Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Believing that the departed continue to hold influence over the lives of the living, many Chinese households honor their ancestors in private family rituals, invoking their spirits for long life, health, and prosperity. Commemorative portraits, which came into vogue in the late Ming and Qing dynasties, were commissioned specifically for ancestor worship and were believed to house the spirits of the deceased. When properly cared for, one's ancestors were believed to be a powerful source of honor, protection, and good luck. This pair of ancestor portraits was hand-painted in the mid-19th century and beautifully depicts a Qing-dynasty couple. While some ancestral portraits offer a more stylized representation of one's ancestors, this particular pair is painted with incredible realism and life-like expressions. Rather than depict the pair in a regal hall wearing elaborate finery, the couple is shown in a quiet home environment, seated at either end of a square tea table. Their surroundings are minimal, practically undecorated, and they wear simple, matching blue silk robes...

Andy Warhol (1928-1987) is arguably the most important American artist of the 20th century. He not only defined Pop Art but had an unrivaled influence on artists and image-making. ...

America Martin "Woman with Blossoms" Ink on Paper 33.75” x 31” Framed AMERICA MARTIN is an internationally represented Colombian-American fine artist based in Los Angeles. America ...

Costume Design is an original modern artwork realized in 1970s by Erté (Romain de Tirtoff). Mixed colored gouache on paper. Hand signed on the lower m...

The pair consists of the present work and an engraving after it by the hand of Giles DeMarteau (Liège 1722 – 1776 Paris) titled Woman in Fantasy Costume, after Jean Baptiste Le Prince, and measuring, 10 ⅜ x 8 ⅝ inches (26.5 x 22 cm). DeMarteau's engraving is inscribed at the bottom: Le Prince inv. del. / Demarteau sc. / A Paris ches Demarteau Graveur du Roi, rue de la Pelterie à la Cloche...

America Martin "Man with Blossoms" Ink on Paper 33.5” x 31” Framed AMERICA MARTIN is an internationally represented Colombian-American fine artist based in Los Angeles. America is ...

Man in a blue and brown coat by Manuel Santelices Ink and watercolor on paper Image size: 15" H x 11" W inches. Unframed 2023 Manuel Santelices explores...

The Boats and Boatmen is a beautiful pen drawing on ivory-colored paper, realized in the mid-20th Century and attributed to Herta Hausmann. Good conditions applied on cardboard. Th...

A new coffee table book has just been released titled "Poster Child" The Psychedelic Art & Technicolor Life of David Edward Byrd. This original drawing is featured on page 61 of the book. David Byrd created some of the most memorable Classic Theatre and Rock and Roll images from the 1960s and 70s. David created ALL of the Art for Bill Graham’s Fillmore East, including their Program covers and Rock posters, the art for Jimi Hendrix’s first Fillmore East appearance, The Rolling Stones 1969 World Tour art, The Who’s Performance of Tommy at the New York Metropolitan Opera House and The Fillmore, and The Grateful Dead Swell Dance Concert to name only a few. He also created the poster art for the original location of the 1969 Woodstock music festival . His memorable images were also used for classic Broadway shows like Godspell, Follies and Jesus Christ Superstar to mention only a few. These museum quality drawings are rarely made available for sale, they are not only wonderful rare works of art, but are truly historically important works in the field of Theatre and Rock and Roll collecting. It has been framed with archival double matting. David Byrd's poster art is in many museum collections, including : The Louvre, in Paris, Victoria & Albert in London, The Museum of Modern Art in New York and The Smithsonian in Washington, DC. Featured in this listing is the Original Color pencil Sketch created in 2006 by David Byrd prior to working on the finished painting which we also have available for sale. This drawing created in 2006 is based on David's very first original 1968 drawing for Hendrix's very first Fillmore East concert. It only featured Hendrix, and Bill Graham asked David if he could add the other two members of The Experience, which became the famous Fillmore East orange poster that featured all three members of the Experience. I included and image in this listing of the original pencil drawing from 1968 where you can see Bill requesting all three members to be included in the poster art. In this color rendering, David Byrd indicates two possible color choices for the poster in this sketch by listing the color numbers. He shows one half with one color combination and the other half with a different color combination. That was so that Bill Graham could choose which colors he preferred if the original 1968 poster art was to use this image. A great original color drawing that David Byrd created to show the colors of the first version of the 1968 Hendrix poster...

Judaica watercolor portrait, Israel, signed l.r.

Gouache and charcoal on paper, 53cm x 37cm (74cm x 55cm framed). Provenance: the Artist’s estate (stamped verso). Stonehouse had an extraordinary life. As a young art student studying fashion illustration, he joined the Royal Artillery at the beginning of WWII but soon became a part of the Special Operations Executive (SOE). He was sent to France as a radio operator but three and a half months later was caught by the Gestapo, tortured, given a death sentence and then selected for slave labour. He spent the subsequent war years in three French prisons and five concentration and labour camps, including Dachau. He still managed to continue to draw in some of the camps. Following the war, Stonehouse went to the US and continued his career as a fashion artist painting for magazines...

Working Child is a drawing on creamy color paper realized by Tibor Gertler in the mid-20th century. Charcoal drawing. Good conditions, aged margins. The artwork is uniquely depict...

Very stylish, unique and original 1940's fashion design by French illustrator Geneviève Thomas. The painting, executed in gouache and pencil. The sketch is original, vintage and me...

Pen and ink, ink wash and pencil on paper, signed and dated (lower right), 38cm x 29cm (65cm x 55cm framed). This penetrating and wonderfully executed self-portrait, is all the mor...

The Rainbow Pipe - Fauvist Portrait and Interior in Pastel on Paper Brightly colored abstract portrait by Michael William Eggleston (American, 20th Century). A blue-faced figure on ...

Original graphite drawing by Jean Cocteau . dated 1941 .

Reading Woman is a modern artwork realized in the 1940s by a French artist. Original Pencil Drawing on paper. Passepartout is included (dimensions: cm 38 x 30). Perfect condit...

Abstracted Cubist Lion Portrait in Pastel on Paper Brightly colored abstract portrait by Michael William Eggleston (American, 20th Century). An abstract...

Chaim Gross (American, 1904-1991) Watercolor painting Rabbinical Talmudic Discussion Hand signed 17 x 29 framed, paper 10 x 22 Chaim Gross (March 17, 1904 – May 5, 1991) was an American modernist sculptor and educator. Gross was born to a Jewish family in Austrian Galicia, in the village of Wolowa (now known as Mezhgorye, Ukraine), in the Carpathian Mountains. In 1911, his family moved to Kolomyia (which was annexed into the Ukrainian USSR in 1939 and became part of newly independent Ukraine in 1991). When World War I ended, Gross and brother Avrom-Leib went to Budapest to join their older siblings Sarah and Pinkas. Gross applied to and was accepted by the art academy in Budapest and studied under the painter Béla Uitz, though within a year a new regime under Miklos Horthy took over and attempted to expel all Jews and foreigners from the country. After being deported from Hungary, Gross began art studies at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Vienna, Austria shortly before immigrating to the United States in 1921. Gross's studies continued in the United States at the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design, where he studied with Elie Nadelman and others, and at the Art Students League of New York, with Robert Laurent. He also attended the Educational Alliance Art School, studying under Abbo Ostrowsky, at the same time as Moses Soyer and Peter Blume. In 1926 Gross began teaching at The Educational Alliance, and continued teaching there for the next 50 years. Louise Nevelson was among his students at the Alliance (in 1934), during the time she was transitioning from painting to sculpture. In the late 1920s and early 1930s he exhibited at the Salons of America exhibitions at the Anderson Galleries and, beginning in 1928, at the Whitney Studio Club. In 1929, Gross experimented with printmaking, and created an important group of 15 linocuts and lithographs of landscapes, New York City streets and parks, women in interiors, the circus, and vaudeville. The entire suite is now in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Gross returned to the medium of printmaking in the 1960s, and produced approximately 200 works in the medium over the next two decades. For more than sixty years Chaim Gross's art has expressed optimistic, affirming themes, Judaica, balancing acrobats, cyclists, trapeze artists and mothers and children convey joyfulness, modernism, exuberance, love, and intimacy. This aspect of his work remained consistent with his Jewish Hasidic heritage, which teaches that only in his childlike happiness is man nearest to God. In March 1932 Gross had his first solo exhibition at Gallery 144 in New York City. For a short time they represented Gross, as well as his friends Milton Avery, Moses Soyer, Ahron Ben-Shmuel and others. Gross was primarily a practitioner of the direct carving method, with the majority of his work being carved from wood. Other direct carvers in early 20th-century American art include William Zorach, Jose de Creeft, and Robert Laurent. Works by Chaim Gross can be found in major museums and private collections throughout the United States, with substantial holdings (27 sculptures) at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. A key work from this era, now at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, is the 1932 birds-eye maple Acrobatic Performers, which is also only one and one quarter inch thick. In 1933 Gross joined the government's PWAP (Public Works of Art Project), which transitioned into the WPA (Works Progress Administration), which Gross worked for later in the 1930s. Under these programs Gross taught and demonstrated art, made sculptures that were placed in schools and public colleges, made work for Federal buildings including the Federal Trade Commission Building, and for the France Overseas and Finnish Buildings at the 1939 New York World's Fair. Gross was also recognized during these years with a silver medal at the Exposition universelle de 1937 in Paris, and in 1942, with a purchase prize at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's "Artists for Victory" exhibition for his wood sculpture of famed circus performer Lillian Leitzel. In 1949 Gross sketched Chaim Weizmann, Israeli President, at several functions in New York City where Weizmann was speaking, Gross completed the bust in bronze later that year. Gross returned to Israel for three months in 1951 (the second of many trips there in the postwar years) to paint a series of 40 watercolors of life in various cities. This series was exhibited at the Jewish Museum (Manhattan) in 1953. He also did some important Hebrew medals. In the 1950s Gross began to make more bronze sculptures alongside his wood and stone pieces, and in 1957 and 1959 he traveled to Rome to work with famed bronze foundries including the Nicci foundry. At the end of the decade Gross was working primarily in bronze which allowed him to create open forms, large-scale works and of course, multiple casts. Gross's large-scale bronze The Family, donated to New York City in 1991 in honor of Mayor Ed Koch, and installed at the Bleecker Street Park at 11th street, is now a fixture of Greenwich Village. In 1959, a survey of Gross's sculpture in wood, stone, and bronze was featured in the exhibit Four American Expressionists curated by Lloyd Goodrich at the Whitney Museum of American Art, with work by Abraham Rattner, Doris Caesar, and Karl Knaths. In 1976, a selection from Gross's important collection of historic African sculpture, formed since the late 1930s, was exhibited at the Worcester Art Museum in the show The Sculptor's Eye: The African Art Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Chaim Gross. Gross was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate member, and became a full Academician in 1981. In 1984, he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, with Jacob Lawrence and Lukas Foss. In the fall of 1991, Allen Ginsberg gave an important tribute to Gross at the American Academy of Arts and Letters, which is published in their Proceedings. In 1994, Forum Gallery, which now represents the Chaim Gross estate, held a memorial exhibition featuring a sixty-year survey of Gross's work.In March 1932 Gross had his first solo exhibition at Gallery 144 in New York City. For a short time they represented Gross, as well as his friends Milton Avery, Moses Soyer, Ahron Ben-Shmuel and others. Gross was primarily a practitioner of the direct carving method, with the majority of his work being carved from wood. Other direct carvers in early 20th-century American art include William Zorach, Jose de Creeft, and Robert Laurent. Works by Chaim Gross can be found in major museums and private collections throughout the United States, with substantial holdings (27 sculptures) at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. A key work from this era, now at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, is the 1932 birds-eye maple Acrobatic Performers, which is also only one and one quarter inch thick. In 1933 Gross joined the government's PWAP (Public Works of Art Project), which transitioned into the WPA (Works Progress Administration), which Gross worked for later in the 1930s. Under these programs Gross taught and demonstrated art, made sculptures that were placed in schools and public colleges, made work for Federal buildings including the Federal Trade Commission Building, and for the France Overseas and Finnish Buildings at the 1939 New York World's Fair. Gross was also recognized during these years with a silver medal at the Exposition universelle de 1937 in Paris, and in 1942, with a purchase prize at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's "Artists for Victory" exhibition for his wood sculpture of famed circus performer Lillian Leitzel. In 1949 Gross sketched Chaim Weizmann, President of Israel, at several functions in New York City where Weizmann was speaking, Gross completed the bust in bronze later that year. Gross returned to Israel for three months in 1951 (the second of many trips there in the postwar years) to paint a series of 40 watercolors of life in various cities. This series was exhibited at the Jewish Museum (Manhattan) in 1953. In the 1950s Gross began to make more bronze sculptures alongside his wood and stone pieces, and in 1957 and 1959 he traveled to Rome to work with famed bronze foundries including the Nicci foundry. At the end of the decade Gross was working primarily in bronze which allowed him to create open forms, large-scale works and of course, multiple casts. Gross's large-scale bronze The Family, donated to New York City in 1991 in honor of Mayor Ed Koch, and installed at the Bleecker Street Park at 11th street, is now a fixture of Greenwich Village. In 1959, a survey of Gross's sculpture in wood, stone, and bronze was featured in the exhibit Four American Expressionists curated by Lloyd Goodrich at the Whitney Museum of American Art, with work by Abraham Rattner, Doris Caesar, and Karl Knaths. In 1976, a selection from Gross's important collection of historic African sculpture, formed since the late 1930s, was exhibited at the Worcester Art Museum in the show The Sculptor's Eye: The African Art Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Chaim Gross. Gross was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate member, and became a full Academician in 1981. In 1984, he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, with Jacob Lawrence and Lukas Foss. In the fall of 1991, Allen Ginsberg gave an important tribute to Gross at the American Academy of Arts and Letters, which is published in their Proceedings. In 1994, Forum Gallery, which now represents the Chaim Gross estate, held a memorial exhibition featuring a sixty-year survey of Gross's work. Gross was a professor of printmaking and sculpture at both the Educational Alliance and the New School for Social Research in New York City, as well as at the Brooklyn Museum Art School, the MoMA art school, the Art Student's League and the New Art School (which Gross ran briefly with Alexander Dobkin...

Work on paper

Diego Rivera 1886-1957 Mexican Niño Signed and dated “Diego Rivera 1935” (lower left) Charcoal and sanguine on rice paper A rebel against the traditional school of painting, Diego Rivera is revered as one of the greatest and most influential artists of the 20th century. Niño, completed by Rivera in 1935, represents a masterwork within an important part of the artist’s output — his portraits of children. It is a touching work paying homage to both childhood innocence and the cultural identity of the Mexican people...

Many of you clicking on this drawing are probably doing so because you know of Ellsworth Woodward, who with his brother William Woodward around the turn of the 20th century sparked an arts renaissance in the South, the arts and culture in general having been mostly moribund since the dispiriting defeat experienced in the Civil War. I won't bog you down with lots of detail here since all you have to do is Google his name to bring up a wealth of information about him. He is most famous for his leadership of the arts program at Newcomb College in New Orleans, and its famous Newcomb Pottery...

"Portrait" is an original drawing in pencil on paper, realized by an Anonymous Artist of the early 20th Century . The state of preservation of the artwork is fair, with some foxi...

The man with cigarette is an original drawing in China ink on creamy-colored paper realized by Anonymous Artist of the Early 20th Century. The state of preservation of the artwork i...

Scaramouche - Pierrette is a contemporary artwork realized in 1979 century by Erté (Romain de Tirtoff). Mixed colored gouache on paper. Hand signed on the lower margin. Titled an...

Clyde Steadman's "Untitled 8" is an original, handmade watercolor painting that depicts an impasto portrait of a feminine face.

Early Modernist Judaica, Etching on Paper.

Very stylish, unique and original 1950's fashion design, no doubt of Parisian origin. The painting, executed in gouache and pencil, is stamped verso by its designer Claude Monnat. ...

Female Face is an Pencil Drawing realized by Henri Epstein (1892-1944). Good condition on a yellowed paper, included a white cardboard (50x35 cm). Hand-signed by the artist on the lower right corner. Henri Epstein born in Lódz ( Russian Empire ) on January 14 , 1891 where theJune 20 , 18922 , 3 and died in deportation to Auschwitz ( Third Reich...

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...

David Gilboa (1910-1976). David Gilboa was born in Romania in 1910. He studied at Academy of Fine Art, Bucharest, Romania, during the years of 1927-29. He immigrated to Israel in 193...

Work on paper Brown wooden frame with glass pane 36 x 30 x 1.5 cm

Work on watercolor paper

Stately portrait of George Arliss by Ivan Opffer (Danish, 1897-1980). Mr. Arliss is depicted wearing his signature monocle, looking directly at the viewer. Although this piece appears to be done rapidly, there is a clear confidence in Opffer's work - he was an accomplished portrait artist - and the resemblance to the subject is unmistakable. George Arliss (born Augustus George Andrews; 10 April 1868 – 5 February 1946) was an English actor, author, playwright, and filmmaker who found success in the United States. He was the first British actor to win an Academy Award – which he won for his performance as Victorian-era British prime minister Benjamin Disraeli in Disraeli (1929) – as well as the earliest-born actor to win the honour. He specialized in successful biopics, such as Disraeli, Voltaire (1933), and Cardinal Richelieu (1935), as well as light comedies, which included The Millionaire (1931) and A Successful Calamity (1932). Signed and dated "Ivan Opffer 1934" in the lower right. Titled "Mr. Arliss" in the lower left. Presented in a new off-white mat with foamcore backing. Mat size: 22"H x 16"W Art size: 17.5"H x 12"W Ivan Opffer (Danish, 1897-1980) was born in Nyborg, Denmark, on June 4, 1897, to a family of Danish scholars and journalists. His brother was Emil Opffer, a Danish merchant seaman and journalist who was known for his relationship with American writer Hart Crane. Ivan was raised in Mexico City and New York, where his anarchist father was the editor of a radical Danish-language newspaper. His involvement in painting and drawing began at an early age. At a summer workshop, he met and studied drawing with Winslow Homer, then went on to study at the National Academy of Design and the Art Students League of New York. When the US entered World War I, Opffer was one of the members of the American Army Camouflage Corps, headed by Homer Saint-Gaudens (whose mother was a relative of Winslow Homer), the son of Augustus Saint-Gaudens. As a camoufleur, Opffer served with other artists and architects, some of whom became well-known, including Barry Faulkner, Sherry Edmundson Fry, Kimon Nicolaides, Robert Lawson, Abraham Rattner, Kerr Eby, and others. It was this same unit, while still in training in at Camp American University in Washington DC, that launched a camp newspaper called The Camoufleur. Only three issues were published before the unit’s deployment to France in late 1917. In the October 31 issue, a satirical portrait by Opffer of Homer Saint-Gaudens (titled “Our Boss”) was published on page 5. After the war, Opffer returned to New York, where he became known for his caricatures of leading Modern writers, among them James Joyce, Edgar Lee Masters, Siegfried Sassoon, George Bernard Shaw, Carl Sandburg, G.K. Chesterton, and Thomas Mann. In the years between the wars, Opffer married Betty à Beckett Chomley, and settled in Paris, where he was a student at the Academie Julliard. He also lived in London and Copenhagen, where his drawings were frequently published in newspapers and magazines. With the outbreak of World War II, he and his family returned to New York and lived in Greenwich Village. Among his friends in that era were William Butler Yeats, F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald...

'La Montera', gouache, watercolour and ink on art paper, by Pierre Ambrogiani (circa 1960s). The artist created many artworks with bullfighting as theme. In this case, a single torer...

Child is a pencil and pastel Drawing realized by Hermann Paul. Dated "1916" on the lower right corner. Passpartout included cm 50x35 Good condition except some foxing . René Georg...

Howard Tangye (b.1948, Australia) has been an influential force in fashion for decades. Lecturing at London’s Central Saint Martins for 35 years, including 16 years as head of BA Wom...

Brightly colored portrait by Michael William Eggleston (American, 20th Century). A woman with a large green hairdo is depicted against a purple and red background. She is wearing a l...

Coffee Peloton XXXVI by Eliza Southwood [2022] original and hand signed by the artist Coffee on Paper Image size: H:42 cm x W:59.5 cm Complete Size of Unframed Work: H:42 cm x W:59.5 cm x D:0.1cm Sold Unframed Please note that insitu images are purely an indication of how a piece may look Coffee Peloton XXXVI is an original drawing in coffee on paper by artist Eliza Southwood. Featuring a pack of cyclists racing, the artist has noted a link between cycling culture and the love of a good coffee break. Eliza Southwood cycling prints...

Work on paper Monogram L.T.C.

Story of a Boy is a modern artwork realized in 1910 by the Italian artist Filiberto Scarpelli (Naples, 1870 - Rome, 1933). Two Original drawings realized in China ink on paper. ...

Clyde Steadman's "Untitled 7" is an original, handmade watercolor painting that depicts an impasto portrait of a feminine face with a blue background.

Portrait of a Lady is a Pencil Drawing realized by Hermann Paul. Hand signed on the lower left corner. Passpartout included cm 51x35 Good condition. René Georges Hermann-Paul (27...

Matador 1 is a Contemporary artwork realized in 1964 by the italian Contemporary artist Leo Guida (1992 - 2017). Ink and Watercolor on paper. Hand-signed and dated on the lower lef...

Figure is an artwork realized by Michel Cadoret in 1956. Pencil drawing on paper. Hand-signed. The artwork id depicted through soft strokes in a well...

Brightly colored portrait by Michael William Eggleston (American, 20th Century). A cubist-style portrait depicts an abstracted person wearing an orange mask over their eyes. This pie...

A charming and captivating watercolour painting with oil pastel and graphite details by the British artist Belinda Fitzwilliams. The scene depicts a seated female figure in a yellow ...

'Portrait of Jean', pencil on art paper, by French artist, Guillaume Dulac (circa 1920s). An artist known for his exquisite drawings - many are sketches for his larger oil paintings ...

A lovely, early drawing of the Roman god Mercury. Pen and brown ink on cream laid paper, with a partial crown and shield watermark, 7 1/4 x 4 7/8 inches (184x 123 mm) (matrix). In go...

Portrait of Man is a Pencil Drawing realized by Louis Georges Brillouin in 1847. Good condition on a grey paper, included a white cardboard passpartout (...

Tight watercolour brushwork depicts a woman walking to the market in exquisite detail. The artwork is signed and dated in the bottom right-hand corner, and well presented in a white ...

Sentiment is an original drawing in china ink on paper by an Anonymous Artist of the XX century. Sheet dimension: 21 x 26 cm The state of preservation is good except for some stai...

Dad Taught Me to Be Brave , No. 3 (Hand touching lips) Signed with the artist's initials. Watercolor on Yupo paper Series: Dad Taught Me to Be Brave (3 waterc...

The Director is a pen and pencil Drawing realized by Mino Maccari in the mid-20th century. Hand-signed on the lower in pencil. Included a whie Passepartout. Good condition on yell...

original drawing by Jean Cocteau from Edouard DERMIT collection . signed and dated 1957 . framed .

Portrait is an original modern artwork realized by Marcello Muccini. Black and white marker drawing. Includes frame: 52 x 47 cm

Work on paper

The Maiden is an original Drawing in pencil realized in the 19th Century by Paul Huet (1803-1869). With another drawing on the rear. In good condition. The artwork is depicted sk...