Charcoal Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Title: Cubist Nude Study Seated Woman Modernist Charcoal Drawing on Paper Guy Nicod (French 1923 - 2021) Charcoal on artist paper, unframed Size: 25.75 x 17.25 inches (height x widt...

Jane Freilicher Untitled I, 1958-59 Signed lower right Charcoal on paper 11 1/2 x 8 3/4 inches Provenance: Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York Private Collection, New York Jane Freilic...

Manfred Schwartz (American, b. Poland, 1909-1970), Still Life of Seashells, Charcoal on Paper, with the artist's signature stamped lower right, unframed. 20" H x 25.75" W. Provenance...

Black and white charcoal on toned Grey archival paper signed and dated by artist. fantasy cat lady

Sitting is a charcoal drawing realized by Mino Maccari  (1924-1989) in the Mid-20th Century. Hand-signed. Good conditions with slight foxing. Mino Maccari (Siena, 1924-Rome, June ...

Landscape is an original modern artwork realized by Achille Lega in 1928. Black and white charcoal drawing. Published on the Art Review "Il Selvaggio". Hand signed and dated on th...

Modern early black and white artist self portrait by Houston artist Edsel Cramer. The work features a young portrait of the artist staring directly forward and cropped within an off-...

Portrait is an Original Charcoal Drawing realized in the late-19th century by Edouard Dufeu (1836-1900). Hand-signed by the artist on the lower right corner. Edouard Dufeu coming from a family originally from Egypt , Dufeu moved to Paris in 1860 and frequented the studio of Charles Gleyre...

The Compassion is an original Drawing on paper realized by painter Pierre Georges Jeanniot (1848-1934) in the 1890s. Drawing in Charcoal. Hand-signed on the lower. Good conditions...

A Colorful, Panoramic Mid-Century Modern View of the famed fishing village (and renowned surfing locale) of Nazaré, Portugal by Rudolph Pen. Painted in the 1960s, this vivid waterco...

Roman Dances and Songs is an original modern artwork realized by an Anonymous Italian painter in the middle of the XIX Century. Original Drawing on paper: charcoal and pencil on iv...

This is a wonderful drawing by one of America's most treasured artists, Chaim Gross. Throughout his lifetime Gross has gone through tragedy and a real test of faith however, he has t...

Drawing in chalk and pastel on dark grey Strathmore paper signed bottom left.

A Vibrant, Colorful Modern Watercolor, "Garden in a City Park" by Noted Chicago Artist, Rudolph T. Pen. Painted in the 1960s, most likely depicting a city garden in Europe, Mexico o...

"Seated Cat" is an original charcoal drawing by Sylvia Spicuzza. The artist stamped her signature lower right and wrote the title in charcoal lower left. This piece is a study of a b...

Oscar Bluemner was a German and an American, a trained architect who read voraciously in art theory, color theory, and philosophy, a writer of art criticism both in German and English, and, above all, a practicing artist. Bluemner was an intense man, who sought to express and share, through drawing and painting, universal emotional experience. Undergirded by theory, Bluemner chose color and line for his vehicles; but color especially became the focus of his passion. He was neither abstract artist nor realist, but employed the “expressional use of real phenomena” to pursue his ends. (Oscar Bluemner, from unpublished typescript on “Modern Art” for Camera Work, in Bluemner papers, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, as cited and quoted in Jeffrey R. Hayes, Oscar Bluemner [1991], p. 60. The Bluemner papers in the Archives [hereafter abbreviated as AAA] are the primary source for Bluemner scholars. Jeffrey Hayes read them thoroughly and translated key passages for his doctoral dissertation, Oscar Bluemner: Life, Art, and Theory [University of Maryland, 1982; UMI reprint, 1982], which remains the most comprehensive source on Bluemner. In 1991, Hayes published a monographic study of Bluemner digested from his dissertation and, in 2005, contributed a brief essay to the gallery show at Barbara Mathes, op. cit.. The most recent, accessible, and comprehensive view of Bluemner is the richly illustrated, Barbara Haskell, Oscar Bluemner: A Passion for Color, exhib. cat. [New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 2005.]) Bluemner was born in the industrial city of Prenzlau, Prussia, the son and grandson of builders and artisans. He followed the family predilection and studied architecture, receiving a traditional and thorough German training. He was a prize-winning student and appeared to be on his way to a successful career when he decided, in 1892, to emigrate to America, drawn perhaps by the prospect of immediate architectural opportunities at the Chicago World’s Fair, but, more importantly, seeking a freedom of expression and an expansiveness that he believed he would find in the New World. The course of Bluemner’s American career proved uneven. He did indeed work as an architect in Chicago, but left there distressed at the formulaic quality of what he was paid to do. Plagued by periods of unemployment, he lived variously in Chicago, New York, and Boston. At one especially low point, he pawned his coat and drafting tools and lived in a Bowery flophouse, selling calendars on the streets of New York and begging for stale bread. In Boston, he almost decided to return home to Germany, but was deterred partly because he could not afford the fare for passage. He changed plans and direction again, heading for Chicago, where he married Lina Schumm, a second-generation German-American from Wisconsin. Their first child, Paul Robert, was born in 1897. In 1899, Bluemner became an American citizen. They moved to New York City where, until 1912, Bluemner worked as an architect and draftsman to support his family, which also included a daughter, Ella Vera, born in 1903. All the while, Oscar Bluemner was attracted to the freer possibilities of art. He spent weekends roaming Manhattan’s rural margins, visiting the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and New Jersey, sketching landscapes in hundreds of small conté crayon drawings. Unlike so many city-based artists, Bluemner did not venture out in search of pristine countryside or unspoiled nature. As he wrote in 1932, in an unsuccessful application for a Guggenheim Fellowship, “I prefer the intimate landscape of our common surroundings, where town and country mingle. For we are in the habit to carry into them our feelings of pain and pleasure, our moods” (as quoted by Joyce E. Brodsky in “Oscar Bluemner in Black and White,” p. 4, in Bulletin 1977, I, no. 5, The William Benton Museum of Art, Storrs, Connecticut). By 1911, Bluemner had found a powerful muse in a series of old industrial towns, mostly in New Jersey, strung along the route of the Morris Canal. While he educated himself at museums and art galleries, Bluemner entered numerous architectural competitions. In 1903, in partnership with Michael Garven, he designed a new courthouse for Bronx County. Garven, who had ties to Tammany Hall, attempted to exclude Bluemner from financial or artistic credit, but Bluemner promptly sued, and, finally, in 1911, after numerous appeals, won a $7,000 judgment. Barbara Haskell’s recent catalogue reveals more details of Bluemner’s architectural career than have previously been known. Bluemner the architect was also married with a wife and two children. He took what work he could get and had little pride in what he produced, a galling situation for a passionate idealist, and the undoubted explanation for why he later destroyed the bulk of his records for these years. Beginning in 1907, Bluemner maintained a diary, his “Own Principles of Painting,” where he refined his ideas and incorporated insights from his extensive reading in philosophy and criticism both in English and German to create a theoretical basis for his art. Sometime between 1908 and 1910, Bluemner’s life as an artist was transformed by his encounter with the German-educated Alfred Stieglitz, proprietor of the Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession at 291 Fifth Avenue. The two men were kindred Teutonic souls. Bluemner met Stieglitz at about the time that Stieglitz was shifting his serious attention away from photography and toward contemporary art in a modernist idiom. Stieglitz encouraged and presided over Bluemner’s transition from architect to painter. During the same period elements of Bluemner’s study of art began to coalesce into a personal vision. A Van Gogh show in 1908 convinced Bluemner that color could be liberated from the constraints of naturalism. In 1911, Bluemner visited a Cézanne watercolor show at Stieglitz’s gallery and saw, in Cézanne’s formal experiments, a path for uniting Van Gogh’s expressionist use of color with a reality-based but non-objective language of form. A definitive change of course in Bluemner’s professional life came in 1912. Ironically, it was the proceeds from his successful suit to gain credit for his architectural work that enabled Bluemner to commit to painting as a profession. Dividing the judgment money to provide for the adequate support of his wife and two children, he took what remained and financed a trip to Europe. Bluemner traveled across the Continent and England, seeing as much art as possible along the way, and always working at a feverish pace. He took some of his already-completed work with him on his European trip, and arranged his first-ever solo exhibitions in Berlin, Leipzig, and Elberfeld, Germany. After Bluemner returned from his study trip, he was a painter, and would henceforth return to drafting only as a last-ditch expedient to support his family when his art failed to generate sufficient income. Bluemner became part of the circle of Stieglitz artists at “291,” a group which included Marsden Hartley, John Marin, and Arthur Dove. He returned to New York in time to show five paintings at the 1913 Armory Show and began, as well, to publish critical and theoretical essays in Stieglitz’s journal, Camera Work. In its pages he cogently defended the Armory Show against the onslaught of conservative attacks. In 1915, under Stieglitz’s auspices, Bluemner had his first American one-man show at “291.” Bluemner’s work offers an interesting contrast with that of another Stieglitz architect-turned-artist, John Marin, who also had New Jersey connections. The years after 1914 were increasingly uncomfortable. Bluemner remained, all of his life, proud of his German cultural legacy, contributing regularly to German language journals and newspapers in this country. The anti-German sentiment, indeed mania, before and during World War I, made life difficult for the artist and his family. It is impossible to escape the political agenda in Charles Caffin’s critique of Bluemner’s 1915 show. Caffin found in Bluemner’s precise and earnest explorations of form, “drilled, regimented, coerced . . . formations . . . utterly alien to the American idea of democracy” (New York American, reprinted in Camera Work, no. 48 [Oct. 1916], as quoted in Hayes, 1991, p. 71). In 1916, seeking a change of scene, more freedom to paint, and lower expenses, Bluemner moved his family to New Jersey, familiar terrain from his earlier sketching and painting. During the ten years they lived in New Jersey, the Bluemner family moved around the state, usually, but not always, one step ahead of the rent collector. In 1917, Stieglitz closed “291” and did not reestablish a Manhattan gallery until 1925. In the interim, Bluemner developed relationships with other dealers and with patrons. Throughout his career he drew support and encouragement from art cognoscenti who recognized his talent and the high quality of his work. Unfortunately, that did not pay the bills. Chronic shortfalls were aggravated by Bluemner’s inability to sustain supportive relationships. He was a difficult man, eternally bitter at the gap between the ideal and the real. Hard on himself and hard on those around him, he ultimately always found a reason to bite the hand that fed him. Bluemner never achieved financial stability. He left New Jersey in 1926, after the death of his beloved wife, and settled in South Braintree, Massachusetts, outside of Boston, where he continued to paint until his own death in 1938. As late as 1934 and again in 1936, he worked for New Deal art programs designed to support struggling artists. Bluemner held popular taste and mass culture in contempt, and there was certainly no room in his quasi-religious approach to art for accommodation to any perceived commercial advantage. His German background was also problematic, not only for its political disadvantages, but because, in a world where art is understood in terms of national styles, Bluemner was sui generis, and, to this day, lacks a comfortable context. In 1933, Bluemner adopted Florianus (definitively revising his birth names, Friedrich Julius Oskar) as his middle name and incorporated it into his signature, to present “a Latin version of his own surname that he believed reinforced his career-long effort to translate ordinary perceptions into the more timeless and universal languages of art” (Hayes 1982, p. 189 n. 1). In 1939, critic Paul Rosenfeld, a friend and member of the Stieglitz circle, responding to the difficulty in categorizing Bluemner, perceptively located him among “the ranks of the pre-Nazi German moderns” (Hayes 1991, p. 41). Bluemner was powerfully influenced in his career by the intellectual heritage of two towering figures of nineteenth-century German culture, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. A keen student of color theory, Bluemner gave pride of place to the formulations of Goethe, who equated specific colors with emotional properties. In a November 19, 1915, interview in the German-language newspaper, New Yorker Staats-Zeitung (Abendblatt), he stated: I comprehend the visible world . . . abstract the primary-artistic . . . and after these elements of realty are extracted and analyzed, I reconstruct a new free creation that still resembles the original, but also . . . becomes an objectification of the abstract idea of beauty. The first—and most conspicuous mark of this creation is . . . colors which accord with the character of things, the locality . . . [and which] like the colors of Cranach, van der Weyden, or Durer, are of absolute purity, breadth, and luminosity. . . . I proceed from the psychological use of color by the Old Masters . . . [in which] we immediately recognize colors as carriers of “sorrow and joy” in Goethe’s sense, or as signs of human relationship. . . . Upon this color symbolism rests the beauty as well as the expressiveness, of earlier sacred paintings. Above all, I recognize myself as a contributor to the new German theory of light and color, which expands Goethe’s law of color through modern scientific means (as quoted in Hayes 1991, p. 71). Hayes has traced the global extent of Bluemner’s intellectual indebtedness to Hegel (1991, pp. 36–37). More specifically, Bluemner made visual, in his art, the Hegelian world view, in the thesis and antithesis of the straight line and the curve, the red and the green, the vertical and the horizontal, the agitation and the calm. Bluemner respected all of these elements equally, painting and drawing the tension and dynamic of the dialectic and seeking ultimate reconciliation in a final visual synthesis. Bluemner was a keen student of art, past and present, looking, dissecting, and digesting all that he saw. He found precedents for his non-naturalist use of brilliant-hued color not only in the work Van Gogh and Cezanne, but also in Gauguin, the Nabis, and the Symbolists, as well as among his contemporaries, the young Germans of Der Blaue Reiter. Bluemner was accustomed to working to the absolute standard of precision required of the architectural draftsman, who adjusts a design many times until its reality incorporates both practical imperatives and aesthetic intentions. Hayes describes Bluemner’s working method, explaining how the artist produced multiple images playing on the same theme—in sketch form, in charcoal, and in watercolor, leading to the oil works that express the ultimate completion of his process (Hayes, 1982, pp. 156–61, including relevant footnotes). Because of Bluemner’s working method, driven not only by visual considerations but also by theoretical constructs, his watercolor and charcoal studies have a unique integrity. They are not, as is sometimes the case with other artists, rough preparatory sketches. They stand on their own, unfinished only in the sense of not finally achieving Bluemner’s carefully considered purpose. The present charcoal drawing is one of a series of images that take as their starting point the Morris Canal as it passed through Rockaway, New Jersey. The Morris Canal industrial towns that Bluemner chose as the points of departure for his early artistic explorations in oil included Paterson with its silk mills (which recalled the mills in the artist’s childhood home in Elberfeld), the port city of Hoboken, Newark, and, more curiously, a series of iron ore mining and refining towns, in the north central part of the state that pre-dated the Canal, harkening back to the era of the Revolutionary War. The Rockaway theme was among the original group of oil paintings that Bluemner painted in six productive months from July through December 1911 and took with him to Europe in 1912. In his painting journal, Bluemner called this work Morris Canal at Rockaway N.J. (AAA, reel 339, frames 150 and 667, Hayes, 1982, pp. 116–17), and exhibited it at the Galerie Fritz Gurlitt in Berlin in 1912 as Rockaway N. J. Alter Kanal. After his return, Bluemner scraped down and reworked these canvases. The Rockaway picture survives today, revised between 1914 and 1922, as Old Canal, Red and Blue (Rockaway River) in the collection of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D. C. (color illus. in Haskell, fig. 48, p. 65). For Bluemner, the charcoal expression of his artistic vision was a critical step in composition. It represented his own adaptation of Arthur Wesley’s Dow’s (1857–1922) description of a Japanese...

Manfred Schwartz (American, b. Poland, 1909-1970), Still Life of Seashells, Charcoal on Paper, with the artist's signature stamped lower right, unframed. 20" H x 25.75" W. Provenance...

Manfred Schwartz (American, b. Poland, 1909-1970), Beach Seascape, Charcoal on Paper, with the artist's signature stamped lower right, unframed. 20" H x 25.5" W. Provenance: From a 3...

A Stunning Mid-Century Modern Cubist Watercolor, Harbor Scene & Rooftops by Noted Chicago Artist, Rudolph T. Pen. A vivid European harbor scene, depicting the whitewashed buildings ...

Manfred Schwartz (American, b. Poland, 1909-1970), Reclining, Charcoal on Paper, with the artist's signature stamped lower left, unframed. 18" H x 24" W. Provenance: From a 35 East 7...

Manfred Schwartz (American, b. Poland, 1909-1970), Portrait of a Man, Charcoal on Paper, with the artist's signature stamped lower left, unframed. 20" H x 25.5" W. Provenance: From a...

Manfred Schwartz (American, b. Poland, 1909-1970), Portrait of a Woman, Charcoal on Paper, with the artist's signature stamped lower right, unframed. 24.25" H x 19" W. Provenance: Fr...

Manfred Schwartz (American, b. Poland, 1909-1970), Beach Seascape, Charcoal on Paper, with the artist's signature stamped lower right, unframed. 25.5" H x 20" W. Provenance: From a 3...

A Fine 1930s, Modern Academic Figure Study Drawing of a Standing Male Nude Model by Notable Chicago Artist, Harold Haydon (Am. 1909-1994). An exceptionally well executed, early 1930...

A Fine, Mid-Century Modern 1950s Drawing of a Reclining African American Male Nude Model by Notable Chicago Artist, Harold Haydon (Am. 1909-1994). A well executed studio figure stud...

A Large, Dynamic 1950s Mid-Century Modern Watercolor of Lower Manhattan, New York City by Noted Chicago Artist, Francis Chapin (Am. 1899-1965). The image is watercolor, pastel and c...

Charcoal and watercolor realized by Mino Maccari in the mid-20th Century. Hand Signed in pen lower left. Very good condition.

A Fine 1930s Modern Academic Figure Study Drawing, Standing Male Nude Model by Notable Chicago Artist, Harold Haydon (Am. 1909-1994). An exceptionally well executed early 1930s char...

Manfred Schwartz (American, b. Poland, 1909-1970), Rockwall Seascape, Charcoal on Paper, with the artist's signature stamped lower right, unframed. 19" H x 24" W. Provenance: From a ...

A stunning ensemble of fiour original mid century illustrations for Herman Melville's "Moby Dick" . Whilst sharing the modernist, stylis...

Manfred Schwartz (American, b. Poland, 1909-1970), Female Nude, Charcoal on Paper, woman with arms above head, with the artist's signature stamped upper left, unframed. 20" H x 14.25...

Manfred Schwartz (American, b. Poland, 1909-1970), Rockwall Seascape, Charcoal on Paper, with the artist's signature stamped lower right, unframed. 19" H x 24" W. Provenance: From a ...

A Stylized, 1930s Art Deco Pastel Landscape Drawing of Two Young Men Planting a Tree by Notable Chicago Modern Artist, Harold Haydon (Am. 1909-1994). Artwork size: 9 x 12 inches, u...

Abstracted New York City landscape drawing of urban rooftops and tree tops "Rooftops", created by William Clutz in 1977 30 x 20 inches, charcoal and pastel on paper 33 x 25 inches in light wood frame This framed pastel on paper was made in 1977 by William Clutz. It features an abstracted depiction of New York City rooftops as seen from a high window. Of particular note is the artist's technique with pastel; a wonderful texture and motion is created by closely woven striated lines. Sunlight reflects off brown rooftops and peaking green tree tops. The charcoal and pastel drawing is framed in a natural light wood frame with non-reflective glass and wire backing for installation. About the Artist: Renowned as the “impressionist of the contemporary metropolis”, William Clutz uses the city, in its entirety, as his subject. Pedestrians crossing streets become stars of the stage; the hustle and bustle of traffic and surrounding buildings are the chorus; each play their part in the overall composition. Lighting and color shift this observation of the everyday into a remarkable wonder. “It is surely Clutz”, wrote Gerrit Henry in Art News, 1979, “an artist who has rejected the niceties of representation in favor of the quintessence.” The young artist moved to New York City in 1955 and just four years later had his first solo exhibit at the Condon Riley Gallery. Clutz went on to show in major uptown galleries such as David Herbert, where, notably in 1962 he received a NYTimes review titled, Return of the Figure. That same year, his role in the revival of figuration was further solidified with inclusion in the MoMA group show, Recent Painting USA, The Figure. This was a pivotal turning point from which emerged a 50-year exhibiting career. Resume Born: Gettysburg, PA 1933 Mercersburg, PA 1933-1951 New York City 1955-1996 Education Painting: Thomas Danaher(WPA artist) 1944-51 Mercersburg Academy, PA 1947...

Manfred Schwartz (American, b. Poland, 1909-1970), Still Life of Seashells, Charcoal on Paper, with the artist's signature stamped lower right, unframed. 20" H x 25.5" W. Provenance:...

A Charming, 1940s American Scene study of a Man Seated at a Table by Notable Chicago Modern Artist, Harold Haydon (Am. 1909-1994). A delightful sketch ("Dinner at the Windermere Hot...

A Fine, Mid-Century Modern 1950s Drawing of a Seated African American Male Nude Model by Notable Chicago Artist, Harold Haydon (Am. 1909-1994). A well executed studio figure study d...

Watercolor on paper realized by Mino Maccari in 1958 ca. Hand signed in pen lower right. Good condition.

A Fine 1930s Modern Academic Figure Study Drawing of a Seated Male Nude Model by Notable Chicago Artist, Harold Haydon (Am. 1909-1994). An exceptionally well executed early 1930s ch...

Watercolor on paper realized by Mino Maccari in 1950s. Hand signed lower right. Very good condition.

A Fine, Modern 1930s Art Deco Female Figure Study (Seated Nude, Back) by Notable Chicago Artist, Harold Haydon (Am. 1909-1994). An exceptionally well executed, early 1930s charcoal ...

A Fine 1930s Modern Academic Figure Study Drawing, Seated Male Nude Model by Notable Chicago Artist, Harold Haydon (Am. 1909-1994). An exceptionally well executed early 1930s charco...

China ink drawing realized by Mino Maccari in 1930s. Not signed. Very good condition.

Figurative drawing with graphite, charcoal, and conte crayon on Arches paper 30 x 19 inches, unframed One piece of 30 x 19 inch Arches paper. Two drawings on opposite sides. These u...

Charcoal and watercolor drawing on brown paper realized by Mino Macari in 1960 ca. Hand signed lower right. Very good condition.

Watercolor on paper realized by Mino Maccari in the early 1930s. Probably a study for a woodcut realized for the illustrated book "Bestie del 900". Very good condition.

Sunil Das - Early Horses VI - 19.5 x 29 inches (unframed size) Charcoal on paper (Framed & Delivered) Sunil Das was one of India's most important postmodernist painters and rose to ...

A Fine, Mid-Century Modern 1950s Figure Study Portrait Drawing of an African American Male Model by Notable Chicago Artist, Harold Haydon (Am. 1909-1994). A well executed, Academic ...

Portrait of Man is an original drawing, pencil, charcoal, watercolor on paper, realized by Albert Decaris in the mid-20th Century. Good conditions.

Watercolor on paper realized by Mino Maccari in the mid-20th Century. Hand signed in pencil lower right. Very good condition.

Watercolor on paper realized by Maccari in 1930s. Hand signed lower right. Very good condition.

A Fine 1930s, Modern Academic Figure Study Drawing of a Standing Male Nude Model by Notable Chicago Artist, Harold Haydon (Am. 1909-1994). An exceptionally well executed, early 1930...

A Fine 1930s, Modern Academic Figure Study Drawing of a Seated Male Nude Model by Notable Chicago Artist, Harold Haydon (Am. 1909-1994). An exceptionally well executed early 1930s c...

A Fine, Modern 1930s Academic Anatomical Figure Study of a Standing Male Model (Leg, Knee and Foot) by Notable Chicago Artist, Harold Haydon (Am. 1909-1994). A well executed, early ...

A Fine 1930s, Modern Academic Figure Study Drawing of a Standing Male Nude Model by Notable Chicago Artist, Harold Haydon (Am. 1909-1994). An exceptionally well executed, early 1930...

Charcoal, collage and watercolor realized by Mino Maccari in 1955 ca. Hand signed in pencil lower right. Very good condition.

A Charming 1930s Charcoal Study of Three Young Men Reading by a Lakehouse Window by Notable Chicago Artist, Harold Haydon (Am. 1909-1994). Most likely completed during the summer mo...

Charcoal and watercolor drawing on paper realized by Mino Maccari. Hand signed lower right. Very good condition except for some minor foxing.

Charcoal drawing realized by Mino Maccari in 1946 ca. Hand signed lower right. Very good condition.

A Fine 1930s, Modern Academic Figure Study Drawing of a Standing Male Nude Model by Notable Chicago Artist, Harold Haydon (Am. 1909-1994). An exceptionally well executed, early 1930...