Rudolph Pen

A Stunning Mid-Century Modern Watercolor, Harbor Scene & Rooftops by Rudolph Pen

A Vibrant, Colorful Mid-Century Watercolor of Village Rooftops by Noted Chicago Artist, Rudolph T. Pen. Depicting a tropical hillside village of terracotta rooftops nestled beside a...

A Charming 1940s Watercolor of Mexico with Cathedral and Rooftops by Noted Chicago Artist, Rudolph T. Pen. Most likely completed during the artist's trip to Mexico in 1944 after rec...

Nathaniel Dirk, 'Cape Ann Harbor View', vintage watercolor on watercolor paper, 1948. A fine, spontaneous rendering, with fresh, undiminished colors, in very good condition; the arti...

The idyllic atmosphere of this local dock scene falls within a couple of styles one being regionalism, an American realist modern art movement that included paintings, murals, lithographs, and illustrations depicting scenes of rural and small-town America primarily in the Midwest and frequently associated with Grant Wood and Thomas Hart Benton. The other style is romanticism wherein the scene depicted is a more desired or dramatic version of what actually is. “Untitled (Dock Scene)” is typical of a small town dock scene from Michigan where Culver lived or from places as far away as Maine, but what makes it important is its easy familiarity: water, gulls or terns, slanting wood shanties, scruffy dirt patches and course grasses. It is not idealized, but does set the tone of fresh air, the scream of birds and the sun on water. This piece has been professionally reframed with acid-free matting and museum glass. In a 1952 Detroit Free Press article, entitled “Artist Explains His Work,” Culver was asked why he painted the way he did. He stated: “I try to ‘see’ though not too exactly; I try to think though not too ponderously; I feel emotion yet I try not to become overwrought. I interpret rather than describe, and design rather than depict. I work with values, not light and shade; hence, when I am successful, I achieve substance rather than three-dimensional form, and this satisfies me as being wholly sufficient. In my work I wish to be serious without becoming a bore, exuberant without being frivolous, humorous without being silly. I believe that good paintings are conceived, not contrived; and I am interested in art much more than in pictures.” Charles Culver...