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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
Returnable Items Only
Portrait of Man - Drawing by Louis G. Brillouin - 19th Century
Located in Roma, IT
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 (...
Category

Early 20th Century Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Charcoal

Portrait of Woman - Original Pencil Drawing by Henri Regnault - 1861
Located in Roma, IT
Portrait of Woman is an original pencil drawing realized by Henri Regnault (1843-1871) in 1861. Good condition, except for some torn and missing paper ...
Category

1860s Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Pencil, Paper

The Director - Drawing by Mino Maccari - Mid-20th Century
Located in Roma, IT
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...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Felt Pen, Paper

Study of Figures - Drawing by H. Haudebort-Lescot - Early 19th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Study of Figures is a Pencil Drawing realized by Hortense Haudebort-Lescot (1784-1845). Good condition on a yellowed paper. No signature, but stamped on the lower left corner. Ant...
Category

Early 19th Century Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Pencil

Portrait - Drawing attr. to Richard Burt-Ryley - 20th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Portrait is an original drawing in china ink attributed to Richard Burt-Ryley and realized in the late 20th Century. Good Conditions. The artwork is depicted through soft strokes i...
Category

Late 20th Century Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Ink

Le Croates en Allemagne - Grenadier 1813 - Drawing By Herbert Knotel - 1940s
Located in Roma, IT
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...
Category

1940s Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor, Ink

The Torture - Original Drawing by Gabriel Ferrier -19th
Located in Roma, IT
The Torture is an original Pastel drawing on paper realized by Gabriel Ferrier (1847-1914) in the 19th Century. Stamped on the lower on the rear.. Go...
Category

Early 20th Century Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Pastel

Portrait of Man - Drawing by Antoine Alphonse Monfort - 19th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Portrait of Man is an Original Drawing, ink pencil and white lead on ivory paper realized by Antoine Alphonse Monfort. Hand signed on the lower margin. Passpartout cm 36x31 Good co...
Category

19th Century Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Ink

The Cardinal - Drawing by Giovanni Boffa - 1980s
Located in Roma, IT
The Cardinal is an original artwork realized by Giovanni Boffa in 1980s. Mixed colored drawing on paper. Includes wooden frame: 55 x 2 x 44 cm Hand signed on the lower margin.
Category

1980s Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor, Paper, Pastel

Woman in an Interior - Drawing by Claudin Felix - 1890
Located in Roma, IT
Woman in an Interior is a pencil drawing realized by Claudin Felix in 1890. Good condition on a brown paper included a white cardboard passpartout (25x16 cm). No signature.
Category

Early 1900s Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Pencil, Paper

The Dance - Original Drawing by Mino Maccari - Mid-20th Century
Located in Roma, IT
The Dance is an original drawing in watercolor on paper realized by Mino Maccari in the mid 20th Century. Good conditions except for some folding and a cutaway on the lower margin. ...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Monna Lisa - Drawing by Mino Maccari - Mid-20th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Monna Lisa is an original modern artwork realized by Mino Maccari in the mid-20th Century. Watercolor drawing. Hand signed on the lower margin. Includes frame: 49 x 3 x 43
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Portrait of Man - Drawing By Edouard Dufeu - Mid-19th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Portrait of Man is a Charcoal Drawing realized by Edouard-Jacques Dufeu. Hand signed in pencil on the lower right margin. Good condition on a yellowed paper. Edouard-Jacques Dufeu ...
Category

1880s Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Pencil

"King of the Blues" - B.B. King Portrait in Watercolor and Ink on Paper
Located in Soquel, CA
Vibrant portrait entitled "King of the Blues" by John Martin Socha (American, 1913-1983). Bold and angular, this piece depicts an African-American man wearing a crown. Given the date of the piece (1955), it is likely a reference to B. B. King, who began topping the Billboard charts in 1953. The portrait is slightly abstracted, with ornamentation that adds detail and depth. Signed and dated "Socha 1955" in the lower left corner. Presented in a wood frame with a linen mat. Frame size: 17.5"H x 14.75"W Image size: 9.5"H x 6.5"W John Martin Socha (American, 1913-1983) was a painter and teacher from St. Paul, Minnesota. As a teenager, Socha studied with Diego Rivera and attended the Minneapolis School of Art. He later worked as a WPA artist in the 1930s, and Rivera’s influence can be seen in his murals. Socha then served in the US Army from 1943-1946 before attending the University of Minnesota in 1947. Socha’s work has won many awards and is in the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC. Exhibited: Minnesota State Fair, 1938-40 (prize), 1941 (prize), 1942; Minneapolis Women's Club, 1938-42 (prize); Minneapolis IA, 1938-41, 1942 (prize), 1943-46; AIC, 1941-42; MMA, 1941-42; WMAA, 1942; NGA, 1940, 1942; Guatemala City, 1940; Mexico City, 1942; Walker Art Center, 1938, 1940, 1949 (prize); Davenport Municipal Art Gal., 1941; St Paul Art Gal., 1938-42; Denver Art Mus.; Univ. Wisconsin; Fed. Courts Bldg (solo), Hamline Univ. (solo), St. Catherine's Col. (solo), Public Library (solo), St. Paul Park H.S (solo), all in St. Paul; Guy Mayer Gal., NY (solo); Mankato State College, 1957 (solo). Member: Minnesota AA; Minnesota Art...
Category

1950s Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, India Ink, Watercolor

The New Haircut, 20th Century portrait of a Young Girl, drawing
Located in London, GB
Graphite on paper Image size: 11 ¾ x 8 ½ inches (30 x 21.5 cm) Original frame This superbly-drawn portrait highlights the artist’s undeniable skill as a portrait artist, particularl...
Category

20th Century Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Graphite, Paper

Figure - original drawing on paper - Mid-20th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Figure is an original drawing in Tempera and watercolor realized by an anonymous artist in the mid-20th Century. Good Conditions. The artwork is depicted through confident strokes ...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor, Tempera

beggars spanish modernism colored pencils
Located in Barcelona, Barcelona
Ricard Opisso - Beggars - Colored pencils Measurements drawing 21x31cm. Frame measures 39x48 cm. Damaged paper at bottom. Anti-reflective glass. Son of Alfredo Opisso y Viñas, journalist, historian and critic, and of Antonia Sala y Gil, his sister Regina Opisso, was also a writer. He comes from an enlightened family full of artists. His paternal grandfather was Josep Opisso y Roig, journalist and director of the Diari de Tarragona, father of the also writers Antonia Opisso y Viña and Antoni Opisso y Viña. His maternal great-grandfather was the painter Pere Pau Montaña, his maternal grandfather the fabulist Felipe Jacinto Sala and his maternal uncle, the painter Emilio Sala y Francés. His nephew was Arturo Llorens y Opisso, a writer better known under his pseudonym Arturo Llopis. Although he was born in Tarragona, his family moved to Barcelona when Opisso was only two years old. In modernist Barcelona at the end of the 19th century, Opisso worked as an assistant to Antonio Gaudí in the works of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona since 1892. He was linked to the group Els Quatre Gats, along with Ramón Casas...
Category

1940s Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Color Pencil

Figure of Man - Original Pencil Drawing by Augustin de Saint-Aubin- 19th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Figure of Man is an Original Pencil Drawing realized by Augustin de Saint-Aubin (1736-1807). Good condition included a green and white cardboard passpartout (65x48 cm). No signatur...
Category

Late 18th Century Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Pencil

The Nude and Full Moon - Drawing by Gabriel Ferrier - 19th Century
Located in Roma, IT
The Nude and Full Moon an original Charcoal drawing on paper realized by Gabriel Ferrier (1847-1914) in the 19th Century. Stamped on the lower right. ...
Category

Early 20th Century Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Charcoal

Portraits - Original Ink Drawings on Paper by H. Somm - Late 19th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Portraits is an original artwork realized between the end of 19th century and the beginning of 20th century by Henry Somm. Original black and white pencil drawings on paper attached on cardboard. Dimensions: variable dimensions between 2.5 and 4 cm high. The artwork various portrait sketches of man and female figure. Good conditions except for some foxings and stains. The drawings are hand-signed o signed with the initials of the artist. Henry Somm (Rouen 1844 – Parigi 1907) François Clément Sommier, best known under the pseudonym “Henry Somm,” was born in Rouen in 1844. He attended the local École municipale des beaux-arts and went on in 1867 to Paris, where he studied under Isidore Pils (1813-1875).He moved to Paris in 1860. Between 1873 and 1876 he made many engravings for the magazine Paris à l'eau forte and then at the Cadart printing house. In 1879 and 1889 he participated in the Impressionist exhibitions from the Durand-Ruel gallery in Paris. He collaborated with the newspapers: Le Chat noir...
Category

Late 19th Century Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Ink

The Family
Located in London, GB
'The Family', gouache on fine art paper (1984), by Raymond Dèbieve. In a clear nod to Picasso's influence both stylistically and in terms of subject matter ...
Category

1980s Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Gouache, Paper

Fougasse: 'A Lift Home' original pen and ink cartoon drawing
Located in London, GB
To see more, scroll down to "More from this Seller" and below it click on "See all from this Seller". Fougasse (Cyril Kenneth Bird, 1887 - 1965) 'I'm very glad Jones offered me a li...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Ink, Pen

Portrait - Original Charcoal Drawing By Edouard Dufeu - Late-19th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Portrait is an Original Charcoal Drawing realized by Edouard Dufeu (1836-1900). Good condition included a blue cardboard Passepartout (22x 16 cm). Hand-signed by the artist on the lower. Edouard Dufeu coming from a family originally from Egypt, Dufeu moved to Paris in 1860 and frequented the studio of Charles Gleyre...
Category

Late 19th Century Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Charcoal

The Proposal - Drawing by Paul Renouard - Early 20th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Original pencil drawing on paper, realized by Paul Renouard in the early 20th Century. Good conditions. The artwork is represented through deft strokse by mastery.
Category

Early 20th Century Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Pencil

French Boy in Bloomers
Located in London, GB
'French Boy in Bloomers', gouache on art paper (circa 1960s-70s), by Raymond Debiève. A young boy emerges from a beach cabana wearing a bloomer bathing costume that was still in use ...
Category

1960s Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Gouache

The Landscape - Original Drawing by André Ruellan -20th
Located in Roma, IT
The Landscape By the Lake is an original drawing artwork in pencil and white lead realized by André Ruellan in the early 20th century. Hand-signed on the lower. Good conditions. ...
Category

Early 20th Century Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Pencil

Moses and Israel - Drawing by Albert Decaris - Mid-20th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Moses and Israel is an original china ink drawing realized by Albert Decaris in the Early 20th Century. In good conditions. The artwork is presented through deft engraving, the ex...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Ink

Gallant and Ladies - Drawing by Mino Maccari - Mid-20th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Gallant and Ladies is an original pen drawing realized by Mino Maccari in the mid-20th century. Good condition on yellowed paper with an aged left margin. The artwork is represente...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Pen

Portrait of Sleeping Man - Drawing by Mino Maccari - Mid-20th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Portrait of Sleeping Man is an Original Drawing in pencil carbon on creamy-colored paper realized by Mino Maccari in the mid-20th century. Hand-signed by the artist on the lower. ...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Pen, Paper

Portrait of an Old Woman - Original Drawing by E. Giraud - Late 19th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Portrait of an Old Woman is an Original Drawing in ink realized by Eugène Giraud in the Late 19th Century. Applied on a Cardboard. Stamped on the lower right. Good conditions. Th...
Category

Late 19th Century Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

India Ink

Figures - Original Drawing by Fredric Henri Schopin- Late 19th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Figures an original drawing in pencil realized by Fredric Henri Schopin(1804-1880) in the 19th Century. Stamped on the lower right. Good Conditions. T...
Category

Late 19th Century Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Pencil

Chaim Gross Judaica Jewish Watercolor Painting Rabbi Klezmer Music WPA Artist
Located in Surfside, FL
Chaim Gross (American, 1904-1991) Watercolor with pencil painting Rabbi Klezmer music concert, flute player. Hand signed framed: 15 X 28.5, paper: 9.5 X 23 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

Portrait - Drawing - Mid 20th century
Located in Roma, IT
Portrait is an original charcoal drawing on paper, realized by an anonymous artist in the Mid-20th Century. Good conditions with some foxing. The artwork is represented through de...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Charcoal

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

'Woman With Green Headband And Yellow Bird' Portrait Original Drawing 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. Wi...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Acrylic, Ink, Handmade Paper

Sheperd - Drawing by Claudio Cintoli - 1958
Located in Roma, IT
Sheperd is an original modern artowrk realized in 1958 by Claudio Cintoli. China ink drawing. Hand signed and dated on the lower margin. Includes frame.
Category

1970s Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Ink

The Sacred Flying Chariot - Ezekiel's Vision - Drawing - 1937
Located in Roma, IT
The Sacred Flying Chariot is an Original pen and pencil drawing on paper realized by an unknown french artist in 1937. Monogrammed "P.B." on the lower and dated and hand-note on the...
Category

Early 20th Century Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Pen

Sacred Scene - Original Drawing - Early 20th Century
Located in Roma, IT
"Sacred Scene" is an original drawing in ink on paper, realized by an Anonymous Artist of the early 20th Century . The state of preservation of the artwork is very good. Sheet d...
Category

Early 20th Century Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Ink

Profile - Drawing by Mino Maccari - Mid-20th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Profile is an Original Drawing in pencil carbon on creamy-colored paper realized by Mino Maccari in the mid-20th century. Hand-signed by the artist on the lower. Good conditions....
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Pencil

Figure - Original Drawing in China ink by Hippolyte Bellangé - Mid-19th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Figure is an original artwork realized by Hippolyte Bellangé in the Mid-19th Century. Original drawing in China ink. Good conditions. Joseph Loui...
Category

Mid-19th Century Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Ink, Paper

Le marbre amoureux - ink and tempera by Paul Conte - Mid-20th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Le marbre amoureux is an original artwork realized by the French artist Paul Conte . Mixed media on paper (china ink and tempera). Hand-signed and titled in china ink on the lower ...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Tempera, Ink

The Proposal - Original Drawing by Paul Renouard - Early 20th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Original pencil drawing on paper, realized by Paul Renouard in the early 20th Century. Good conditions. The artwork is represented through deft strokse by mastery.
Category

Early 20th Century Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Pencil

Profile - Drawing by Mino Maccari - Mid-20th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Profile is an Original Drawing in pencil carbon on creamy-colored paper realized by Mino Maccari in the mid-20th century. Hand-signed by the artist on the lower. Good conditions....
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Pencil

Les Croates (French Army in 1812-13)- Original Drawing By Herbert Knotel - 1940s
Located in Roma, IT
Les 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 ...
Category

1940s Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor, Ink

Portrait - Drawing by Mino Maccari - Mid-20th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Portrait is an Original Drawing in pen on creamy-colored paper realized by Mino Maccari in the mid-20th century. Hand-signed by the artist on the lower. Good conditions. Mino Ma...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Pen

Portrait - Drawing by Mino Maccari - Mid-20th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Portrait is an Original Drawing in pen on creamy-colored paper realized by Mino Maccari in the mid-20th century. Hand-signed by the artist on the lower. Good conditions. Mino Ma...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Pen, Paper

Portrait - Drawing by Mino Maccari - Mid-20th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Portrait is an Original Drawing in pencil carbon on creamy-colored paper realized by Mino Maccari in the mid-20th century. Hand-signed by the artist on the lower. With another port...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Pencil

Untitled, Pen & Ink on Paper, Black color by Modern Indian Artist "In Stock"
By Ganesh Pyne
Located in Kolkata, West Bengal
Ganesh Pyne - Untitled - 8.25 x 11 inches (unframed size) Pen & Ink on Paper Inclusive of shipment in roll form. Style : Initially, Pyne painted watercolo...
Category

1990s Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Ink, Pen

Sorrowful Lady - Original Drawing By Pierre Georges Jeanniot - 1890s
Located in Roma, IT
Sorrowful Lady is an original Drawing on paper realized by painter Pierre Georges Jeanniot (1848-1934) in the 1890s. Drawing in charcoal. Hand-signed on the lower. Good conditions...
Category

1890s Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Pencil

Portrait - Drawing By Edouard Dufeu - Late-19th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Portrait is an Original Charcoal Drawing and Watercolour realized by Edouard Dufeu (1836-1900). Good condition included a green and cream colored cardbo...
Category

Late 19th Century Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor, Charcoal

Woman - Original Drawing by Saul Milliet - 20th century
Located in Roma, IT
Woman is an Original Pencil Drawing realized by Saul Milliet (1844-1920). Good condition included a white cardboard passpartout (63x50 cm). No signature.
Category

20th Century Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper

Eileen Ford at '21, (Portrait of founder of Ford Modeling Agency at the 21 Club)
Located in New York, NY
LeRoy Neiman Eileen Ford at '21' (Portrait of Eileen Ford), 1978 Original drawing done in marker on original offset lithograph New York's 21 Club menu. Sig...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Ink, Permanent Marker, Offset, Mixed Media

Landscape in Lagny - Original Drawing by Paul Alouard-Carny - 1936
Located in Roma, IT
Landscape in Lagny is an Original Pastel and Watercolour realized by Paul Alouard-Carny (1884-1961) in 1936. Good condition on a yellowed paper. Hand-signed by the artist on the lo...
Category

1910s Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Pastel

Figures of Women -Original Pencil Drawing by Frédric Theodore Lix - 19th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Figures of Women is an Original Pencil Drawing realized by Frédric Theodore Lix ( 1830-1897). Good condition included a green and white cardboard passpartout (50x65 cm). Stamp Sign...
Category

Mid-19th Century Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Pencil

Facial Expressions Seen at the Cinema - Drawing - 1940s
Located in Roma, IT
Facial Expressions Seen at the Cinema is an original China Ink Drawing realized by an artist in 1940s. Signature unreadable. Good condition on a white little paper.
Category

1940s Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Ink

Figures of Women - Original Drawing by Charles Dufresne - Early 20th
Located in Roma, IT
Figures of Women is an Original China Ink Drawing and Watercolour realized by Charles Dufresne (1876-1938). Good Condition on a yellowed paper, included a white cardboard passpartou...
Category

Early 20th Century Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Ink, Watercolor

Slippers - Original pencil drawing by Charles Serret - Late 19th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Slippers is an original pencil drawing realized by Charles Serret (1824 - 1900) in the late 19th century. Hand-signed by the artist on the lower left corner. The work is contained ...
Category

Late 19th Century Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Pencil

Self Portrait #1, colorful gestural abstracted portrait
Located in Brooklyn, NY
Oil on paper About Tom Bennett: With quick brushstrokes, Tom Bennett creates representational images of human figures and animals, emphasizing movement in a manner reminiscent of Lucien Freud, Edgar Degas and the photographer Eadweard Muybridge. Elongated and blurry, the horse racing up a hill (Canter Fritz, 2002) and the sinister cat landing a leap (Chien Blanc, 1998) elicit a sense of foreboding enhanced by Bennett’s somber palette; his female figures too reflect a grim sense of humor with their distorted nude bodies. The face of Untitled Figure (1997), for example, is obscured by layers of dark paint. Classically trained as a painter, he initially worked in oil on canvas but discovered that monotype printing enabled him to “literally push the image around,” creating an essential element of motion. To overcome the limited scale of monotypes, however, he switched to painting on slick-surfaced plastic. Tom Bennett’s practice is rooted in the classical tradition where painting and drawing from life is highly regarded. Bennett’s work is heavily influenced by Francis Bacon, Frank Auberbauch and foremost his father, Harry Bennett, who was also an artist. Tom’s time living abroad in Spain and traveling through Eastern Europe and Africa provided the artistic freedom to explore many of the techniques and subject matter that continue to define his practice. Bennett was born and raised in Connecticut. His mediums include monotypes, oil on paper, canvas or styrene board. In a technique that Tom started over 4 years ago, several of his monotypes have been painted over with oil paint using a palette knife, brush, or his fingers to re-purpose the underlying image. These works are a testament to Bennett’s ability to quickly and concisely compose an image with expressive brush strokes, foreshortened figures and expertly rendered light. Tom’s work has been featured in group and solo exhibitions worldwide. Bennett lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. He is currently represented by Tabla Rasa...
Category

2010s Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Oil, Paper, Monotype

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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