frame. ...

Eve Nethercott, American (1925 - 2015) - Ogunquit Beach, Year: 1958, Medium: Watercolor, Size: 7 in. x 21 in. (17.78 cm x 53.34 cm), Description: Overlooking the dunes of Ogunq...

John Piper (1903-1992) Bullslaughter Bay Watercolour, gouache and pastel on paper 27.5 x 35.5cm John Piper CH was an English painter, printmaker, and designer of stained-glass windo...

A delicate watercolor view of the Bridge at Aylesford over the River Medway in the English county of Kent. Signed lower left "Frank Sherwin", (English,...

This gouache painting by artist Ulrich Franke, circa 1950, offers a feast of varicolored landscapes and textures for the eyes. Brightly hued fields in the foreground lead to a waterf...

This mural depicting ancient myths was designed for the Hotel Ambassador, a skyscraper at 345 Park Avenue, NYC; the building was converted to the Sheraton East in 1958. It was demolished in 1966. It could only be mid-century American! Signed, titled, and annotated, 'Scale 2" = 1' in ink. Edward Laning is largely known as a mural artist. His series The History of the Printed Word is installed at the New York Public Library at 42nd Street, New York City, and Building of the Transcontinental Railroad Mural, is in the Railroad Museum, Ogden, Utah. Laning was briefly a student of Kenneth Hayes Miller at the Art Students League, New York. They were lifelong colleagues and had studios on Union Square near friends Isabel Bishop, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Reginald Marsh, and Raphael Soyer. As a group they were the Fourteenth Street School...

Vintage watercolor by French artist J. Bousquet titled Mesnières Pentecôte, 1954. Signed lower right. Original artwork on paper displayed on a white mat with a gold border. Mat fi...

Watercolor on heavy paper realized by Carlo Ravagnan in 1959. Hand signed and dated lower right. Excellent condition. Carlo Ravagnan was born in Udine on September 4, 1911, died i...

untitled (The White Barn with Farmers and Horse) Watercolor, c. 1950 Signed by the artist in ink lower right: Wm. C. Grauer Numbered in pencil verso: 152 Provenance: Estate of the Ar...

Robert Andrew Parker, American (1927 -2024) - Goodrich Castle Ruins, Year: circa 1959, Medium: Gouache on paper, signed and dated lower left, Size: 23 x 30 in. (58.42 x 76.2 cm), ...

Delightful watercolour by the noted illustrator Montague Birrell Black (1884-1964) & dated 1952 depicting an English country house & gardens Art Sz: 9 1/2"H x 16"W Frame Sz: 15 1/2...

Charming little piece of Bahamian history. This watercolor and gouache is titled cockroach cay which is a small island in the Bahamas. It is titled lower left and initial DW 54 for 1...

Mid-century watercolor painting of coastline by French artist Madeleine Scali (1911-2000), circa 1960. Original artwork on paper displayed on a white mat with a gold border. Mat fit...

Shower at Head of Valley, c. 1950 Watercolor on paper Frank Nelson Wilcox (October 3, 1887 – April 17, 1964) was a modernist American artist and a master of watercolor. Wilcox is described as the "Dean of Cleveland School painters". In 1906 Wilcox enrolled from the Cleveland School of Art...

Morris Cox (1903-1998) Poem 6 from 9 Poems from Nature, 1959 Linocut inked with watercolours Image: 19.0 x 27.0 cm Frame: 34.0 x 41.0 cm Provenance: Morris Cox Archive Morris ...

French watercolor mingles old world charm with impressionistic street view and colorful shop fronts, circa 1950. Original artwork on paper displayed on a white mat with a gold b...

Richly-hued oil pastel drawing of boats docked in a European harbor by artist E. Bachmann, 1955. Original artwork on paper displayed on a white mat with a gold border. Archival pla...

Original watercolor of Monhegan Island, Maine on archival paper by the well known American watercolorist, Ted Davis. Signed lower right and dated 1950. Cond...

Serene watercolor landscape painting of river valley by French artist Tae, circa 1950. Original artwork on paper displayed on a white mat with a gold bo...

Belgium. Gent - A Morning Market by Leonard Machin Rowe (1880-1968) signed and inscribed front lower right corner, inscribed and signed to the back watercolour painting on artist's ...

Impressive watercolor landscape of a charming old world scene of a village in Provence, France by artist Augustin Faure, circa 1950. Original one-of-a-kind artwork on paper displa...

Signed by the artist in pencil lower right Provenance: Estate of the Artist References And Exhibitions: With the artist's own original presentation (frame and matting) Two simil...

Mid Century Country Meadow and Hills Landscape Mid Century California Meadow and Hills landscape, watercolor of a pathway through rolling hills by California artist Rene Weaver (Amer...

WOODED LANDSCAPE WITH HOUSES Signed original brush and ink on wove paper, circa 1950. WOODED LANDSCAPE WITH HOUSES is an original watercolor brush and ink on paper, hand signed in ink pen by African-American artist, teacher, and printmaker Ronald Joseph (1910--1992) Artwork depicts an abstract landscape, is in good condition, paper tape remaining on reverse side edges, mounted in an archival acid-free mat, unframed. Artwork paper size - 18 x 21.5 in. Year created - c. 1950 About the artist - Ronald Joseph (1910 -1992) was born on the island of St. Kitts, West Indies In 1910. When he was very young, his mother decided to move to the United States but she could not afford to take him with her. Mr. and Mrs. Theophilus Joseph, a childless couple who were friends of Joseph’s mother, adopted him. Afterwards, the Joseph family moved to the Island of Dominica, where they stayed for ten years. In 1921, his foster parents also decided to come to the United States. In New York, Joseph met his mother but remained living with his foster parents. In 1926 Ronald Joseph received a scholarship for the Ethical Culture School, were he spent two and half years of his high school period. At this time he obtained an art scholarship through Dr. Henry Fritz, with whom he became acquainted through his art teacher in public school. Joseph was taken into the Saturday art class, where he was the only black participant. An artistic prodigy, Ronald Joseph had his student works shown at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ronald Joseph graduated from Ethical Culture Fieldston School in 1929. He was honored as “the most promising” young artist in New York City’s schools. He began his study at Pratt Institute in 1931 and graduated in 1934. During the 1930s and 1940s, Joseph participated in many exhibitions of African-American art, the Works Progress Administration mural project, and the Harlem Artists Guild. Ronald Joseph enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps at the declaration of World War II and was posted as a member of the ground crew in Tuskegee, Alabama, and in Michigan. At the end of the war in 1945, he received his G. I. Bill of Rights scholarship. In 1948, he was presented with the Rosenwald Fellowship. The funds allowed him to live and work abroad – first in Peru for two years, then in Paris. Joseph used the G.I. bill to study in Paris at the Grande Chaumière. He described this period of his life as being “independent of economy”. His work from these travels is largely undocumented; according to Rosenwald scholar, Daniel Schulman, many pieces of art are undated or simply dated “1948-1952”. After this period he came back to New York without money and work and indicated this as period of hardship. Ronald Joseph left the U.S. in 1956, disappointed in the unreceptiveness of the art world to his work with mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, he felt guilty for having left the U.S. during a period when blacks were struggling for their civil rights; on the other, he felt “lucky” to have been able to live and work in place where he did not feel discrimination as intensely. He emigrated to Belgium and later settled permanently in Brussels. Ronald Joseph was married to Claire Joseph and they had a son, Robin Joseph. In 1989 Joseph returned to the United States after an absence of thirty-three years to attend the Lehman College exhibition and symposium and to renew his old friendships. Afterward, he returned to Brussels where he continued to work as a painter, living there for the remainder of his life. Ronald Joseph started his artistic career in Harlem, New York City at the Harlem Community Arts Center, where he was one of the youngest pupils. Joseph studied lithography and other printmaking techniques with Riva Helfond, who taught him many aspects of the process based on simple techniques, including how to operate the press, and how to prepare the stones. Helfond played a significant role as a teacher of lithography at the Harlem Art Center. Joseph produced his first lithographs under her supervision, and this was at a time when she was just beginning to learn the medium herself. At the Harlem Community Arts Center Joseph met Robert Blackburn, who was his classmate. In 1937 Ronald Joseph depicted Blackburn, in one of his most famous works, that is now located at The Metropolitan Museum collection. Experimenting with lithography and etching, as well as woodblock and silkscreen printing, Joseph explored the techniques of printmaking alongside his friend Robert Blackburn. Joseph described the Harlem Art Center as a “healthy and lively” place, where he had made wonderful friends. In the late thirties, he also served as a teacher at the Harlem Community Arts Center. There Joseph met younger artist Jacob Lawrence and Gwendolyn Knight. They formed a friendship, where they enjoyed conversations and visiting museums together. Both Joseph and Knight would hire Lawrence to pose for them. Jacob Lawrence considered Ronald Joseph to be a very intellectual artist. In the 1930s, Joseph became chairman of the Harlem Artists Guild and represented it in Washington with Stuart Davis and Hugo Gellert. Ronald Joseph was also a participant in the mural section of WPA and a representative of the Harlem Artists’ Guild to the New York World’s Fair (1939-1940). Joseph’s early oil paintings were influenced by Picasso, Braque and other European artists while most of his contemporaries focused on social realism. By 1943, he was hailed by art historian James Porter as New York’s “foremost Negro abstractionist painter”. His pastels and gouaches from the late forties and early fifties showed a highly structured abstraction combined with a studied spontaneity. Ronald Joseph’s finely tuned abstractions often incorporated representational elements along with apparently “purer” forms. He described this aspect of his work in these terms: “It’s not abstract and abstract at the same time. It’s pure creation.” His works from the 1950s employed both still life and landscape as pretexts for masterly exercises in nearly abstract pictorial construction related to cubism and fauvism. During World War II, Joseph was drafted. After the war he formed “a kind of a group” with Robert Blackburn, Charles White, Larry Potter, and Reginald Gammon...

This lovely watercolor, circa 1950, combines soft colors and impressionistic brushstrokes to provide a peaceful view of the rolling countryside. The emerald green line of trees leads...

Here for your consideration is a well executed watercolor and gouache painting by the American artist, James Milton Sessions. Signed lower right. Circa 1955. The landscape is of a Novia Scotia pastoral landscape. Here you see horses grazing and two men fishing nearby. The watercolor is in excellent original condition and is beautifully double matted and framed in a thin gold leaf gallery frame in fine condition. Overall framed measurement 16 by 18.25 inches. James Milton Sessions (born September 20, 1882 in Rome, NY) received his initial exposure to art from his mother, who was an accomplished artist. He trained at the Art Institute of Chicago from 1903–1906 and initially supported himself as a wheelsman aboard Great Lakes ships from 1906–1914, later serving in the Illinois Naval Reserve during World War I. He also worked as a commercial illustrator. He was a master watercolorist of marine, sporting, and military World War II scenes. He developed a love of the sea and is probably best known as a painter of marine subjects. Sessions painted images of numerous locations, from the Bahamas to New England's busy fishing harbors, north to the raw fishing grounds of Nova Scotia, and ultimately to the Navajo reservations in New Mexico. Not only do his works document important World War II historical events, they visually portray and convey the spirit of the American fighting forces in both the Pacific and European campaigns, commencing with the bombing of Pearl Harbor, followed by D-Day Europe through to the final phases of the Pacific war, such as Jimmy Doolittle's daylight bombing raids of the Japanese mainland to the unconditional surrender of the Japanese military. The Chicago Tribune newspaper utilized his talents and Sessions is considered to be the greatest "brush reporter" of World War II. His works can be found in Presidential collections, numerous important corporate collections and military establishments throughout the country. Sessions created numerous wartime advertisements. Examples are a 1943 Willys Jeep ad showing the Coast Guard at Guadalcanal, and a Borg-Warner ad in 1945 showing the mass production of radiators and clutches for motorized warfare manufactured in Detroit. His work is highly collectible in the field of Militaria/WWII/1939-1945. In 1962 the New York Graphic Society commissioned him to make four paintings, reproductions of which were distributed as part of the Society's Works of Masters Group. Many of his other paintings have been reproduced over the years, issued as posters and as high quality reprints on watercolor paper. Sessions was married in Chicago, Illinois in 1946 to Chrysanthy G. Deamanthopulos. Although very prolific in the style of John Whorf and Ogden Pleissner...

A ca. 1950s Cubist watercolor of a brightly-colored dock scene by Chicago and New York artist Rita Duis (Astley-Bell). Archivally matted to 14" x 18". Artist Rita Duis (Astley-Bell...

Eve Nethercott, American (1925 - 2015) - Maine Street (35), Year: circa 1959, Medium: Watercolor, Size: 15 in. x 11 in. (38.1 cm x 27.94 cm), Description: Viewing the street at...

Eve Nethercott, American (1925 - 2015) - House (P1.20), Year: 1959, Medium: Watercolor on Paper, Size: 15 x 22.25 in. (38.1 x 56.52 cm), Description: A common subject in her ...

William Thon, 'Upper Tuscany', a two-sided watercolor, c. 1955. Signed, lower right; titled verso. A fine, expressionist work, with fresh colors, on cream watercolor paper; the image...

Mid-century watercolor painting by artist C. Heintz, circa 1950. Original artwork on paper displayed on a white mat with a gold border. Mat fits a standard-sized frame. Archival pla...

Old Luxembourg. La Passerelle and The Ramparts by Leonard Machin Rowe (1880-1968) signed and inscribed front lower right corner. Inscribed, dated and s...

Eve Nethercott, American (1925 - 2015) - Late Summer (P6.10), Year: 1953, Medium: Watercolor on Paper, Size: 18 x 24 in. (45.72 x 60.96 cm), Description: Looking out over the...

Richard Anuszkiewicz Old Door, 1953 Watercolor on paper Signed and dated by the artist on the lower right front 20 × 14 inches Unframed This unique and extre...

Mid-century painting of boats with bridge in background in muted tones done by French artist Stephane Magnard, circa 1950 Original artwork on paper displayed on a white mat with a g...

V A Hards (British, c. 1930-c. 2012) Design for Modernist Fisherman's Hut Watercolour on wove Signed and dated March 1956 and stamped for Brixton School of Building. 77x55cm Hards w...

Vibrant and inviting watercolor of a busy city scene in Madagascar by French artist Stéphane Magnard, circa 1950. Original artwork on paper displayed on a white mat with a gold bor...

Belgium. Gent Morning Market by Leonard Machin Rowe (1880-1968) signed front lower right, inscribed to the back watercolour painting on artist's paper, unframed Image 9.75 x 13.75 inches, sheet 11 x 15 inches Charming painting by Leon. Rowe, dated on the back as June 1950. Inscribed to the back as a morning sketch in a market in Gent. It depicts a bustling market place, accessed though a stone archway. You can almost hear the clamour of people in this scene, it was clearly a very nice morning. Belgium and Luxembourg were two of Rowe's favourite destinations for his painting trips overseas. Often incorporating figures into his work, his style is very similar to Thomas Morley's paintings of French and Belgian market town scenes. Signed front lower right. To the back are his signature again, date and the inscription. This work forms part of a watercolour collection we currently hold by Rowe. Known as Leon Rowe, the artist was born in central England...

Signed lower right, 'James Vance, AWS', (American, 1919-2007), titled 'Taos' and painted circa 1950. James Vance grew up in Los Angeles and first applied ...

A Cubist watercolor on paper, titled "Dry Dock, Burrard Shipyard, Vancouver" by Chicago and New York artist Rita Duis (Astley-Bell). Image size: 14 3/4" x 22". Archivally matted t...

Mid Century Modern East Bay II Abstracted Landscape by Erle Loran Dynamic mid century abstracted geometric landscape drawing of the East Bay California lands...

Boldly lined pencil drawing of farm workers harvesting and bailing hay by French artist Jean Baptiste Grancher, circa 1950. Original artwork on paper displayed on a white mat with ...

Sterndale Bennett Honor 1886-1975 Watercolour artist, born in Watford, she married into the famous family noted for its composers and for its military members. As an army wife she s...

Belgium. An Afternoon in Antwerp by Leonard Machin Rowe (1880-1968) signed front lower left corner, inscribed and signed to the back watercolour painting on artist's paper, unframed ...

Created circa 1955 by Victor Di Gesu (American, 1914-1988) and stamped verso with certification of authenticity. A mid-twentieth century watercolor and graphite study of an early c...

Eve Nethercott, American (1925 - 2015) - Brussels (P5.30), Year: circa 1950, Medium: Ink and Watercolor on Paper, Size: 14 x 11 in. (35.56 x 27.94 cm), Description: This uniq...

Original watercolor on archival paper of the Cape Neddick Lighthouse in York, Maine. Signed lower right. Circa 1950. Condition is very good. Several tiny spots of foxing. The wa...

Architectural sketch of a popular building in Rome, Italy. Original Pencil on paper. Good conditions.

Abstract Cityscape Mid 20th Century Modern Cubist Work on Paper Drawing Ariel 11 x 4 1/2 inches. Framed by Heydenryk. Provenance: Gary Snyder Fine Art B...

Belgium. Bruges, The Market Square by Leonard Machin Rowe (1880-1968) signed front lower left, inscribed and dated to the back watercolour painting on artist's paper, unframed Image 9.75 x 13.75 inches, sheet 11.25 x 15 inches Colourful and busy painting by Leon. Rowe, dated 1950 to the back. It is signed front lower left and inscribed to the back. The artist painted this view seated facing the 13th century Bell Tower and the Cloth Hall. The statue in the foreground is that of Jan Breydel and Pieter de Coninck flying the Belgian flag...

Belgium. East Flanders - Ghent by Leonard Machin Rowe (1880-1968) signed in both front lower corners, inscribed and dated to the back watercolour painting on artist's paper, unframe...

Countryside  is a colored watercolor realized by Jean Chapin in the First Half 20th Century. The artwork represents a colored landscape. Good conditions except for some foxings.

Inviting watercolor of a small path winding through a quaint town using soft, cool hues by artist Jacques Bouillac, circa 1950. Signed lower right. Original one-of-a-kind artwork ...

The Forest is a drawing realized by an anonymous french artist in the 1950s. Watercolor on paper. Good condition.  Poetic and beautiful drawing with harmonious colors.

Eve Nethercott, American (1925 - 2015) - Island Docks (P3.31), Year: 1952, Medium: Watercolor on Paper, Size: 14 x 18 in. (35.56 x 45.72 cm), Description: Eve Nethercott's wa...

Ruben Gelardi's depiction of a yellow tram in Copenhagen. Pastel on paper measures 15 7/8 x 20; frame dimensions measure 22 1/4 x 26 3/4 x 1 1/4. Artist'...

This framed 26.5" x 16.25" watercolor painting by artist P. Krewer depicts a rocky coastal landscape in Maine. In the foreground are several rock clusters on the coastal edge in mult...

Luxembourg: Place de la Gare (Railway Station) by Leonard Machin Rowe (1880-1968) signed lower right watercolour painting on artist's paper, unframed Image: 9.75 x 13.75 inches, she...

Delightful watercolor of a Madagascar African fishing village by Stéphane Magnard, resident artist to the former French colony from 1950 to 1953. Original artwork on paper displa...

A colorful & charming, Mid-Century, architectural, cityscape of Amsterdam by artist Francis Chapin. Artwork size: 7 3/4" x 10 3/4. Archivally matted to 14" x 18". Provenance: Est...