Figurative Paintings

François Gall was known for his impressionistic scenes of the 20th Centruy, portraying the French Lifestyle of that nostalgic era. Scenes depicting popular locations of the plague in...

Andreas Roth (American, 1871-1949) Grand Canyon, 1943 Oil on canvas Signed and dated lower right 24 x 34 inches 29.5 x 39 inches, framed Andreas Roth was a German painter. Son of th...

Fishing Schooners and Sailboats at a dock, "Fischerschoner und Segelboote an einem Dock" by Rudolph Guba (German/American, 1884-1950) Impasto work which depicts several sailing vesse...

Carl Frederick Gaertner (American, 1898-1952) Winter Rooftops, 1945 Oil on board Signed and dated lower right 9.5 x 13 inches 17 x 20.5 inches, framed Carl Gaertner was one of the g...

Title: Bell Tower of a Spanish Village Artist: Joaquín Asensio Mariné (1890-1961) Technique: Oil on canvas Dimensions: 25.6 x 21.3 in (65 x 54 cm) Framed: No Period: First half of th...

Barbara Shermund (1899-1978). Society Satirical Cartoon, ca. 1940s. Gouache on heavy illustration paper, image measures 17 x 14 inches; 23 x 20 inches in matting. Signed lower left. Very good condition but matting panel should be replaced. Unframed. Provenance: Ethel Maud Mott Herman, artist (1883-1984), West Orange NJ. For two decades, she drew almost 600 cartoons for The New Yorker with female characters that commented on life with wit, intelligence and irony. In the mid-1920s, Harold Ross, the founder of a new magazine called The New Yorker, was looking for cartoonists who could create sardonic, highbrow illustrations accompanied by witty captions that would function as social critiques. He found that talent in Barbara Shermund. For about two decades, until the 1940s, Shermund helped Ross and his first art editor, Rea Irvin, realize their vision by contributing almost 600 cartoons and sassy captions with a fresh, feminist voice. Her cartoons commented on life with wit, intelligence and irony, using female characters who critiqued the patriarchy and celebrated speakeasies, cafes, spunky women and leisure. They spoke directly to flapper women of the era who defied convention with a new sense of political, social and economic independence. “Shermund’s women spoke their minds about sex, marriage and society; smoked cigarettes and drank; and poked fun at everything in an era when it was not common to see young women doing so,” Caitlin A. McGurk wrote in 2020 for the Art Students League. In one Shermund cartoon, published in The New Yorker in 1928, two forlorn women sit and chat on couches. “Yeah,” one says, “I guess the best thing to do is to just get married and forget about love.” “While for many, the idea of a New Yorker cartoon conjures a highbrow, dry non sequitur — often more alienating than familiar — Shermund’s cartoons are the antithesis,” wrote McGurk, who is an associate curator and assistant professor at Ohio State University’s Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum. “They are about human nature, relationships, youth and age.” (McGurk is writing a book about Shermund. And yet by the 1940s and ’50s, as America’s postwar focus shifted to domestic life, Shermund’s feminist voice and cool critique of society fell out of vogue. Her last cartoon appeared in The New Yorker in 1944, and much of her life and career after that remains unclear. No major newspaper wrote about her death in 1978 — The New York Times was on strike then, along with The Daily News and The New York Post — and her ashes sat in a New Jersey funeral...

'The Town Hall of Les Baux-de-Provence', oil on canvas, by Yves Brayer (1946). Having spent several months a year in Provence, the artist created dozens of wo...

Monogrammed lower right, 'DM' for David Monies (Danish, 1812-1894) and dated 1849. Provenance: By descent in the family of the sitter, Peter Andreas Löser (1834–1857). Framed in a su...

'Market Day in Piazza Grande, Locarno, Switzerland', oil on board, by unknown artist (1947-48). Locarno is an utterly charming Italian-speaking resort located on the northern shore o...

Still life with Calla Lily is an oil painting on masonite realized by Ugo Celada da Virgilio. Hand-signed on the lower left. Provenance: Galerie Sigfrid O...

Original modernist oil painting Hawaiian symbolist sunset by Marguerite Louis Blasingame. Robert Azensky Fine art is pleased to offer this 1940s modern symbolist oil painting of sun...

Stowe Vermont Village Sleigh Ride - Mid Century Winter Figurative Landscape A bright, crisp morning and a sleigh ride through new snow in Stowe, Vermont...

Cityscape Mid-20th Century Modern Social Realism American Scene Regionalism WPA Samuel Thal (1903 to 1964) "Cityscene" 12 x 16 inches Oil on board, c. 1940s Signed verso Framed: 19...

Corn Kachina, by Riley Sunrise, Quoyavema, Hopi, Kachina, Dancer, painting Artist Signature - Riley Sunrise (1914-2006) Quoyavema “Another of the earlier Hopi artists, Riley Sunrise (Quoyavema) worked with Fred Kabotie and Waldo Mootzka in illustrating John Louw Nelson’s Rhythm for Rain. He is also known as Quoyavema or Kwayeshva, according to Nelson. His paintings are comparable to Fred Kabotie’s, with some of them showing more action and most of them revealing less detail. Sunrise is represented in the collections of the Denver Art Museum, Gilcrease Institute (Tulsa), and the Southwest Museum. The Museum of the American Indian in New York has an extensive collection of his paintings of native Hopi dances.” (Clara Lee Tanner: Southwest Indian...

Deer Dance, painting by Tonita Pena, Santa Fe, Cochiti, Pueblo, male, female Tonita Peña (born 1893 in San Ildefonso, died 1949 in Kewa Pueblo, New Mexico) was born as Quah Ah (meaning white coral beads) but also used the name Tonita Vigil Peña and María Antonia Tonita Peña. Peña was a renowned Pueblo artist, specializing in pen and ink on paper embellished with watercolor. She was a well-known and influential Native American artist and art teacher of the early 1920s and 1930s. Tonita Peña was born on May 10, 1893, at San Ildefonso Pueblo, to Ascensión Vigil Peña and Natividad Peña of San Ildefonso Pueblo, New Mexico. When she was 12, her mother and younger sister died, as a result of complications due to the flu. Her father was unable to care for her and she was taken to Cochití Pueblo and was brought up by her aunt Martina Vigil Montoya, a prominent Cochití Pueblo potter. Peña attended St. Catherine Indian School in Santa Fe. Edgar Lee Hewett, an anthropologist involved in supervising the nearby Frijoles Canyon excavations (now Bandelier National Monument) was instrumental in developing the careers of several San Ildefonso “self-taught” artists including Tonita Peña. Hewett purchased Peña's paintings for the Museum of New Mexico and supplied her with quality paint and paper. Peña began gaining more notoriety by the end of the 1910s selling an increasing amount of her work to collectors and the La Fonda Hotel. Much of this early work was done of Pueblo cultural subject matter, in a style inspired by historic Native American works, however, her use of an artist's easel and Western painting mediums gained her acceptance among her European-American contemporaries in the art world. At the age of 25, she exhibited her work at museums and galleries in the Santa Fe and Albuquerque area. In the early 1920s, Tonita did not know how much her painting sold for at the Museum of New Mexico, so she wrote letters to the administrators because a local farmer was worried that she got paid too little. In the 1930s Peña was an instructor at the Santa Fe Indian School and at the Albuquerque Indian School and the only woman painter of the San Ildefonso Self-Taught Group, which included such noted artists as Alfonso Roybal, Julian Martinez, Abel Sánchez (Oqwa Pi), Crecencio Martinez, and Encarnación Peña. As children, these artists attended San Ildefonso day school which was part of the institution of the Dawes Act of 1887, designed to indoctrinate and assimilate Native American children into mainstream American society. In 1931, Tonita Peña exhibited at the Exposition of Indian Tribal Arts which was presented at the Grand Central Art Galleries in New York City. Works from this exhibition were shown at the 1932 Venice Biennial. That year is the only time Native American artists have shown in the official United States pavilion at that biennial, and Tonita Peña's paintings were part of that exhibition.[1 Her painting Basket Dance, that had shown in the Venice Biennial was acquired by the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York for $225. This was the highest price paid up to this time for a Pueblo painting...

Mischievous Child, Impressionist Portrait, Signed Oil Painting By French artist Claude Benard, (1926 - 2016) Signed by the artist on the lower right hand corner Oil painting on board...

Work on wood

Camillo Adriani was born in Massachusetts in the late 19th century. He studied art in Boston. Adriani was especially well known for his vibrant portrayal of New England snow scenes...

Signed figures in cityscape oil on panel circa 1940 by sought after French impressionist painter Edouard Cortes. This stunning and wonderfully coloured work depicts a view of a flowe...

Bill Crawford (1913-1982). Original illustration artwork depicting teams as they advance to the World Series. Depicted are representations of the St. Louis Cardinals and The Brooklyn...

Title: Virgin Mary and Child Jesus Artist: Francisco Ribera Gómez (1907-1990) Technique: Oil on canvas Dimensions: 31.9 x 25.6 inches (unframed) Date of creation: 1942 Style: Classical Academicism with Renaissance influences Description of the Artwork The painting depicts the Virgin Mary holding the Child Jesus in a tender and intimate moment. Warm colors, primarily reds, greens, and soft flesh tones, enhance the devotional nature of the scene. The use of golden halos, symbolizing sanctity, along with serene and realistic expressions, directly connects with the Renaissance pictorial tradition. The style belongs to classical academicism, characterized by a balanced composition, meticulous drawing, and a masterful use of chiaroscuro to give volume and depth to the figures. The detailed rendering of the flesh tones and draperies amplifies the spirituality and solemnity of the piece, evoking the works of great masters such as Raphael and Murillo. Artist's Biography Francisco Ribera Gómez (1907-1990) was a prominent 20th-century Spanish painter known for his depictions of religious scenes, female portraits, and costumbrist works. Trained at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, Ribera Gómez received numerous accolades and was regarded as one of the great exponents of Spanish academicism. His work combines a rigorous technical foundation with luminous sensitivity and an idealized sense of beauty. Influences and Comparisons Francisco Ribera Gómez's work can be compared to other academic and religious artists who share a similar aesthetic: Bartolomé Esteban Murillo: In the emotional and approachable treatment of religious themes. William-Adolphe Bouguereau: For the idealization of human figures and technical mastery. Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio): For harmonious composition and the depiction of the Virgin Mary. Within the Spanish tradition, his style recalls Eduardo Rosales...

Impressive American modernist winter landscape. Detailed and well painted skating scene. Oil on canvas. Nicely framed.

A beautiful 1940s painting of a seated female nude in a summer landscape by renowned Chicago artist, Francis Chapin (Am. 1899-1965). Painted at the Oxbow School in Saugatuck, Michig...

Pamela Denyer (1923-2013) Crime 29 x 22 cm Provenance: The family of A. E. Halliwell Although little is known about Pamela Denyer other than that she studied under A. E. Halliwell...

Till the Clouds Roll By 1945 Frank Sinatra Mid Century Modern Hollywood Film WPA TILL THE COULDS ROLL BY (Film Set), oil on canvas, 20 x 24 inches signed “Richard Whorf” lower right and signed and dated on the verso “R. Whorf/ Dec. 21, 1945. Frame by Hendenryk. ABOUT THE PAINTING This painting is from the collection of Barbara and Frank Sinatra, dated December 21, 1945 (just nine days after Frank Sinatra’s 30th birthday), and depicts the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Culver City backlot during the filming of Till the Clouds Roll By, the direction of the film having been taking over by Richard Whorf in December 1945. It is not presently clear if Whorf gave the Sinatras this painting as a gift, as the presence of the Dalzell Hatfield Galleries label on the verso indicates the painting may have been sourced there. Frank and Nancy Sinatra acquired a number of works from Dalzell Hatfield Galleries during the 1940’s, or perhaps they framed it for the couple. Sinatra performed “Old Man River’ in the film. Sinatra and June Allyson are depicted in the center of the painting. PROVENANCE From the Estate of Mrs. Nancy Sinatra; Dalzell Hatfield Galleries, Ambassador Hotel, Los Angeles. An image of the Dalzell Hatfield label and the back of the original frame (which we replaced with a stunning Heydenrk frame) are attached. Nancy Sinatra was Fran's first wife. Nancy Rose Barbato was 17 years old when she met Frank Sinatra, an 18-year-old singer from Hoboken, on the Jersey Shore in the summer of 1934. They married in 1939 at Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Jersey City where Frank gave Nancy a recording of a song dedicated to her titled "Our Love" as a wedding present. The young newlyweds lived and worked in New Jersey, where Frank worked as an unknown singing waiter and master of ceremonies at the Rustic Cabin while Nancy worked as a secretary at the American Type Founders. His musical career took off after singing with big band leaders Harry James and Tommy Dorsey...

Rabbit Hunters, egg tempera on Masonite, 12 x 9 inches, 1947, signed and dated lower left, signed, titled and dated verso “Rabbit Hunters Egg Tempera Roger Medearis 1947,” exhibited at Medearis' solo show at Kende Galleries, New York, in 1949 (Medearis’ record book, a copy of which is held by Vose Galleries in Boston, MA, indicates this is painting “No. 23” and that is was completed in 1947 and sold via Kende Galleries (at Gimbel Brothers...

Georgina Klitgaard Spring Ploughing Signed lower right Oil on canvas 34 x 42 inches Georgina Klitgaard’s art has sometimes gotten lost in the critical propensity to assign artists ...

Georgina Klitgaard Arroyo Seco, New Mexico Signed lower right Oil on canvas 28 x 42 inches Georgina Klitgaard’s art has sometimes gotten lost in the critical propensity to assign a...

Destiny's Path, Hawaii - Surreal Mid Century Hawaiian Figurative Abstract Symbolistic and romantic 1940s surreal figurative of pastel orange figure...

Oil painting on Masonite realized by the Artist in 1948. Includes a coeval wooden frame. Artist paints the Hotel where he used to live in Paris during those years. Note, title, date ...

An original 1942 oil on board painting by American female artist Catherine Koenig depicting the interior of the Buffalo Art Institute which was home to the legendary Charles Burchfie...

"6th Avenue El" American Scene Social Realism Mid-20th Century New York City Ernest Fiene (1894-1965) "6th Avenue El" 12 1/4 x 14 1/4 Oil on canvas board, c. 1940s Signed lower righ...

Rolf Stoll (American, 1892-1978) Kae Dorn Cass, 1940 Oil on canvas Signed upper right 32 x 25 inches 38 x 31 inches, framed Exhibited: The 27th Annual May Show, Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH, 1940 This work won first prize for oil painting- Portrait category Provenance: Collection of Kae Dorn Cass's niece Kae Dorn Cass Rolf Stoll Rolf Stoll, a painter of figure subjects, landscapes and floral still lifes, was an important member of the Cleveland art scene during the second quarter of the century. He was also an influential teacher, as well as one of Ohio’s foremost portrait painters. Rolf Stoll was born in Heidelberg, Germany, in 1892. As a boy, he attended a military academy, during which time he developed an interest in art. He received his early formal training at the Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe and at the Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart. He emigrated to the United States in 1912, settling in New York City. A decade later, after studying at the school of the National Academy of Design and supporting himself by working as a commercial artist, Stoll decided to leave New York. Upon the recommendation of Warren Pryor, one of his teachers, he decided to move to Cleveland, Ohio. After arriving in Cleveland, Rolf Stoll continued to work as a commercial artist. However, in 1926, he joined the faculty of the Cleveland School of Art, where he taught drawing. Two years later Stoll was appointed head of the school’s portrait painting department. A talented portraitist, Stoll’s sitters included industrialists, community leaders and many prominent members of Cleveland and Ohio society, as well as over twenty faculty members from Case Western Reserve University. Stoll also gave portrait classes at the John Huntington Polytechnic Institute from 1926 to 1953. In his male portraits especially, he was admired for his ability to convey the dignity of his sitter’s professional position without sacrificing individuality. As noted by one contemporary reviewer, Stoll was a “master of rich color, a searching student of human types, a forceful portrayer of all that the face reveals of the mind and the soul.” In addition to his activity as a portraitist, Rolf Stoll painted figure subjects and floral still lifes. He was also known for his views of the Ohio countryside...

A captivating, Modern painting of a female nude seated in a quiet studio interior by famed Chicago artist, Francis Chapin (Am. 1899-1965). A sensitive, skilled portrayal of a female...

John Steuart Curry "Cockfight in Cuba," 1946 oil on canvas Image: 38.25 x 46.25 in Frame: 43.75 x 51.5 in Signed on reverse with initials JSC on lower right stretcher bar John Steu...

Abstract Gouache on Paper by Minnesota/Chicago artist Richard Koppe (1916-1073). Simply titled “Woman,” the work is an excellent composition by the artist created 1941. The painting ...

A beautiful Modern figure painting of two bathers in a boathouse by noted Chicago Modern artist, Francis Chapin (Am. 1899-1965). Painted at the Ox-Bow School of Saugatuck, Michigan ...

Frederick Serger Genre: Post Impressionist Subject: Flowers, Poppies Medium: Oil Surface: Panel Frederick Serger (given name Frederick Bedrick Sinaberger) was born in 1889 to a family of Jewish manufacturers in the village of Ivancice near Brno Moravia, a province of Czechoslovakia. Showing artistic talent at a young age, he attended art schools in Brno, Czech, Vienna, Austria and Munich, Germany. During World War I, Serger joined the Austrian Army and served in the Balkans. Once his service ended, he traveled to Paris where he resumed his art training and eagerly joined the Ecole de Paris (School of Paris) artists’ movement. During this period, he was greatly influenced by the Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, and Expressionist movements. While living in Paris, he met and married Helen Spitzer. Serger and his young wife moved from Paris to Scoczow, a city on the Polish-Czech border. They remained in Scoczow for 12 years and he continued to work as an artist, exhibiting in museums in Cracow and Warsaw, Poland. He also showed at the Paris Salon de Tuilleries and the Salon d’Automne. He was part of the generation of expat artists, mostly jewish known as the School of Paris. They created art in the styles of Post-Impressionism, Cubism and Fauvism. The group included artists Marc Chagall, Chaim Soutine, Amedeo Modigliani and Piet Mondrian. Associated French artists included Pierre Bonnard, Henri Matisse, Jean Metzinger and Albert Gleizes. Many École de Paris artists lived in the iconic La Ruche, a complex of studio apartments and other facilities in Montparnasse on the Left Bank, at 2 Passage Dantzig, built by a successful sculptor, Alfred Boucher, who wanted to develop a creative hub where struggling artists could live, work and interact. A significant subset, the Jewish artists, came to be known as the Jewish School of Paris or the School of Montparnasse. The core members were almost all Jews, included Emmanuel Mane-Katz, Abraham Mintchine...

Beatrix Sherman Hialeah Park Race Track, Florida, 1947 Signed lower right Oil on canvasboard 16 x 20 inches Beatrix Sherman (1894-1975), who changed her first name from Beatrice by...

Serenity is an impressive, giant oil painting realized by the Italian painter Felice Carena in 1948. Signed lower left. Not framed, framing optio...

Sketch n. 13 is an original modern artwork realized by Giovanni Brancaccio in 1948. Mixed colored oil on canvas. Hand signed and dated on the lower margin. Good conditions.

Artist: Pál Fried (Hungarian, 1893-1976) Title: "Intermission (Ballerina)" *Signed by Fried lower left Circa: 1940 Medium: Original Oil Painting on Canvas Framing: Recently framed in a gold Louis XV style frame Framed size: 39" x 33" Canvas size: 30" x 24" Condition: In excellent condition Notes: Provenance: private collection - Port Orange, FL; acquired from Herbert Arnot Gallery, New York, NY in the early 1970's. Titled by Fried on verso. Herbert Arnot Gallery's dealer reference number, "D1942E", and artist's copyright stamp in center on verso. Biography: Pál Fried was born in Budapest in 1893. He received his art education at the Académie hongroise des arts (Hungarian Academy of Arts) where he was a pupil of Hugo Pohl who became one of his major influences. While under Pohl's direction, he executed many portraits of female nudes and Orientalist works. Later he studied in Paris at the Académie Julian, where he was the pupil of Claude Monet and Lucien Simone. In Paris, he was greatly influenced by the French Impressionists, especially Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Edgar Degas. This inspired him to prepare many paintings of ballerinas...

This original 1940s American Modernist gouache painting, "Artists Sketching (California)," captures a dynamic scene of three artists at work against a majestic mountain backdrop. With expressive brushwork and a rich color palette, the piece embodies Frederick E. Shane’s signature blend of realism and modernist abstraction. Signed, titled, and dated by the artist in the lower margin, this remarkable artwork reflects the era’s Regionalist influence and the artist’s keen eye for capturing creative moments in the natural landscape. The painting is professionally housed in a custom archival frame, ensuring long-term preservation. Frame dimensions: 25.5 x 37.5 x 1.5 inches. Image size: 20.25 x 29.75 inches. Provenance: Estate of the Artist, Frederick Shane About the Artist: Frederick E. Shane (1906-1992) A celebrated Missouri Regionalist painter and printmaker, Frederick E. Shane was known for his compelling genre scenes, landscapes, seascapes, and portraits in a variety of media, including oil, watercolor, gouache, tempera, and lithography. While fundamentally a realist, Shane often incorporated elements of abstraction, expressionism, and surrealism, adding depth and emotion to his compositions. During the summers of 1925-26, Shane studied under Randall Davey at the Broadmoor Academy in Colorado Springs, an institution founded in 1919 by philanthropists Spencer and Julie Penrose. Shane remained closely connected to the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, the Academy’s successor, throughout the 1940s and early 1950s, participating in Artists West of the Mississippi exhibitions and forming lasting friendships with key figures like Boardman Robinson and Adolph Dehn...

Signed figures in an interior oil on board circa 1940 by French impressionist painter Jules Rene Herve. This charming work depicts a grand red room with gold trim filled with balleri...

Surreal Full Moon Hawaii Cliff House Nocturnal Hawaiian 1940s Landscape Symbolic and surreal mid century nocturnal landscape of a lone house on a s...

Rafael de Soto - Village street - Oil on canvas Oil measurements 41x33 cm. Without frame.

Work on canvas Frame in molding and beige gray wood 50 x 63 x 6 cm

Donald Vogel’s paintings reflect his interest in seeking beauty in life and in sharing pleasure with his viewers. Vogel entreats us to "rejoice and celebrate each new day, knowing it...

John Steuart Curry "Sketching Wisconsin," 1946 oil on canvas 31.13 x 28 inches, canvas 39.75 x 36.75 x 2.5 inches, frame Signed and dated lower right Overall excellent condition Presented in a 24-karat gold leaf hand-carved wood frame John Steuart Curry (1897-1946) was an American regionalist painter active during the Great Depression and into World War II. He was born in Kansas on his family’s farm but went on to study art in Chicago, Paris and New York as young man. In Paris, he was exposed to the work of masters such as Peter Paul Rubens, Eugène Delacroix and Jacques-Louis David. As he matured, his work showed the influence of these masters, especially in his compositional decisions. Like the two other Midwestern regionalist artists that are most often grouped with him, Grant Wood (American, 1891-1942) and Thomas Hart Benton (American, 1889-1975), Curry was interested in representational works containing distinctly American subject matter. This was contrary to the popular art at the time, which was moving closer and closer to abstraction and individual expression. Sketching Wisconsin is an oil painting completed in 1946, the last year of John Steuart Curry’s life, during which time he was the artist-in-residence at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. The painting is significant in Curry’s body of work both as a very revealing self-portrait, and as a landscape that clearly and sensitively depicts the scenery of southern Wisconsin near Madison. It is also a portrait of the artist’s second wife, Kathleen Gould Curry, and is unique in that it contains a ‘picture within a picture,’ a compositional element that many early painting masters used to draw the eye of the viewer. This particular artwork adds a new twist to this theme: Curry’s wife is creating essentially the same painting the viewer is looking at when viewing Sketching Wisconsin. The triangular composition of the figures in the foreground immediately brings focus to a younger Curry, whose head penetrates the horizon line and whose gaze looks out towards the viewer. The eye then moves down to Mrs. Curry, who, seated on a folding stool and with her hand raised to paint the canvas on the easel before her, anchors the triangular composition. The shape is repeated in the legs of the stool and the easel. Behind the two figures, stripes of furrowed fields fall away gently down the hillside to a farmstead and small lake below. Beyond the lake, patches of field and forest rise and fall into the distance, and eventually give way to blue hills. Here, Curry has subverted the traditional artist’s self-portrait by portraying himself as a farmer first and an artist second. He rejects what he sees as an elitist art world of the East Coast and Europe. In this self-portrait he depicts himself without any pretense or the instruments of his profession and with a red tractor standing in the field behind him as if he was taking a break from the field work. Here, Curry’s wife symbolizes John Steuart Curry’s identity as an artist. Compared with a self-portrait of the artist completed a decade earlier, this work shows a marked departure from how the artist previously presented and viewed himself. In the earlier portrait, Curry depicted himself in the studio with brushes in hand, and with some of his more recognizable and successful canvases behind him. But in Sketching Wisconsin, Curry has taken himself out of the studio and into the field, indicating a shift in the artist’s self-conception. Sketching Wisconsin’s rural subject also expresses Curry’s populist ideals, that art could be relevant to anyone. This followed the broad educational objectives of UW’s artist-in-residence program. Curry was appointed to his position at the University of Wisconsin in 1937 and was the first person to hold any such position in the country, the purpose of which was to serve as an educational resource to the people of the state. He embraced his role at the University with zeal and not only opened the doors of his campus studio in the School of Agriculture to the community, but also spent a great deal of time traveling around the state of Wisconsin to visit rural artists who could benefit from his expertise. It was during his ten years in the program that Curry was able to put into practice his belief that art should be meaningful to the rural populace. However, during this time he also struggled with public criticism, as the dominant forces of the art market were moving away from representation. Perhaps it was Curry’s desire for public acceptance during the latter part of his career that caused him to portray himself as an Everyman in Sketching Wisconsin. Beyond its importance as a portrait of the artist, Sketching Wisconsin is also a detailed and sensitive landscape that shows us Curry’s deep personal connection to his environment. The landscape here can be compared to Wisconsin Landscape of 1938-39 (the Metropolitan Museum of Art), which presents a similar tableau of rolling hills with a patchwork of fields. Like Wisconsin Landscape, this is an incredibly detailed and expressive depiction of a place close to the artist’s heart. This expressive landscape is certainly the result of many hours spent sketching people, animals, weather conditions and topography of Wisconsin as Curry traveled around the state. The backdrop of undulating hills and the sweeping horizon, and the emotions evoked by it, are emphatically recognizable as the ‘driftless’ area of south-central Wisconsin. But while the Metropolitan’s Wisconsin Landscape conveys a sense of uncertainty or foreboding with its dramatic spring cloudscape and alternating bands of light and dark, Sketching Wisconsin has a warm and reflective mood. The colors of the foliage indicate that it is late summer and Curry seems to look out at the viewer approvingly, as if satisfied with the fertile ground surrounding him. The landscape in Sketching Wisconsin is also revealing of what became one of Curry’s passions while artist-in-residence at UW’s School of Agriculture – soil conservation. When Curry was a child in Kansas, he saw his father almost lose his farm and its soil to the erosion of The Dust Bowl. Therefore, he was very enthusiastic about ideas from UW’s School of Agriculture on soil conservation methods being used on Wisconsin farms. In Sketching Wisconsin, we see evidence of crop rotation methods in the terraced stripes of fields leading down the hillside away from the Curry’s and in how they alternate between cultivated and fallow fields. Overall, Sketching Wisconsin has a warm, reflective, and comfortably pastoral atmosphere, and the perceived shift in Curry’s self-image that is evident in the portrait is a positive one. After his rise to favor in the art world in the 1930’s, and then rejection from it due to the strong beliefs presented in his art, Curry is satisfied and proud to be farmer in this self-portrait. Curry suffered from high blood...

A sadistic laughing Devil grinning a big smile is pictured hovering over a Hellfire. He is reveling while witnessing tiny ant-like sinners engage in eternal torture, torment, and co...

Illustrated for the 1949 Four Seasons Calendar, published by Brown and Bigelow. A young girl holds a freshly-picked bouquet of flowers as she strolls alongside a boy who carries he...

Symbolic and surreal landscape with a Makaula or seer and a woman seeking to know her future by Marguerite Louis Blasingame (American; 1906-1947), circa 1940-45. Marguerite and her h...

Hudson River School Style - The Homestead and Grist Mill 1942 In the Hudson River School style by A (K) Mathieu (American, 19th-20th C). Harvest time at the Homestead with a hay wago...

Edward Zutrau Toucan, 7/29/1949 Dated on verso Oil on linen 30 x 23 inches Edward Zutrau (1922–1993) was an American painter whose career spanned from the 1940s through the early 1...

Signed lower right, 'Justin Murray' (American, 1912-1987), titled, verso, 'The Doctor's Office' and painted circa 1945. Framed dimensions: 9¼ x 1½ x 21 inches. Born in Minneapolis, ...

Vibrant mid century California landscape of the beautiful San Ynez Valley Indian Trail with Native American children walking towards the sunset by H. Hansen (American, 20th Century), 1944. The small figures walk through a majestic, sprawling landscape full of plants, rocks, and tall trees flanking this gorgeous trail that leads towards an epic mountain range in the distance. Signed and dated "H. Hansen 1944" lower left corner. Label on verso with title and "Rubicon Lodge" (an old California...

Blue Lake in the Rockies and Hunter - Oil on Linen Cascades and snow capped mountains over look a blue lake with a successful hunter carrying his trophy deer by Vern Byers (American...

Marguerite Stuber Pearson Nude, circa 1940 Signed lower right Oil on artist board 20 x 16 inches Marguerite Stuber Pearson was an American painter best known for her elegant portra...