Albert Pels

Unique Painting By Albert Pels WPA Artist!

William Fisher (American, 1891-1985) Untitled, 20th Century Oil on canvas/illustration 23 3/4 x 29 3/4 in. Framed: 31 x 37 1/4 x 1 in. Signed lower right: William Fisher William Fis...

Framed Maurice Kish (American, 1895-1987) Genre painting of a man carrying water buckets Signed lower left: Maurice Kish Framed dimensions: 12 1/8 x 9 1/8 in. Maurice Kish, painter and poet, was born in Dvinsk, Russia (also known as Denenburg while under Russian rule) which is now known as Daugavpils, Latvia. Dvinsk was one of the leading Jewish cities in Russia in the 19th century, and a center of Jewish culture and debate. It was also a poor city where an estimated 30% of the Jewish population applied for aid in 1898. (1) Maurice (Moishe) Kish was born February 19, 1895 (2). A census conducted 2 years earlier indicated 330 industrial establishments owned by Jews, and 99 owned by non Jews. The dominant trades were tailoring and shoemaking. (1) "Kish… immigrated to New York in his teens. He pursued studies in art at Cooper Union and the National Academy of Design, gaining a foundation solid enough to support himself as a painter and to place his work in exhibitions, by the late 1930's, at such prestigious venues as the Corcoran Gallery of Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art." (3) Kish also exhibited at the New York World's Fair in 1939, and by 1945 had exhibited 13 times at the National Academy and won 30 art prizes. He was a member of numerous art associations, including the Educational Alliance, the American Veteran Society of Artists, and the Brooklyn Art Alliance. (4) During the Depression Kish often portrayed "factory and street scenes in New York with the tired faces of workers revealing the weight of wage-labor upon their lives." (5) Kish himself was no stranger to the proletarian life - he was a skilled craft worker for decades in a factory which made glass vases. He was short and sturdy, a former amateur boxer, and also served as a dance instructor in the Catskills. In the 1970's, at the age of 75, he was still playing handball in the famous Brighton courts. (6) By the last decade of his life, however, he had lost his eyesight and was infirm. Kish lived most of his adult life in Brooklyn, initially in Brownsville but mainly in Williamsburg, and then Brighton Beach where he became enchanted by Coney Island...

Richard Joseph Ericson (American, 1922-2010) Untitled, 1950 Oil on canvas 36 x 25 in. Signed lower right: RJE '50 Richard Joseph Ericson (b. October 22, 1922-d. November 21, 2010), born in Chicago, Illinois. Son of Claire (b. 1899) and Arthur Ericson (b. 1899). His father was an accountant for a food products company and the family moved to Mount Vernon, Westchester County, New York, when he was a young child. Ericson, a twin, first began to draw at age five and took up painting in oils at age twelve. He studied at the Art Students League in New York City in 1941, where he received an honorable mention during the annual scholarship competition held that year. During this period he worked as a commercial artist. After America's entry in World War II Ericson enlisted in the Army in 1942, where he served as a warrant officer. He saw service in North Africa, France, and Germany. While overseas, he did many drawings of the places in which he was stationed. He eventually found himself guarding Italian prisoners of war who had been captured in Sicily and southern Italy. While performing his duties during 1943 and 1944 he found time to paint several important, large scale portraits of the prisoners who were happy to pose for him. As the war concluded he was able to visit Holland to study. After nearly three years overseas, Ericson returned to America and traveled back to his home town of Chicago where he furthered his studies at the Art Institute of Chicago. He married in 1948 and moved his young family to Mexico, where he attended Mexico City College. He studied art and exhibited while living there, receiving his Master of Arts degree, cum laude, in 1953. For a time after his return to the United States he taught art in Dutchess County, New York, where he and his wife built their own house by hand. Eventually the family, which would come to include seven sons, settled in Hicksville, Long Island, New York. Ericson joined the staff of Hicksville High School as the art teacher in 1962, a position he would hold until his retirement in 1983. As a teacher, Ericson was open to all fields and styles of art, constantly experimenting and experiencing new forms and styles. He had started printmaking in the late 1940's and continued to work in this medium for many years, producing mezzotints, etchings, and wood block prints. He also continued to paint, creating portraits, scenes in southern Dutchess County, and Long Island landscapes - for which he would become well known. Ericson grew to love the area in which he lived, and depicted it quite often in his paintings. He became enamored with the historic village of Cold Spring Harbor...

Marion Maas (American, b. 1930) In The Attic, c. 1970s Oil on canvas Framed: 30 1/2 x 24 1/2 x 1 1/2 in. Signed lower left Titled verso on stretcher bar 19...

Artist: Harry Lane, American (1891 - 1973) Title: Intermezzo Year: circa 1965 Medium: Oil on Masonite, signed l.r. Size: 39 in. x 24 in. (99.06 cm x 60.96 cm) Frame Size: 50 x 34.5 i...

Clyde Frederick Kelley (1886-1965) lived and worked in New York as an illustrator before settling in San Diego in 1924. Throughout his career he specialized in figurative, genre subjects that depicted American life in the 1930s-1950??™s; his paintings mirrored the paintings of the American...

Portrait of Tabatha, oil on board. Unsigned.

Oil on canvas mounted on cardboard. Very good condition.