Early 20th Century Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Original Magazine Illustration for a magazine like Harper's, Vanity Fair, Life, Look, and Judge Shinn was an American realist painter and member of the Ashcan School. He also exhibited with the short-lived group known as "The Eight," Work is framed in an attractive gilt frame Morris Weiss collection...

Gustave Poetzsch (1870-1950) Lady Wearing a Yellow Hat Original charcoals drawing Signed bottom left on tinted linen watermarked paper 24 x 31 cm (c. 9 x ...

Date: 1907-1910 Medium: Pastel on Board Dimensions: 22.00" x 28.00" Signature: Signed Lower Right Stuart Travis did many early Vogue magazine covers. Signed with an address on ...

Jim’s of Lambertville is proud to offer this artwork by: Gershon Benjamin (1899-1985) An American Modernist of portraits, landscapes, still lives, and the urban scene, Gershon Benj...

Gustave Poetzsch (1870-1950) Blue Eyes Boy Original charcoals drawing Signed bottom right on linen paper 37 x 31 cm (c. 15 x 12 in) Stamp of the Estate auction sale on the back Ve...

Gustave Poetzsch (1870-1950) Peaceful Woman, 1929 Original charcoals drawing Signed bottom right on tinted linen paper 43 x 31 cm (c. 17 x 12 in) Stamp of the Estate auction sale o...

Gustave Poetzsch (1870-1950) Red Hair Dreaming Woman Original charcoals drawing Signed bottom right on tinted linen paper 48 x 30 cm (c. 19 x 12 in) Stamp of the Estate auction sal...

A Self Portrait. c. 1932. Ink drawing on wove paper. 3 1/2 x 2 1/4 (sheet 10 x 7). Provenance: the artist's daughter. Unsigned. A unique silhouette housed in an archival French doubl...

"Portrait of the Artist's Mother-in-Law" is an original pastel drawing by Francesco Spicuzza. The artist signed the piece in the lower right. This drawing depicts an elderly woman in beige clothing...

Portrait of Arab is an interesting drawing realized by the French artist Jean Louis Plumet. It is in very good conditions, except for some tiny stains and a fold on the lower part of...

Woman laughing is an original artwork by Michel Simonidy. Mixed media, pastel drawing, and tempera on paper. Hand-signed by the artist on the lower right. Includes passepartout. St...

Graceful watercolor portrait of an elegant auburn haired female in profile, 1912. Signed "Laure" and dated lower right. Over 100 years old. Original vintage one-of-a-kind artwork on...

Date: 1928 Medium: Pastel on Paper Dimensions: 25.00" x 20.00" Signature: Signed Lower Right Cover of The Saturday Evening Post, July 7 1928

Signed and dated in pencil verso Titled "Joseph Pennell" recto Annotated verso: Adolph a Dehn Oct. 5 1915 Tonight I saw a duplicate of Whistler -- "Joseph Pennell." Bu...

Enigmatic portrait watercolor in warm autumn hues, circa 1930. Signed lower right. Original one-of-a-kind artwork on paper displayed on a white mat with a gold border. Mat fits a s...

Pencil on paper, ca. 1924 by Rudolf Ausleger ( 1897-1974 ) , Germany. Signed lower right: Ausleger Dimensions: 9.25 x 8.07 in ( 23,5 x 20,5 cm ), Framed: 18.31 x 16.93 in ( 46,5 x 43...

"Isadora Duncan (Blue)" is an original mixed media drawing created by Abraham Walkowitz. It is made with pen & ink, graphite, and watercolor piece on cream paper. The artist signed t...

"Isadora Duncan (Orange)" is an original pen & ink, graphite, and watercolor piece on cream paper by Abraham Walkowitz. The artist signed the piece in the lower center. The drawing d...

Stella, Joseph. STUDY OF A MAN WITH A HAT AND OVERCOAT. Blue, red and black crayon on tan wove paper, c. 1920. 6 7/8 x 4 3/4 inches; 173 x 120 mm. Signe...

Study of a young man with his golf clubs by listed artist Margaret Neilson Armstrong (American, 1867-1944). Image, 14"H x 20"W. Displayed in vintage mat. S...

Published in the Saturday Evening Post dated 11-18 1922 page 107 for the "Winnie and the Copperhead” story written by Bertram Atkey Signed and dated lower left Arthur William Brown...

Signed in pencil lower left

Untitled (Woman by the Windows) Unsigned. Pastel on board, c. 1915 Created while the artist was in Giverny, France Provenance: Gift of the artist to his wife, Mary Hess Buehr by Descent to the artist's niece, daughter of Will Hess. David Salzman Robert Henry Adams Fine Art, Chicago Ronald C. Sloter, Columbus One of the early Chicago artists to adopt Impressionism, Karl Buehr became a figure and landscape painter. As a figure painter, his specialty became "gorgeously colored images of young women on porches overlooking brilliant summertime gardens." (Kennedy 98) His later work often showed a female figure with serious expression engaging the viewer with a direct stare. In his landscapes, he was noted for his strong coloration. In a December 1896 student exhibition at the Art Institute, a reviewer for the "Chicago Times Herald" described Buehr's landscapes as "blithe and joyous" with "country roads brilliant in sunlight . . . fields rich in summer verdure, under soft skies painted in a high, musical key." (Gerdts 68) Buehr was born as one of seven sons to a prosperous German family who immigrated to America and settled in Chicago in 1869. He was first exposed to his signature style of Impressionism in 1888 when he enrolled in night classes at the Art Institute while working in the shipping department of a lithographic firm near the Institute. He remained a student there until 1897 and was recognized in a "Chicago Times Herald" editorial of June 13, 1897 as one of the Institute's most outstanding pupils. The next year, his art career was temporarily put on hold when he briefly enlisted with the U.S. Army in the Spanish American War. In 1899, he resumed his art studies, this time with Frank Duveneck. He exhibited a painting at the Paris Salon of 1900. In 1905, thanks to a wealthy Chicago patron, Buehr and his family moved to France. They spent the following year in Taormina, Sicily, and spent time in Venice as well. In Paris, Buehr studied at the Academy Julian with Raphael Collin for two years. Then he went to England, enrolling in the London Art School but had returned to Paris by 1908. During this time, he began painting at Giverny, the home of Impressionist leader Claude Monet (1840-1926, and by 1912, Buehr was listing that village as his home address. One of his good friends and associates at Giverny was Frederick Frieseke. One of Buehr's paintings from that time, "News from Home", was exhibited in 1913 at the French Salon in Paris and at the annual exhibit of the Chicago Art Institute. It shows a woman in floral dress sitting on a porch with a background with potted flowers and lush greenery background. Of his painting done at Giverny, Buehr wrote in 1912 to William Macbeth of Macbeth Galleries in New York: "My figures painted in and around Giverny are costumed and in appropriate out door settings." (Gerdts 68) In 1914, he returned to the United States and took a teaching position in Chicago at the Art Institute, which he held for the remainder of his life. He was married to Mary Hess, a painter of miniatures and decorative works. In 1928-29, he was a guest artist at Stanford University. Courtesy: AskArt “Karl Albert Buehr (1866–1952) was a painter born in Germany. Buehr was born in Feuerbach - near Stuttgart. He was the son of Frederick Buehr and Henrietta Doh (Dohna?). He moved to Chicago with his parents and siblings in the 1880s. In Chicago, young Karl worked at various jobs until he was employed by a lithograph company near the Art Institute of Chicago. Introduced to art at work, Karl paid regular visits to the Art Institute, where he found part-time employment, enabling him to enroll in night classes. Later, working at the Institute as a night watchman, he had a unique opportunity to study the masters and actually posted sketchings that blended in favorably with student's work. Having studied under John H. Vanderpoel, Buehr graduated with honors, while his work aroused such admiration that he was offered a teaching post there, which he maintained for many years thereafter. He graduated from the Art Inst. of Chicago and served in the IL Cav in the Spanish–American War. Mary Hess became Karl's wife—she was a student of his and an accomplished artist in her own right. In 1922, he was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate member. Art Studies in Europe In 1904, Buehr received a bronze medal at the St. Louis Universal Exposition, then, in 1905, Buehr and his family moved to France, thanks to a wealthy Chicago patron, and they spent the following year in Taormina, Sicily, where the artist painted local subjects, executing both genre subjects and landscapes as well as time in Venice. Buehr spent at least some time in Paris, where he worked with Raphaël Collin at the Académie Julian. Giverny and American Impressionism Prior to this time, Buehr had developed a quasi-impressionistic style, but after 1909, when he began spending summers near Monet in Giverny, his work became decidedly characteristic of that plein-air style but he began focusing on female subjects posed out-of-doors. He remained for some time in Giverny, and here he became well-acquainted with other well known expatriate America impressionists such as Richard Miller, Theodore Earl Butler, Frederick Frieseke, and Lawton Parker. It seems likely that Buehr met Monet, since his own daughter Kathleen and Monet’s granddaughter, Lili Butler, were playmates, according to George Buehr, the painter’s son. His other daughter Lydia died before adulthood due to diabetes. He returned to Chicago at the onset of World War I and taught at The Art Inst for many years. One of his noted pupils at the Art Institute was Archibald Motley...

Gino Severini (Cortona 1883 - Paris 1966), Self-Portrait Pencil drawing on paper 25 x 21 cm signed Io G. Severini lower right. Bibliography: Gino Severini before and after the work...

Henry Stephen (Hal) Ludlow (1861-1934)- Original watercolour. Presented in an elegant gilt frame with corner and centre ornamentation and fine running patterns. Signed, titled and da...

A Beautiful portrait of a couple, probably a study for a painting. Original drawing and watercolor signed by M. Tarragona R. ? and dated 1948 in Mexico. With its origininal frame, S...

Brown, black, and green-toned realistic oil pastel portrait of New York stage actor Ralph Stuart. The Courier Co.'s signature is attached at the back. Matt...

Male Subject pencil drawing on wove paper (circa 1900-1920), by Bernard Sleigh, RBSA (Provenance: from the artist's studio). An exquisite drawing which is possibly a study for a larg...

Tobey's work resembles Abstract Expressionism and Asian calligraphy.

An exquisite turn of the century watercolor portrait of a beautiful red haired woman in a sumptuous yellow and green gown that slips off one shou...

Work on paper without frame

Head Study, 1930 John Sloan (1871-1951) Signed Lower Right 10.5" x 9" Unframed 19" x 16.5" Framed Born in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, John Sloan became one o...

This recently rediscovered expressionist drawing by László Moholy-Nagy is part of a small group of drawings made by the artist early in his career, in Vienna and Berlin. The use of interlaced curves, typical of the artist's technique, gives this hieratic portrait a magnetic radiance, while the absence of any connection with the rest of the body evokes a profane Holy Face. 1. From Hungary to Chicago, the ardent life of László Moholy-Nagy Moholy-Nagy was born in Borsod, now known as Bácsborsód in Southern Hungary, in July 1895. He studied law in Budapest in 1913, when he was drafted into the Austro-Hungarian army to serve as an artillery officer on the Italian and Russian fronts. While serving at artillery observation posts, Moholy-Nagy was able to execute numerous drawings, recording his traumatic war experience, on the reverse of military-issued postcards which he could easily carry with him. In 1917, he was seriously wounded and hospitalized. The following year (around 1918 at the age of 23), he abandoned his plans to become a lawyer in favour of a career as an artist, with the encouragement of his friend, the art critic Iván Hevesy. The drawings executed in those early years reveal Moholy-Nagy's powerful Expressionist lines. In his autobiography of 1944, Abstract of an Artist, Moholy-Nagy explained his early figurative style, writing that contemporary art in those days was too chaotic and that and all the '-isms' were incomprehensible and puzzling to him. He was, however, experimenting with Dadaist compositions already in 1919 and then moved to Vienna and later to Berlin, where he would soon make his first works in his Constructivist style of the early 1920s. In Berlin he met photograph and writer Lucia Schultz who became his wife the next year. In 1922 he met Walter Gropius. During a vacation on the Rhome with Lucia, she introduced him to making photograms on light-sensitized paper. Walter Gropius invited him to teach at the Bauhaus in Weimar in 1923 where he replaced Paul Klee as Head of the Metal Workshop. The Bauhaus became known for the versatility of its artists and Moholy-Nagy was no exception: throughout his career, he became proficient in the fiels of photography, typography, sculpture, painting, printmaking, film-making and industrial design. In 1928 Moholy-Nagy left the Bauhaus and established his own design studio in Berlin. He separated from his first wide Lucia in 1929. In 1931 he met actress and scriptwriter Sibylle Pietzsch. They married in 1932 and has two daughters, Hattula (born 1933) and Claudia. After the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933, he was no longer allowed to work there. He moved his family to London in 1935. In 1937, on the recommendation of Walter Gropius, Moholy-Nagy moved to Chicago to become the director of the New Bauhaus, but the school closed in 1938. Moholy-Nagy resumed doing commercial design work, which he continued for the rest of his life. In 1939 Moholy-Nagy opened the School of Design in Chicago, which became in 1944 the Institute of Design, becoming part of the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1949. Diagnosed with leukemia in 1945, Moholy-Nagy died of the disease in Chicago in 1946. 2. Description of the artwork This drawing presents us with a frontal representation of a man in his thirties, whose penetrating gaze seems to stare at us. The face is highly symmetrical and is modelled by curved black lines. The very high forehead and the slightly dilated left pupil reinforce the very expressive character of the face. Like the Holy Face which appeared on the cloth stretched out to wipe Christ's face by Saint Veronica, only the model's face is represented on the cardboard piece. The curved lines that define the face, hollowing out the temples, the eyelids, the cheeks and the area around the mouth, create a kind of magnetic radiation around a median point located between the eyebrows. In some respects, this face may evoke one of the most famous representations of the Holy Face: the extraordinary engraving by Claude Mellan...

The Portrait is an original drawing in China ink on paper realized by an anonymous artist in 1929, applied on a greyish Passepartout. hand-signed, illegible, and dated on the lower....

Mily POSSOZ Young Girl with Fishes, 1928 Original pencil and charcoals derawing Signed bottom right Dated 1928 On paper 42 x 34 cm at view (c. 17 x 13 in) Presented in a wood frame ...