Paul Sample

"Hippo" Paul Sample, Regionalist, Atmospheric Circus Performers and Animal Scene

circa 1930s

Cordray Simmons Ringling Brothers Barns, circa 1930 Signed lower right Oil on Masonite 24 x 30 inches Cordray Simmons was born July 10, 1888 in Jersey City, New Jersey. Christened ...

Aaron Bohrod Old McDonald's Farm, 1989 Signed lower right Oil on gesso board 14 x 18 inches Aaron Bohrod's work has not been limited to one style or medium. Initially recognized as ...

Spencer Hodge (British, b. 1943) African Elephant Walking Oil on canvas 38 x 50 1/2 inches Signed lower right Spencer Hodge attended the Hastings School...

Sebastian Gross-Ossa (American, b. 1966) Untitled, 2000 Oil on canvas 14 1/8 x 11 inches Signed and dated on the reverse

This watercolor is part of our exhibition America Coast to Coast: Artists of the 1930s Circus Wagons, 1927, watercolor on paper, signed and dated lower left, 10 x19 ¾ inches (sight), provenance includes Stary-Sheets Art Gallery (Gualala, CA); J. Ralph & Louis Stone Foundation; presented in a newer metal frame behind glazing About the Painting Millard Sheets was only twenty years old and in his third year of studies at the Chouinard Art Institute when he painted Circus Wagons. Despite his youth, Sheets was already an accomplished artist who had publicly exhibited his work and won prestigious prizes. Within several years, he would have his first solo exhibition at one of Los Angeles’ premiere galleries and become a painting instructor at his alma mater. In Circus Wagons we already see Sheets deft handling of the watercolor medium and his interest in the California Scene. In this case, Sheets captures a back lot view of a traveling circus, a subject he sometimes returned to, including in a color screen print in the collection of the National Gallery. Sheets made a career by painting what he knew and observed firsthand. This approach allowed Sheets to capture with authenticity the details of each narrative. Even with a narrowly limited palette and an economy of brushstrokes, Sheets effectively depicts the southern California scene with its strong and mysterious shadows, as well as the workers and circus animals. Seen through the hindsight of his six-decade long career, Circus Wagons offers a fascinating insight into the early development of California Scene painting which would by the mid-1930s become the best recognized style on the West Coast. About the Artist Millard Sheets was the dean of California watercolorists. His list of accomplishments is so extensive that his entry in Who was Who in American Art is over forty lines. Born in Pomona, California, Sheets became a painter at an early age, winning a prize at the Los Angeles County Fair in 1918. By the mid to late-1920s, Sheets became a regular at art exhibitions in the western part of the United States, winning several additional prizes before he reached the age of twenty-five. Sheets studied at the prestigious Chouinard Art Institute from 1925 through 1929 with Frank Tolles Chamberlin and Clarence Hinkle and had his first solo show with Los Angeles’ Dalzell Hatfield Gallery in 1929. During the 1930s, Sheets was invited to exhibit at almost every major American Museum and in many ways, his work came to represent the California watercolor school...

OIl painting on canvas Unique work Hand-signed lower right

Arthur Smith (American, 1897-1972) Untitled (Circus Performers), 20th century Oil on board 21 x 18 7/8 in. Framed: 26 3/4 x 35 3/4 in. Signed lower right: A Smith Arthur Smith is a...

This vibrant painting, "Circus" by Paulette van Roekens, captures the energy and excitement of a classic circus scene, bursting with color and lively detail. Van Roekens brings the j...