Mort Künstler

Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s First Fireside Chat, 1933 by Mort Künstler

Circa 1985

Attributed to Frank Weston Benson American 1862-1951 Portrait of a Young Woman Watercolor on paper Signed “F.W. Benson 1912” (lower right) This watercolor painting, entitled Port...

Tsuguharu Foujita 1886-1968 | Japanese-French Portrait of a Mother and Child Signed “Foujita / Paris” (lower left) Ink and watercolor on paper An artistic luminary well ahead of his time, Tsuguharu Foujita burst onto the international art scene in the early 20th century as one of the most important artists in early Japanese modernism...

Tamara De Lempicka 1898-1980 Polish Portrait d'homme à lunettes (Portrait of a Man Wearing Glasses) Signed “Lempicka” (bottom right) Pencil on paper Th...

This intimate work by Camille Pissarro represents a period of significance for the Impressionist master. The early 1880s was a time of great experimentation for the artist, after he spent much of the preceding decade devoted to landscape painting. Shifting focus, he embarked on a series of works in a range of media dedicated to the human figure - particularly peasant women. In watercolor, gouache, pastel, and print, Pissarro captured the rural female and the minute moments of domestic life. Depicting a peasant woman tying her scarf, Paysanne Nouant son Foulard displays the harmony of color and composition that typifies his work of the 1880s. Composed of a symphony of color and strokes of paint, the work exemplifies the plein air technique of Pissarro's best Impressionist canvases. A true master of his art, no other artist successfully chronicled rural peasant life quite like Pissarro. Counted among the most respected artists of the 19th century and widely considered the father of Impressionism, Pissarro’s works experienced a surge in interest in the early 2000s. This is reflected in Pissarro’s new auction record of over $32.1 million, set at a 2014 Sotheby’s auction in London, which far surpassed his previous record of $14.6 million. Born in St. Thomas in the Danish West Indies, Pissarro was sent to school in Paris at the age of 11, where he first displayed a talent for drawing. In 1855, having convinced his parents of his determination to pursue a career as an artist rather than work in the family shipping business, he returned to Paris where he studied at the Académie Suisse alongside Claude Monet. At the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, Pissarro moved to England. With Monet, he painted a series of landscapes around South-East London and studied English landscape painters in the museums. When he returned home to Louveciennes a year later, Camille discovered that all but 40 of the 1500 paintings he had left there - almost 20 years of work - had been vandalized. In 1872, Camille settled in Pontoise where he remained for the next 10 years, gathering a close circle of friends around him. Gauguin was among the many artists to visit him there and Cézanne, who lived nearby, came for long periods to work and learn. In 1874, Pissarro participated in the first Impressionist exhibition...

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...

Alexei Alexeievich Harlamoff 1840-1925 Russian Portrait d'une Jeune Femme Signed “Harlamoff” (lower right) Charcoal on paper One of Russia's most important portrait painters, Alexei Harlamoff...

A lovely gouache on cardboard painting featuring an Art Deco singer with a typical stylish outfit. The composition is very vibrant, using the contrast of black and white elements ag...

Apocalypse in 1962? At the height of the Cold War, Life Magazine commissions an illustration that describes the world's end by means other than a nuclear war with Russia. Richard Erdoes brilliantly illustrates the work with his highly stylized painting technique. My favorite part of the work is on the left side showing a group of people packed together as they fall into oblivion. A clear reference would be Hieronymus Bosch's "The Last Judgment " Once Again the World Ends." Illustration published in Life Magazine, Feb. 9, 1962 Signed in lower right image. Unframed Richard Erdoes (Hungarian Erdős, German Erdös; July 7, 1912 – July 16, 2008) was an American artist, photographer, illustrator and author. Early life Erdoes was born in Frankfurt,[1] to Maria Josefa Schrom on July 7, 1912. His father, Richárd Erdős Sr., was a Jewish Hungarian opera singer who had died a few weeks earlier in Budapest on June 9, 1912.[2] After his birth, his mother lived with her sister, the Viennese actress Leopoldine ("Poldi") Sangora,[3] He described himself as "equal parts Austrian, Hungarian and German, as well as equal parts Catholic, Protestant and Jew..."[4] Career He was a student at the Berlin Academy of Art in 1933, when Adolf Hitler came to power. He was involved in a small underground paper where he published anti-Hitler political cartoons which attracted the attention of the Nazi regime. He fled Germany with a price on his head. Back in Vienna, he continued his training at the Kunstgewerbeschule, now the University of Applied Arts, Vienna.[5] He also wrote and illustrated children's books and worked as a caricaturist for Tag and Stunde, anti-Nazi newspapers. After the Anschluss of Austria in 1938 he fled again, first to Paris, where he studied at the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere, and then London, England before journeying to the United States. He married his first wife, fellow artist Elsie Schulhof (d. xxxx) in London, shortly before their arrival in New York City. In New York City, Erdoes enjoyed a long career as a commercial artist, and was known for his highly detailed, whimsical drawings. He created illustrations for such magazines as Stage, Fortune, Pageant, Gourmet, Harper's Bazaar, Sports Illustrated, The New York Times, Time, National Geographic and Life Magazine, where he met his second wife, Jean Sternbergh (d. 1995) who was an art director there. The couple married in 1951 and had three children.[6] Erdoes also illustrated many children's books. An assignment for Life in 1967 took Erdoes to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation for the first time, and marked the beginning of the work for which he would be best known. Erdoes was fascinated by Native American culture, outraged at the conditions on the reservation and deeply moved by the Civil Rights Movement that was raging at the time. He wrote histories, collections of Native American stories...

Generations ahead of the pack, little-known Lorraine Fox developed a simple, charming and flat style that is emulated today but not equaled. Her work is rooted in sound academic trai...

French School, Portrait of a Lady, Rococo, 18th Century, Fine drawing in Pastel/ Oil Pastel on Paper in the style of Vivien. The Lady might be a woman from Marie Antoinette's Court. It is part of a Pendant (see the other listing with the portrait of Queen Marie Antoinette...

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...

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...