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Style: American Modern
Seated Nude
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Seated Nude
Match Stick ink drawing, c. 1925
Signed by the artist in pencil lower right: A. Biehle
Created at the Kakoon Arts Club, Cleveland. Influenced by friend and fellow artist...
Category
1920s American Modern Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Ink
Surprised Woman with Cactus 1920s Female Illustrator
By Susan Flint
Located in Miami, FL
The postman's delivery of a limp cactus creates a big emotional response the female recipient. Most likely an interior illustration for a newsstand magazine. Signed lower right Sus...
Category
1930s American Modern Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Graphite
Home in the Village, Mt. St. Michel, France, Early 20th Century Cleveland School
By Frank Wilcox
Located in Beachwood, OH
Frank Nelson Wilcox (American, 1887–1964)
Home in the Village, Mt. St. Michel, France, c. 1926
Watercolor on board
Signed lower right
21.75 x 28 inches
30.5 x 36.5 inches, framed
Frank Nelson Wilcox (October 3, 1887 – April 17, 1964) was a modernist American artist and a master of watercolor. Wilcox is described as the "Dean of Cleveland School painters," though some sources give this appellation to Henry Keller or Frederick Gottwald. Wilcox was born on October 3, 1887 to Frank Nelson Wilcox, Sr. and Jessie Fremont Snow Wilcox at 61 Linwood Street in Cleveland, Ohio. His father, a prominent lawyer, died at home in 1904 shortly before Wilcox' 17th birthday. His brother, lawyer and publisher Owen N. Wilcox, was president of the Gates Legal Publishing Company or The Gates Press. His sister Ruth Wilcox was a respected librarian.
In 1906 Wilcox enrolled from the Cleveland School of Art under the tutelage of Henry Keller, Louis Rorimer, and Frederick Gottwald. He also attended Keller's Berlin Heights summer school from 1909. After graduating in 1910, Wilcox traveled and studied in Europe, sometimes dropping by Académie Colarossi in the evening to sketch the model or the other students at their easels, where he was influenced by French impressionism. Wilcox was influenced by Keller's innovative watercolor techniques, and from 1910 to 1916 they experimented together with impressionism and post-impressionism. Wilcox soon developed his own signature style in the American Scene or Regionalist tradition of the early 20th century. He joined the Cleveland School of Art faculty in 1913. Among his students were Lawrence Edwin Blazey, Carl Gaertner, Paul Travis, and Charles E. Burchfield. Around this time Wilcox became associated with Cowan Pottery.
In 1916 Wilcox married fellow artist Florence Bard, and they spent most of their honeymoon painting in Berlin Heights with Keller. They had one daughter, Mary. In 1918 he joined the Cleveland Society of Artists, a conservative counter to the Bohemian Kokoon Arts Club, and would later serve as its president. He also began teaching night school at the John Huntington Polytechnic Institute at this time, and taught briefly at Baldwin-Wallace College.
Wilcox wrote and illustrated Ohio Indian Trails in 1933, which was favorably reviewed by the New York Times in 1934. This book was edited and reprinted in 1970 by William A. McGill. McGill also edited and reprinted Wilcox' Canals of the Old Northwest in 1969. Wilcox also wrote, illustrated, and published Weather Wisdom in 1949, a limited edition (50 copies) of twenty-four serigraphs (silk screen prints) accompanied by commentary "based upon familiar weather observations commonly made by people living in the country."
Wilcox displayed over 250 works at Cleveland's annual May Show. He received numerous awards, including the Penton Medal for The Omnibus, Paris (1920), Fish Tug on Lake Erie (1921), Blacksmith Shop (1922), and The Gravel Pit (1922). Other paintings include The Trailing Fog (1929), Under the Big Top (1930), and Ohio Landscape...
Category
1920s American Modern Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Watercolor
Untitled, Still Life of Shell
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Untitled, Still Life of Shell
Graphite on paper, 1945-1951
Signed lower right in pencil "Bisttram" (see photo)
Condition: Excellent
Sheet size: 9.63 x 7 .5 inches
EMIL BISTTRAM (189...
Category
1940s American Modern Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Graphite
A ca 1937 Watercolor Titled "Sad Girl" by Institute of Design Artist Eugene Dana
Located in Chicago, IL
A ca. 1937 watercolor Titled "Sad Girl" by Institute of Design artist Eugene Dana. Image size:
19 3/4" x 12 1/2". Matted to 24 1/4" x 18 1/4". Provenance: Estate of the artist.
...
Category
1930s American Modern Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Watercolor
A ca. 1940s Graphite on Paper Mural Study of a City Scene by Rudolph Weisenborn
Located in Chicago, IL
A ca. 1940s graphite on paper mural study of a Chicago city scene by notable Modern artist Rudolph Weisenborn. Artwork size: 12 1/2" x 9 1/4". Archivally matted to 18" x 16". Provenance: Estate of the artist.
Rudolph Weisenborn was born in Strassburg, Germany in 1881, but was orphaned at the age of nine. He was taken-in by Mid-Western farmer Thomas Westaby and spent his early years in Wisconsin, Iowa and North Dakota. Weisenborn first attended the University of North Dakota in 1898, then the Students School of Art in Denver. Various accounts have him working out west as a gold miner and cowboy.
Around 1912, he settled in Chicago and worked as a window designer for Marshall Field’s. Weisenborn is best known as the founder of the Chicago No-Jury Society of Artists. The group was founded because many artists could not get their work accepted into the mainstream Art Institute shows. Weisenborn is quoted as saying that he harbored feelings of disdain for any jury and that his own paintings were frequently rejected by conservative jurors. He was also involved and helped found other radical artist’s groups such as the Salon des Refuses, Cor Ardens and Neo-Arlimusic. In 1936, he helped found the New York-based American Abstract Artist’s Group. He created the only abstract mural for the 1933 Century of Progress Exhibition in Chicago and also worked for the Federal Arts Project in the Easel Division. His WPA murals can be found in Crane Technical High School and Nettlehorst Elementary School in Chicago, IL. In 1945, Chicago businessman Herman Spertus...
Category
1940s American Modern Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Graphite
"New York City Harbor" Leon Dolice, Downtown Skyline, East and Hudson River
By Leon Dolice
Located in New York, NY
Leon Dolice (1892 - 1960)
New York Harbor Skyline at Twilight (Searching), circa 1930-40
Pastel on paper
12 x 19 inches
Signed lower left
Provenance:
Spanierman Gallery, New York
The romantic backdrop of Vienna at the turn of the century had a life-long influence upon the young man who was someday to be spoken of as showing promise of becoming "one of the greatest etchers of all time". Leon Dolice, born in Vienna on August 14, 1892, even as a young boy, preferred the lure of painting to the scholastic studies which his early years had expected of him. His father was a machinist, which exposed the boy to welding and metal crafts.
However, his interest in art led him to abandon a secure future in the family business, and he spent most of his late teens and early twenties traveling through the capital cities of Europe studying the works of the Masters.
As with many itinerant artists, he made his way in a variety of fashions metalworker, chef, designer somehow always managing to give vent to his creative instincts. Lured by the adventure of crossing the great Atlantic and by the freedoms of the New World, he came to America in 1920. There he was greeted by the turbulence of New York in the Roaring Twenties. Finding a retreat in the European Bohemianism of Greenwich Village, he picked the streets of this landmark neighborhood as his first subjects.
With the encouragement of new found friends and artists such as George Luks and Herb Roth, he soon ventured out and devoted all his time to chronicling the architecture, back streets, dock scenes and other nostalgia that was fast disappearing from the face of Manhattan, mainly in copperplate etchings. A favorite subject for him was the Third Avenue El near one of his New York City studios on Third Avenue. He won accolades for his work, and although he traveled the East Coast recording landmarks in other cities including Washington DC, Baltimore, Chicago and Philadelphia, he always returned to his new home Manhattan.
A decline in popular favor for etchings led him to put aside his plates in the late 1930's and devote some ten years to pastels, linocuts and painting. His subject matter was almost exclusively New York City street scenes, but figurative works, country scenes and even experiments with Abstract Expressionism at the height of its new found favor in the 1940's punctuated his career.
In 1953, after learning of the forthcoming demise of the Third Avenue El, in the shadow of which he had maintained his studio for over a decade, he once again took to his plates and press and created a final series of Third Avenue and or other New York City landmarks that were then threatened with extinction. His work brings to light aspects of nostalgic New York that survives today only in small part, whether in architecture or in spirit.
Dolice's works are in a number of notable museums and private collections, including the Museum of the City of New York; The New York Public Library Print Collection; The New York Historical Society; Georgetown University Lauinger Library; The Print Club of Philadelphia and others. In the past few years, his work has been exhibited at Hofstra Museum, Long Island, NY; with the Montauk...
Category
1930s American Modern Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Pastel
Untitled (Double sided watercolor) Recto: Figures seated at a table
By Ben Shahn
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Watercolor on paper
Most probably related to the artist's creation of images surrounding Haggadah (Passover) which he started in 1930 and finished with the publication of his book in...
Category
1960s American Modern Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Watercolor
Ocean Liner and Sailboats in Holland - Original Gouache & Watercolor painting
Located in Paris, IDF
Frank Myer BOGGS (1855-1926)
Ocean Liner and Sailboats in Holland
Original Gouache & Watercolor painting
Signed bottom left
On paper 35 x 53 cm (c. 14 x 20 in) at view
Presented in...
Category
Early 20th Century American Modern Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Watercolor, Gouache
NYC Cityscape American Scene Social Realism Mid-Century
Located in New York, NY
NYC Cityscape American Scene Social Realism Mid-Century
Max Arthur Cohn (1903-1998)
New York City Skyline
14 x 21 1/2 inches
Watercolor on paper, c. 1...
Category
1930s American Modern Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Watercolor
1950s Mid Century Abstract Contour Drawing 1
Located in Arp, TX
From the estate of Jerry and Ruth Opper
Abstract Expressionism Contour Drawing 1
c.1950s
Ink and Pastel Contour Drawing
18" x 12", Unframed
Signed in ink lo...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Modern Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Ink, Pastel
Confederate Soldiers' Cemetery, Camp Chase, Columbus, Ohio Watercolor
Located in Beachwood, OH
Clarence Holbrook Carter (American, 1904-2000)
Confederate Soldiers' Cemetery, Camp Chase, Columbus, Ohio, 1929
Watercolor on paper
Signed and dated lowe...
Category
1920s American Modern Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Watercolor
The Ruby R
By William Thon
Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
William Thon, 'The Ruby R', watercolor, c. 1990. Signed, lower right; titled verso. A fine, expressionist work, on off-white watercolor paper; the image extending to the sheet edges....
Category
1950s American Modern Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Watercolor
Alfred Bendiner, Johnny Hodges (Johnny Hodges, Bass Fiddle & Traps)
Located in New York, NY
Did Bendiner ever miss a performance, show, concert, play? Was there anyone he didn't know?
This double-side drawing in blue crayon shows Johnny Hodges (jazz saxophonist extraordina...
Category
1950s American Modern Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Crayon
'Modernist Seascape', San Diego Watercolor Society, Dallas
By Robert Landry
Located in Santa Cruz, CA
Signed lower right, "Robert Landry" (American, 1921-1999) and painted circa 1965.
Watercolor seascape showing a view of a rocky inlet with sailboats on the ocean.
Robert Landry attended high school on the East Coast then went into the service during World War II. After the war, he studied art in Washington, D.C. and Minneapolis on the G.I. Bill. This led to work as a commercial illustrator for the United States Air Force Graphic Arts Division at the Pentagon, and as an art director for the Federal Aviation Agency and Convair Astronautics.
After the late 1940s, he began a serious painting career and started exhibiting fine art watercolors...
Category
1960s American Modern Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Watercolor
WPA Era, Industrial Scene of a Steel Mill by Artist Harold Haydon
Located in Chicago, IL
A ca. 1934 tonal, watercolor of a steel mill by artist Harold Haydon. Artwork size: 8 3/4" x 11 3/4". Archivally matted to 14" x 18". Provenance: Estate of the artist.
Harold E...
Category
1930s American Modern Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Watercolor, Paper
“Seated Model in Red Bra”
Located in Southampton, NY
Original graphite and colored pencil drawing on archival paper of a woman seated in a red bra by the well known American artist, Raphael Soyer. Signed lower r...
Category
1950s American Modern Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Archival Paper, Color Pencil, Graphite
Chicken Ride
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Chicken Ride
Pen and ink on paper, c. 1940
Unsigned
Annotated by the artist with his color intentions
Preliminary study for "Chicken Ride," watercolor, 1940, in the collection of Mr...
Category
1940s American Modern Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Ink
Abstract Mid 20th Century WPA Non Objective American Modernism New Hope Modern
By Louis Stone
Located in New York, NY
Abstract Mid 20th Century WPA Non Objective American Modernism New Hope Modern.mixed media. 21 x 16 (sight). Housed in a hand carved frame.
Louis King Stone ...
Category
1940s American Modern Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Gouache, Board
Untitled
Located in Dallas, TX
Francis Chapin was one of the most celebrated painters in Chicago during his lifetime. When he was a young art student, Valley House founder, Donald Vogel, painted with "Chape" on th...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Modern Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Watercolor
Untitled (Seated Nude)
Located in Chicago, IL
A figure drawing, created by Leontine Wallace in 1931. The drawing is inscribed, “Paris á l’Atelier L’hote”. Image size: 12 1/2" x 9 1/2". Framed size: ...
Category
1930s American Modern Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Graphite
California Lake Landscape Original Watercolor on Paper
Located in Soquel, CA
California Lake Landscape in Watercolor on Paper
Serene landscape by Donna N. Schuster (American, 1883-1953). The viewer stands at the edge of a lake, under a few trees. At the far ...
Category
Early 20th Century American Modern Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Watercolor, Laid Paper
1940s Modernist Trees Watercolor Painting, Framed Vertical Earth Tone Landscape
Located in Denver, CO
This captivating Modernist watercolor painting of a serene forest scene by Richard Sorby (1911-2001) beautifully captures the essence of nature through a minimalist and expressive lens. Painted in the 1940s, the piece features stylized trees in bold, dark hues of green, blue, and black, complemented by earthy tones of brown, orange, and white. The watercolor on paper is signed by the artist in the lower right corner and beautifully framed with archival materials. The outer dimensions of the piece measure 26 ½ x 18 ½ x 1 inches, with the image size itself being 22 ¾ x 14 ¾ inches.
About the Artist:
Richard Sorby, a Colorado-based artist, was renowned for his distinctive modernist style, blending abstraction with representational themes. Sorby earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Colorado State College of Education (now the University of Northern Colorado) in 1937 and went on to study under influential mentors, including Vance Kirkland and William Joseph Eastman...
Category
1940s American Modern Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Watercolor, Archival Paper
Reefer Madness, Marajuana - Pot - Cannabis - Cover Atlantic Monthly Magazine
Located in Miami, FL
Gouache, Crayon, Pencil, Film on Paper, not framed
Cover Atlantic Monthly Magazine August 1994
Category
1990s American Modern Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Gouache
"Loser's Rack" - Original Charcoal and Graphite Drawing on Paper
Located in Soquel, CA
"Loser's Rack" - Original Charcoal and Graphite Drawing on Paper
This drawing by California artist, Angela Stone (American, b. 1983), provides brilliant 1-point perspective in a val...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary American Modern Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Charcoal, Graphite
A Sandstorm on the Little Colorado River, Arizona
Located in Storrs, CT
A Sandstorm on the Little Colorado River, Arizona. 1920. Watercolor on watercolor board. Study for Seeber 189. 10 3/8 x 14 1/4. Signed lower left; titled verso. An exquisitely subtl...
Category
Early 20th Century American Modern Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Watercolor
Edward Laning, Joe Jones Asleep
Located in New York, NY
This is a World War II drawing of the Missouri artist Joe Jones (1909-1963) by the New York artist Edward Laning (1906-1981). A typed note reads “Drawn in th...
Category
1940s American Modern Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Ink
Reclining Nude — Mid-Century Modernism, Renowned African American Artist
Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
Robert Blackburn, Untitled (Reclining Nude), brush and ink, c. 1948, unsigned. A fine, spontaneous work, on cream wove paper. Slight toning to the sheet edges; otherwise in excellent condition. Matted to museum standards, unframed.
Image size 18 3/4 x 23 1/2 inches (476 x 597 mm).
Provenance: Adrienne E. Wheeler Collection, acquired from the artist.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Robert Blackburn (1920 - 2003) participated in the rich mix of art programs and creative groups available in Harlem as he grew up, including Charles Alston's Harlem Arts Workshop, the Harlem YMCA, and later the Harlem Artist's Guild. In 1937 he joined the WPA at the Harlem Community Art Center, the largest New York center for instruction in the arts. There he was exposed to Harlem's most prominent artists, Aaron Douglas, William Henry Johnson...
Category
1940s American Modern Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Ink
Geometric Woman's Portrait - Rare Signed Graphite Drawing on Paper 1962
Located in Soquel, CA
Geometric Woman's Portrait - Rare Signed Graphite Drawing on Paper 1962
Beautiful, soft original drawing by Eugene Hawkins (American, b. 1933). A realistic depiction of a short-haired woman, her large lips parted into a soft smile. She's surrounded in geometric shapes offering a wonderful juxtaposition to the natural curves of her face and hair.
Signed in pencil, "Eugene Hawkins '62"
Presented in a new black mat.
Mat size: 20"H x 16"W
Paper size: 18.5"H x 14.5"W
Eugene Hawkins (American, b. 1933) is a BIPOC artist known for his detailed portraiture and printmaking. He is listed in Who Was Who in American Art, 1564-1975, and his work was exhibited in the Whitney Museum of American Art. He spent the majority of his life working and exhibiting in Southern California. His work frequently touches upon socio-political subjects, making strong statements about the world. The California African American Museum features Eugene Hawkins's work in the Permanent Collection. Exhibition: 2017
Paperworks: Selections from the Permanent Collection focuses on works on paper produced from 1950-2000 and includes figurative, impressionistic, and abstract styles. The exhibition showcases the radically diverse range of works on paper created by African American and other artists over the last two centuries, and includes drawings, prints, paintings, and collages by Edward Mitchell Bannister...
Category
1960s American Modern Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Graphite
Quicksand (Small) #18
By Mary Spain
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Quicksand (Small) #18
Colored pencil on raw sienna laid rag paper, 1980
Signed and dated by the artist on the image upper right (see photo)
Titled and described by the artist verso
C...
Category
1980s American Modern Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Color Pencil
Untitled (Boat Repair)
Located in Dallas, TX
Francis Chapin was one of the most celebrated painters in Chicago during his lifetime. When he was a young art student, Valley House founder, Donald Vogel, painted with "Chape" on th...
Category
1940s American Modern Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Watercolor
The Fly Fisherman, Figurative Landscape Watercolor
By Harvey Eckert
Located in Soquel, CA
Delicate depiction of a fly fisherman in the rain by Harvey Eckert (American, 1946-2018). This highly detailed landscape watercolor depicts a man fishing in the rain, wading into the water as he smokes a pipe under a tree.
Signed and dated in the lower right corner.
Presented in a wood frame with a double mat and anti-glare glass.
A check from the original purchase is attached to verso (blurred for privacy).
Image size: 14"H x 18"W
Harvey Eckert (American, 1946-2018) was an American artist from Kansas. He attended Colby Community College, Hays Emporia State and graduated from Wichita University with two degrees. While living in Montana, he was employed by Bob Wards, Fran Johnson’s Sporting Goods and Cashell Engineers as a surveyor and draftsman. Eckert illustrated three books, Caddisflies by the late Gary LaFontaine, Montana Trout Flies and The Master Fly Weaver by the late George Grant. He did illustrations for the following publications: Montana Outdoors, Colorado Streamside, The River Rat published by Trout Unlimited, Fly Fisherman, Rod and Reel...
Category
1980s American Modern Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Watercolor
1950s "Lounge" Mid Century Figurative Ink Drawing NYC Artist
By Donald Stacy
Located in Arp, TX
Donald Stacy
"Lounge"
c. 1950s
Ink on paper
14" x 16.5" unframed
Unsigned
Came from artist estate
Donald Stacy (1925-2011) New Jersey
Studied: Newark School of Fine Art
The Art Students League
Pratt Graphic Arts Center
University of Paris 1953-54
University of Aix-en-Provence 1954-55
Faculty: Art Department of the New School
Museum of Modern Art
School of Visual Arts
Stacy Studio Workshop
Exhibitions: Grand Central Moderns
George Wittenborn
The New School
Print Exhibitions, Chicago
University of Oklahoma
Honolulu Museum
Monclair Museum
Wisconsin State College
Louisiana Art...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Modern Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Ink
"Good Health Week" American Scene Modern Social Realism Double Sided WPA Era
By Jo Cain
Located in New York, NY
"Good Health Week" American Scene Modern Social Realism Double Sided WPA Era
Jo Cain (1904 - 2003)
Good Health Week – double sided
13 3/4 x 20 1/2 in...
Category
1930s American Modern Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Ink, Gouache
"You're Sunday Shot" Early Modern Original Ad Layout for Foley's with Airplane
Located in Houston, TX
Early modern original watercolor and gouache ad layout for Foley's by Houston portraitist Robert C. Joy. The work features a German military aircraft flying over a pile of tin cans t...
Category
Early 20th Century American Modern Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Watercolor, Gouache
Alfred Bendiner, (Supper at the Oak Room, Plaza Hotel, NYC)
Located in New York, NY
Bendiner always took drawing materials with him when he traveled. And a beautiful piece of 'found' paper was never wasted. (Once in Greece on a bus trip he had to acquire paper from ...
Category
1960s American Modern Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Ink
Charles Burchfield Preparatory Sketch, Early 20th Century
Located in New York, NY
Charles Burchfield (1893-1967)
Untitled (Preparatory Drawing for Skyscape), Early 20th Century
Pencil on paper
12 1/4 x 18 3/4 in.
Inscribed: blue / white / blue / RV
Born in Ashtab...
Category
Early 20th Century American Modern Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Pencil
Untitled (seated female nude)
By Henry Keller
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Seated Femake Nude
Graphite and chalk on tan paper, c. 1920
Signed "Keller" and signed again with the artist's initials in a cypher
A finished life drawing most probably exhibited at...
Category
1920s American Modern Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Graphite
"New York City Skyline View from the East River, " Lionel Reiss, Jewish Artist
By Lionel Reiss
Located in New York, NY
Lionel S. Reiss (1894 - 1988)
New York City Skyline View from the East River
Watercolor on paper
13 x 19 inches
Signed lower left
In describing his own style, Lionel Reiss wrote, “By nature, inclination, and training, I have long since recognized the fact that...I belong to the category of those who can only gladly affirm the reality of the world I live in.” Reiss’s subject matter was wide-ranging, including gritty New York scenes, landscapes of bucolic Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and seascapes around Gloucester, Massachusetts. However, it was as a painter of Jewish life—both in Israel and in Europe before World War II—that Reiss excelled. I.B. Singer, the Nobel Prize winner for Literature, noted that Reiss was “essentially an artist of the nineteenth century, and because of this he had the power and the courage to tell visually the story of a people.”
Although Reiss was born in Jaroslaw, Poland, his family immigrated to the United States in 1898 when he was four years old. Reiss's family settled on New York City’s Lower East Side and he lived in the city for most of his life. Reiss attended the Art Students League and then worked as a commercial artist for newspapers and publishers. As art director for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, he supposedly created the studio’s famous lion logo.
After World War I, Reiss became fascinated with Jewish life in the ‘Old World.’ In 1921 he left his advertising work and spent the next ten years traveling in Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. Like noted Jewish photographers Alter Kacyzne and Roman Vishniac, Reiss depicted Jewish life in Poland prior to World War II. He later wrote, “My trip encompassed three main objectives: to make ethnic studies of Jewish types wherever I traveled; to paint and draw Jewish life, as I saw it and felt it, in all aspects; and to round out my work in Israel.”
In Europe, Reiss recorded quotidian scenes in a variety of media and different settings such as Paris, Amsterdam, the Venice ghetto, the Jewish cemetery in Prague, and an array of shops, synagogues, streets, and marketplaces in the Jewish quarters of Warsaw, Lodz, Krakow, Lublin, Vilna, Ternopil, and Kovno. He paid great attention to details of dress, hair, and facial features, and his work became noted for its descriptive quality.
A selection of Reiss’s portraits appeared in 1938 in his book My Models Were Jews. In this book, published on the eve of the Holocaust, Reiss argued that there was “no such thing as a ‘Jewish race’.” Instead, he claimed that the Jewish people were a cultural group with a great deal of diversity within and between Jewish communities around the world. Franz Boas...
Category
1940s American Modern Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Watercolor
Abstracted Forest Landscape
Located in Soquel, CA
Brightly colored abstract forest by unknown artist Dersham (20th Century). The trees in this piece are light in color, standing out from the saturated background. Multiple layers of ...
Category
Late 20th Century American Modern Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Watercolor
Vibrant Mountain Road Landscape
Located in Soquel, CA
Beautiful mountain road in vibrant tones, a watercolor landscape painting by Eva Ellen Dean (American, 1871-1954). Presented in a wooden frame. Signed "Eva Dean" lower left. Image si...
Category
1930s American Modern Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Watercolor, Laid Paper
Seated Female Nude (Devora)
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Seated Female Nude (Devora)
Watercolor on paper, c. 1970
Signed in pencil lower right (see photo)
A folio from the artist's sketchbook. Done while the artist was in Florida.
Conditio...
Category
1970s American Modern Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Watercolor
Paul Gattuso, (Abstraction)
Located in New York, NY
Paul Gattuso attended the Art Students League and worked primarily in New York City. There is an old address with a Bronx, Grand Concourse address on the ...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Modern Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Watercolor
Flowers Still Life
Located in Los Angeles, CA
(Note: This work is part of our exhibition Connected by Creativity: WPA Era Works from the Collection of Leata and Edward Beatty Rowan)
Watercolor...
Category
1930s American Modern Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Watercolor
Self Portrait with Arms Over Head, vignette on Paul Cadmus on left
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Self Portrait with Arms Over Head, vignette on Paul Cadmus on left
Graphite drawing on thin wove paper, c. 1940's
Unsigned
Provenance: Paull Cadmus
Jon F. Anderson (1937-2018)
Condition:
Sheet size: 15 x 10 1/4 inches
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 American Modern Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Graphite
1930s WPA Era Watercolor Painting of Horses in a Southwest Landscape
By Lloyd Moylan
Located in Denver, CO
Immerse yourself in the beauty of the American Southwest with this stunning vintage painting by renowned artist Lloyd Moylan (1893–1963). This masterful watercolor and gouache on pap...
Category
1930s American Modern Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Watercolor, Gouache
Old Door
Located in New York, NY
Richard Anuszkiewicz
Old Door, 1953
Watercolor on paper
Signed and dated by the artist on the lower right front
20 × 14 inches
Unframed
This unique and extre...
Category
1950s American Modern Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Watercolor
Abstract #2
Located in London, GB
“If it brings to me a harmonious sensation…” Walkowitz once said, “…I then try to find the concrete elements that are likely to record the sensation in visual forms.”
This philosoph...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Modern Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Pencil
WPA Era, Industrial Scene of a Steel Mill by Artist Harold Haydon
Located in Chicago, IL
A ca. 1935 tonal, watercolor of a steel mill by artist Harold Haydon. Artwork size: 8 3/4" x 11 3/4". Archivally matted to 14" x 18". Provenance: Estate of the artist.
Harold E...
Category
1930s American Modern Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Watercolor, Paper
Alfred Bendiner, (Baseball Hitter and Pitcher -- The Philadelphia Phillies?)
Located in New York, NY
Of course it's possible that these baseball players aren't from a Philadelphia team, but I doubt it. There was so much drama and intrigue with both the Philadelphia Phillies...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Modern Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
India Ink, Watercolor
"Spa Hair" Minimalist Illustrative Portrait in Ink on Paper by Geraldine Heib
Located in Soquel, CA
"Spa Hair" Minimalist Illustrative Portrait in Ink on Paper
In this illustrative portrait by Jerry O'Day (American, 1912), a person is depicted in a continuous line contour style. The fine line detail of the hair gives texture and movement to the piece, with half-closed eyelids, giving the sense of calm and relaxation.
Unsigned, but was acquired with a collection of the artist's work.
Presented in a new black mat.
Mat size: 36"H x 30"W
Paper size: 28.5"H x 22.63"W
Image size: 25.5"H x 20"W
Jerry O'Day is also known as Geraldine Heib. Born in Oakland, California, on June 17, 1912. Geraldine Heib assumed the name Jerry O'Day at an early age. She grew up in Washington and studied in Seattle at the Cornish School of Fine Arts. Upon moving to the San Francisco Bay area in 1938, she further studied with Bufano as a muralist for two years. O'Day wed sculptor David Lemon and had a gallery in a converted cod fishery in Belvedere from 1942 until 1963. At that time, the couple moved to a houseboat in Sausalito, where she remained until her demise on March 30, 1986.
Post War California artist, Jerry O'Day studied at the Cornish School of Fine Arts in Seattle; studied with Beniamino Bufano for two years. She lived in the artist's colony at the Cod fishery with artist David Lemon on Belvedere Island in the San Francisco Bay Area from 1942 - 1963.
Solo Exhibitions: City of Paris, Rotunda Gallery; Lucien Labaudt Gallery, 1963; Torrance Gallery, San Anselmo, 1955; Marin Art Gallery, Sausalito, 1956; Palace of The Legion of Honor, San Francisco, 1962; East & West Gallery, Fillmore Street, San Francisco; Landmarks Gallery, Marin County, 1991.
Selected Group Exhibitions: 65th Annual Painting and Sculpture Exhibition of the San Francisco Art Association at the San Francisco Museum of Art, 1945; Fourth Winter Invitational, California Palace of The Legion of Honor, San Francisco, 1963.
Source:
David J Carlson...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Modern Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Ink
"Families near Seville, Spain" Martha Walter, Modernist Figures in Landscape
Located in New York, NY
Martha Walter
Families near Seville, Spain
Signed lower left
Watercolor on paper
7 x 8 inches
Martha Walter was best known as a painter of colorful beach scenes and landscapes. Inf...
Category
Early 20th Century American Modern Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Watercolor
Barns in the Helderberg, New York (rural 1930s American scene with vintage car)
By Martin Lewis
Located in New Orleans, LA
"Barns in the Helderberg, New York" by Martin Lewis shows neighbors (one in a Model T car) visiting outside a series of barns with a tree in the background...
Category
1930s American Modern Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Chalk, Charcoal
1950s Mid Century Abstract Expressionist Drawing
Located in Arp, TX
From the estate of Jerry and Ruth Opper
Abstract Expressionism Drawing
c.1950s
Ink and Pastel Drawing
18" x 12" Unframed
Unsigned
*Custom framing available ...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Modern Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Pastel, Ink
Characters from the Sketchbooks (from September Storm plus Self Portrait)
Located in New Orleans, LA
This is a page from the artist's sketchbooks. Six pencil drawings show figures that might have been in preparation for future lithographs, Certainly the woman with the umbrella could have been an early iteration for September Storm. There is also a self portrait of Nesbitt. Clearly the works are authentic if unsigned. Provenance: from the Nesbitt studio.
From workers wrestling with heavy machinery to a lone horseman traveling down a rut-filled country road; from the animated crowd at a livestock auction to the dignified worshippers at a serene Sunday service; Jackson Lee Nesbitt chose to represent the essence of humanity and the nobility of ordinary folk striving to get along as best they can. He studied with Thomas Hart Benton and John Demartelly...
Category
Late 20th Century American Modern Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Graphite
1951 Figure Drawing of a standing Male Nude by Artist Harold Haydon
Located in Chicago, IL
A black and white figure study of a standing nude male, from 1951, by artist Harold Haydon. Artwork size:
Archivally matted to 24" x 20". Provenance: Estate of the Artist. Esta...
Category
1950s American Modern Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Graphite, Paper
White Poppies - Botanical Watercolor on Paper
Located in Soquel, CA
White Poppies - Botanical Watercolor on Paper
Detailed floral watercolor by Harry Federico (American, 1922-2022). Several white poppies ...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary American Modern Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Watercolor, Laid Paper
Still Life #1
By Jerry Opper
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork "Still Life #1" c.1970 is a colors pastel and crayon on thick paper by American artist Jerry Opper, 1924-2014. It is hand signed in pencil at the lower right corner by the artist. The image size is 22 x 16 inches, sheet size is 24.25 x 18 inches. It is in excellent condition, there are pastel marks on the margin all around the artwork and also on the back, see picture #1.
About the artist:
Jerry Opper was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on September 5, 1924. He moved to Los Angeles with his family in 1933. After graduating from Hollywood High School, he worked in movie studios and attended art classes at Chouinard Art Institute. In May 1942, Opper was drafted into the army and was then able to study at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center while his outfit was stationed in Colorado. Later he was sent to Guam and was discharged in December 1945.
Opper returned to Chouinard and his work in movie studios until 1947, when he moved to San Francisco. He enrolled as a full-time student at the California School of Fine Arts (now SFAI) and received his diploma in June of 1950. In 1948, Opper met his wife Gertrud Ruth Friedmann, daughter of artist Gustav Friedmann, whose works are also in the Lost Art Salon collection. It was love at first sight and a few weeks after their first encounter at the Black Cat in San Francisco's North Beach, they got married and enjoyed a passionate, life-long romance.
Shortly after he finished school, Opper worked briefly as a decorator’s assistant and then started his career as a commercial artist, working for several firms such as Fibreboard, Beatrix Food and Precision. Working full-time and dedicating himself to having a rich family life occupied most of Opper's time, but he continued to be creative. He was above all a family man with the pride of having raised two exceptional daughters, Erika and Jody. Year after year, Opper would painstakingly craft their Halloween costumes...
Category
Late 20th Century American Modern Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Pastel
American Modern drawings and watercolor paintings for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a wide variety of authentic American Modern drawings and watercolor paintings 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 drawings and watercolor paintings created in this style to introduce contrast in an otherwise neutral space in your home, the works available on 1stDibs include elements of blue, orange, purple, green and other colors. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including Donald Stacy, Frank Wilcox, Alfred Bendiner, and Irene Pattinson. Frequently made by artists working with Paint, and Watercolor and other materials, all of these pieces for sale are unique and have attracted attention over the years. Not every interior allows for large American Modern drawings and watercolor paintings, so small editions measuring 0.25 inches across are also available. Prices for drawings and watercolor paintings 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 $85 and tops out at $950,000, while the average work sells for $1,640.