1910s Figurative Paintings

Eugene Higgins In Foreign Parts, circa 1913 Signed lower right Watercolor on paper Sight 17 x 13 inches Born William Victor Higgins in 1884 to a Shelbyville, Indiana farm family where the only art Victor was aware of as a child was his father's love of flowers. "He loved their forms and their colors, and he tended his garden as a painter might work a canvas." At the age of nine, Victor met a young artist who traveled the Indiana countryside painting advertisements on the sides of barns. He purchased paints and brushes so the young Higgins could practice his own artwork on the inside of his father's barn. He also taught Victor about art museums and especially about the new Chicago Art Institute. This information never left the young artist, and he saved his allowance until his father allowed him at the age of fifteen to attend Chicago Art Institute. He worked a variety of jobs to finance his studies both there and at the Academy of Fine Arts. Victor Higgins traveled to New York in 1908, where he met Robert Henri, who became a significant influence by depicting every-day scenes and stressing the importance of the spirit and sense of place as important factors in painting. Higgins was also greatly affected by the New York Armory Modernism Show of Marsden Hartley in 1913. While Victor Higgins was in Chicago he met former mayor and avid collector Carter H. Harrison who was to prove instrumental in the growth of Higgins career for several years. Harrison agreed to support Higgins for four years to go to Paris and Munich and paint and study in the great museums in Europe. While at the Academie de la Grande Chaumier in Paris (1910-1914) he met Walter Ufer, who was another Chicago artist being sponsored by Carter Harrison. This meeting was not only a life-long friendship, but the beginning of a great change in the way Higgins looked at "American" art. He decided that America needed it's own authentic style rather than the 19th Century classic style he was taught in Europe. Very soon after returning to Chicago in 1914, Harrison sent him and Walter Ufer on a painting trip to Taos, New Mexico for a year in exchange for paintings. Higgins made other similar agreements and was able to support himself with his painting. This trip was a life-changing experience and introduced Higgins to the authentic America he had been looking for. In 1914 Taos was an isolated village about twelve hours from Santa Fe on an impossible dirt road. But the colorful life of the pueblo people and the natural beauty drew a collection of artists who became the Taos art colony, from which the Taos Society of Artists was founded in 1915. Victor Higgins became a permanent resident within a year of his arrival and a member of the society in 1917, exhibiting with Jane Peterson in 1925 and with Wayman Adams and Janet Scudder in 1927. The members would travel around the country introducing the Southwest scenes with great success. He remained a member until the Society's dissolution in 1927. Higgins was the youngest member of the group of seven. Other members were Joseph Henry Sharp, Bert Phillips...

Date: 1918 Medium: Oil on Board Dimensions: 13.00" x 14.00" Signature: Unsigned 1921 Hearst International, The Torrent. Nicknamed "The Dean of Illustrators" by his peers. A cartoonist at 18 for Louisville Herald. By 1911 he was in the Chicago Tribune's Art department while studying at the city's Art Institute. In 1915, a student of Harvey Dunn, he in turn taught artists and developed talents for a generation. Oils for Cosmopolitan, Redbook, True, American Weekly, Life, Good Housekeeping. Book art for Man from Galilee and others. Ad contracts for GM, Eastern, Pennsylvania Railroad, Paul Jones Whiskey, Aunt...

Gammell Trust #W126. Signed and dated in pencil lower right: "R.H. Ives Gammell, Paris, 1917". Sheet measures 12 1/2 x 10 inches. This is a very early work and despite the fact that...

Emile CHAUMONT (Perigueux 1877 - 1927) Summer landscape in Périgord Oil on panel H. 32 cm; L. 41 cm Signed lower left, dated 1912 Provenance: Private c...

Charming portait with Modernest colors. Provenance: Christie's Mercedes Matter, daughter of the artist, Salander-O'Reilly Galleries, New York. Private Collection. Sale: Skinner, Inc...

"Couple on Bench at the Beach" is an original pastel drawing on paperboard by Francesco Spicuzza. The artist signed the piece in the lower left. This drawing depicts two figures sitting on a bench in front of a body of water. The artist used mostly pastel colors for this piece. 6 7/8" x 9 7/8" art 18 1/2" x 21 3/8" frame Francesco J. Spicuzza, born in Sicily on July 23, 1883, came to America at the age of 8. He supported himself as a fruit peddler until a newspaperman gave him $4 a week to go to school. He attended classes at the Milwaukee Art Students League, where he studied under Alexander Mueller. There he learned to paint in the then-fashionable "Munich School" technique, with detailed realism in heavy browns and grayed-out hues. Spicuzza completed eight grades in four years, and then in 1911, three businessmen advanced him enough money to allow him to study in New York under artist and teacher John Carlson. It was during this time that Spicuzza changed his style of painting, developing an impressionistic use of color, form and atmospheric renditions. After a period of grinding poverty, one of Spicuzza's pictures won a major New York competition. It was the first of 60 wins, both in the U.S. and Paris. He became a fashionable painter, and many of the leading collections have his work. Spicuzza's typical works were beach scenes, still life, landscapes and portraits done in pastels, oils, ink, charcoal and watercolors. Much of his work traced the history of Milwaukee in the early 1900s. He was probably best known for his scenes of women and children splashing in the waves...

Medium: Hand Painted Fine Print Signature: Signed Lower Left

Medium: Oil on Canvas March 10, 1917 Preliminary Study for The Saturday Evening Post Cover

Little boy eating bowl of Kelloggs

This detailed charcoal and pastel of a fisherman with a tall black hat, blue eyes and a details coat, depict the hardships of a fishermans life. The artist, Pieter van der Hem...

Medium: Oil on Canvas Laid on Board Signature: Unsigned The Saturday Evening Post, November 16, 1912 cover Study (Thanksgiving Edition)

Date: 1914 Medium: Oil on Canvas Dimensions: 29.00" x 19.00" Signature: Signed and Dated Lower Right

Date: 1919 Medium: Oil on Board Dimensions: 35.50" x 23.00" Signature: Signed Story illustration: “Painless Extraction”, author: Octavus Roy Cohen, Saturday Evening Post, March...

Signature: Signed & Dated Lower Right 'Big Flat' by Henry Oyen: Appeared in Country Genteman, January 25th, 1919.

Approximate Date: 1915 Medium: Pen and Ink on Board Signature: Signed Lower Left Dimensions: 22.00" x 20.00" Story Illustration- Life Magazine ca. ...

Date: 1919 Medium: Oil on Unstretched Canvas (shipped rolled) Dimensions: 156.00" x 168.00" Signature: Signed Lower Right In Homage to the French People, 1919 Titled lower center: La Croix Rouge Americaine en Hommage au Peuple Français. From the Collection of the American Red Cross

Signature: Signed Lower Right Saturday Evening Post, October 27, 1917, "Who Can Spell Cream of Wheat?" Advertisement.

Date: 1911 Medium: Oil on Canvas Laid on Wooden Board Dimensions: 22.00" x 18.00" Signature: Signed and Dated Lower Center

Sarah Noble Ives, artist (1864-1944). Original drawing of three Dutch children, with an ink inscription reading: “Full Page / 6 Buff / Three children sliding on the ice / upon a summer’s day” above image. Ink, watercolor, and gouache on linen/board. Illustration for Mother Goose...

Signed lower left. Complemented by a hand carved and gilt frame. Nancy Maybin Ferguson (1872 - 1967) A native Philadelphia, Nancy Ferguson wa...

Charming portait with Modernest colors. Provenance: Christie's Mercedes Matter, daughter of the artist, Salander-O'Reilly Galleries, New York. Private Collection. Sale: Skinner, Inc...

Medium: Oil on Canvas Signature: Signed Lower Left Sight Size 17.00" x 15.50;" Framed 24.50" x 23.00" The Saturday Evening Post cover, June 22, 1912

Signature: Signed Lower Right Illustration, 1917

Medium: Oil on Canvas Signature: Unsigned Sight Size 24.00" x 16.50;" Framed 31.75" x 24.75" "Universal Peace" by Hamilton Holt, August 1911. Cosmopolitan Magazine...

Medium: Oil on Canvas Signature: Signed Lower Left Harper's Monthly, 1917.

Medium: Oil on Canvas Signature: Signed Lower Right Illustration for 'Fighting for the Flock' written by Edwin L Sabin.

Illustration of a carefree young woman in striped pinafore, photographing the outdoors with her Kodak Premo camera, circa 1912. In 1893, at the Chicago World's Fair, George Eastman introduced the "Kodak Girl" as the icon of the new Kodak camera...

Signature: Signed Lower Right Medium: Oil on Canvas Cover for Life Magazine, January 1, 1914 Caption: "Which Bird?"

Story illustration for “Smoke Bellew” by Jack London for Cosmopolitan magazine, published January 1912, page 200. The full caption reads: “With much awkwardness and angry haste, the...

Original story illustration for the book The Strange Cases of Mason Brant by Nevil Monroe (Philadelphia and London: Lippincott, 1916), illustrated page 173. The full caption reads: “I turned and looked back. A hansom cab...

Medium: Oil on Canvas Signature: Signed Lower Right "A Successful Man," by Ella Wheeler Wilcox, from book Poems of Optimism (1919).

Date: 1917 Medium: Gouache on Board Dimensions: 30.00" x 22.00" Signature: Signed Lower Right Hearst's Magazine Story Illustration, 1917

Signature: Signed Lower Right: F X Leyendecker Medium: Oil on Board Sight Size 18.75" x 24.75;" Framed 33.75" x 39.75" RELATED LITERATURE: B. King, "T...

Signed and Dated Upper Right An Open Doorway With the American Y.M.C.A". Inscribed upper right "A mon ami Hall Aout 1918 JF Bouchor". Titled verso.

Date: 1914 Medium: Oil on Canvas Dimensions: 27.00" x 18.00" Signature: Signed Lower Left lllustration depicting a church scene. Signed lower left. Illustrative notes on back. Canva...

Medium: Oil on Canvas Signature: Unsigned R. Norton, The Mediator, New York, 1913, cover illustration. Douglas Duer (1887-1964) was a member of New York's Society of Illustrators w...

Date: 1915 Medium: Oil on Canvas Dimensions: 40.00" x 28.00" Signature: Signed Lower Right Rip Van Winkle, Cream of Wheat advertisement, 1915 This p...

Date: 1915 Medium: Oil on Canvas Dimensions: 40.00" x 28.00" Cream of Wheat ad

An exceptional impressionist beachside scene with figures and powerful clouds by American artist Augustus B. Koopman (1869-1914). Koopman was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, initially studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine arts, and going on to live a large portion of his short life in Paris, studying at the Academie Julian and the Ecole des Beaux Arts, painting many of his marine and figure paintings on the coast at Etaples, near Belgium. Among his teachers were William Bouguereau, Benjamin Constant, and Tony Robert-Fleury. He was well known for his genre, maritime, landscape, figure, and portrait paintings. His drypoints and etchings can be found in both the Congressional and New York Public Libraries, and his painting “Vision of the Grand Canyon” is displayed in the Santa Fe Railway...

Edward Cucuel (American, 1875-1954) Summer Idle, 1918 Signed Lower Right 35 x 43 inches 43 x 51 inches with frame Born in San Francisco, Edward Cucuel was an Impressionist painter o...

The Opium Smoker; The Opium Eater by N.C. Wyeth was created in 1913. The painting is signed upper right. Dedication lower left that reads "To Swayne / Fro...

Medium: Oil on Board Signature: Signed Lower Right 19.875" x 14.00" Each Panel 1 of a 4 Part Illustration used as a promotional poster Poster for The Red Cross—Watching...

Paul Cornoyer “Central Park Autumn” c. 1910 Oil on Canvas Framed Size: approx 29 x 35 inches Canvas Size: approx 22 x 26.5 inches Provenance: The Artist to Private Collection, St. Louis thence by Descent Conservation report: Excellent condition. On original canvas, not relined. No in-painting. Paul Cornoyer was born in 1864 in St. Louis, Missouri. He studied there at the School of Fine Arts in 1881. His first works were in a Barbizon mode, and his first exhibit was in 1887. In 1889, he went to Paris for further training, studying at the Academie Julien, and returned to St. Louis in 1894. By the early 1890s, his work was more lyrical and Tonal, and he applied this style to subjects such as cityscapes and landscapes. In 1894, he painted a mural depicting the birth of St. Louis for the Planters Hotel in that city. His activities during the next six years were not particularly profitable, however, and the whereabouts of his St. Louis paintings are scarcely known. One exception is the triptych, A View of Saint Louis, with its strong urban realism. It shows the Eads Bridge...

Medium: Oil on Canvas Dimensions: 28.00" x 21.00;" Framed 36.00" x 29.00" Signature: Signed Lower Right Saturday Evening Post Cover, June 29, 1918 Exhibitions: It's a Man's World,...

Belgian Symbolist artist Jan Frans DeBoever (1872 – 1949), created symbolist/allegorical paintings throughout his lifetime. He centralized on allegorical and literary subjects, ge...

An original oil on canvas by Hungarian artist Gertrude Klaris. Klaris worked in oils but pramrily in mixed media works on paper, much of her style is akin to her love of stained glas...

Soricieres, depicts a covenant of witches as they convene at the top of a fabled mountain in Germany, the Broeken. The legend states that on a single night of the year, St. Walpurgis...

Belgian Symbolist artist Jan Frans DeBoever (1872 - 1948), created symbolist/allegorical paintings throughout his lifetime. He centralized on allegorical and literary subjects, generally depicting the constant struggle of good vs. evil. This is consistently reflected by images of beautiful women interacting with skeletons, gargoyles and demons. An original oil on panel, Gehenne depicts two cowering skeletons as they languish at the gates of hell...