1920s Figurative Paintings

Story illustration for “The Black Hunter” by James Oliver Curwood for Cosmopolitan, published November 1925, pages 84-85. Set against the backdrop of 1754 Quebec, amidst the escalat...

Medium: Oil on Canvas Sight Size 35.75" x 28.00", Framed 43.50" x 35.50" Signature: Signed Lower Right This work was illustrated on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post...

Medium: Oil on Canvas Signature: Signed Lower Right

FERNANDO LIGER HIDALGO Spanish , 1880 – 1945 "Interior of Alcazar of Seville" Signed & located "F. Liger, Sevilla " (lower left) Oil on canvas 2...

Original cover for Liberty magazine, published July 24, 1926 Sandy, Lil, and their friends gather on the front porch of the Morse home to sing. They began in the late afternoon, but...

Medium: Oil on Canvas

Date: 1923 Medium: Oil on Panel Dimensions: 24.00" x 36.00"

Signature: Signed Lower Right Illustration for "The Number One Boy" by John Taintor Foote, appearing in The Saturday Evening Post for May 20th, 1922. Caption: "It will be hard to m...

VALENTINE ZADKINE PRAX 1897-1981 (French) Title: Gatherers of Dry Wood / Ramasseuses de Bois Mort, circa 1925 Technique: Original Signed Oil Painting on canvas size: 116.2 x 100.3 cm / 45.75 x 39.5 in Additional Information: This original oil painting by Valentine Prax-Zadkine is hand signed by the artist at the lower left part. It was painted in circa 1925. Provenance: Collection Pierre Alexandre Regnauld (1868-1954), Amsterdam. Anonymous sale; Collection de Tableaux Modernes de feu P.A. Regnault, Paul Brandt...

Original cover for Liberty magazine, published November 2, 1929. Sandy hides behind the newspaper at the breakfast table as Lil suddenly asks “Who is Marianthe? You talked about her...

Original cover for Liberty magazine, published October 13, 1928 Great Uncle Ulysses Grant Simpson comes to visit Sandy and Lil and stays for dinner, an event that he considers the c...

Medium: Oil on Canvas Signature: Signed Lower Right Collier's Magazine Cover, March 24, 1923

Story illustration for “The Immediate Jewel” by Ben Ames Williams for The Red Book Magazine, published January 1921, page 72. The full caption reads: “No, no, I can’t. You mustn’t. ...

Approximate Date: 1925 Medium: Gouache on Board

Original cover for Liberty magazine, published March 2, 1929. After spending a few weeks in Florida, Sandy and Lil continue their winter vacation in Havana, Cuba, where Lil goes on ...

Date: 1922 Medium: Oil on Canvas Dimensions: 25.00" x 25.00" Signature: Signed Lower Left "Tain't 'cause they don't want us, Nobbs. It's 'cause we're inel'gible" (Nobbs laid hi...

Medium: Oil on Canvas Signature: Signed Lower Right Cover of The Saturday Evening Post, June 22, 1929

Date: 1921 Medium: Gouache on Board Dimensions: 20.75" x 17.00" Signature: Signed Lower Right (Monogram)

Original cover for Liberty magazine, published February 16, 1929. Having just inherited a large sum of money from Uncle Ulysses, Lil and Sandy are on their winter vacation in Florid...

Medium: Oil on Board Signature: Signed Lower Left Sight Size 34.50" x 28.00;" Framed 39.50" x 32.50" Eyes of Love: Bachelor Party, Pictorial Review, October 1921

Medium: Oil on Canvas Signature: Unsigned Advertisement, Cream of Wheat, 1929.

Medium: Oil on Canvas Signature: Signed Lower Right Sight Size 22.00" x 22.00," Framed: 26.00" x 26.00" What Folly to Endure Coarse Pores? Advertisement Illustration...

Approximate Date: February, 1923 Medium: Oil on Board Signature: Signed and Titled Size: 20.00" x 16.00" Washington's Birthday, Woman's World magazine cover, February 1923

Date: 1920s Medium: Oil on Canvas Sight Size 20.00" x 16.00", Framed 24.00" x 20.00" Signature: Signed Lower Right

“The Green-Eyed Monster of Jealousy: Breathing Out Envy, It Swoops Down upon Sandy,” original cover for Liberty magazine, published April 9, 1927. Sandy is feeling gloomy while reme...

“Lil Watches Her Step!: And Plays the Feminine Lead in a Risky Office Drama,” original cover for Liberty magazine, published November 5, 1927. Lil takes out her shorthand book as he...

Original cover for Liberty magazine, published August 4, 1928. Having left her husband Sandy, Lil returns to the Morse family home with her two-month-old baby. Ma Morse worries abou...

Medium: Oil on Canvas Signature: Signed Lower Left October 1929 American Boy Magazine Cover Magazine Included

Medium: Oil on Board Sight Size 28.00" x 24.00", Framed 34" x 30" Signature: Signed Upper Left Cover Illustration for the February 16, 1924 issue of The Country Gentleman...

Date: 1921 Medium: Gouache on Board Dimensions: 20.75" x 17.00" Signature: Signed Lower Right (Monogram)

Study for the February 1929 issue of People’s Popular Monthly magazine. A woman and two men in historical costume with a heart behind them. Medium: Gouache on Board with collaged l...

Medium: Oil on Canvas Signature: Unsigned Date: Circa 1922 Original Cream Of Wheat illustration. Oil on canvas. Ex: Kraft Food Collection / Morton Grove Ill.. Reference: "The Nabisc...

Medium: Oil on Canvas Signature: Signed on the Back Woman Seated, Likely Magazine Cover

Approximate Date: 1923 Medium: Oil on Canvas Signature: Signed Lower Right Size: 38.00" x 25.00" Men depicted in a winter scene, used as a book cover ...

Original cover for Liberty magazine, published December 11, 1926 Sandy called on Lil one evening, only to find that his suspicions were true – Mr. Hammerschlosser, the aging and wea...

Date: 1926 Medium: Oil on Canvas Dimensions: 20.00" x 16.00" Signature: Signed Lower Left Liberty magazine cover, November 6, 1926

Original cover for Liberty magazine, published March 16, 1929. Lil and Sandy return home from their vacation, finding the late winter weather dreary after experiencing the warm suns...

Date: 1927 Medium: Oil on Canvas Dimensions: 27.00" x 18.00" Signature: Signed Lower Right "We Amused Ourselves for an Hour or More, Darting in and out Among the Crowd and Setting off our Crackers", The Story of a Bad Boy...

Date: June 10, 1922. Medium: Oil on Canvas Dimensions: 26.00" x 24.00" Signature: Signed Lower Right Cover of Country Gentleman magazine 6/10...

Original cover for Liberty magazine, published April 13, 1929. The opera is in town for one night only, making it the social event of the season. Sandy and Lil sit in their box seats, gazing at the less elite audience members in the orchestra and haughtily critiquing the wardrobe choices of other wealthy socialites. The couple excitedly watches as the Opera begins, and eagerly await the gathering in their home after the performance, to which they have invited the star, Paltrianni. Upon his arrival at the Jenkins’ home, Paltrianni comments on how extravagantly the couple lives. However, much to Lil’s horror, there was no lavish banquet awaiting them, for the butler Meadows was found drunkenly passed out on a chair next to the empty dining room. (Liberty magazine, April 13, 1929, p. 68) “For the Love o’ Lil: The Picture Story of an American Family” In 1926, under his long-term contract to produce a cover per week for Liberty magazine, Leslie Thrasher introduced a signature cast of characters that appeared each week, telling a serialized story through his illustrations. Liberty touted its new cover serial as “something no magazine has ever done before…Heretofore, all magazine covers have been disconnected pictures.” To help readers follow the plot from week to week, a short story summary was printed in each issue. (Liberty magazine, June 19, 1926, pp. 69-70). “For the Love o’ Lil” centers around the lives of Lil Morse and Sandy Jenkins and includes recurring characters from their extended family and social circles. The serial follows the couples’ adventures through courtship, the ups and downs of married life, the antics of their offspring with the neighborhood children, and the complex dynamics of relationships with in-laws. The goal was to show a typical modern American family whose eccentricities and foibles would attract readers each week. Thrasher used himself as the model for Lil’s father, Robert E. Lee Morse. Liberty further engaged readers by running contests for best titles, and later, for suggested storylines. The model proved successful and “For the Love o’ Lil” became a popular hallmark of the publication for many years, resulting in a 1930 film adaptation starring the flapper Sally Starr. Leslie Thrasher Leslie Thrasher first began contributing covers to Liberty in 1924, and in 1926 he was offered a contract to create a cover per week at the rate of $1,000 per week. Going against the advice of his friend Norman Rockwell, Thrasher accepted the contract, agreeing to complete a weekly cover for six years - an immensely challenging endeavor requiring that both new ideas and new artwork be produced at an extremely rapid pace. The continuing storyline of the cover serial “For the Love o’ Lil” helped Thrasher keep up with the constant demand for new images. Due to declining circulation, Liberty terminated Thrasher’s contract in 1932. A few years later in 1936, Thrasher died from pneumonia caused by smoke inhalation from a fire in his home, which also destroyed much of his original artwork. An incredibly prolific artist, Thrasher had created more than 360 covers in his lifetime for various publications, including 23 covers for The Saturday Evening Post. Leslie Thrasher was born in Piedmont, West Virginia. He studied art at the Philadelphia Academy and at the age of 16, won a scholarship that allowed him to study in Paris. Upon his return to the United States, Thrasher studied with Howard Pyle in Wilmington, Delaware and briefly worked as a portrait painter before moving to New York City to begin his commercial career producing illustration for magazines and advertising agencies. Thrasher also served in World War I, where he was assigned work as a camouflage painter. Date: 1929 Medium: Oil on Canvas Dimensions: 20.00" x 16.00" Signature: Signed Lower Right Liberty Magazine Cover, 4/13/29 "Opera Night"

Date: 1924 Medium: Oil on Canvas Dimensions: 26.60" x 21.50" Signature: Signed and Dated The Country Gentleman, October 11, 1924, cover illustra...

Date: 1920 Medium: Oil on Canvas Dimensions: 24.00" x 16.00" Signature: Signed Lower Right Cream of Wheat advertisement for the Saturday Evening Post, June 5, 1920. In 1980, Dave Stivers, a new archivist for the Nabisco Brands Company was taking a tour of the Cream of Wheat plant in Minneapolis, Minnesota when he encountered a large room with metal lockers that had not been opened for over 30 years. These lockers contained a treasure trove of 1600 advertising paintings...

Medium: Oil on Board 22.00" Oval, Framed 31.00" Oval Signature: Signed Lower Right Sears Magazine Cover, Fall- Winter 1927/1928

Date: 1923 Medium: Oil on Canvas Dimensions: 28.00" x 32.00" Signature: Signed Lower Right Advertisement for Cream of Wheat cereal

Harlequin. 1923, oil on canvas, 40x53 cm Jekabs Bine (1895 11 04 Riga – 1955 24 10 Riga) painter, glass artist, teacher and writer of art critics. His ar...

Medium: Oil on Board Signature: Signed Lower Right "The Most Eminent Baby Specialists..." Cream of Wheat Advertisement

Signature: Signed Lower Right Original advertisement for Cream of Wheat, published 1925. The image features Dan Beard sitting at a campfire talking to Boy Scouts. The full captio...

The Elks Magazine Cover, Feb 1926 Signed Lower Right

“Crashing the Gate: Sandy Paves the Way to His Big Business Scoop,” original cover for Liberty magazine, published March 10, 1928 Sandy confidently struts down the street, dapperly ...

Date: 1928 Medium: Oil on Canvas Dimensions: 16.00" x 22.00" Signature: Signed Lower Right Interior setting with people standing around.

“And Why Not?: Lil and Sandy Warm Up Their Imagination,” original cover for Liberty magazine, published April 7, 1928 As Mr. and Mrs. Morse leave for a date night at the local lodge, Lil and Sandy spend an evening in front of the fireplace at the Morse home. Sandy turns on sentimental music, gathers marshmallows and a toasting fork, and lights the logs in his father-in-law’s fireplace. The fireplace’s golden glow becomes a picture frame for the couple’s dreams of their future son. Sandy excitedly imagines their baby going to college and being the “head of every class, scholarships galore, and captain of basketball, hockey, crew, and football.” Little Sandy is also imagined to be a brave soldier and even serve as future president of the United States. “Dreams of their son…red embers on the hearth…Their fireplace fantasy!” (Liberty magazine, April 7, 1928) “For the Love o’ Lil: The Picture Story of an American Family” In 1926, under his long-term contract to produce a cover per week for Liberty magazine, Leslie Thrasher introduced a signature cast of characters that appeared each week, telling a serialized story through his illustrations. Liberty touted its new cover serial as “something no magazine has ever done before…Heretofore, all magazine cover...

Date: 1921 Medium: Oil on Canvas Dimensions: 30.00" x 21.00" Signature: Signed Lower Right This illustration was published in Trail's End by George W. Ogden, Grosset & Dunlap, ...

JEAN SOUVERBIE (1891-1981) LES TROIS GRACES Signed lower right PROVENANCE Private Collection Paisnel Gallery, London Private Collection Souverbie painted compositions of figures, ...

Signed and dated oil on canvas figure in interior painting by American impressionist painter Frederick Carl Frieseke. The piece depicts a young girl in a pink dress seated at a piano...

Signed by Artist Lower Right Maxwell House Coffee Illustration Few artists have ever pulled on our nation's heartstrings, particularly in reference to family and generations, as adeptly as Norman Rockwell. From his earliest advertisements to his patriotic World War II subjects, Rockwell's virtuoso was in his ability to capture the essence of American culture and a view of a more innocent time in our country's history. Rockwell states: "I was showing the America I knew and observed to others who might not have noticed. And perhaps, therefore, this is one function of the illustrator. He can show what has become so familiar that it is no longer noticed. The illustrator thus becomes a chronicler of his time." (as quoted in Norman Rockwell: A Definitive Catalogue, Stockbridge, Massachusetts, 1986, p. xii) Recognizing the need for reminiscence from young and old alike, Rockwell effectively captures a timeless scene: Here, two old friends gingerly and jovially play a game of chess, sipping coffee as they wait for their furry friend to make the next move. The work is executed in Rockwell's signature descriptive style of finely drawn, clear realism with a wealth of fascinating detail. In discussing his career, Rockwell commented, "I was showing the America I knew and observed to others who might not have noticed. And perhaps, therefore, this is one function of the illustrator. He can show what has become so familiar that it is no longer noticed. The illustrator thus becomes a chronicler of his time." (as quoted in Norman Rockwell: A Definitive Catalogue, Stockbridge, Massachusetts, 1986, p. xii) Rockwell seemingly utilizes one of his favorite models in the present work-James K. Van Brunt. The artist recalled his initial meeting with Van Brunt in 1924 in New Rochelle, New York: "I remember it was June and it was terribly hot. I was working in my underwear and not getting along too well because my brushes were slippery with perspiration. Suddenly the downstairs door banged and I heard someone come up the stairs treading on each step with a loud, deliberate thump...A tiny old man with a knobby nose, an immense, drooping mustache, and round, heavy-lidded eyes stamped bellicosely into the studio. 'James K. Van Brunt, sir,' he said, saluting me and bowing all at once. 'Five feet two inches tall, sir. The exact height of Napoleon Bonaparte!' And he pushed out his thin little chest, which was encased in a fawn colored vest. 'I have fought the Confederate Army at Antietam, Fredericksburg, and in the Wilderness,' he said. 'I have battled the nations of the Sioux under Dull Knife, Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull. I have fought the Spaniards, sir, in Cuba.' And he rapped his cane on the floor and looked at me very belligerently. Then, having ascertained that I wasn't going to contradict him, he took off his gloves and his wide brimmed hat, laid them on a chair, and patted his mustache. 'This mustache, sir,' he said, 'is eight full inches wide from tip to tip. The ladies, sir, make much of it.' And he winked at me and walked over to my mirror to stare at his mustache." (My Adventures as an Illustrator, New York, 1994, p. 206) Van Brunt was a consummate professional as a model, carefully practicing his poses in the mirror in advance of a session and, at times, inspiring the idea for the cover illustration. Rockwell stated that he used to suggest a cover almost every time they saw one another and referred to the day when Van Brunt first showed up at his studio as "one of the luckiest days of my life." (My Adventures as an Illustrator, p. 206) James K. Van Brunt appeared in ten Post covers by Rockwell, as well as countless other paintings used as advertisements, such as the present work. Given Van Brunt's distinctive visage with his mustache, the editor at the Post, George Horace Lorimer, complained. "Rockwell recalled, 'Mr. Lorimer said to me, 'I think you're using that man too much. Everybody's beginning to notice it. Maybe you'd better stop for a while. That mustache of his is too identifiable.' Rockwell informed Van Brunt of the problem, 'If you take off your mustache I can use you again...Otherwise I just can't.' Two weeks later Van...

Signed by artist lower left corner. Literature: Laurie Norton Moffatt, Norman Rockwell: A Definitive Catalogue, Stockbridge, Massachusetts, 1986, vol. I, no. A242, p. 362, illustrated Notes: Painted circa 1925. A letter from Norman Rockwell to the Graham family discussing the painting accompanies the lot.In April 1921, Dodge Brothers entered into a burgeoning partnership with the Graham Brothers, an Evansville, Indiana family-run, truck manufacturing business, headed by three siblings, Joseph B., Robert C. and Ray A. Graham. By 1920, their company was building complete truck and bus bodies with various engines which, in April 1921 caught the attention of Dodge’s president, Frederick J. Haynes. Haynes saw the Graham product as a way to get Dodge into the heavy truck business without compromising their own car production. The two companies agreed to have Graham Brothers build trucks solely with Dodge engines and drive trains, and sell them exclusively through Dodge dealerships nationwide. The partnership resulted in a new name, Graham Brothers, Inc., a company relocation to Detroit, and the opening of numerous factories nationwide over the next several years. In 1925, Joseph, Robert and Ray were appointed Dodge directors and executives, and were among the largest stockholders of the company. By 1926, Graham Brothers, Inc. was the largest exclusive truck manufacturer in the world. In later years, the brothers went on to build the Graham-Paige Motors Corporation, further expanding their success in the automotive business.Around 1925, the current painting was commissioned from Normal Rockwell...

Medium: Oil on Paper Laid on Panel Signature: Signed Lower Right Initialed lower right: M.P. Signed on the reverse: Maxfield Parish Initialed and numbered by the artist's son on the reverse: M.P. Jr. / No. 68. When Maxfield Parrish painted the comical A Dark Futurist in 1923 for Life magazine, he had already established himself as America's leading book and magazine illustrator. His early artwork for children's classics like L. Frank Baum's Mother Goose in Prose (1897), Kenneth Grahame's Dream Days (1900), and Eugene Field's Poems of Childhood (1904) popularized his signature atmospheric settings, cobalt blue-and-gold palette, and dreamy figures inhabiting magical worlds. Likewise, his covers for Century, Collier's, Harper's Bazaar, Ladies' Home Journal, Life, and Scribner's Magazine were highly desirous and instantly recognizable, often more stylized than his book imagery; no other journal illustrator could match Parrish's winning combination of precise draftsmanship, strong graphic design, and amusing characters. According to David Apatoff, Art Critic, The Saturday Evening Post, "Parrish abandoned his customary heavy details and rainbow colors to present a bolder, more high-contrast design silhouetted against a stark white background - a treatment more suitable for a modern magazine cover vying for attention on a crowded newsstand. A Dark Futurist is silhouetted against a white field with no background or details to prop it up. The composition is carefully centered with only differences in the hands and the artist's necktie to break the symmetry. These are crucial to the success of the design. Just as important as Parrish's clean, high-contrast style in these pictures is the refreshing humor and sophistication in content, which is usually absent from Parrish's fairytale paintings. A Dark Futurist shows us a different kind of modernism. Parrish steps out of his timeless fairy tales to tweak one of the most incendiary artistic movements of his day. Futurism, with its militant manifesto and its outspoken artists, was all the rage in Europe. Parrish pokes them, showing a "dark" and anxious futurist with pursed lips and thick glasses, poised to paint but not exactly sure of, or optimistic about, what the 'future' will hold. This suggests that Parrish was alert to, and had opinions about, current events of the day - something one might never guess from his usual subject matter." In his early Collier's illustrations, Parrish also developed memorable themes that he would return to in his 1920s magazine work. One of his most popular characters was the "seer," or man with keen visual powers, most often depicted as an artist, but also appearing as a tourist, scientist, and philosopher. Parrish's seer was recognizable by particular physical attributes: round glasses, indicating his visual and analytical acuity, and an overcoat and/or hat signifying his role as observer of the outside world. A Man of Letters, sold last year at Heritage Auctions, was one of the first Life covers Parrish rolled out for Gibson, and he repeated the character of the artist-seer, emphasizing the comic spin, for two later editions: A Dark Futurist (Life, March 1, 1923) captures a Parrish-like artist in foggy round glasses and a long green coat...

Medium: Oil on Board Signature: Signed Sight Size 20.13" x 16.38", Framed 26.00" x 23.00" Maxfield Parrish’s popularity as an illustrator began with his early work for magazine publishers. An Easter 1895 cover for Harper’s Bazaar, one of the leading publications of the day, was followed by a successful foray into book illustration beginning in 1897 when Parrish completed illustrations for Frank Baum’s Mother Goose in Prose. His unique style and vivid imagination were well suited to illustrating children’s literature and resulted in numerous commissions. The List of Characters is one of 26 paintings, which appeared as an illustration in Louise Saunders' book, The Knave of Hearts. Lawrence S. Cutler and Judy Goffman Cutler write, “The last book Parrish illustrated, The Knave of Hearts (1924), was his masterpiece. When Parrish discovered this children’s play, he proposed an illustrated edition to Scribner’s, to which the publisher enthusiastically agreed …It was written by Louise Saunders, who was the wife of Maxwell Evarts Perkins of Scribner’s, an important editor in the 20th century and discoverer of authors Thomas Wolfe, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and others. The couple were summer residents at Cornish and close friends of the Parrishes” (Maxfield Parrish and the American Imagists, Edison, New Jersey, 2004, p. 172). According to Coy Ludwig, “The artist’s enthusiasm was shared by the publisher, who requested sketches or more precise information upon which to base a cost analysis, as final approval could not be given until the costs were estimated. Parrish prepared an elaborate dummy or mock-up of the proposed publication, complete with watercolor sketches of the illustrations, and sent it to the publisher early in 1921 …The twenty-six paintings for The Knave of Heartswere executed within three years, and the book, a sumptuous production, was published on October 2, 1925… The volume, selling for ten dollars, was packaged in a telescoping box...

Medium: Oil on Paper Laid to Board Signature: Signed with the Artists Initials M.P Lower Center Coy Ludwig, Maxfield Parrish, New York, 1973, plate 35, p. 133, illustrated in color

EDOUARD LÉON CORTÈS French 1882 - 1969 PLACE DE LA RÉPUBLIQUE signed "EDOUARD CORTÈS." (lower right) oil on canvas 19-3/4 x 25-1/2 inches (50 x 64.5 cm.) framed: 27-3/4 x 33-3/8 inches (70 x 84.5 cm.) PROVENANCE Private Collector, Madrid An elegant night view of the Parisian Republic Square, with amazing light effects that catch us. This work executed based on brushstrokes of long and safe strokes that make the forms vibrate with vivid color. Parisian nightlife is trapped in this corner of Paris. The monumental sculpture that symbolizes freedom and that presides over the square serves as a reference behind the tram between a light chiaroscuro. Meanwhile, the effervecent and lively life of the cafes that surround it vibrate strongly with its bright lights. Èdouard León Cortés (1882–1969) was a French post-impressionist artist of French and Spanish ancestry. He is known as "Le Poète Parisien de la Peinture" or "the Parisian Poet of Painting" because of his diverse Paris cityscapes in a variety of weather and night settings. Cortes was born on August 6, 1882, in Lagny-sur-Marne, about twenty miles east of Paris. His father, Antonio Cortés, had been a painter for the Spanish Royal...