Jonathan Taylor

'Woman Playing Guitar', California Post Impressionist oil, Santa Cruz, San Jose

Circa 1990

Faintly signed lower right, 'D. Mayernik' for David Mayernik (American, 20th century) and painted circa 1985. A period, Post-Impressionist style study of a woman in a turban looking proudly upwards. A warm and engaging piece by a bravura hand. Artist, design architect, author and educator David Mayernik studied fresco painting with restorer Leonetto Tintori and has painted frescoes for the TASIS campus in Lugano, churches in Ticino and Tuscany, and the Palio...

Signed lower left, 'Freda L. Hansen' (American, 20th century) and painted circa 1965; bearing, verso, Alameda Art Association label with artist information and titled, 'Ladies in a G...

Signed lower center, "Mancini"; additionally signed verso and painted circa 1975. Figurative oil in crimson, vermilion, jade, and deep blue, showing a young woman wearing a hat with...

'Betsy Ross Bar & Grill', Santa Cruz Art League, California, Cocktail Hostesses 'The Betsy Ross Bar & Grill', Exhibited: Santa Cruz Art League, California, 1986 Signed lower left, ...

Oil on cardboard Grigol Chirinashvili was a Georgian artist (1918-1999) who lived and worked in Tbilisi, Georgia. He graduated from the National Academy of Arts in Tbilisi and the A...

Oil on cardboard Grigol Chirinashvili was a Georgian artist (1918-1999) who lived and worked in Tbilisi, Georgia. He graduated from the National Academy of Arts in Tbilisi and the A...

Oil on cardboard Grigol Chirinashvili was a Georgian artist (1918-1999) who lived and worked in Tbilisi, Georgia. He graduated from the National Academy of Arts in Tbilisi and the A...

Guy Pene du Bois' "Two Figures in Courtroom" is a WPA era American scene oil painting created in a realistic style. Modernism at its best The work is framed by Heydenryk. Pène du Bois descended from French immigrants who settled in Louisiana in 1738 and was raised in a Creole household. He was born in 1884 in Brooklyn, NY and first studied with William Merritt Chase at the New York School of Art and later continued his training with Robert Henri. Pène du Bois was greatly impressed with Henri's credo that "real life" was subject matter for art and throughout his life a realist philosophy informed his art as well as his parallel career, art criticism. In 1905, Pène du Bois made his first visit to Paris where he painted scenes of fashionable people in cafes rendered in the dark tonalities and impasto associated with the Ashcan School. By 1920, he had achieved his mature style, which was characterized by stylized, rounded, almost sculptural figures painted with invisible brushstrokes. The subjects of his paintings were often members of society whom he gently satirized. In 1924, Pène du Bois and his wife, Floy, left for France where they would remain until 1930. Returning to America showcases pictures the artist produced after this very productive period abroad. After five years of living in France, Pène du Bois was able to observe American life with fresh eyes. His work becomes more psychologically intense and less satirical. In Girl at Table a slender, blond is shown gazing at a small statue that she holds at arm's distance. The meaning is elusive, but a powerful sense of longing is evoked. Similarly, paintings such as Dramatic Moment and Jane are taut with unresolved dialogue. Both pictures depict mysterious interiors in which a lone woman anxiously awaits the denouement of a suspenseful scene. Other pictures, for example, Chess Tables, Washington Square and Bar, New Orleans, recall Pene du Bois's Ashcan origins in their depiction of urban entertainment. During this period, landscape becomes an important subject for Pène du Bois. Girl Sketching...