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Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

MODERN STYLE

The first decades of the 20th century were a period of artistic upheaval, with modern art movements including Cubism, Surrealism, Futurism and Dadaism questioning centuries of traditional views of what art should be. Using abstraction, experimental forms and interdisciplinary techniques, painters, sculptors, photographers, printmakers and performance artists all pushed the boundaries of creative expression.

Major exhibitions, like the 1913 Armory Show in New York City — also known as the “International Exhibition of Modern Art,” in which works like the radically angular Nude Descending a Staircase by Marcel Duchamp caused a sensation — challenged the perspective of viewers and critics and heralded the arrival of modern art in the United States. But the movement’s revolutionary spirit took shape in the 19th century.

The Industrial Revolution, which ushered in new technology and cultural conditions across the world, transformed art from something mostly commissioned by the wealthy or the church to work that responded to personal experiences. The Impressionist style emerged in 1860s France with artists like Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne and Edgar Degas quickly painting works that captured moments of light and urban life. Around the same time in England, the Pre-Raphaelites, like Edward Burne-Jones and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, borrowed from late medieval and early Renaissance art to imbue their art with symbolism and modern ideas of beauty.

Emerging from this disruption of the artistic status quo, modern art went further in rejecting conventions and embracing innovation. The bold legacy of leading modern artists Georges Braque, Pablo Picasso, Frida Kahlo, Salvador Dalí, Henri Matisse, Joan Miró, Marc Chagall, Piet Mondrian and many others continues to inform visual culture today.

Find a collection of modern paintings, sculptures, prints and other fine art on 1stDibs.

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Style: Modern
Costume di Sorrento - Watercolor by M. De Vito - 1820 ca.
Located in Roma, IT
Watercolour on ivory colored paper, 1820 c.a. Hand-titled "Costume di Sorrento", with autograph caption black ink "Provincia di Napoli" on lower margin at the center. Representing ...
Category

1820s Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor

Costume di Massagrogna - Watercolor by M. De Vito - 1820 ca.
Located in Roma, IT
Watercolour on ivory colored paper stuck on ivory colored cardboard, 1820 c.a. Hand-signed on lower-right and hand-titled "Costume di Massagrogna", with autograph caption black ink ...
Category

1820s Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor

Costume di San Giovanni - Watercolor by M. De Vito - 1820 ca.
Located in Roma, IT
Watercolour on ivory colored paper stuck on ivory colored cardboard, 1820 c.a. Hand-signed and hand-titled "Costume di S.Giovanni", with autograph caption black ink "Vicino Napoli" ...
Category

1820s Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor

Monaco Rochettino - Watercolor by M. De Vito - 1820 ca.
Located in Roma, IT
Watercolour on ivory colored paper, 1820 c.a. Beautiful watercolour representing a monk. Hand-titled black ink on lower margin. Excellent conditions. Michela De Vito In the XIX century, Michela De Vito native of Abruzzi, worked in Naples and became a famous artist. She was maybe the daughter or sister of Camillo de Vito...
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1820s Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor

Woman Laughing - Original Pastel by Michel Simonidy - 1920s
Located in Roma, IT
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...
Category

1920s Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Pastel

Self Portrait sketching with Vignette in Profile
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Self Portrait sketching with Vignette in Profile Graphite on thin wove paper, c. 1940's Unsigned Condition: Small nicks in the right margin, not affecting the image Sheet size: 14 1/2 x 10 inches Provenance: Paul Cadmus Jon F. Anderson (1937-2018) Born in Hoboken, New Jersey, Margaret Hoening (1906–1998) was a painter and an etcher perhaps best known for her photographs as part of the PaJaMa photography collective. After attending Smith College, she settled in New York, where she pursued formal artistic training at the Art Students League. There, she met the artist couple Paul Cadmus and Jared French. In 1937, she married French, fifteen years her junior, who had spent the previous decade with Cadmus. The trio formed a tight bond, with Cadmus and French continuing their relationship. Born in Hoboken, New Jersey, Margaret Hoening (1906–1998) was a painter and an etcher perhaps best known for her photographs as part of the PaJaMa photography collective. After attending Smith College, she settled in New York, where she pursued formal artistic training at the Art Students League. There, she met the artist couple Paul Cadmus and Jared French. In 1937, she married French, fifteen years her junior, who had spent the previous decade with Cadmus. The trio formed a tight bond, with Cadmus and French continuing their relationship. Together, the three formed PaJaMa (a mashup of their first names, Paul, Jared, and Margaret). Using Hoening’s Leica, they captured themselves, their artist friends, and members of the gay community posing in artful tableaux on the beaches of Fire Island, Provincetown, and Nantucket over the following eight years. Those captured by their camera include the photographer George Platt Lynes; Cadmus’s sister and artist Fidelma; artist Bernard Perlin; and Monroe Wheeler, director of exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, among others. Though she produced few canvases, Hoening’s paintings demonstrate the influences of French and Cadmus, particularly with her adoption of the time-intensive, traditional medium of egg tempera that they championed. In the 1940s, the Frenches’ social circle continued to expand. They befriended the British author E.M. Forster, who stayed with them on his first trip to New York in 1947, spending a few days with them in Provincetown, and visiting them again in 1949. When Cadmus began a relationship with the young artist George Tooker in 1944, the trio became a foursome, with Tooker regularly vacationing with the group and appearing in PaJaMa’s photographs...
Category

1940s Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Graphite

Akt mit Strümpfen
Located in Wien, 9
August Dressler is one of the painters of the New Objectivity. He is one of the lesser-known artists of the Weimar era, but he too, like his famous contemporaries Georg Grosz, John H...
Category

1920s Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Ink, Watercolor

Dancers. 1928, paper, mixed technique, 29x18.5 cm
Located in Riga, LV
Adolfs Zardins (1890 08 II Riga, Latvia – 1967 07 II Jurmala, Latvia), painter. Only in 1990 his relatives give his artistic heritage to publicity. “I am 58, and in five Years my c...
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1920s Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper

Etude pour la Pologne - Drawing By Alfred Plauzeau - Early 20th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Etude pour la Pologne is a modern artwork realized by Alfred Plauzeau in the Early-20th Century. Pencil Drawing. Good conditions.
Category

Early 20th Century Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper

Portrait - Drawing by Francisco Bores - 1950
Located in Roma, IT
Portrait is a modern artwork realized by Francisco Bores in 1950. Charcoal drawings. Good conditions.
Category

1950s Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Charcoal

How About a Little More Coffee, New Yorker Cartoon
Located in Miami, FL
Interpretation 1: An utterly exhausted man collapses face-first into a diner's countertop. His face and the countertop become one. Seemingly oblivious to the acute nature of the man's condition, the night server gleefully offers him coffee instead of more appropriate help. Interpretation 2: The night server/psycho killer pours unsuspecting customer poisoned coffee and then taunts his lifeless body in a victorious tone. Like Charles Addams...
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1990s Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Ink, Watercolor

1950s "Upclose Portrait" Mid Century Ink Portrait Drawing Pratt
Located in Arp, TX
Donald Stacy (1925-2008) New Jersey "Upclose Portrait" 1953 Ink on paper 14" x 16.5" unframed Signed and dated in pencil lower right Came from artist estate *Custom framing available...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Ink

Self-Portrait in Two Mirrors with Nude ink drawing by Peter Collins ARCA
Located in London, GB
To see our other Modern British Art, and our other Peter Collins works, scroll down to "More from this Seller" and below it click on "See all from this Seller" - or send us a message...
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1990s Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Ink

Gene - Stylized Baseball Card of Chicago Cub Gene Cline, Original, Framed
Located in Chicago, IL
Patrick Vale Gene acrylic and ink on paper 24h x 19w in 60.96h x 48.26w cm PKV017 See What I See Why are Chicago and baseball so perfect for each other? ...
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2010s Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Ink, Acrylic, Archival Paper

"Joy Of Life" Ink On Paper Original Drawing 2010 by Devie
Located in Carmel, CA
Inspired by the theatre world, Devie had retained her own unique drawing strokes. Her works reflect an approachable other-worldliness. She paints a story to be told and answered. Th...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Ink, Handmade Paper

Joyful Modern British portrait of famed comedian Victoria Wood by Ewart Johns
Located in Petworth, West Sussex
A bright and engaging portrait of the famed comedian Victoria Wood (1953 - 2016). She wears a vibrant yellow jersey with a vivid blue stripe running across it. In the background are ...
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20th Century Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Pastel, Acrylic

Mixed Media Portrait Painting of a Man
Located in Houston, TX
A mixed media painting of an older man deep in thought in black and white on a yellow background circa 1990s by Theadius McCall. Signed in lower right ...
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1990s Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Mixed Media

Gray Bird With Yellow Beak Original Drawing Acrylic and ink on paper Framed
Located in Carmel, CA
Inspired by the theatre world, Devie had retained her own unique drawing strokes. Her works reflect an approachable other-worldliness. She paints a story to be told and answered. Th...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Ink, Acrylic, Handmade Paper

Portrait of Samuel Beckett, Charcoal Drawing by Miguel Herrera
By Miguel Herrera
Located in Long Island City, NY
A powerful portrait of the writer Samuel Beckett by Miguel Herrera, Chilean/American (1935). unframed. Graphite on Paper, signed Size: 31 x 23 in. (78...
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Late 20th Century Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Charcoal

Life - Original Drawing Portrait Of A Women Ink & Acrylic On Paper by Devie
Located in Carmel, CA
Inspired by the theatre world, Devie had retained her own unique drawing strokes. Her works reflect an approachable other-worldliness. She paints a story to be told and answered. Th...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Ink, Acrylic, Handmade Paper

Commes des Garçon, Watercolor fashion, drawings on archive paper.
Located in Miami Beach, FL
The artist has covered New York collections for over 16 years and has interviewed, as a journalist, several fashion designers and personalities for different publications. He loves t...
Category

2010s Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Orince Eagle. After a Photograph by Elizabeth Peyton. Watercolor portrait
Located in Miami Beach, FL
Movies, TV and magazines are constant source of inspiration. Fame, as fleckring and shallow it can be sometimes, is very intriguing to him. The worlds of fashion, society and pop cu...
Category

2010s Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Ink, Watercolor

Meryl Streep & Cher, Caricature Watercolor Painting by Marshall Goodman
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Marshall Goodman, American XXth Title: Meryl Streep and Cher Year: circa 1980 Medium: Watercolor on Paper, Signed Image Size: 20 x 25.5 inches
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1980s Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor

"Original Joseph Stella Drawing" - 20th Century Portrait Pencil Drawing
Located in New Orleans, LA
A pencil sketch by famed American Modernist Joseph Stella, who burst on to the American scene at the epochal Armory Show of 1913 and whose work is today in the collections of every m...
Category

Early 20th Century Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Graphite

Head Series, Pen & Ink on Paper (Set of 2) by Modern Indian Artist "In Stock"
Located in Kolkata, West Bengal
Sunil Das - Untitled - 9 x 7 inches & 9.25 x 7 inches (unframed size) Pen and Ink on Paper, 2012 & 2010 (Set of 2) Inclusive of shipment in ready to hang form. The exceptions are the faces such as the profiles of bearded men in which the content is a mere excuse for the lines to create a pattern of untrammeled playfulness. Of course the Japanese face...
Category

2010s Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Ink, Pen

Head Series, Pen & Ink on Paper (Set of 2) by Modern Indian Artist "In Stock"
Located in Kolkata, West Bengal
Sunil Das - Untitled - 6 x 7 inches & 7 x 7 inches (unframed size) Pen and Ink on Paper, 2012 (Set of 2) Inclusive of shipment in ready to hang form. for auction : Please Note: The reserve price set is for one work only The exceptions are the faces such as the profiles of bearded men in which the content is a mere excuse for the lines to create a pattern of untrammeled playfulness. Of course the Japanese face...
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2010s Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Ink, Pen

Bride & Bridegroom, Watercolour on Paper by Modern Indian Artist "In Stock"
Located in Kolkata, West Bengal
Shyamal Dutta Ray - Untitled - 10 x 12 inches (unframed size) Watercolour on Paper, 1994 Style : The poignant imagery in Shyamal Dutta Ray’s paintin...
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Early 2000s Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Nude Pencil Drawing pair of Portraits
Located in Lake Worth Beach, FL
Nude Pencil Drawing pair of Portraits Pencil and pastel on paper, unsigned from the artist portfolio. George Kenneth Hartwell painter and illustrator was born in Fitchburg 1891-1949...
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1920s Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Pastel, Pencil

Face of Bearded Men, Pen and Ink on Paper by Modern Indian Artist "In Stock"
Located in Kolkata, West Bengal
Sunil Das - Untitled - 9 x 7 inches (unframed size) Pen and Ink on Paper Inclusive of shipment in ready to hang form. The exceptions are the faces such as the profiles of bearded men...
Category

2010s Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Ink, Pen

Face, Ink on Paper Black and Brown by PadmaShree Artist Sunil Das "In Stock"
Located in Kolkata, West Bengal
Sunil Das - 7.25 x 8.5 inches (unframed size) Ink on Paper Inclusive of shipment in ready to hang form. Sunil Das (1939-2015) was a Master Modern Indian Artist from Bengal. Extremel...
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2010s Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Ink

Pont de Paris by Aurèle Barraud - Gouache on paper 36x52 cm
Located in Geneva, CH
Work on paper with frame + glass; total size 52 x 68.2 cm
Category

1950s Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Ink, Watercolor, Gouache

Flapper Fanny - Female Cartoonist of the Golden Age
Located in Miami, FL
Flapper Fanny - Female Cartoonist of the Golden Age Sylvia Sneidman was originally a fashion illustrator, but assumed the helm of the famous jazz-age panel cartoon "Flapper Fanny Sa...
Category

1940s Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

India Ink, Archival Paper

Posing Figure - Drawing - 1978
Located in Roma, IT
Posing Figure is a drawing realized in 1978 by an unknown artist. Penc on paper. Monogrammed and dated on the lower. The state of preservation is good. The artwork is represented...
Category

1970s Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Pencil

The Scapegoat II, Court Drawing by Marshall Goodman
Located in Long Island City, NY
The Scapegoat II Marshall Goodman, American (1916–2003) Watercolor on paper Size: 10 x 10 in. (25.4 x 25.4 cm) For the last ten years of his life Mr. Goodman worked as a Courtroom Illustrator. for high profile trials such as John Gotti...
Category

1990s Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor

Profile of Man - Drawing - 20th century
Located in Roma, IT
Man  Profile is a drawing in pencil and pen on paper realized in the early 20th century by French unknown artist. The state of preservation is good with slight foxing. The artwork ...
Category

Early 20th Century Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Pencil

Blond Lady - Drawing by Henri Espinouze - 1950s
Located in Roma, IT
Blond Lady is a drawing in watercolor on paper realized in the 1950s by Henri Espinouze (1915-1982). The state of preservation is good. The artwork represented delicately a blond c...
Category

1950s Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor

Profile of M.me du Vivien - Drawing - Early 20th century
Located in Roma, IT
Profile of M.me du Vivien is a drawing in pencil on paper realized in the early 20th century by a French Anonymous artist. The state of preservation is good with slight foxing. The...
Category

Early 20th Century Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor

Portrait of General - Drawing by Charles de Bozolez - Mid-20th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Portrait of General is a drawing in pencil on paper realized in the 1950s by Charles de Bozolez The state of preservation is good. The artwork represents the portrait of General th...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Pencil

Headdress Procession
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Headdress Procession Watercolor, c. 1950's Signed by the artist in ink, lower right The Headdress Procession occurs every year as part of the Christmas celebrations in Oaxaca. Guilbe...
Category

1950s Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor

Chaim Gross Mid Century Mod Judaica Jewish Watercolor Painting Rabbis WPA Artist
Located in Surfside, FL
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...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Profile of Lady - Drawing - Mid 20th century
Located in Roma, IT
Profile of Lady is a drawing realized by an Anonymous artist in the mid-20th century. Red pencil and white lead on paper. Good conditions. The artwork realized through beautiful a...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Pencil

Jerusalemite Yeshiva Scholar, Judaica Watercolor
Located in Surfside, FL
Judaica watercolor portrait, Israel, signed l.r.
Category

20th Century Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor

Caricature of Amintore Fanfani - Drawing by Emilio Giannelli - 1980s
Located in Roma, IT
Caricature of Amintore Fanfani is a modern artwork realized by the Artist Emilio Giannelli. Black and white drawing Hand signed on the lower margin Includes frame: 34 x 24 cm
Category

1980s Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Ink

Caricature of Giovanni Spadolini - Drawing by Emilio Giannelli - 1980s
Located in Roma, IT
Caricature of Giovanni Spadolini is a modern artwork realized by the Artist Emilio Giannelli. Black and white drawing Hand signed on the lower margin Includes frame: 34 x 24 cm
Category

1980s Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Ink

Caricature of Ciriaco De Mita - Drawing by Emilio Giannelli - 1980s
Located in Roma, IT
Caricature of Ciriaco De Mita is a modern artwork realized by the Artist Emilio Giannelli. Black and white drawing Hand signed on the lower margin Includes frame: 34 x 24 cm
Category

1980s Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Ink

" Christ Roi "
Located in CANNES, FR
Paco Rabanne ( 1934-2023 ) " Christ Roi " is an original and rare drawing , signed , dated . " succession Paco Rabanne " framed with museum glass : 38 x29 cm drawing : 29 x 21 cm ...
Category

Late 20th Century Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Archival Paper

Die Bildhauerin
Located in Wien, 9
August Dressler is one of the painters of the New Objectivity. He is one of the lesser-known artists of the Weimar era, but he too, like his famous contemporaries Georg Grosz, John H...
Category

20th Century Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Ink

"My Yellow Pet" Acrylic and pen by Devie
Located in Carmel, CA
Inspired by the theatre world, Devie had retained her own unique drawing strokes. Her works reflect an approachable other-worldliness. She paints a story to be told and answered. Th...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Ink, Acrylic, Handmade Paper

The Rabbis, Judaica portraits
Located in Surfside, FL
the piece without the original frame measures 18X7.5 inchesThis is a wonderful watercolor 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 the unique ability to focus and direct his expression to the most joyful and beautiful works of art, such as the present lot. For more than sixty years Chaim Gross's art has expressed optimistic, affirming themes. His acrobats, cyclists, and mothers and children convey joyfulness, exuberance, love, and intimacy. This aspect of his work remained consistent with his Hasidic heritage, which teaches that "only in his childlike happiness is man nearest to God." Chaim Gross, born in Wolowa, Austria in 1904, was educated at the Beaux Arts Institute of Design and at the Art Student's League in New York. Chaim Gross's work was greatly influenced by his experiences during a period of international conflict, World War II. He had moved to Kolomyya from Wolowa to get a better education, but the Germans came to occupy, killing, raping, and looting. Gross and his family were chased from one village to the next. He wrote, "We were sleeping on roofs and in the fields, with the sound of cannon fire...
Category

1960s Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor, Archival Paper

Portrait - Drawing by Joseph Alexander Colin - Mid-20th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Portrait is a drawing realized by Joseph Colin in the Mid-20th Century. Pencil on ivory-colored paper Good conditions with slight foxing. The artwork is realized through deft expr...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Pencil

Sketch - Drawing by Jean Bernardin - Early-20th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Sketch is a drawing realized by Jean Bernardin the Early-20th Century. Pencil on ivory-colored paper. Good conditions with slight foxing. The artwork is realized through deft expr...
Category

Early 20th Century Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Pencil

Valaisan with a glass of wine
Located in Genève, GE
Work on paper Brown wooden frame with glass pane 35.5 x 29.5 x 1.5 cm
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Crayon

Dame mit Hut
Located in Wien, 9
August Dressler is one of the painters of the New Objectivity. He is one of the lesser-known artists of the Weimar era, but he too, like his famous contemporaries Georg Grosz, John H...
Category

20th Century Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Pencil

Woman sitting and smiling
Located in Genève, GE
Work on paper Gilded wooden frame with glass pane 46 x 37.5 x 2 cm
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor

Peasant - Drawing in Black Marker Pen by Roger Clamagirand - 1958
Located in Roma, IT
Peasant is an original Drawing on paper in 1958 realized by Roger Clamagirand. Hand-signed and stamped on the lower and dated. Black Marker Pen on paper. Good conditions. The art...
Category

1950s Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Pen

Frau bei Tisch sitzend
Located in Wien, 9
August Dressler is one of the painters of the New Objectivity. He is one of the lesser-known artists of the Weimar era, but he too, like his famous contemporaries Georg Grosz, John H...
Category

20th Century Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Ink

Figures - Drawing by Mino Maccari - 1960 ca
Located in Roma, IT
Figures is an Artwork realized by Mino Maccari  (1924-1989) in 1960 ca. Drawing pen on yellowed paper. Hand Signed on the lower right margin. Good conditions. Mino Maccari (Siena,...
Category

1960s Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Ink

Portrait of Man - Drawing attri. to Emilio Giannelli - 1990s
Located in Roma, IT
Portrait of Man is a modern artwork realized in the 1990s and attributed to Emilio Giannelli. Black and white china ink drawing on paper.
Category

1990s Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Ink

Modern portrait drawings and watercolors for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Modern portrait drawings and watercolors available for sale on 1stDibs. Works in this style were very popular during the 21st Century and Contemporary, but contemporary artists have continued to produce works inspired by this movement. If you’re looking to add portrait drawings and watercolors created in this style to introduce contrast in an otherwise neutral space in your home, the works available on 1stDibs include elements of orange, blue, yellow, green and other colors. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including Mino Maccari, Alberto Ziveri, Pierre Georges Jeanniot, and Devie Elzafon. Frequently made by artists working with Pencil, and Paint and other materials, all of these pieces for sale are unique and have attracted attention over the years. Not every interior allows for large Modern portrait drawings and watercolors, so small editions measuring 2.09 inches across are also available. Prices for portrait drawings and watercolors made by famous or emerging artists can differ depending on medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $55 and tops out at $425,000, while the average work sells for $403.

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