Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 7

Josef Presser
Polish Expressionist Profile Portrait Drawing TWO CHILDREN

$1,800
£1,390.81
€1,607.91
CA$2,543.53
A$2,852.74
CHF 1,493.93
MX$34,663.55
NOK 18,970.47
SEK 17,985.34
DKK 12,002.21

About the Item

Genre: Other Subject: Figures Medium: Other, Gouache Surface: Paper Country: United States sight size 17 X 13 inches Emigrating to Boston in 1913 from Poland with his Russian-Jewish parents, Presser was admitted in 1921 at age 12 to the Boston Museum School of Art with a full four-year scholarship, the youngest student ever accepted at the school. The lack of challenge for the boy who could draw everything with ease set the stage for Presser’s search as an adult for new forms and styles of expression. After completing 4 years at BMFA, Presser’s boundless curiosity led him to Europe in the late 20’s, signing on as a crew member of a freighter, jumping ship in Hamburg, and working on horse-drawn canal barges in Belgium and France and with small traveling circuses. It was at this time that Presser began reaching for new ideas of expression while still embracing the “old world masters.” In Paris, his studies of Renaissance painters in the museums of Europe are reflected in “Cybele.” His first major painting sale was brokered by the director of the Louvre. The artist settled into a studio in Philadelphia upon his return to America in 1931, where his concern for the poor and socially deprived grew with the urgency of the Great Depression, eventually earning him a decent living painting WPA and private murals, as well as a fast-selling body of more intense personal paintings. In the mid 30’s Presser moved to New York City, where he met and married fellow NYC artist Agnes Hart, with whom he would have a tempestuous relationship until his death. They lived and worked in a loft over bustling 14th Street at Union Square. He painted prodigiously, often paying off bar tabs and butchers with a painting, a quickly drawn portrait.

More From This Seller

View All
Lithuanian Artist Colored Lithograph Mother And Son - Boris Deutsch
By Boris Deutsch
Located in Surfside, FL
Boris deutsch was born in krasnagorka lithuania june 4 1892 died in los angeles 1978.Entered the polytechnic school in riga 1905.School of applied arts berlin 1912. Settled in l.A. 1...
Category

20th Century Modern Figurative Prints

Materials

Etching

Untitled Couple Mid Century Jewish Expressionist OIl Painting
By Belle Golinko
Located in Surfside, FL
Abstracted painting of a man and a woman, the paint has been applied to textured plastic. An abstracted painting of a couple applying paint to the textured plastic surface. Genre Expressionist Fauvist Subject People Medium Acrylic Plastic Surface Board Country United States Dimensions 24" x 11 1/2" She exhibited her painting at the famous Jewish art show held at the Dallas Museum Contemporary Fine Arts Exhibition of the American Jewish Tercentenary in 1955 alogside artists Aarons, George, Benn, Ben, Berkman, Aaron, Bloom, Hyman Bohrod, Aaron Gottlieb, Adolph, Gropper, William, Gross, Chaim Gurr, Lena amongst others. Born in 1899, Belle Golinko is a listed Jewish mid...
Category

1950s Expressionist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Plastic, Oil

Lithuanian Artist Colored Lithograph Mother And Son - Boris Deutsch
By Boris Deutsch
Located in Surfside, FL
Boris deutsch was born in krasnagorka lithuania june 4 1892 died in los angeles 1978.Entered the polytechnic school in riga 1905.School of applied arts berlin 1912. Settled in l.A. 1...
Category

20th Century Modern Figurative Prints

Materials

Etching

Portrait, Two Women, Oil on Canvas
By Anton Vorauer
Located in Surfside, FL
From the late 1920s to the eve of World War II, Anton Vorauer was an art professor at the Vienna Fine Art Academy. While painting at the Parthenon during the Nazi invasion of Greece,...
Category

20th Century Modern Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Polish French Jewish Artist Oil Painting Girl with Doll, School of Paris Judaica
By Walter Spitzer
Located in Surfside, FL
Framed 27 X 24 inches Sight 18 X 15 inches Walter Spitzer (Polish/French, 1927 - ) born in Cieszyn, Poland. A Polish Jewish Holocaust survivor, he made his first drawings in a conc...
Category

1960s Expressionist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

New York City Tenement Family Modernist WPA Era Oil Painting Wolins
By Joseph Wolins
Located in Surfside, FL
Subject: American Family Medium: Oil Surface: Canvas Country: United States In this painting, Joseph Wolins uses vibrant and complimentary colors and broken brushwork. Joseph Wo...
Category

20th Century American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

You May Also Like

Two Girls in School, Expressionist Portrait by Philadelphia Artist
By Bernard Harmon
Located in Doylestown, PA
"Two Girls in School" is a painting by Philadelphia born Expressionist painter Bernard Harmon. The 36" x 40.25" oil on board portrait of two figures is painted in a vibrant color palette. The painting is framed in a new, black wood frame and signed "Harmon" on verso. There is a second portrait the artist painted on the back of the painting. Figurative expressionism in the style of Alice Neel. Bernard Harmon was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1935. Harmon was primarily a portrait painter and a well loved teacher in the Philadelphia area. A graduate of the Philadelphia Museum School and Temples Tyler School of Art, Harmon traveled extensively in Europe and South America. Beloved by many, Harmon taught in the Philadelphia School District for 32 of his 54 years of life. Beginning his career as an art teacher at West Philadelphia High School, in the early 1960s he became one of the district's artists in residence, traveling from school to school to demonstrate for students how an artist works. Returning to the classroom, Harmon joined the art department at Central High School where he taught for 14 years and became an innovator in art curriculum, developing a program offering advanced placement art classes to gifted students. In his final years Harmon became a supervisor, mentoring teachers and overseeing programs in the Philadelphia school systems District #1. During his short life Harmon taught collage preparatory art classes at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, summer classes at the University of the Arts, and a Saturday program for gifted children at Drexel University. Among Harmon's portraits were commissioned by Philadelphia Jazz organist Jimmy Smith and Mayor Richardson Dilworth. Bernard Harmon was active in promoting African American Artist throughout his life time. He organized many early shows such as the "Afro American Artists...
Category

1960s Expressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Two Girls, Impressionist Gouache Painting by Ernst Berger
Located in Long Island City, NY
Ernst Berger, Austrian (1857 - 1919) - Two Girls, Medium: Gouache on Paper, signed lower right, Size: 15 x 16 in. (38.1 x 40.64 cm), Frame Size: 23 x 23.5 inches
Category

Late 19th Century Impressionist Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Gouache

Vintage Mid-Century Modern Mini Swedish Figurative Portrait Painting - Whispers
Located in Bristol, GB
WHISPERS Mixed Media on Board Size: 30 x 37 cm (including frame) A wonderfully expressive and brilliantly executed figurative composition in mixed media (oil, watercolour gouache), painted onto board. Two women in black headscarves are the focus of the scene, with very captivating expressions. The woman on the right appears to look almost shocked, with her mouth ajar and her eyes widened. The woman on the left stares directly at us, her emotion less identifiable. The scene is intriguing, making us question what these women have heard or what has happened. Their faces have been painted with brilliant detail, capturing the shadows on their faces as well as the aged skin of the woman on the right. These two women are set against a blue-ish green backdrop, making their faces stand out even more from within their black head scarves...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board, Watercolor, Gouache

Not Speaking, Expressionist Portrait of Mother and Son by Philadelphia Artist
By Bernard Harmon
Located in Doylestown, PA
"Not Speaking" is a painting by Philadelphia born Expressionist painter Bernard Harmon. The 36" x 40" oil on board portrait of a mother and her son is painted in a vibrant color pale...
Category

1960s Expressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Two Young Spanish Girls, Oil on paper
By Edouard Goerg
Located in Saint Amans des cots, FR
Oil on paper by Edouard Goerg (1893-1969), France, 1937-1938. Two young Spanish girls. Measurements : with frame: 61.3x51.8 cm - 24.1x20.4 inches, view: 39x28.6 cm - 15.4x11.25 inche...
Category

1930s Expressionist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Paper, Oil

20th Century French Cubist Painting Portrait of Mother & Daughter
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Mother & Daughter by Guy Nicod (French 1923 - 2021) watercolour on artist paper, unframed painting : 18.5 x 15.5 inches provenance: artists estate, France condition: very good and so...
Category

20th Century Cubist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Watercolor