1940s Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

A graphite on paper, untitled mural study, Cubist scene of a rail yard by important Chicago Modernist artist Rudolph Weisenborn, ca. 1940. Artwork size: 11 3/4" x 9 3/4". Archivally matted to 16" x 18". Provenance: Estate of the artist. Rudolph Weisenborn was born in Strassburg, Germany in 1881, but was orphaned at the age of nine. He was taken-in by Mid-Western farmer Thomas Westaby and spent his early years in Wisconsin, Iowa and North Dakota. Weisenborn first attended the University of North Dakota in 1898, then the Students School of Art in Denver. Various accounts have him working out west as a gold miner and cowboy. Around 1912, he settled in Chicago and worked as a window designer for Marshall Field’s. Weisenborn is best known as the founder of the Chicago No-Jury Society of Artists. The group was founded because many artists could not get their work accepted into the mainstream Art Institute shows. Weisenborn is quoted as saying that he harbored feelings of disdain for any jury and that his own paintings were frequently rejected by conservative jurors. He was also involved and helped found other radical artist’s groups such as the Salon des Refuses, Cor Ardens and Neo-Arlimusic. In 1936, he helped found the New York-based American Abstract Artist’s Group. He created the only abstract mural for the 1933 Century of Progress Exhibition in Chicago and also worked for the Federal Arts Project in the Easel Division. His WPA murals can be found in Crane Technical High School and Nettlehorst Elementary School in Chicago, IL. In 1945, Chicago businessman Herman Spertus...

Beautifully executed oil pastel on archival paper by the renowned American artist Louis Kronberg. Signed lower left with the artist’s trademark Star of David symbol after his signat...

Horses Leaving the Barn Watercolor on paper, 1940 Signed and dated lower left corner (see photo) Condition: Excellent Image: 14 1/2 x 21” Frame: 25” x 31” Provenance; Associated American Artists, New York (see photo of label) Mamdouha and Elmer Holmes Bobst Displayed in an original wormy chestnut frame with OP3 Acrylic. Most probably from the AAA Dehn watercolor exhibition of 1940. Vintage original framing chosen by the artist. Note: Elmer Holmes Bobst (1884–1978) was an American businessman and philanthropist who worked in the pharmaceutical industry. His wife, Mamdouha, was also well known philanthropist. Bobst was born in Lititz, Pennsylvania. He aspired to become a doctor, but instead, he taught himself pharmacology. After his wife Ethel composed his interview letter, he became manager and treasurer of the Hoffman-LaRoche Chemical Works by 1920. When Bobst retired from the company in 1944, he was one of the nation's highest paid corporate executives. In 1945 he took charge of the ailing William Warner Company (later Warner–Lambert) and he remained board chairman until his retirement. Bobst had close connections to President Dwight Eisenhower, but was also a close friend of President Richard Nixon. Note: In 1940, the year of this watercolor, Dehn and Elizabeth Timmerman visited Waterville, MN on their way to Colorado Sprint, Colorado where Dehn was to teach lithography and watercolor. This watercolor is obviously a view of the area around Waterville. Adolf Dehn, American Watercolorist and Printmaker, 1895-1968 Adolf Dehn was an artist who achieved extraordinary artistic heights, but in a very particular artistic sphere—not so much in oil painting as in watercolor and lithography. Long recognized as a master by serious print collectors, he is gradually gaining recognition as a notable and influential figure in the overall history of American art. In the 19th century, with the invention of the rotary press, which made possible enormous print runs, and the development of the popular, mass-market magazines, newspaper and magazine illustration developed into an artistic realm of its own, often surprisingly divorced from the world of museums and art exhibitions, and today remains surprisingly overlooked by most art historians. Dehn in many regards was an outgrowth of this world, although in an unusual way, since as a young man he produced most of his illustrative work not for popular magazines, such as The Saturday Evening Post, but rather for radical journals, such as The Masses or The Liberator, or artistic “little magazines” such as The Dial. This background established the foundation of his outlook, and led later to his unique and distinctive contribution to American graphic art. If there’s a distinctive quality to his work, it was his skill in introducing unusual tonal and textural effects into his work, particularly in printmaking but also in watercolor. Jackson Pollock seems to have been one of many notable artists who were influenced by his techniques. Early Years, 1895-1922 For an artist largely remembered for scenes of Vienna and Paris, Adolf Dehn’s background was a surprising one. Born in Waterville, Minnesota, on November 22, 1895, Dehn was the descendent of farmers who had emigrated from Germany and homesteaded in the region, initially in a one-room log cabin with a dirt floor. Adolf’s father, Arthur Clark Dehn, was a hunter and trapper who took pride that he had no boss but himself, and who had little use for art. Indeed, during Adolf’s boyhood the walls of his bedroom and the space under his bed were filled with the pelts of mink, muskrats and skunks that his father had killed, skinned and stretched on drying boards. It was Adolf’s mother, Emilie Haas Dehn, a faithful member of the German Lutheran Evangelical Church, who encouraged his interest in art, which became apparent early in childhood. Both parents were ardent socialists, and supporters of Eugene Debs...

Paris: Pont Alexandre III by Henri Miloch (1898-1979) signed lower right watercolour and gouache painting on artist's paper, unframed Sheet:: 13 x 9.75 inches Charming painting by ...

ORIGINAL INK ON PAPER SIGNED WITH THE ESTATE INITIALS STAMP Unique piece

Paris: A Collection of Three Paintings of Paris Scenes by Henri Miloch (1898-1979) the Eiffel Tower painting is signed front lower right and also inscribed to the back, the Versailles painting...

Provenance An American Place, New York; World House Galleries, New York, 1953; Private collection, New York; Betty Krulik Fine Art, 2007; Avery Galleries until present Exhibitions An American Place, New York, Exhibition of New Arthur G. Dove Paintings...

Ira Moskowitz, Polish/American (1912 - 2001) - Interior Navajo Trading Post, Year: 1946, Medium: Lithograph, Signed in Pencil, Size: 12 in. x 15 in. (30.48 cm x 38.1 cm), Frame Size: 18 x 21 inches, Description: This greyscale depiction of the interior space of a Navajo trading post features an Old Western...

La Traviata - Rodolphe - 4th act is a modern artwork realized in 1948 century by Erté (Romain de Tirtoff). Mixed colored gouache on paper. Hand signed on...

Original ink on paper Hand signed lower right Unique piece

A ca. 1945, Cubist black & white graphite drawing of fruit by artist Illinois and Michigan artist Stanley Bielecky. Image size: 4" x 5". Archivally matted to: 13 1/4" x 16". Stanley Bielecky was an Indiana artist who painted the American scene, from the factories and workers around East Chicago to the bucolic settings of Mackinac Island...

Signed lower left, 'D. Badcock' for Douglas Badcock (New Zealander, 1922-2009) and painted circa 1948. Preferring to paint en plein-air, Douglas earned a reputation as one of New Ze...

Insetto is an original artwork realized by Ivan Mosca in 1945. Original Drawing. Colored pencils on cardboard. Hand-signed and titled by the artist on the lower right corner. Very good conditions. Very fresh and delicate artwork representing an insect in foreground realized with colored pens. Ivan Mosca (Parma, 1915 - Rome, 2005) was an Italian artist and painter. He moved to Milan where he attended the School of Book and the Istituto Superiore per le Industrie Artistiche in Monza. He was interested by the abstract art and met the artists of the Gallery "Il Milione", such as Osvaldo Licini...

La Traviata - Dancer of the Bohemian Ballet - 3rd Act is a modern artwork realized in 1948 century by Erté (Romain de Tirtoff). Mixed colored gouache on ...

This original watercolor painting by American artist Edgar Britton captures the serene beauty of a Colorado mountain landscape. Created in 1946, this piece showcases soft, airy tones...

Wheeler Williams (American, 1897-1972) Study for Twilight, 1947 Pencil on paper 9 1/4 x 12 1/4 in. Signed lower right: Wheeler Williams, 1947 Inscribed: Study for Twilight A native of Chicago, Wheeler Williams is known for his allegorical, narrative work including "Tablets to Pioneers" on the Michigan Avenue bridge in Chicago, and "Settlers of the Seaboard" in Fairmount Park in Philadelphia. He graduated with honors from Yale University in 1919 and earned a Master of Architecture degree from Harvard in 1922. He studied at the Art Institute of Chicago with sculptor Albin Polasek...

Latvia-born William Sanderson became a contributor to the New Yorker and New Masses magazines during the 1930s. He was drafted into the Army during World Wa...

An early 1940s fashion study featuring a woman wearing a hat, suit and purse. Provenance: Cornelia Steckl-Jurin, Founder of the Fashion Department at the School of the Art Institu...

Le Croates is an original drawing in ink and watercolor realized by Herbert Knotel in 1930/40s. Good condition except for being aged. The artwork is depicted through strong lines i...

Villeneuve cloister in Avignon is a watercolor on paper, realized by Leon Boulier, 1941.  26 x 35 cm. Titled lower  left side. Hand signed on the back. Good conditions

Vivid watercolor of a country house and grove of trees in a rural landscape of rolling green hills, with farm animals in the distance, by California artist Rene Weaver (American, 189...

Significant 1940s work titled "Toiler's House" by George Demont Otis (American, 1879-1962). Titled "Toiler's House on the bottom left and signed "George Demont Otis" on the bottom right. Presented in a black wood frame. Image size, 12"H x 18"W. Otis was born in Memphis, Tennessee where he was orphaned at age six and was raised by his grandmother in Chicago...

La obra va firmada con el sello de testamentería en la parte inferior La obra se presenta enmarcada Medidas de la obra: 30 cm. de altura x 41 cm. de ancho Medidas del marco: 52 cm...

Study of Animals is a beautiful pencil original drawing on ivory-colored paper, realized in 1974 by the German artist Wilhelm Lorenz, best know as Willi Lorenz. Signed and dated " Willi Lorenz, München '74" in pencil on lower right margin. This is a preparatory study representing the profiles of a big...

Wheeler Williams (American, 1897-1972) Untitled Study, 1942 Pencil on paper 8 3/4 x 11 3/4 in. Signed lower right: Wheeler Williams, 1942 A native of Chicago, Wheeler Williams is known for his allegorical, narrative work including "Tablets to Pioneers" on the Michigan Avenue bridge in Chicago, and "Settlers of the Seaboard" in Fairmount Park in Philadelphia. He graduated with honors from Yale University in 1919 and earned a Master of Architecture degree from Harvard in 1922. He studied at the Art Institute of Chicago with sculptor Albin Polasek...

Pencil drawing on paper from 1944. Signed and dated with cypher. Paper size 4 x 6" (10 x 15.1 cm). Werner Drewes (1899-1985), painter, printmaker, educator and lecturer, was...

San Gabriel Mountain Landscape in Black and White - Graphite Pencil on Paper Detailed mountain landscape by Ralph Holmes (American, 1876-1963). Signed lower right corner "Ralph Hol...

Couple is an original drawing in mixed media realized in 1940 ca. by an unknown artist of the 20 Century. Very good conditions. The artwork represents a hugging lover expressed th...

Eve Nethercott, American (1925 - 2015) - Canal (P2.51), Year: 1947, Medium: Watercolor on Paper, Size: 13 x 12 in. (33.02 x 30.48 cm), Description: Viewed through the shimmer...

Eve Nethercott, American (1925 - 2015) - Stairway to the Sea (85), Year: 1949, Medium: Watercolor, Size: 15 in. x 18 in. (38.1 cm x 45.72 cm), Description: Leading down to the ...

Eve Nethercott, American (1925 - 2015) - Rockport (P5.69), Year: 1948, Medium: Watercolor on Paper, Size: 18 x 24 in. (45.72 x 60.96 cm), Description: Looking out over large ...

Eve Nethercott, American (1925 - 2015) - Flushing Armory (P6.6), Year: 1949, Medium: Watercolor on Paper, Size: 15 x 19.5 in. (38.1 x 49.53 cm), Description: Looking up throu...

Eve Nethercott, American (1925 - 2015) - Rockport (P5.54), Year: 1948, Medium: Watercolor on Paper, Size: 18 x 20 in. (45.72 x 50.8 cm), Description: This view of Rockport, M...

Eve Nethercott, American (1925 - 2015) - Rockport (P6.4), Year: 1948, Medium: Watercolor on Paper, Size: 18 x 23 in. (45.72 x 58.42 cm), Description: Eve Nethercott's view of...

Eve Nethercott, American (1925 - 2015) - Still Life with Walnuts (P6.27), Year: 1948, Medium: Watercolor on Paper, Size: 13 x 10 in. (33.02 x 25.4 cm), Description: This Eve ...

Eve Nethercott, American (1925 - 2015) - Flowers (P6.50), Year: 1948, Medium: Watercolor on Paper, Size: 22 x 15 in. (55.88 x 38.1 cm), Description: Eve Nethercott's colorful...

Eve Nethercott, American (1925 - 2015) - Rockport (P6.40), Year: 1948, Medium: Watercolor on Paper, Size: 16 x 11 in. (40.64 x 27.94 cm), Description: Eve Nethercott's waterc...

Bungalow (fauvist painting of New York scene) 1940's. image is 10X 11.5 inches. Hand signed lower right Country Scene Samuel Grunvald was a Hungarian born American WPA artist known for abstract, landscape and seascape paintings. Arrived in the USA from Hungary in 1921 and settled in New York City where he studied at the Art Students League. Grunvald worked for the Federal Art Project, taught at Colony House in NYC. Member: Art Guild, Watercolor Society, New York Watercolor Club. exhibited at Montross Gallery, NYC, World House Galleries, NYC, Leonard Hutton Gallery, NYC, Associated American Artists Gallery and the A.C.A. Gallery. Gunvald's work spanned many modern American movements from the WPA to Abstract Expressionist painting. He was a member of the American Watercolor Society and the Brooklyn Society of Artists. He exhibited with both of these organizations and at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. He was involved the the WPA being a Federal Arts Project artist. A number of prominent Jewish artists participated in this New Deal program among them Ben Shahn, Joseph Solman, William Gropper, Philip Guston Adolph Gottlieb, Mark Rothko, Milton Avery, Ben Shahn, the Soyers (Isaac, Moses, and Raphael), and many others Grunwald exhibited alongside other popular artists such as Paul Klee, Jean Arp, Max Ernst and Charles Burchfield. He also taught and lectured on art and easel painting, Federal Art Project, NYC. His work is included in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art and The Jewish Museum, New York. Americana. The Catskills became a major resort destination for Jewish New Yorkers in the mid-20th century. Borscht Belt is an informal term for the summer resorts of the Catskill Mountains in Sullivan and Ulster counties in upstate New York which were frequented by Ashkenazi Jews. At its peak of popularity, about 500 resorts operated in the region. Later changes in vacationing patterns have led most of those travelers elsewhere, although there are still bungalow communities and summer camps in the towns of Liberty, Bethel, Monticello and Fallsburg catering to Orthodox Jewish populations. Borscht Belt, The term, which derives from the name of a beet soup popular with people of Eastern European origin, can also refer to the Catskill region itself. In August, 1969, the Catskills were the site of a music and art festival in the town of Bethel, which had originally been planned for Woodstock, New York. Thirty-three of the best-known musicians of the era appeared during a sometimes rainy weekend in front of nearly half a million concertgoers. The event, featuring liberal drug use and nudity, exemplified the counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s. Select Exhibitions A.C.A. Gallery Associated American Artists Gallery, 1936-1955 American Watercolor Society, 1932-1942 New York Watercolor Club, 1935-1937 Humanist Art...

MARINO MARINI 1901-1980 Pistoia, Italy 1901-1980 Viareggio, Italy (Italian) Title: Jugglers and Horse Giocolieri e Cavallo, 1943 Technique: Double-sided Hand Signed and Dated Pencil, Watercolour and Gouache on Thin Card Paper size: 49 x 34.5 cm. / 19.3 x 13.6 in. Additional information: This pencil, watercolour and gouache work is hand signed and dated in pencil by the artist "Locarno 1943 Marino" in the lower left image. It is also signed in ink "Marino" in the lower right image. The drawing was created in Locarno in 1943. Furthermore, there is a sketch of Horse...

Portrait is an original pen drawing realized by Umberto Maria Casotti in 1947. Good condition on a yellowed cardboard. Hand-signed and dated by the artist on the lower right corner...

This sensitively rendered though powerful ink on paper was created in 1946 shortly after Loew returned from active duty where he served at the US Naval airbase on Tinian Island, the ...

Abstract Composition is an original artwork realized by Michel Cadoret. Penmarker on paper. The monogram of the artist is on the lower right corner. ...

Substantial and period mid-century modern American Scene watercolor of the Oakland, California countryside by Erle Loran (American, 1905-1999), 1944. Signed lower right "Earl Loran...

An early 1940s black & white fashion study featuring an advertisement for women's hats by Lilly Daché. Provenance: Cornelia Steckl-Jurin, Founder of the Fashion Department at the Sc...

Original watercolor with graphite tracings of interior crowded pub scene by the British artist, George Anderson Short. Signed bottom left. Circa...

Wonderful watercolor landscape of Finland countryside in Winter during WWII by O. Makela (Finnish/American, 19/20th Century), 1942. Signed and dated lower right corner. Condition: ve...

Le Croates is an original drawing in ink and watercolor realized by Herbert Knotel in 1930/40s. Good condition except for being aged. The artwork is depicted through strong lines i...

Signed lower right, 'Michel Kady' and dated 1948. A substantial watercolor on Arches paper showing a coastal scene with figures walking beside the Pacific Ocean beneath imposing cli...

Nude is an original drawing in Sanguine pastel on paper realized in 1940 ca. by Joseph Kaplan (1900-1980). Stamp on the lower right. The state of preservation is good except for s...

untitled (Maine Landscape near Mt. Desert Island) Watercolor on paper, c. 1945-1955 Signed by the artist lower left (see photo) Provenance: Estate of the artist Condition: Excellent ...

Lionel S. Reiss (1894 - 1988) Lobstermen in Gloucester, Massachusetts, circa 1943 Watercolor on paper Sight 17 1/2 x 23 inches Signed lower left Provenance: Private Collection, Las Vegas, Nevada In describing his own style, Lionel Reiss wrote, “By nature, inclination, and training, I have long since recognized the fact that...I belong to the category of those who can only gladly affirm the reality of the world I live in.” Reiss’s subject matter was wide-ranging, including gritty New York scenes, landscapes of bucolic Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and seascapes around Gloucester, Massachusetts. However, it was as a painter of Jewish life—both in Israel and in Europe before World War II—that Reiss excelled. I.B. Singer, the Nobel Prize winner for Literature, noted that Reiss was “essentially an artist of the nineteenth century, and because of this he had the power and the courage to tell visually the story of a people.” Although Reiss was born in Jaroslaw, Poland, his family immigrated to the United States in 1898 when he was four years old. Reiss's family settled on New York City’s Lower East Side and he lived in the city for most of his life. Reiss attended the Art Students League and then worked as a commercial artist for newspapers and publishers. As art director for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, he supposedly created the studio’s famous lion logo. After World War I, Reiss became fascinated with Jewish life in the ‘Old World.’ In 1921 he left his advertising work and spent the next ten years traveling in Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. Like noted Jewish photographers Alter Kacyzne and Roman Vishniac, Reiss depicted Jewish life in Poland prior to World War II. He later wrote, “My trip encompassed three main objectives: to make ethnic studies of Jewish types wherever I traveled; to paint and draw Jewish life, as I saw it and felt it, in all aspects; and to round out my work in Israel.” In Europe, Reiss recorded quotidian scenes in a variety of media and different settings such as Paris, Amsterdam, the Venice ghetto, the Jewish cemetery in Prague, and an array of shops, synagogues, streets, and marketplaces in the Jewish quarters of Warsaw, Lodz, Krakow, Lublin, Vilna, Ternopil, and Kovno. He paid great attention to details of dress, hair, and facial features, and his work became noted for its descriptive quality. A selection of Reiss’s portraits appeared in 1938 in his book My Models Were Jews. In this book, published on the eve of the Holocaust, Reiss argued that there was “no such thing as a ‘Jewish race’.” Instead, he claimed that the Jewish people were a cultural group with a great deal of diversity within and between Jewish communities around the world. Franz Boas...

Lionel S. Reiss (1894 - 1988) New York City Skyline View from the East River Watercolor on paper 13 x 19 inches Signed lower left In describing his own style, Lionel Reiss wrote, “By nature, inclination, and training, I have long since recognized the fact that...I belong to the category of those who can only gladly affirm the reality of the world I live in.” Reiss’s subject matter was wide-ranging, including gritty New York scenes, landscapes of bucolic Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and seascapes around Gloucester, Massachusetts. However, it was as a painter of Jewish life—both in Israel and in Europe before World War II—that Reiss excelled. I.B. Singer, the Nobel Prize winner for Literature, noted that Reiss was “essentially an artist of the nineteenth century, and because of this he had the power and the courage to tell visually the story of a people.” Although Reiss was born in Jaroslaw, Poland, his family immigrated to the United States in 1898 when he was four years old. Reiss's family settled on New York City’s Lower East Side and he lived in the city for most of his life. Reiss attended the Art Students League and then worked as a commercial artist for newspapers and publishers. As art director for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, he supposedly created the studio’s famous lion logo. After World War I, Reiss became fascinated with Jewish life in the ‘Old World.’ In 1921 he left his advertising work and spent the next ten years traveling in Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. Like noted Jewish photographers Alter Kacyzne and Roman Vishniac, Reiss depicted Jewish life in Poland prior to World War II. He later wrote, “My trip encompassed three main objectives: to make ethnic studies of Jewish types wherever I traveled; to paint and draw Jewish life, as I saw it and felt it, in all aspects; and to round out my work in Israel.” In Europe, Reiss recorded quotidian scenes in a variety of media and different settings such as Paris, Amsterdam, the Venice ghetto, the Jewish cemetery in Prague, and an array of shops, synagogues, streets, and marketplaces in the Jewish quarters of Warsaw, Lodz, Krakow, Lublin, Vilna, Ternopil, and Kovno. He paid great attention to details of dress, hair, and facial features, and his work became noted for its descriptive quality. A selection of Reiss’s portraits appeared in 1938 in his book My Models Were Jews. In this book, published on the eve of the Holocaust, Reiss argued that there was “no such thing as a ‘Jewish race’.” Instead, he claimed that the Jewish people were a cultural group with a great deal of diversity within and between Jewish communities around the world. Franz Boas...

Le Croates is an original drawing in ink and watercolor realized by Herbert Knotel in 1930/40s. Good condition except for being aged. The artwork is depicted through strong lines i...

Le Croates en Allemagne is an original drawing in ink and watercolor realized by Herbert Knotel in 1930/40s. Good condition except for being aged. The artwork is depicted through s...

Le Croates en Allemagne is an original drawing in ink and watercolor realized by Herbert Knotel in 1930/40s. Good condition except for being aged. The artwork is depicted through strong lines in well-balanced conditions. Herbert Knotel was a german artist, son and pupil of the famous uniformologist and military historian Richard Knotel. He served as officer under Marshal Hindenburg in the Prussian Army...

Karlis Miesnieks (1887.31.I – 1977.25.X) Studied in the studio of J. Madernieks (1910), in Petersburg society of Imperial art promotion school (1911) and he graduated class of theat...

Original mid-century illustration for the children's book "Good Work" by John G. McCullough, Young Scott Books, N.Y. It depicts a busy harbor filled with commercial and leisure traffic. Notice all the charming little people, busy at work - dotting the docks and boats. Ipcar masterfully designed the work so that your eye effortlessly travels from more prominent foreground elements to more minor elements in the distance. But her color scheme limited only to two colors sets "Harbor Scene" apart from the humdrum and elevates it to a sophisticated children's book illustration. The suspension bridge in the back of the composition is modeled after the Golden Gate. The illustration bears the hallmarks of modernism with its flat shapes and quick painterly style. "Harbor Scene" represents the artist's early style. By the '60s and '70s, her work began to take on a new direction with intricate patterns and depicting animals. Signed lower right with the artist's label on verso. Dahlov Ipcar...

The Carousel is an original Modern Artwork realized in 1949 by the Italian artist Renzo Vespignani (Rome, 1924 - Rome, 2001). Original black ink and pen on ivory paper. Hand-sign...