C.Smith

Vintage French Impressionist Artist Studio Interior Scene Figurative Painting

1970

Robert Brooks (American, 1922-1992) Portait of a Startled Woman Monumental oil on canvas Signed lower right 80 x 42 inches Born in Fall River, Massachusetts in 1922, Robert Brooks embarked on his art career by winning modeling clay as a reward for good attendance at primary school. He became known for embellishing the margins of his school books with sketches of his friends and maybe teachers. He operated his own sign making business as a teenager, which supplied little money but lots of experience. Brooks also entered every poster and drawing competition in sight. Saturday morning classes at the Swain School of Design provided him with sound instructions in the principles of art, and as a high school senior in 1941, Brooks was awarded a scholarship to Boston's Vesper George School of art in a annual state-wide competition. During this year in Boston, he specialized in design, color and the theater arts and discovered "watercolor" as his favorite medium. At the end of his year Brooks was awarded a scholarship to continue by the Vesper George School but returned to New Bedford before the second year was out in order to work in the design department of a large textile printing concern. He was called to serve his country and after basic training, casual detachments and port of embarkation, he made his own private beachhead on New Caledonia in 1943, where he served as staff artist for The South Pacific Daily News. Brooks painted sketches and watercolors of the local scene during his daytime off-duty hours and won fast acclaim for his crisp, clean paintings...

A whimsical oil painting depicting a Venetian Powder Room Scene with Figures getting ready for the masquerade. A truly intimate scene with a ornate mirror, flowers in a vase and whit...

Italian painter (16th century) - Christ mocked. 18 x 28 cm. Antique oil painting on canvas glued on board, without frame. Condition report: Good state of conservation of the picto...

Friends have brought over their dog to the artist's Tuscan farmhouse, and join in preparing an Italian meal. Fenske, always seeing potential for paintings in everyday life, decided t...