Surrealist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
SURREALIST STYLE
In the wake of World War I’s ravaging of Europe, artists delved into the unconscious mind to confront and grapple with this reality. Poet and critic André Breton, a leader of the Surrealist movement who authored the 1924 Surrealist Manifesto, called this approach “a violent reaction against the impoverishment and sterility of thought processes that resulted from centuries of rationalism.” Surrealist art emerged in the 1920s with dreamlike and uncanny imagery guided by a variety of techniques such as automatic drawing, which can be likened to a stream of consciousness, to channel psychological experiences.
Although Surrealism was a groundbreaking approach for European art, its practitioners were inspired by Indigenous art and ancient mysticism for reenvisioning how sculptures, paintings, prints, performance art and more could respond to the unsettled world around them.
Surrealist artists were also informed by the Dada movement, which originated in 1916 Zurich and embraced absurdity over the logic that had propelled modernity into violence. Some of the Surrealists had witnessed this firsthand, such as Max Ernst, who served in the trenches during World War I, and Salvador Dalí, whose otherworldly paintings and other work responded to the dawning civil war in Spain.
Other key artists associated with the revolutionary art and literary movement included Man Ray, Joan Miró, René Magritte, Yves Tanguy, Frida Kahlo and Meret Oppenheim, all of whom had a distinct perspective on reimagining reality and freeing the unconscious mind from the conventions and restrictions of rational thought. Pablo Picasso showed some of his works in “La Peinture Surréaliste” — the first collective exhibition of Surrealist painting — which opened at Paris’s Galerie Pierre in November of 1925. (Although Magritte is best known as one of the visual Surrealist movement’s most talented practitioners, his famous 1943 painting, The Fifth Season, can be interpreted as a formal break from Surrealism.)
The outbreak of World War II led many in the movement to flee Europe for the Americas, further spreading Surrealism abroad. Generations of modern and contemporary artists were subsequently influenced by the richly symbolic and unearthly imagery of Surrealism, from Joseph Cornell to Arshile Gorky.
Find a collection of original Surrealist paintings, sculptures, prints and multiples and more art on 1stDibs.
Style: Surrealist
Color: Blue
French Contemporary Art By Helen Uter - The crow
By Helen Uter
Located in Paris, IDF
Acrylic on paper, Framed 42 x 42 x 3 cm
Helen Uter is an established Franco-American painter born in 1955 who lives and works in Donnery, near Orléans, France. Heavily influenced b...
Category
1990s Surrealist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Acrylic, Paper
Seascape - Drawing by Antoine Mayo - 1950s
Located in Roma, IT
Seascape is an original drawing in watercolor on paper, realized by the artist Antoine Mayo (1905-1990) in the 1950s.
Hand-Signed on the lower right marg...
Category
1950s Surrealist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Watercolor
Late For The Sun
By Teri Brudnak
Located in Boston, MA
Artist commentary:
Late summer at the beach is a special season. The sun is getting lower but it's still very warm at the beach. Light bends and reflects shapes and colors in the wa...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Archival Paper, Mixed Media
Last News - Original Mixed Media by Sergio Barletta - 1981
Located in Roma, IT
Last News is an original Collage and pen realized in 1981 by Italian Artist Sergio Barletta.
Hand-signed on the lower right and dated on the lower left and titled on the lower cent...
Category
1980s Surrealist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Mixed Media, Pen
Coloured City - Drawing, Pencil, Blue, Red, Paper
Located in Berlin, DE
Coloured city, 2014
acryl and colored fine liner on paper
19.68 H x 13.89 W in
50 H x 35.3 W
Raluca Arnăutu creates a zoomorphic world, where animals f...
Category
2010s Surrealist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Color Pencil
House of Dreams - Blue, Red, Drawing, Figurative, 21st Century
Located in Berlin, DE
House of Dreams, 2013
Ink and colored pencil on paper
16.53 H x 11.69 W in
42 H x 29.7 W cm
Signed
Raluca Arnăutu creates a zoomorphic world, where an...
Category
2010s Surrealist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Ink, Color Pencil
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John Hrehov
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colored pencil on paper
6.50h x 8w in
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JHR004
John Hrehov
Education
1985 MFA-Painting, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
1981 BFA-Painting, Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, OH.
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2004 John Hrehov: Drawings and Paintings. Denise Bibro Fine Art, New York, NY.
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1999 Paintings and Working Drawings. Adams Hall Gallery, Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL.
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1997 Object Lesson, Paintings, and Drawings by John Hrehov. Yvonne Rapp Gallery, Louisville, KY.
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John Hrehov
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6.50h x 8w in
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JHR005
John Hrehov
Education
1985 MFA-Painting, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
1981 BFA-Painting, Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, OH.
Solo Exhibitions
2017 John Hrehov, Paintings and Drawings. Tom Thomas Gallery, Indiana University East, Richmond, IN.
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2011 John Hrehov: Charcoal. Indiana University - Purdue University Fort Wayne.
2009 John Hrehov: A Survey 1999-2009 Denise Bibro Fine Art, New York, NY.
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Located in Roma, IT
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No Reserve
H 10.24 in W 7.88 in D 0.04 in
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Gustav Melcher ( German, 1898 -?) Boats off Venice Italy Ink Water Color c. 1918
By Gustav Melcher
Located in Meinisberg, CH
Gustav Melcher
(German, 1898-?)
Segelschiffe vor Venedig - Sailing ships off Venice
• India ink, water colour wash
• Visible image ca. 11.5 x 18 cm
• Glased Frame ca. 20 x 25 cm
• Verso various inscriptions
• Signed lower right
Gustav Melcher was a German painter and a pioneer in film, film criticism and film theory and created this clever little picture of the skyline of Venice with various vessels.
Going by the various inscriptions an the backing paper, this drawing was made in 1918 when Gustav was twenty years old and passed on three years later to Gertrud Melcher on the 1. 2. 1921. I have no reasons to doubt this information. The small drawing is still in its unopened frame, so maybe there is more information to be discovered , however this will be the privilege of the next owner.
The picture also has retained its original antique frame – note that it has lost over the years various sections of the gesso decoration.
The very precisely executed drawing is most enjoyable to look at and doing so, remember you are looking through the eyes of a young man, who saw this foreign sea cape over a century ago.
Thank you for your interest and please note, that I offer free worldwide shipping on all my items.
Gustav Melcher began his studies at the Düsseldorfer Kunstakademie under Peter Janssen and Eduard von Gebhardt. Originaly he was interested in figurative and portrait painting, but after time he decided to pursue the depiction of land- and marinescapes. Durin his studies the young artist undertook trips to visit England, Scotland, Belgium and France and he joined the artist society Malkasten. It was in those days he would hold speeches to his colleges about this new invention called ‘Kintopp’ – Melcher was a great advocate of the moving pictures...
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1910s Surrealist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
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Gustav MelcherGustav Melcher ( German, 1898 -?) Boats off Venice Italy Ink Water Color c. 1918, 1918
Free Shipping
H 7.88 in W 9.85 in D 0.79 in
Surrealist Gouache and Watercolour on Paper, 'Sunday School Ghosts'.
Located in Cotignac, FR
Surrealist watercolour and gouache on handmade paper by British artist Derek Carruthers. Signed bottom right and signed, dated and titled 'Sunday School Ghosts' to the reverse.
A wo...
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H 22.45 in W 29.93 in D 0.08 in
Animal Painting Surrealist Royal College of Art LGBTQ+ artist Birds Circle Life
By Isabel Rock
Located in Norfolk, GB
Isabel Rock is a creator of contemporary fairy tales. A graduate of the Royal College of Art in London, her work is an explosion of strange occurrences while a surreal narrative take...
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Located in Warsaw, PL
Mariusz Szalajdewicz (b. 1974)
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...
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A Surreal Watercolor Cyanotype on Arches Aquarelle Paper, "Dynamic Mutuality"
Located in San Diego, CA
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H 9.25 in W 17.25 in D 1 in
The Seascape - Drawing by Antoine Mayo - 1950s
Located in Roma, IT
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Large Painting Surrealist Royal College Art Women LGBTQ+ Art Green Blue Humour
By Isabel Rock
Located in Norfolk, GB
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Lucien Coutaud 1950 Original French Surrealist Gouache Painting Figures
Located in Surfside, FL
"Abstract Figures"
Hand signed and dated 1950 Lower Right.
Measures: site, 9" x 7", framed, 16-1/2" x 14-3/4".
Lucien Coutaud (French Surrealist artist, 1904-1977)
Known for etchings, engravings and printmaking and for theater, ballet and opera set decoration as well as for his superb tapestries produced for Marie Cuttoli and with Jacques Adnet at the Aubusson tapestry atelier Pinton workshop for the Compagnie des Arts Français.
Lucien Coutaud was born in a small town in the Gard, between Nîmes and Beaucaire. His father Adrien Antoine Coutaud was a watchmaker and jeweler in Nîmes. His mother Françoise Célestine Priad is from an old Mynoise family. He spent his childhood and adolescence in Nîmes, apart from a short stay in Marseille in 1917. In 1920 he enrolled in the School of Fine Arts of Nîmes where he studied with Armand Coussens.
In October 1924, at the age of twenty, Coutaud moved to Paris. He attended the art academies of Montparnasse. He is accepted to the School of Decorative Arts. In 1926, on the advice of André Salmon, he met Charles Dullin who asked him to make the sets and costumes for the Birds, the play by Aristophane, adapted by Bernard Zimmer.
In April 1928, he returned to Paris and, in 1929, painted his first important paintings: The Bicycle, Woman and Soldier, Soldiers arresting a spy and Young Girl with three wheels. Rose Adler takes an interest in his work. There he meets Max Ernst, Paul Klee and eventually becoming part of the artistic circles, making friends with key figures of the Parisian cultural scene like Pablo Picasso, Jean Paul Sartre, Jacques Prévert, Paul Eluard, Boris Vian, and others. He is mostly known for Surrealism and erotic symbolism. He was included in the show Surrealism and its Affinities along with Leonor Fini, Giorgio de Chirico, Salvador Dali, Max Ernst and Roberto Matta, Andre Breton, Roberto Matta
In 1930, he made his first engravings with drypoint on zinc. He enters into a relationship with the writer Jean Blanzat.
In 1931, the Quatre Chemins gallery in Paris organized his first private exhibition for him. He befriended Jean-Louis Barrault who made his stage debut at the Théâtre de l'Atelier. In 1932, he works almost exclusively in gouache, painting numerous bouquets of flowers and large esoteric compositions. Sets and costumes for Le Château des Papes by André de Richaud directed by Charles Dullin at the Théâtre de l'Atelier. Sets for Venus and Adonis by André Obey directed by Michel Saint-Denis and represented by the Compagnie des Quinze. He is interested in the activities of the surrealist group, reads Breton, Soupault and Aragon but maintains his independence.
He meets Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso in Antibes...
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1950s Surrealist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
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Monster on Stage
Located in Berlin, DE
Monster on Stage, 2014
Acrylic, ink, colored fine liner on paper
13.89 H x 19.68 W in
35.3 H x 50 W cm
Raluca Arnăutu creates a zoomorphic world, where animals from different worlds...
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Singing Forest - Contemporary Drawing, Figurative, Flower, Blue Fantasy, Kids
Located in Berlin, DE
Singing Forest, 2014
Acryl and colored fineliner on paper (Signed)
19.68 H x 13.89 W in.
50 H x 35.3 W cm
Raluca Arnăutu creates a zoomorphic world, w...
Category
2010s Surrealist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
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H 19.69 in W 13.9 in D 2.37 in
Surrealist drawings and watercolor paintings for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a wide variety of authentic Surrealist 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, yellow and other colors. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including Isabel Rock, Corne Akkers, Maria C. Bernhardsson, and Sergio Barletta. Frequently made by artists working with Paper, 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 Surrealist drawings and watercolor paintings, so small editions measuring 3.75 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 $121 and tops out at $224,500, while the average work sells for $1,494.
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