Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 15

Gordon Cook
Pair of Mid Century Blocking Portrait Study, Mid Century Portrait of a Woman

c.1960s

About the Item

Blocking Study pair #1 and #2, portrait of a blonde woman, by Gordon Cook (American, 1927-1985). Circa 1960. Signed on verso "G. Cook (3) #1. unframed. Image size: 24"H x 20"W each. Bay area estate sale find. Gordon Cook was born in 1927 in Chicago, Illinois. He attended Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington where he received his B.F.A in 1950. Cook then went on to study fundamentals and life drawing at The American Academy of Art* in Chicago. The same year he studied intaglio* printmaking with Vera Berdich at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago*. He took graduate courses and continued studying intaglio printmaking under artist Mauricio Lasansky at the State University of Iowa. In 1951, Cook moved to San Francisco. Soon after his works received the journeyman's card in International Typographical Union, Local 21. He began exhibiting his prints, drawings, and paintings at the Porpoise Gallery in San Francisco. Four years later, Cook became a charter member of the Bay Printmakers Society and exhibited in their annual exhibitions at the Oakland Art Museum for the next five years. His etchings portrayed mainly San Francisco landscapes such as the Golden Gate Park, Diamond Heights, and Lake Merced as well as flowers, especially roses. He participated in his first weekly drawing group with artist Alvin Light, Manuel Neri, Joan Brown, and William H. Brown. Cook also taught at the San Francisco Art Institute*. His etchings where exhibited in a one-man exhibition at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, in the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts. At this point Cook returned to painting. Moving to Rio Vista, California he participated in his second drawing group with Manuel Neri, Joan Brown, and Robert Arneson. Cook's new paintings were exhibited at the Bolles Gallery and Lawsen Galleries in San Francisco. The same year, he began teaching printmaking at Sacramento State University. He returned to San Francisco and taught printmaking at Academy of Art College and exhibited his works in the Charles Campbell Gallery San Francisco. Setting his printmaking aside in 1974, Cook taught at San Francisco State University and the University of California Davis while he continued his drawing groups. For two years he worked as a driver and dispatcher for United Courier, Inc., which permitted him only a small amount of time for his artwork. He resumed his printmaking in 1979 along with drawing and continued lecturing at UC Davis. In 1980, a private support group enabled Cook to focus solely on his artwork. He then exhibited at the Allan Stone Gallery in New York, with Wayne Thiebaud and David Beck. He continued his career alternating between teaching and art making. He taught drawing and painting at Mills College and California College of Arts and Crafts* in Oakland. Cook worked on several print projects with Limestone Press, "made in California", Teaburry Press, and Scott Green. He also developed a series of sculptures, which later appeared in drawings, painting and prints. In the final year of his career Cook painted and printed a series of Amish Dolls and began a bronze sculpture project of stick figures with "made in California".
  • Creator:
    Gordon Cook (1927 - 1985, American)
  • Creation Year:
    c.1960s
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 24 in (60.96 cm)Width: 20 in (50.8 cm)Depth: 1 in (2.54 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Soquel, CA
  • Reference Number:
    Seller: JT-j58491stDibs: LU5426352772
More From This SellerView All
  • Lise, a Self Portrait of the Artist
    By Lise Lang Crowley
    Located in Soquel, CA
    Self-portrait of the artist, in a pensive seated pose, by Lise Lang Crowley (American, 20th century). Signed "L" lower right and signed "Lise Lang Crowley" on verso. Presented in a r...
    Category

    1990s American Impressionist Portrait Paintings

    Materials

    Canvas, Oil

  • "I See a Robin" - Portrait of a Boy in Winter
    By Veon Zentner
    Located in Soquel, CA
    "I See a Robin," a figurative oil painting of a boy in a window by Veon Zentner (American, 20th Century). Presented in a rustic wooden frame. Signed "Zentner" lower left. Titled "I S...
    Category

    1990s American Impressionist Figurative Paintings

    Materials

    Canvas, Oil

  • Portrait of a Woman (Cher), 1990s Vertical Female Figurative
    Located in Soquel, CA
    Delicate portrait of a woman with flowing hair in soft, feminine tones and neutral background by an unknown artist. Signed "Chris" lower right. Presented in a peach colored painted w...
    Category

    Late 20th Century American Impressionist Figurative Paintings

    Materials

    Canvas, Oil

  • Mid Century Garden Portrait of a Woman in Lavender
    Located in Soquel, CA
    Beautiful impressionist mid-century portrait of a woman in a garden setting by Philadelphia artist Sol Jasner (American, 20th Century). The woman has short hair and is wearing a lovely lavender colored blouse, and she is surrounded by lush greenery with a cluster of grapes growing on the vine in the background. Signed "Sol Jasner" on verso. Unframed. Canvas size: 18"H x 24"W. A mid-century Philadelphia artist and art educator active in the 1960’s, Sol Jasner taught art classes alongside his contemporary Philadelphia artist Martin Zipin.
    Category

    Mid-20th Century American Impressionist Portrait Paintings

    Materials

    Canvas, Oil

  • Mid Century Portrait of a Woman with Pearls
    By Genevieve Rogers
    Located in Soquel, CA
    Mid century portrait of a woman with pearls and a blue shirt by California artist Genevieve Rogers (American, 1904-1984). Unsigned, but acquired with ...
    Category

    Mid-20th Century American Impressionist Figurative Paintings

    Materials

    Canvas, Oil

  • Portrait of Man in Blue
    By Lee T. Dalton
    Located in Soquel, CA
    An alluring portrait of a man (the artists son David) in a blue button up shirt by Lee T. Dalton (American, b.1925). Signed "Lee Dalton '72" upper left....
    Category

    1970s American Impressionist Figurative Paintings

    Materials

    Canvas, Oil

You May Also Like
  • Tender Family Portrait - Mother and Child, Student of Robert Henri
    By Margery Austen Ryerson
    Located in Miami, FL
    Rendered with an alla prima paint application and quick gestural brushstrokes, "Tender Family Portrait - Mother and Child" reflects Margery Ryerson's deep knowledge of academic training. Reyerson studied with Robert Henri at The Art Students League. This painting is aesthetically pleasing and communicates a sense of maternal tenderness from a female artist. Margery Ryerson did a book on her former teacher. Henri's philosophical and practical musings were collected by former pupil Margery Ryerson and published as The Art Spirit (1923), a book that remained in print for several decades. Signed. Lower Left Margery Austen Ryerson (September 15, 1886 - 1989) was an American artist, painter, etcher, lithographer and watercolorist.Her work is included in the collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum Biography Ryerson earned her Bachelor's of Fine Arts in English from Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, after attending private schools in Morristown. She went on to study under Charles Hawthorne at the Cape Cod School of Art in Provincetown, Massachusetts, and with Robert Henri at the Art Students League in New York. During the years 1920 through 1940 Ryerson taught in New York settlement houses. There she got the privilege to paint and draw the children in their care. The subjects of these paintings were often the children of the underclass and immigrants. Her artistic technique and subjects gained universal recognition and appealed to many people. Miss Ryerson is most known for her portraits...
    Category

    1920s American Impressionist Portrait Paintings

    Materials

    Canvas, Oil

  • At Doug's Place
    By Lu Haskew
    Located in Loveland, CO
    At Doug's Place by Lu Haskew Oil 12x10" image size Plein Air artists sit by a river discussing on break from the day of painting. ABOUT THE ARTIST: Lu considered it a must to work...
    Category

    Early 2000s American Impressionist Figurative Paintings

    Materials

    Canvas, Oil

  • Take Me Home
    By Lu Haskew
    Located in Loveland, CO
    "Take me Home" by Lu Haskew Oil 19x16" framed, 12x8" image size Signed lower left A young child very apparently ready to go home from their intense yet cute look. The child is weari...
    Category

    Early 2000s American Impressionist Figurative Paintings

    Materials

    Canvas, Oil

  • "The Pensive Beauty, " Carl Nordell, American Impressionism, Female Portrait
    By Carl Nordell
    Located in New York, NY
    Carl Nordell (1885 - 1957) The Pensive Beauty Oil on canvas 40 x 32 inches Signed lower left Nordell was born in Copenhagen on 23 September 1885. In 1892 the Nordell family settled in Westerly, New Jersey, where Carl Johan, one of several children, received his education. Reportedly, a local gambler and art collector, Richard Canfield was so impressed with young Nordell's talent that he assisted him to gain admittance to the Rhode Island School of Design. Carl was a tireless student and serious in his studies of art, literature, and philosophy. Friends nicknamed him "The American Frans Hals," as a result of his study of that Dutch master. After graduating from the school in 1905, Nordell continued his training at the Art Students League in New York City for the following two years. There he received criticism and instruction from George Bridgman (1864-1943), a noted teacher of anatomy, and Frank Vincent DuMond (1865-1951), a landscapist associated with Old Lyme. The popularity of Impressionism in America at this time had reached its peak, and the style was of paramount influence in Nordell's advanced studies. Around 1906, Nordell visited an exhibition of paintings by the Ten, most of whom were American Impressionists. Moved by the work of Tarbell and Joseph R. De Camp, he sought instruction from them at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Nordell worked diligently under Tarbell and experimented with the genre of women in interiors, or Intimism. In 1909, Nordell received the Paige Traveling Scholarship, which provided for two years of continued study in Europe. He became one of the hundreds of Americans to receive criticism from Jean-Paul Laurens at the Académie Julian in Paris. From this base, he made study trips to visit major museums and galleries in Italy, Holland, Spain and Germany and during this period Nordell's style reached a level of uniqueness, though he definitely remained under the general influence of French Impressionism. By the time of his return to Boston in 1911, Nordell had successfully incorporated the use of broken color, a high-keyed palette, and the practice of working en plein air to achieve an accurate representation of light and atmosphere. In October of that year, the Boston Art Club presented eighty-seven of Nordell's watercolors and oils to the viewing public. Some of the watercolors seem revolutionary in their spontaneity. Nordell continued his career in Boston at Fenway Studios and exhibited in national competitions, including the annuals of the National Academy of Design, the Art Institute of Chicago; at the 1912 biennial of the Corcoran Gallery he won the fourth Clarke Prize. Nordell's finances were augmented by portrait commissions of some of Boston's affluent citizens. The artist was so intent on recording the sitter's likeness that in this genre, he deviated from his usual impressionist technique. In the women-in-interior genre, he frequently depicted a fully draped woman seated in profile or at an oblique angle to the picture plane. These pensive and attractive young ladies usually gaze into space and become an integral part of the pleasant ambiance of the scene. In this way, Nordell remained within the Genteel Tradition as it was manifest in Boston. The artist exhibited several such works in the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco in 1915, and won a silver medal for his efforts. In 1918, a one-man exhibition of fifty works was presented at the Boston Art Club. Nordell remained active in the Boston area art clubs and societies through the early 1920s. In the winter of 1921 Babcock Art Galleries presented him with yet another one-man show. During this period, Nordell increased the production of prints and won the Salmagundi Club's Shaw Prize for etching in 1923. Sometime after 1927 he began taking summer sketching trips to Chautauqua Lake...
    Category

    Early 20th Century American Impressionist Figurative Paintings

    Materials

    Canvas, Oil

  • "The Red Dress"
    By Joseph Newman
    Located in Lambertville, NJ
    Jim’s of Lambertville is proud to offer this artwork by: Joseph Newman (1890 - 1979) Joseph Newman was born in New York City in 1890. He attended the Pratt Institute and the Adelphi College Art School, and served in the U.S. Army during WWW1. After the war, he married and traveled to Europe. He returned to New York in the mid 1920's, and with a group of contemporaries formed The Fifteen Gallery in Manhattan. Newman painted a broad variety of subjects including genre scenes, landscapes, figurative works, and equestrian subjects. He worked in various styles ranging from academic realism to a looser, post-impressionist approach, and is best known for colorful, animated genre scenes painted in and around Rockport Harbor and as far west as Taos, New Mexico. He exhibited frequently at the Brooklyn Museum, The National Academy, The Carnegie Institute, The Whitney and The Society of Independent Artists. He was a member of the L.C. Tiffany Foundation, The Salmagundi Club, Rockport Art Association, and the American Watercolor Society. His work is represented in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum, The Newark Museum, the Boston Library...
    Category

    20th Century American Impressionist Figurative Paintings

    Materials

    Canvas, Oil

  • The Russian Model
    By Pauline Palmer
    Located in Milford, NH
    A wonderful large self portrait of the artist with a Russian model by American artist Pauline Lennards Palmer (1867-1938). Born in McHenry, Illinois, Palmer studied at the Art Institute of Chicago between 1893 and 1898, including a one-month session with William Merritt Chase in 1897, and further temporary instruction with Frank Duveneck. She became one of Chicago's early twentieth-century portrait and landscape painters and one of the Midwest's most active and energetic exponents of impressionism. After her career was well established, she moved to Provincetown and studied with Charles Hawthorne...
    Category

    1930s American Impressionist Portrait Paintings

    Materials

    Canvas, Oil, Board

Recently Viewed

View All