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Figurative Paintings For Sale
Period: 1940s
Period: 1920s
This Week's Listings Only
"Concert" Early 20th Century WPA Modernism American City Landscape Scene Ashcan
Located in New York, NY
"Concert" Early 20th Century WPA Modernism American City Landscape Scene Ashcan The size of the canvas 28 3/4 x 43 1/4 inches. The painting comes directly from the artist's estate. It is signed lower right as well as signed, titled and dated verso. We have available more than two dozen paintings and works on paper from the 1930s - 80s that come directly from the Loew estate. BIO Michael Loew (1907 – 1985) was the son of a New York City baker. After high school, he was an apprentice to a stained-glass maker, and from 1926-1929, he studied at the Art Students League. In 1929, he traveled to Paris, North Africa, Germany, and Italy with a group of artists. When he returned to New York City in 1931, the Great Depression hit Loew unexpectedly, and for the next two years he paid his apartment rent with his paintings. In 1935, he found work with the WPA where he painted murals and partnered up with longtime friend Willem de Kooning in 1939 on a mural for the Hall of Pharmacy at the New York World’s Fair. Their friendship lasted for the rest of their lives. In the mid-30’s he painted in Mexico and the Yucatán documenting the construction of a U.S. Naval airbase on Tinian Island. It was from this airbase that the Enola...
Category

1920s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Industrial Railroad WPA Mid 20th Century American Scene Rural Modern Realism
Located in New York, NY
Industrial Railroad WPA Mid 20th Century American Scene Rural Modern Realism Large oil on canvas genre painting depicting laborers working on a railroad, with rural landscape in the...
Category

1940s American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"Johnny Walker’s Place" Georgina Klitgaard, 1929 American Modernist Landscape
Located in New York, NY
Georgina Klitgaard Johnny Walker’s Place, circa 1929 Signed lower right Oil on canvas 34 x 42 inches Georgina Klitgaard’s art has sometimes gotten lost in the critical propensity t...
Category

1920s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

Outdoor View - Original Tempera by Caroline Hill - 1940s
Located in Roma, IT
Outdoor View is an original painting in mixed media and oil realized in the 1940s by Caroline Hill (1935-1983). The artwork is hand-signed on the lower left. Good conditions. This...
Category

1940s Figurative Paintings

Materials

Tempera

"Beach at Atlantic City, New Jersey" Amy Londoner, Ashcan School, Figurative
Located in New York, NY
Amy Londoner Beach at Atlantic City, circa 1922 Signed lower right Pastel on paper Sight 23 x 18 inches Amy Londoner (April 12, 1875 – 1951) was an American painter who exhibited at the 1913 Armory Show. One of the first students of the Henri School of Art in 1909. Prior to the Armory Show of 1913, Amy Londoner and her classmates studied with "Ashcan" painter Robert Henri at the Henri School of Art in New York, N.Y. One notable oil painting, 'The Vase', was painted by both Henri and Londoner. Londoner was born in Lexington, Missouri on April 12, 1875. Her parents were Moses and Rebecca Londoner, who moved to Leadville, Colorado, by 1880. In 1899, Amy took responsibility for her father who had come to Los Angeles from Leadville and had mental issues. By 1900, Amy was living with her parents and sister, Blanche, in the vicinity of Leadville, Denver, Colorado. While little was written about her early life, Denver City directories indicated that nineteenth-century members of the family were merchants, with family ties to New York, N.Y. The family had a male servant. Londoner traveled with her mother to England in 1907 then shortly later, both returned to New York in 1909. Londoner was 34 years old at the time, and, according to standards of the day, should have married and raised a family long before. Instead, she enrolled as one of the first students at the Henri School of Art in 1909. At the Henri School, Londoner established friendships with Carl Sprinchorn (1887-1971), a young Swedish immigrant, and Edith Reynolds (1883-1964), daughter of wealthy industrialist family from Wilkes-Barre, PA. Londoner's correspondence, which often included references to Blanche, listed the sisters' primary address as the Hotel Endicott at 81st Street and Columbus Avenue, NYC. Other correspondence also reached Londoner in the city via Mrs. Theodore Bernstein at 252 West 74th Street; 102 West 73rd Street; and the Independent School of Art at 1947 Broadway. In 1911, Londoner vacationed at the Hotel Trexler in Atlantic City, NJ. As indicated by an undated photograph, Londoner also spent time with Edith Reynolds and Robert Henri at 'The Pines', the Reynolds family estate in Bear Creek, PA. Through her connections with the Henri School, Londoner entered progressive social and professional circles. Henri's admonition, phrased in the vocabulary of his historical time period, that one must become a "man" first and an artist second, attracted both male and female students to classes where development of unique personal styles, tailored to convey individual insights and experiences, was prized above the mastery of standardized, technical skill. Far from being dilettantes, women students at the Henri School were daring individuals willing to challenge tradition. As noted by former student Helen Appleton Read, "it was a mark of defiance,to join the radical Henri group." As Henri offered educational alternatives for women artists, he initiated exhibition opportunities for them as well. Troubled by the exclusion of work by younger artists from annual exhibitions at the National Academy of Design, Henri was instrumental in organizing the no-jury, no-prize Exhibition of Independent Artists in 1910. About half of the 103 artists included in the exhibition were or had been Henri students, while twenty of the twenty-six women exhibiting had studied with Henri. Among the exhibition's 631 pieces, nine were by Amy Londoner, including the notorious 'Lady with a Headache'. Similarly, fourteen of Henri's women students exhibited in the groundbreaking Armory Show of 1913, forming about eight percent of the American exhibitors and one-third of American women exhibitors. Of the nine documented works submitted by Londoner, five were rejected, while four pastels of Atlantic City beach scenes, including 'The Beach Umbrellas' now in the Remington Collection, were displayed. Following Henri's example, Londoner served as an art instructor for younger students at the Modern School, whose only requirement was to genuinely draw what they pleased. The work of dancer Isadora Duncan, another artist devoted to the ideals of a liberal education, was also lauded by the Modern School. Henri, who long admired Duncan and invited members of her troupe to model for his classes, wrote an appreciation of her for the Modern School journal in 1915. She was also the subject of Londoner's pastel Isadora Duncan and the Children: Praise Ye the Lord with Dance. In 1914, Londoner traveled to France to spend summer abroad, living at 99 rue Notre Dames des Champs, Paris, France. As the tenets of European modernism spread throughout the United States, Londoner showed regularly at venues which a new generation of artists considered increasingly passe, including the annual Society of Independent Artists' exhibitions between 1918 and 1934, and the Salons of America exhibition in 1922. Londoner also exhibited at the Morton Gallery, Opportunity Gallery, Leonard Clayton Gallery and Brownell-Lambertson Galleries in NYC. Her painting of a 'Blond Girl' was one of two works included in the College Art Associations Traveling Exhibition of 1929, which toured colleges across the country to broad acclaim. Londoner later in life suffered from illnesses then suffered a stroke which resulted in medical bills significantly mounting over the years that her old friends from the Henri School, including Carl Sprinchorn, Florence Dreyfous, Florence Barley, and Josephine Nivison Hopper, scrambled to raise funds and find suitable long-term care facilities for Londoner. Londoner later joined Reynolds in Bear Creek, PA. Always known for her keen wit, Londoner retained her humor and concern for her works even during her illness, noting that "if anything happens to the Endicott, I guess they will just throw them out." Sprinchorn and Reynolds, however, did not allow this to happen. In 1960, Londoner's paintings 'Amsterdam Avenue at 74th Street' and 'The Builders' were loaned by Reynolds to a show commemorating the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Exhibition of Independent Artists in 1910, presented at the Delaware Art Center, Wilmington, DE. In the late 80's, Francis William Remington, 'Bill Remington', of Bear Creek Village PA, along with his neighbor and artist Frances Anstett Brennan, both had profound admiration for Amy Londoner's art work and accomplishments as a woman who played a significant role in the Ashcan movement. Remington acquired a significant number of Londoner's artwork along with Frances Anstett Brenan that later was part of an exhibition of Londoner's artwork in April 15 of 2007, at the Hope Horn...
Category

1920s Ashcan School Figurative Paintings

Materials

Paper, Pastel

The Model Asleep - Mid 20th Century Nude Still Life Oil Painting by Dorothy King
Located in Watford, Hertfordshire
Dorothy King was born and lived in London in 1907. She studied at the Hornsey School of Art under JC Moody, then briefly at the Slade School of Fine Art with Randolph Schwabe. She to...
Category

1940s Post-Impressionist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Saint-Germain-des-Prés. 1946. Oil on canvas, 73x92 cm
Located in Riga, LV
Saint-Germain-des-Prés. 1946. Oil on canvas, 73x92 cm
Category

1940s Impressionist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

'Couple Dancing', American Folk Art Figural Oil, WPA era
Located in Santa Cruz, CA
Signed indistinctly, lower right, and painted circa 1935. A strongly animated, vertically stacked figurative painting filled with compressed energy and an atmosphere of psychologic...
Category

1940s Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Le Port due Havre - Post Impressionist Landscape Watercolor by Jean Dufy
Located in Marlow, Buckinghamshire
Signed and dated post impressionist watercolor on paper seascape by French painter Jean Dufy. This colourful piece depicts sail boats at the port of Le Havre in France - a commercial...
Category

1920s Post-Impressionist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

'Study of a Young Woman', Tonalism
Located in Santa Cruz, CA
Initialed lower right, 'A.F' (American, 20th century) and painted circa 1940. A tonalist study of a young woman with bobbed brown hair, shown gazing to the ...
Category

1940s Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Board

Wintertime forest landscape oil painting on canvas by Louis Clesse 20Th c.
Located in Gavere, BE
"Wintertime forest landscape" oil painting on canvas by Louis Clesse 20Th c. Wonderfull oil on canvas by Louis Clesse , Belgian School (1889 -1961 ). Clesse was a Belgian figurative...
Category

1920s Impressionist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Gold Leaf

Early 20th Century Dutch Impressionist Summer Cottage with Chickens
Located in Soquel, CA
Charming early 20th Century impressionistic summer landscape of Dutch cottage with chickens. Signed illegibly lower right corner. Stamped "Rotterdam" on ...
Category

1920s Impressionist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Linen, Oil

"In the Garden"
Located in Southampton, NY
Whitney Myron Hubbard's wife in the garden Signed in pencil lower left Whitney M. Hubbard. Framed in a contemporary gold leaf frame 16 by 13.75 inches. A seventy year resident of G...
Category

1920s Post-Impressionist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Road Less Traveled Hawaii Surrealist Mid Century Figurative Abstract Landscape
Located in Soquel, CA
Road Less Traveled Hawaii Surrealist Mid Century Figurative Abstract Landscape Symbolistic and romantic Surrealist 1940s figurative abstract landscape with a figure journeying down a path in an idyllic landscape by Marguerite Louis Blasingame circa 1940-45. Signed Blasingame lower right corner; from a collection of her work. Unframed. Condition: Excellent; professionally cleaned and UV varnished. Image, 30"H x 20"W. Marguerite and her husband Frank Blasingame...
Category

1940s Surrealist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Linen

French Neo-Romantic Surrealist Painting "Circus" by Kristians Tonny
Located in Philadelphia, PA
Kristians Tonny (French, born Holland; 1907-1977) Circus Oil on prepared board, 16 1/2 x 13 inches Framed: 22 x 19 inches (approx.) Inscribed on reverse: (in pencil) "cadre noir/ave...
Category

1920s Surrealist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

"View of Arizona Desert near Wickenberg" Will Foote, Impressionist Western Scene
Located in New York, NY
Will Foote View of Arizona Desert near Wickenberg, circa 1927 Signed lower center; titled and dated on the reverse Oil on artist's board 12 x 16 inches Foote was born on June 29, 1874 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and died on January 27, 1965, in Sarasota, Florida. He was in Old Lyme, 1901-65; and in Cos Cob, 1903. Will Howe Foote was one of the earliest artists at Old Lyme and one who adopted the town as home. He first went there the summer of 1901 with his uncle, William H. Howe, a painter of cattle, who had been told about the beauties of the countryside by Henry Ward Ranger. Foote had himself heard of Old Lyme when he had met Clark Voorhees in France. He and his uncle were both from Grand Rapids, Michigan, where Foote's father was an executive in the furniture industry that made the city famous. Encouraged to be an artist by his father, he began his professional training at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1894. He became friends there with a fellow Michigan student, Frederick Frieseke, who would study with him again at the Art Students League in New York, where Foote worked in 1895-96 under H. Siddons Mowbray and Kenyon Cox. In 1897 he and Frieseke went to the Academic Julian in Paris, where Foote studied under Jean-Paul Laurens and Benjamin Constant. He was at Julian's until 1900, except for an Italian trip, summers at Laren, Holland, or Etaples, France, and a short period at Whistler's school in Paris. He exhibited twice at the Old Salon, and when he returned to the United States in 1900, he had a one-man exhibition in his hometown. Will Howe Foote's paintings were well received on his return from abroad. He exhibited frequently at the National Academy of Design and became an associate member in 1910. His awards included a bronze medal at the St. Louis Exposition in 1904 and a silver medal at the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco in 1915. Once he visited Old Lyme, Foote returned every summer. In 1902 he was hired as assistant to Frank DuMond at the Lyme Summer School of Art, which was sponsored by the Art Students League of New York. Sometime in 1903 he also taught a session in Cos Cob. After 1906, when the League moved its Lyme classes to Woodstock, New York, Foote continued in Old Lyme as a private instructor. In 1907 he was married to Helen Kirtland Freeman, whom he had met a year or two earlier when she had come to the Lyme art colony as a student of Henry Rankin Poore. Fellow artist William Chadwick was best man at the wedding. The Footes began building a house on Sill Lane in Old Lyme and upon its completion in 1909 spent every spring, summer and fall there, where Foote devoted full time to painting. The Gregory Smiths, old friends from Grand Rapids, arrived in Old Lyme in 1910 and became neighbors. Foote's early works in Connecticut, such as A Summer's Night reflect the artist's interest in soft, atmospheric scenes dominated by a single, overriding tone. The arrival of Childe Hassam and Walter Griffin...
Category

1920s American Impressionist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

R.H. Ives Gammell Painted Bas Relief on Wood, 1947 - Lady of the Seven Sorrows
Located in Phoenix, AZ
Astounding painting and carving on wood panel by the “Hound of Heaven” artist Robert Gammell. Created 1947. This beautiful work features rich color, gold accents and incredible detail. Signed lower right “R.H. Ives Gammell” and dated ‘47. The subject comes from the imagination of the artist and is titled “Lady of the Seven Sorrows.” The work measures 34 1/2"h x 11 1/4"w and is considered to be one of the artist’s “Puppy Panels.” The ornate frame measures 38 1/2"h x 15 1/2"w x 1 1/4"d. The weight is 9 ½ pounds. A label is attached to the verso listing the work as being an entry for the 1967 Grand National Show with the American Artists Professional League in New York. This detailed and beautiful painting is a work to be treasured. More Information Robert Hale Ives Gammell: After completing his major allegorical sequence, the Hound of Heaven, Gammell felt compelled to revisit certain themes and figurative compositions in later years. His original plan was to display the smaller panels, or "Puppy Panels" as he affectionately called them, between the larger Hound panels. Robert Hale Ives Gammell (1893-1981) was a prolific professional painter working in Boston, Provincetown, and Williamstown, Massachusetts. During the sixty-five years of his career, Gammell painted murals, portraits, landscapes, and still lifes, but the pieces which excited him most were the allegorical works drawn from his imagination. In his diary Gammell wrote that he was “fascinated by the drama of man in his relationship to the forces of the universe and of his own nature.” Over the years he experimented using ancient myths and rituals as well as contemporary symbols in his attempts to articulate images of man’s terror, wonder and yearning in the face of a century of upheaval. Excerpt from Elizabeth Ives Hunter, the God-daughter of R. H. Ives Gammell and the daughter of his assistant, Theodore W. J. Valsam. R. H. Ives Gammell believed in the practice and standards of art should rest on the Gold standard established by the 19th-century French system of learning, as practiced by the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and Academie Julian of Paris. His personal mission was to follow that tradition, so he established his own Studio working with a handful of students at a time. His book ‘Twilight of Painting’ would help define a way back to those lofty goals for future artists, reflecting the uncompromising levels of quality that he embraced, and maintained. Robert Hale Ives Gammell was born to wealth in Providence, Rhode Island and spent the majority of his artistic life in Boston at the Fenway Studios and in Williamstown, MA, where he died in 1981. In 1910, Gammell studied briefly with William C. Loring and Wm. Sergeant Kendall before training in 1913 at Boston's Museum School with Philip Hale, F.W. Benson and Edmund C. Tarbell for a few months. Gammell then went to Provincetown, MA to study with Charles Hawthorn and then to the Academie Julian in Paris and the Academie Baschet until the end of 1914. He was tremendously influenced by the teachings of Tarbell and the work of Joseph DeCamp and William M. Paxton. He was so influenced by the Boston School he vowed to hand down their teaching traditions to generations of students and he did exactly that. Some of the painters who are "Gammellites" are Samuel Rose, Thomas R. Dunlay, Robert Cormier, Richard Lack, Gary Hoffman, Stephen Gjerston, Robert Douglas Hunter, David Lowrey, David Curtis...
Category

1940s Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Wood Panel

American Modernist "Chow Line" Ashcan School Rare California Surreal Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American modernist interior scene of figures eating lunch by the shovel full. Really well painted and unusual scene. A rare early work by Justin Murray (1912 - 1987). Sign...
Category

1920s Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Marine - Tempera on Paper by Lucie Navier - 1927
Located in Roma, IT
Marine is a painting realized by Lucie Navier in the 1927. Tempera on paper. Mint conditions. Impressionistic work realized with a Realistic technique and representing a natural...
Category

1920s Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Tempera

Summer Fair - British art twenties Slade School oil painting village landscape
Located in London, GB
This beautiful, large British figurative landscape oil painting is by noted Slade School artist Franklin White. Painted circa 1920, the composition is of a large number of villagers ...
Category

1920s Impressionist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

Water Wings, Saturday Evening Post Cover, 1922
Located in Fort Washington, PA
Medium: Oil on Canvas Signature: Signed Lower Left Sight Size 24.00" x 19.00", Framed 32.50" x 27.00" Cover of The Saturday Evening Post, August 26, 1922. Exhibitions: JC Leyendecker...
Category

1920s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Incredible Vintage Surreal Religious Framed Signed Latin American Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Oil on canvas. Framed. Signed lower right.
Category

1940s Surrealist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

...Unto My Nephew, Sandford Jenkins, Jr..., Liberty Magazine Cover
Located in Fort Washington, PA
Original cover for Liberty magazine, published January 26, 1929. After the passing of Sandy’s Great-Uncle Ulysses, Sandy and Lil walk around the cluttered brownstone mansion he left...
Category

1920s Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Family of Ducks, Gold-Framed Impressionist Oil Painting
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Unknown Title: Family of Ducks Year: circa 1940 Medium: Oil on Board Size: 11 x 14 in. (27.94 x 35.56 cm) Frame Size: 16.5 x 19.5 inches
Category

1940s American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

Le Coucher - Post Impressionist Nude in Interior Oil Painting by Pierre de Belay
By Pierre de Belay
Located in Marlow, Buckinghamshire
Signed and dated nude figure in interior oil on canvas by French post impressionist painter Pierre De Belay. This work depicts a painting of Pierre De Belay's wife - Helene. Here she...
Category

1940s Post-Impressionist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

'Caulking the Seams', American Impressionist School Oil, Sailing Boat, Schooner
Located in Santa Cruz, CA
An early twentieth-century, American School oil showing a view of a sailor caulking the seams of a substantial wooden sailing ship with a view beyond towards red-tiled houses beneath...
Category

1920s American Impressionist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Picking Flowers
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Beautiful. large oil on canvas, in excellent condition. Framed The Spätimpressionist Leopold Illenz was a student of Anton Azbe, and Simon Hollósy at Munich private schools...
Category

1940s Post-Impressionist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"The Boy, Moses" illustration for Children of the Bible in Good Housekeeping
Located in Fort Washington, PA
The present work was reproduced as an illustration for Bruce Barton's story "The Boy Who Established a Nation," published in the February 1929 issue of Good Housekeeping. Part of an ...
Category

1920s Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Figurative Cubist Surrealist Abstraction Mid 20th Century American Modern Large
Located in New York, NY
Figurative Cubist Surrealist Abstraction Mid 20th Century American Modern Large O. Louis Guglielmi (1906 - 1956) OBSESSIVE THEME 44 x 33 inches Oil on canvas Signed and dated '48 lo...
Category

1940s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Cannes et le vieux port - Post Impressionist Oil, Landscape by Marcel Dyf
Located in Marlow, Buckinghamshire
Signed figures in landscape oil on canvas circa 1940 by sought after French post impressionist painter Marcel Dyf. The piece depicts people enjoying a sunny winter's day at the port ...
Category

1940s Post-Impressionist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Sheep Shearers, Tangiers - British 1920's Orientalist figurative oil painting
Located in London, GB
This superb vibrant Orientalist Post Impressionist oil painting is by noted British artist Gerald Spencer Pryse. It was painted about 1925 when Pryse was visiting Morocco and Norther...
Category

1920s Post-Impressionist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

"Five Pelicans" Elizabeth Margaret Rungius Fulda, 1925 Flora and Fauna Painting
Located in New York, NY
Elizabeth Margaret Rungius Fulda Five Pelicans, 1925 Signed lower left Oil on canvas 24 1/2 x 31 1/2 inches Fulda’s story began in 1879 in Berlin's Britz district (formerly Teltow)...
Category

1920s Naturalistic Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

Damenportrait
Located in Wien, 9
Die Arbeit von Albert Bertalan war ein Spontankauf aufgrund der offensichtlichen Qualität der Arbeit, noch bevor ich etwas über den Künstler recherchieren konnte. Das Label „Ecole de...
Category

1920s Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

1940s Abstract Figurative Southwestern Mixed Media Painting 'Fetishes' Red Gray
By Howard Schleeter
Located in Denver, CO
This original 1949 gouache and wax painting, titled Fetishes, is by renowned New Mexico modernist artist Howard Schleeter (1903-1976). Signed and dated by the artist on the lower rig...
Category

1940s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Wax, Gouache, Archival Paper

"Birth" 1940s Surrealist Abstract Watercolor Painting, Gray Scale Female Figure
Located in Denver, CO
"Birth" is a striking semi-abstract watercolor painting created by the talented Colorado artist, Charles Ragland Bunnell, in 1943. The artwork, crafted during Bunnell's Black and Blu...
Category

1940s Surrealist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Watercolor

'The Park' by M. Phidias (circa 1920s)
Located in London, GB
'The Park', oil on canvas, by M. Phidias (circa 1920s). Painted using this artist's trademark impasto, the effect is to add depth and texture to the exuberant display of hues and ref...
Category

1920s Expressionist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Malagasy life scenes
Located in Saint-Ouen-sur-Seine, FR
The present decorative frieze, signed by the Malagasy painter Georges Razanamaniraka, is organized around the central figure of an enigmatic and hypnotic dancer. The quasi-symmetrica...
Category

1920s Tribal Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

1920's Scottish Portrait of Gentleman David Ingles
By David Nicholson Ingles
Located in Soquel, CA
Evocative portrait of Scottish gentleman by David Nicholas Ingles Ingres ARHA (Associate member) (Scottish, 1888-1933), circa 1920. Signed lower rig...
Category

1920s Impressionist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Linen

Landscape oil on cardboard painting impressionism spanish
Located in Barcelona, Barcelona
Joaquin Terruella Matilla (1891-1957) - Landscape - Oil cardboard Oil measures 33x41 cm. Frame measures 47x55 cm. Joaquim Terruella Matilla (1891 - 1957) Joaquim Terruella Matilla,...
Category

1920s Impressionist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Cardboard

American Painting Native American Dance Exhibition New Mexico Antelope Dancers
Located in Buffalo, NY
An original oil painting by American artist Rudolph Wedow. This fantastic painting depicts Antelope Dancers in San Felipe Pueblo in New Mexico. Created...
Category

1940s American Impressionist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Girl in Pink Robe Sitting on a Bed
Located in Fort Washington, PA
Medium: Oil on Canvas Signature: Unsigned “She Needs You So!” Magazine advertisement: Cream of Wheat hot cereal, 1927;
Category

1920s Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

LOUIS BUISSERET 1928 Surrealist Fantasy Nude Women Landscape Horse Belgian LARGE
Located in Rancho Santa Fe, CA
Louis Buisseret (Belgian) Exhibited at the Pittsburgh International (Carnegie Institute) show of 1928 "Composition" This surrealist painting depicts nude women having a picnic in a S...
Category

1920s Surrealist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Le port de la Chaume. Oil on canvas, 33x41 cm
Located in Riga, LV
Le port de la Chaume. Oil on canvas, 33x41 cm
Category

1940s Impressionist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

1940s Modernist Victor, Colorado Mountain Landscape Painting, Mining Town View
Located in Denver, CO
This original 1942 oil painting, titled "Victor, Colorado", by Martyl Suzanne Schweig (1918-2013), captures the rugged beauty of Colorado’s iconic mining landscape. The painting depicts a ghost town in the foreground with the majestic Rocky Mountains in the background, completed in vibrant shades of green, gold, and brown. Schweig painted this scene during a trip with fellow artist Adolph Dehn...
Category

1940s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Masonite, Oil

Art Nouveau Illustration Women and Children in the Woods
Located in Miami, FL
Complex Art Nouveau patterns intertwined with gracefull figures define this work by American Artist and illustrator, teacher and lecturer Mildred Bailey Carpenter. Signed in cartouc...
Category

1920s Art Nouveau Figurative Paintings

Materials

Gouache, Paper, Board

St. Atomic oil and tempera painting by Julio de Diego
Located in Hudson, NY
Julio De Diego’s Atomic Series paintings made an extraordinary statement regarding the shock and fear that accompanied the dawn of the nuclear age. In the artist’s own words, “Scientists were working secretly to develop formidable powers taken from the mysterious depths of the earth - with the power to make the earth useless! Then, the EXPLOSION! . . . we entered the Atomic Age, and from there the neo-Atomic war begins. Explosions fell everywhere and man kept on fighting, discovering he could fight without flesh.” To execute these works, De Diego developed a technique of using tempera underpainting before applying layer upon layer of pigmented oil glazes. The result is paintings with surfaces which were described as “bonelike” in quality. The forms seem to float freely, creating a three-dimensional visual effect. In the 1954 book The Modern Renaissance in American Art, author Ralph Pearson summarizes the series as “a fantastic interpretation of a weighty theme. Perhaps it is well to let fantasy and irony appear to lighten the devastating impact. By inverse action, they may in fact increase its weight.” Exhibited 1950 University of Illinois at Urbana "Contemporary American Painting" 1964 Marion Koogler McNay Art Institute, San Antonio, Texas This work retains its original frame which measures 54" x 36" x 2". About this artist: Julio De Diego crafted a formidable persona within the artistic developments and political struggles of his time. The artist characterized his own work as “lyrical,” explaining, “through the years, the surrealists, the social-conscious painters and the others tried to adopt me, but I went my own way, good, bad or indifferent.” [1] His independence manifested early in life when de Diego left his parent’s home in Madrid, Spain, in adolescence following his father’s attempts to curtail his artistic aspirations. At the age of fifteen he held his first exhibition, set up within a gambling casino. He managed to acquire an apprenticeship in a studio producing scenery for Madrid’s operas, but moved from behind the curtains to the stage, trying his hand at acting and performing as an extra in the Ballet Russes’ Petrouchka with Nijinsky. He spent several years in the Spanish army, including a six-month stretch in the Rif War of 1920 in Northern Africa. His artistic career pushed ahead as he set off for Paris and became familiar with modernism’s forays into abstraction, surrealism, and cubism. The artist arrived in the U.S. in 1924 and settled in Chicago two years later. He established himself with a commission for the decoration of two chapels in St. Gregory’s Church. He also worked in fashion illustration, designed magazine covers and developed a popular laundry bag for the Hotel Sherman. De Diego began exhibiting through the Art Institute of Chicago in 1929, and participated in the annual Chicago Artists Exhibitions, Annual American Exhibitions, and International Water Color Exhibitions. He held a solo exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago in the summer of 1935. Though the artist’s career was advancing, his family life had deteriorated. In 1932 his first marriage dissolved, and the couple’s young daughter Kiriki was sent to live with friend Paul Hoffman. De Diego continued to develop his artistic vocabulary with a growing interest in Mexican art. He traveled throughout the country acquainting himself with the works of muralists such as Carlos Merida, and also began a collection of small native artifacts...
Category

1940s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Masonite, Oil, Tempera

Twentieth century Italian orientalist male portrait figurative painting
Located in Florence, IT
The unframed painting measures 120 x 61 cm. Romualdo Locatelli è conosciuto per i suoi ritratti che riflettono le culture e le tradizioni dei luoghi esotici che ha visitato. Born in ...
Category

1920s Other Art Style Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Still life with flowers
Located in Pasadena, CA
Constantin Font, born January 11, 1890 in Auch (Gers) and died in 1954 in Paris, is a French artist, painter of genre, nudes, landscapes, orientalist, sculptor and engraver. Outstand...
Category

1940s Post-Impressionist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

Albright Knox Gallery Label Signed Landscape Oil Painting Lake River Nocturnal
Located in Buffalo, NY
A charming painting of a quaint lake at night with the moon reflecting on calm waters. Bearing an Albright Knox Art Gallery "Art Week" label from 1941 t...
Category

1940s Impressionist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Lumier et neige fondante - Impressionist Landscape Oil by William Samuel Horton
Located in Marlow, Buckinghamshire
Signed oil on canvas landscape by American impressionist painter William Samuel Horton. The piece depicts a nighttime view of Pontarlier, a commune in eastern France near the Swiss b...
Category

1920s American Impressionist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Landscape of Brittany in France
Located in BELEYMAS, FR
Marie RÉOL (Massiac 1880 – Douarnenez 1963) Seaside in Douarnenez ? Oil on canvas H. 54 cm; L. 65 cm Signed lower left Provenance : Private collection, Périgord Born in the heart of Cantal, Marie Réol left to study Fine Arts in Paris, where she met Louis-Marie Désiré-Lucas. This Breton master will become “his” master. Going from teacher, to friend, then husband whose stylistic influence will be felt throughout Marie Réol's career. The couple is divided between Douarnenez where Désiré-Lucas has a large residence, Espalion where they have a house overlooking the Lot and the Vieux Pont, as well as in Paris. Obviously, through his friendship with the Périgord Lucien de Maleville...
Category

1920s French School Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Sentada Desnuda, Surreal Painting of a Seated Nude Woman, Mexican Artist
Located in Beachwood, OH
Guillermo Meza (Mexican, 1917-1997) Sentada Desnuda, 1941 Oil on canvas Signed and dated lower right 23.5 in. h. x 19.5 in. w. 31 in. h. x 27 in. w., as framed He was born in México...
Category

1940s Surrealist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

Summer Resort in Michigan -Modernist Mid-Century Saugatuck Oil Painting
Located in Marco Island, FL
Summer Resort in Michigan is an exceptional work painted by the Chicago Modernist, William Schwartz. He studied at the Art Institute of Chicago shortly ...
Category

1940s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"The Lamp Lighter" Texas Mid-Century Modern Everett Spruce (1908-2002) EXHIBITED
Located in San Antonio, TX
Everett Spruce (1908 - 2002) Austin Artist Image Size: 18 x 15 Frame Size: 28 x 25 Medium: Oil on paper / Mixed Exhibited at a University of Texas Faculty art show in 1947 Unsigned Biography Everett Spruce (1908 - 2002) The following, submitted by a researcher of the Ashworth Collection of Native American and Western Art, is from the artist's obituary in the Fort Smith, Arkansas "Times Record" newspaper, October 20, 2002. Everett F. Spruce, well-known artist, teacher, professor emeritus, died Friday, Oct. 18, 2002, at age 94. Everett Spruce was born on a farm in Conway to William E. and Fannie McCarty Spruce. He came to Dallas, at age 17, on a scholarship to study at the Dallas Art Institute, under Olin Travis and Thomas M. Stell Jr. In 1931, he became gallery assistant at the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts and in 1934 married Alice V. Kramer, a fellow art student. He was one of the "Dallas Nine" group of Southwest artists...
Category

1940s Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Mixed Media

Writer Fannie Hurst in Floral Pattern Dress Bathed in Warm Light Female Artist
Located in Miami, FL
This portrait of Fannie Hurst may have graced the cover of another major newsstand magazine. Most likely, it was a non-published alternate cover for Redbook. One of the most widely-read female authors was painted by one of the most widely-viewed female illustrators. Edna Crompton was an in-demand and prolific for-hire female illustrator/artist for some of the most prestigious newsstand magazines of the day. She regularly did covers for the Saturday Evening Post, Redbook, Colliers and Judge to name a few. Crompton presents Fannie Hurst - the nation’s highest-paid short story writer and advocates for suffrage and race relations - as a confidently attractive young woman bathed...
Category

1920s Art Deco Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Entrance to La Rochelle - Impressionist Landscape Oil by John Anthony Park
Located in Marlow, Buckinghamshire
Signed oil on canvas figures in seascape by English impressionist painter John Anthony Park. The piece depicts a view of the seaport in La Rochelle, a city on the west coast of France. Sail boats are sailing around the port on what looks to be a warm summer's day. This rare work by Park is one of the only recorded paintings...
Category

1920s Impressionist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Church at Chapala Signed Marion Wakeman Taos School Exhibited Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American modernist landscape painting by Marion D Freeman Wakeman (1891 - 1953). Oil on canvas. Framed. Signed. Image size, 26H x 20L
Category

1940s Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Portrait of a Scottish Boy - Like Robert Henri
Located in Miami, FL
Margery Ryerson paints a stunning portrait of a boy dressed in Scottish clothes. The paint application is quick and loose but based on a sound academic understanding of how to constr...
Category

1920s Post-Impressionist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Board

Figurative Paintings for Sale

Figurative art, as opposed to abstract art, retains features from the observable world in its representational depictions of subject matter. Most commonly, figurative paintings reference and explore the human body, but they can also include landscapes, architecture, plants and animals — all portrayed with realism.

While the oldest figurative art dates back tens of thousands of years to cave wall paintings, figurative works made from observation became especially prominent in the early Renaissance. Artists like Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and other Renaissance masters created naturalistic representations of their subjects.

Pablo Picasso is lauded for laying the foundation for modern figurative art in the 1920s. Although abstracted, this work held a strong connection to representing people and other subjects. Other famous figurative artists include Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud. Figurative art in the 20th century would span such diverse genres as Expressionism, Pop art and Surrealism.

Today, a number of figural artists — such as Sedrick Huckaby, Daisy Patton and Eileen Cooper — are making art that uses the human body as its subject.

Because figurative art represents subjects from the real world, natural colors are common in these paintings. A piece of figurative art can be an exciting starting point for setting a tone and creating a color palette in a room.

Browse an extensive collection of figurative paintings on 1stDibs.

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