Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 8

Leon Kroll
A Summer Day WPA American Scene Social Realism Modern Ashcan Early 20th Century

c. 1930s

About the Item

A Summer Day WPA American Scene Social Realism Modern Ashcan Early 20th Century Leon Kroll (1884-1974) "A Summer Day" 14 x 17 inches (image) Oil on canvas board Signed lower right, c. 1930s 20 1/4 in. x 23 1/4 in.(framed) Provenance: Estate of artist Harriet Tannin. A member of the Woodstock Art Colony, She represented the Estate of Rolph Scarlett. BIO Leon Kroll remained a painter of realism at a time when the American art world was moving rapidly into abstraction and other styles that fell under the general term of modernism. Nevertheless, asserting that he liked easy-to-recognize subjects that created a sense of that which was warm, sympathetic, and romantic, he was a leading artist of his time painting lush landscapes, figures, and still life. Other subjects such as his industrial scenes and cityscapes had elements of social realism and were painted with a heavier brush than his other works. He was especially focused on the human figure, and many of them seemed dreamlike in filmy dresses reclining in landscapes. Kroll was born in New York City in 1884. He first studied at the Art Students League under John H. Twachtman, and in 1904 entered the National Academy School, winning the Academy's premier award in 1908. To earn money, he worked as a janitor and did mechanical drawing. He traveled to Paris in 1908, where he studied at the Academie Julian as a student of Jean-Paul Laurens, and exhibited at some of the major Paris exhibitions. While in Paris, he came under the influence of the Impressionists and was especially taken with the works of Paul Cezanne. When Kroll returned from Europe in 1910, he mounted a one-man show of his Parisian work. The exhibition was a critical and financial success. He became an instructor at the National Academy and also taught at the Maryland Institute (1919-23), the Art Institute of Chicago (1924-25), and The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (1929-30). Kroll began to paint views of New York in 1918, a subject that fascinated him for the rest of his life. George Bellows, who not only became a friend but also exerted a strong influence upon Kroll's work, was an admirer of his art. Through Bellows, Kroll was introduced to the Eight and began exhibiting with them at the MacDowell Club. He also traveled to paint including to Rockport and Gloucester, Massachusetts; Monhegan Island in Maine; and in 1917, he joined his friends Robert Henri, and George Bellows in Santa Fe, New Mexico. During the 1930s, he worked for the WPA on murals for the Department of Justice Building. Kroll maintained an apartment at 253 West Forty-second Street in Manhattan, from which he painted several views of New York scenes. He died in New York City in 1974.
  • Creator:
    Leon Kroll (1884-1975, American)
  • Creation Year:
    c. 1930s
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 21 in (53.34 cm)Width: 24 in (60.96 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    New York, NY
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU1156213217272
More From This SellerView All
  • Street Scene WPA American Scene Mid-20th Century Modern Coin Tower California SF
    By Victor Michail Arnautoff
    Located in New York, NY
    Street Scene WPA American Scene Mid-20th Century Modern Coin Tower California SF Victor Arnautofff (1896 – 1979) City Street 12 x 14 inches Oil on board, c. 1930s Signed lower left BIO Born in the Ukraine of Russia, Victor Arnautoff became one of the most influential muralists in San Francisco in the 1930s and worked for the Federal Arts Project, WPA, in the expressive, social protest...
    Category

    1930s American Realist Figurative Paintings

    Materials

    Oil, Board

  • Long Beach WPA Mid 20th Century American Scene Social Realism Modernism Ashcan
    By Daniel Ralph Celentano
    Located in New York, NY
    Long Beach WPA Mid 20th Century American Scene Social Realism Modernism Ashcan Daniel Ralph Celantano (1902-1980) "Long Beach" 8 x 10 inches Oil on artist board Signed lower left:...
    Category

    1930s American Realist Figurative Paintings

    Materials

    Oil, Board

  • Poker Players NYC Mid 20th Century Modern WPA American Scene Social Realism
    By Philip Reisman
    Located in New York, NY
    Poker Players NYC Mid 20th Century Modern WPA American Scene Social Realism Philip Reisman (1904-1992) Poker Players 12 x 16 oil on board Signed and dated 1949 lower right BIO Phi...
    Category

    1940s American Realist Figurative Paintings

    Materials

    Oil, Board

  • "Industrial Cityscape, Chicago" WPA Modernism Mid-Century Cityscape 20th Century
    By Aaron Bohrod
    Located in New York, NY
    Midwestern Chicago artist Aaron Bohrod painted in 1931 this modernist industrial cityscape during the WPA of the 20th Century. Aaron Bohrod (American 1907 – 1992), Industrial Citysc...
    Category

    1930s American Modern Landscape Paintings

    Materials

    Oil, Board

  • Sand Pit Hungarian American Painting Workers Horses European Modernism 1928 WPA
    By Stephen Csoka
    Located in New York, NY
    Sand Pit Hungarian American Oil Painting Workers Horses European Modernism 1928 WPA The board measure 10 3/4 x 15 1/2 inches. The work was painted in Hunga...
    Category

    1920s Expressionist Landscape Paintings

    Materials

    Oil, Board

  • "Harvest" Working Women Hungarian European Modernism Expressionism 1926 WPA Era
    By Stephen Csoka
    Located in New York, NY
    "Harvest" Working Women Hungarian European Modernism Expressionism 1926 WPA Era. 10 x 11 inches oil on board. Painted in Hungary. Stephen (Istvan) Csoka was born in Gárdony, Hungary on January 2, 1897 and died in New York in 1989. He is best remembered as a painter and etcher of portraits, nudes, landscapes, genre, and horses. Csoka studied at the Budapest Royal Academy of Art and his memberships include Associate of the National Academy of Design in New York City; the Society of American Etchers in Brooklyn, NY; the Society of Brooklyn Artists; and the Hungarian Etchers Association. Csoka's exhibitions and awards include a medal at the Barcelona International Exhibition in 1929; a prize at the City of Budapest Exhibit in 1930; prizes at the Society of American Etchers in 1942 and 1945; prizes at the Library of Congress in 1944 and 1946; a prize at the Society of Brooklyn Artists in 1944; a prize at the Philadelphia Watercolor Club in 1945; the Corcoran Gallery of Art in 1945; the Carnegie Institute in 1943, 1944, and 1945; the Art Institute of Chicago in 1944; the Los Angeles Museum of Art in 1945; the National Academy of Design from 1940 through 1945; one-artist shows at the Contemporary Artists in 1940, 1943, and 1945; and the Minneapolis State Fair in 1943. *Stephen continued to recieve awards and exhibit his work throughout his life. In 1997, Hofstra Museum sponsored a Retrospective/Centennial exhibition in honor of his birth. Collections representing Csoka's work are the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; the British Museum, London, England; the Bezalel National Museum, Jerusalem, Israel; the Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio; Whistler House Museum of Art, Lowell, MA; the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH; Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH; the Sheldon Swope Art Museum, Terre Haute, IN; the Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile, AL; the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis, MN; the Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe, NM; the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, Hungary; Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest, Hungary, the Museum of the City of Budapest, Budapest, Hungary; the Library of Congress, Washington, DC; Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA; the Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA; Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, GA; Hofstra Museum, Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY; Holocaust Museum, Glen Cove, NY; National Academy of Art, New York, NY; New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA; New York Historical Society, New York, NY;New York Public Library, New York, NY; National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Peabody Museum, Cambridge, MA; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA; Reading Public Museum, Reading, PA; Livingston Arts Center, Mount Morris, NY; Ball State Teachers College, Muncie, IN; City College, New York, NY; Fashion Institute of Technology, New York, NY; Hungarian Consulate, New York, NY; Hungarian Heritage, New Brunswick, NJ; Hunter College, New York, NY; IBM Collections; Princeton Print Club...
    Category

    1920s Expressionist Landscape Paintings

    Materials

    Board, Oil

You May Also Like
  • Vue de Paris/View of Paris
    Located in Montfort l’Amaury, FR
    Reference number F296 Framed with a natural oak floated frame 51 x 66 cm frame included (46 x 61 cm without frame) This work is painted with oil on a paper that is mounted on a canva...
    Category

    1990s French School Figurative Paintings

    Materials

    Oil, Board

  • Girls with tulips - XXI century, Oil figurative painting, Colourful, Interior
    By Martta Węg
    Located in Warsaw, PL
    MARTTA WĘG (born in 1978) Martta Węg graduated from the European Academy of Arts in Warsaw with a special mention in 2002. Her first individual exhibition took place in Gallery Art P...
    Category

    Early 2000s Other Art Style Figurative Paintings

    Materials

    Oil, Board

  • "Saint-Cloud" Oil Painting 16" x 24" inch by Evgeniya Buravleva
    By Evgeniya Buravleva
    Located in Culver City, CA
    "Saint-Cloud" Oil Painting 16" x 24" inch by Evgeniya Buravleva Evgeniya Buravleva was born in Kirov (Russia) in 1980. 2000 – graduated from the Rylov Art School of Vyatka. 2008 – g...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Landscape Paintings

    Materials

    Oil, Canvas, Cardboard

  • "Versailles 2" Oil Painting 16" x 24" inch by Evgeniya Buravleva
    By Evgeniya Buravleva
    Located in Culver City, CA
    "Versailles 2" Oil Painting 16" x 24" inch by Evgeniya Buravleva Evgeniya Buravleva was born in Kirov (Russia) in 1980. 2000 – graduated from the Rylov Art School of Vyatka. 2008 – ...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Landscape Paintings

    Materials

    Oil, Cardboard, Canvas

  • Cadaques oil on board painting Spain spanish seascape
    By Rafael Duran Benet
    Located in Barcelona, Barcelona
    Rafael Duran Benet (1931-2015) - Cadaques - Oil on board Oil measurements 50x73 cm. Frameless. Rafael Duran Benet (Terrassa, 1931 - Barcelona, 2015) is a Catalan painter, nephew of ...
    Category

    1990s Post-Impressionist Landscape Paintings

    Materials

    Oil, Board

  • Beach's day oil on board painting
    By Gabriel Casarrubios
    Located in Barcelona, Barcelona
    Gabriel Casarrubios Martín (1953) - Day at the beach - Oil on panel Oil size 19x33 cm. Frameless. Gabriel Casarrubios Martín (1953) The Toledo ar...
    Category

    Early 2000s Post-Impressionist Landscape Paintings

    Materials

    Oil, Board

Recently Viewed

View All