Ben Fenske

Afternoon in the Kitchen

2018

An oil on canvas painting of a woman sitting in front of a mirror, tending to her hair. Window open behind her admits natural light. Ben Fenske (b. 1978) although a native of Minnes...

“The Break Up” by Ben Fenske (2009) is a somber and powerful figurative oil painting that gives us a peek inside the artist’s own personal life. Painted ...

An oil painting by contemporary American painter, Kelly Carmody. Many figures in Carmody's latest paintings are engaged in low-energy tasks, like reading books, or in “Yellow Dress...

A stunning medium-sized portrait of a woman getting dressed in front of an open window. Glass window panes opened wide, allowing in bright natural l...

"Tea, Reading" impressionist composition of woman at the kitchen table, Tuscany. A woman sits in Fenske's kitchen, reading a book and sipping on tea. Light streams in through an open...

A bright painting of dancers in a large ballroom. The colors used are bright, joyful and opulent, but a bit unsettling, as if the overwhelming fervor of the gathering is getting sli...

"Red Curtains" is an interior scene of a ballet performance on stage in a grand theater setting. The 14 x 12 inches, oil on canvas painting by Paulette Van Roekens is signed "P Van Roekens" in the lower left, titled and signed on verso. The work is framed in a handcrafted, white gold reproduction frame. Provenance: Private collection, Abington, Pennsylvania; Gratz Gallery, Pennsylvania; Private collection, New York, NY. Exhibition: Pennsylvania, Gratz Galleries, 19th and 20th Century American Paintings, October 21-November 30, 2007. A well-known figure in Philadelphia art circles from the 1920s through the 1960s, Paulette Van Roekens (1896 - 1988) enjoyed a long and successful career as a painter and teacher. An impressionist known for her love of color and her robust handling of paint, she applied her creative energies to depicting landscapes, still-lifes, and urban scenes, as well as vivacious depictions of people engaged in leisure pursuits and other joyful occupations. Van Roekens initiated her artistic training at the Philadelphia School...

Pair of 19th Century "Gambling" Oil Paintings After Adriaen van Ostade Each painting shows men gambling in a cellar Original oil on canvas Dimensions 10" wide x 12" high The orna...

Charles Gresham "Reading by the Window" Original Oil Painting c.1970 Fine vintage oil painting by San Francisco artist and philanthropist Charles Gres...

Arthur Sheppard "Stable Bout" Original Oil Painting C.1930 Original oil on canvas Dimensions 39" wide x 30" high Signed in the lower right corner S...

Harry Leslie Hoffman (1871 - 1964) The Artist's Wife (Beatrice Pope) at the Loom, circa 1915 Oil on canvas 30 x 32 inches Housed in a period Newcomb-Macklin frame Provenance: Estate of the artist Private Collection, Massachusetts This painting depicts the artist's wife at the loom, producing textile versions of Hoffman's underwater paintings. The screen shown behind Bea is an underwater scene also painted by Hoffman. The study of this painting is held in the collection of the Wolfsonian Museum in Florida. Harry Leslie Hoffman was born in Cressona, a small community in Pennsylvania's Schuylkill Valley. His mother was an amateur artist who encouraged her son to pursue a career in the arts. In 1893, Hoffman entered the School of Art at Yale University and studied with John Ferguson Weir, the son of Robert Walter Weir. After graduation in 1897, Hoffman moved to New York to continue his studies at the Art Students League. He also traveled to Paris and took classes at the Académie Julien. In the summer of 1902, Hoffman attended the Lyme Summer School of Art, in the town of Old Lyme on the Connecticut coast. The school was headed by Frank Vincent Dumond and was located in a boarding house owned by Florence Griswold. The school eventually grew into an artists' colony and a center for American Impressionism. When Hoffman first arrived as a student, he was not permitted to stay in the house which was designated for the professional artists only. However, his outgoing personality soon won him many friends at the colony. In 1905, Hoffman settled in Old Lyme and worked as a full member of the artist colony. He was particularly influenced by Willard Leroy Metcalf, an Impressionist also working in Old Lyme. Fellow artists later fondly recalled Hoffman's antics at the Griswold house, which included playing the flute and banjo, tap-dancing, singing humorous songs, and performing magic tricks. In 1910 Hoffman...

William McKillop (1878 - 1937) Young Lady Sitting Oil on canvas 36 x 28 inches Provenance: Peter Jung Fine Art, Hudson, New York William McKillop is one of those legions of artists, well known during their lifetime but virtually forgotten today. In 1925, Catherine Beach Ely included an entire chapter on McKillop in her book "The Modern Tendency in American Art." The following biography is culled from Ely's writings. McKillop began his art studies at the St. Louis Art School under Edmund Wuerpel prior to 1904. He studied in Paris at the Academy Julian under Jean Paul Laurens and at the Academy of Beaux Arts under Ernest Laurent, and he exhibited several paintings at the Paris Salon. McKillop returned to the United States in 1913 and established a studio where he painted portraits. He exhibited widely including at the National Academy, The Chicago Institute, The Society of Independent Artists, The Allied Artists Exhibitions, and Panama-Pacific Exhibition in San Francisco where he won a silver medal. McKillop is best known for his stylized depictions of woman in interiors, but he also painted genre paintings, landscapes and, apparently, florals (although Beach Ely did not discuss any in her book). He painted numerous pictures of the Brittany countryside and of Tangiers. He also sketched outdoors in the Berkshires near Lee, Massachusetts. During his lifetime, he sold many paintings and was well regarded by his peers, as is evident by his being selected to paint the portrait of the wife of George De Forest Brush...