1940s Figurative Paintings

➡️ Luminous Landscape with Water mill⬅️ ⏩It is signed J Weakaes⏪ ⭐Medium:⭐ Oil on canvas ⭐Technique: ⭐Impasto painting with expressive brushwork. ⭐Size:⭐48x36cm / 18.9x 14.2inc...

A stylish, vintage, 1940s fashion study featuring elegant designs for women's evening wear by Lilly Daché, Likely an illustration study for a print advertisement for the famed Chic...

A stylish, vintage, 1940s fashion study featuring an elegant design for a woman's coat, hat and muff, inscribed "Marshall Field & Co". Likely an advertisement illustration study...

Erik Tryggelin (1878–1962) Sweden View over Lake Vättern from Vadstena, 29–30 August 1943 signed and dated lower right oil on canvas laid on masonite unframed 15 × 20 cm (5.9 ...

A wonderful example of Peterson’s views of the Florida Coast during her winter trips down south. Painted during Peterson’s mature period, this lively work underscores the energy of ...

A stylish, vintage, 1940s fashion study featuring an elegant design for a woman's evening gown. Artwork size: 11 x 8 1/2 inches. Colored pencil and pencil on paper. Archivally ma...

A stylish, vintage, 1940s fashion study featuring elegant designs for women's active wear by Hattie Carnegie. Inscription reads: Left - White jersey slack suit Red gaberdine jacke...

Impressionist Oil Painting of Eiffel Tower Paris with Figures & Shops by American Artist, Caroline C Burnett (1877-1950) Art measures 16 x 12 i...

Impressionist Oil Painting of Paris with Figures & Shops by American Artist, Caroline C Burnett (1877-1950) Art measures 16 x 12 inches Frame m...

A stylish, vintage, 1940s fashion study featuring an elegant design for a woman's jacket dress; Lucien Lelong ”Indiscrete”. Artwork size: 11 x 8 1/2 inches. Archivally matted t...

A Brooding, Compelling 1940s American Scene, Social Realist Oil Painting, "Tenement Ruins" by Notable Canadian / American artist Emil Weddige (1907-2001). Oil on canvas, dating from...

A quiet, sunlit, vintage 1940s Mexican city street scene (Archway) by famed Chicago Modern artist Francis Chapin (Am. 1899-1965). Depicting a picturesque view of a colorful plaza ar...

A stylish, vintage, 1940s fashion study featuring an elegant design for a woman's red gown, evening wear. Artwork size: 11 x 8 1/2 inches. Archivally matted to 16 x 12 inches. P...

This atmospheric painting depicts Kornhamnstorg in Gamla stan during the quiet hours of evening. The scene unfolds along the waterfront where the historic square meets the water, wit...

Women Seated in Garden "Femmos Restant" New Hope Pennsylvania Artist Edna Gass Women Seated in the Garden 'Femmos Restant" by New Hope Artist Edna Gass (American, 1904–1993). Image, ...

A charming, vibrant, early Mexican city street scene by famed Chicago Modern artist Francis Chapin (Am. 1899-1965). Depicting a quiet, picturesque view of the rooftops and cathedral...

A scenic, colorful Modern 1930s summer harbor scene of Saugatuck, Michigan by notable Chicago Modern artist, Francis Chapin. Depicting a lively summer harbor view of the historic S...

Mexican Modernist Oil Painting - Double Sided Abstract Figures and Buildings Dynamic abstract pieces by Ernesto Butterlin, aka Linares, (Mexican, German b. 1917 d. 1964.) The front ...

Stowe Vermont Village Sleigh Ride - Mid Century Winter Figurative Landscape A bright, crisp morning and a sleigh ride through new snow in Stowe, Vermont...

Artist: Raphael Soyer (1899-1987) Title: Girl with Braided Hair Year: Circa 1947 Medium: Oil on canvas Size: 12 x 9 inches; framed size, 19 x 16 inches Condition: Excellent Inscripti...

A striking, vintage early 1940s fashion study featuring an elegant young woman wearing a stylish hat, suit and clutch. Image size: 11 x 8 1/4 inches. Archivally matted to 16 x 1...

Bungalow (fauvist painting of New York scene) 1940's. image is 10X 11.5 inches. Hand signed lower right Watercolor painting on paper board Country Scene Samuel Grunvald was a Hunga...

Donald Vogel’s paintings reflect his interest in seeking beauty in life and in sharing pleasure with his viewers. Vogel entreats us to "rejoice and celebrate each new day, knowing it...

A stylish, vintage, 1940s woman's fashion study featuring an elegant graphic design for a portfolio cover featuring ladies resort clothes by Hattie Carnegie. Artwork size: 11 x 8...

6069 Oil on canvas of Parisians strolling in the park set in a period frame Image size 22.5x27.5"

Signed impressionist oil on canvas board figures in cityscape circa 1940 by sought after French painter Edouard Cortes. The work depicts a bustling evening street scene at the quay b...

Artist: Pál Fried (Hungarian, 1893-1976) Title: "Hortense (Ballerina)" *Signed by Fried lower left Circa: 1940 Medium: Original Oil Painting on Canvas Framing: Framed in a light gold...

Signed lower left: FANTUZZI. Archived in the General Catalogue of Eliano Fantuzzi, No. A-6, order number 15/76741. Very good conditions. This artwork is shipped from Italy. Under ex...

'Market Day in Piazza Grande, Locarno, Switzerland', oil on board, by unknown artist (1947-48). Locarno is an utterly charming Italian-speaking resort located on the northern shore o...

John F. Carlson Hyannis Pond, 1940 Signed lower left Oil on board 16 x 20 inches Provenance Vose Galleries Private Collection, New Jersey The native Swede John Fabian Carlson beca...

WILLIAM YATES-WILSON (fl. 1940-1960) His First Long Trousers Signed l.r.: YATES/WILSON Oil on canvas 61 by 51 cm., 24 by 20 in. (frame size 81 by 71.5 cm., 32 by 28 in.) William ...

“The Big City, 1948” by Anna Elkan Meltzer (American, 1896-1974) One of Meltzer’s finest works, this painting encapsulates the organized chaos of Grand Central Terminal in NYC in th...

Andreas Roth (American, 1871-1949) Grand Canyon, 1943 Oil on canvas Signed and dated lower right 24 x 34 inches 29.5 x 39 inches, framed Andreas Roth was a German painter. Son of th...

Oil Painting of River Forest Landscape in Ireland by 20th Century Post War Irish Artist, Tobias Everet Spence Art measures 20 x 16 inches Frame measures in...

Rabbit Hunters, egg tempera on Masonite, 12 x 9 inches, 1947, signed and dated lower left, signed, titled and dated verso “Rabbit Hunters Egg Tempera Roger Medearis 1947,” exhibited at Medearis' solo show at Kende Galleries, New York, in 1949 (Medearis’ record book, a copy of which is held by Vose Galleries in Boston, MA, indicates this is painting “No. 23” and that is was completed in 1947 and sold via Kende Galleries (at Gimbel Brothers...

Signed oil on board portrait circa 1940 by French post impressionist painter Jean Gabriel Domergue. The work depicts a blonde lady - Audrey - in a mint green dress...

“Crossroads, c. 1940” by Sol Wilson (Polish-American, 1896-1974). This expressive painting by Wilson depicts a moody village crossroads rendered with his signature textured brushwor...

Hudson River School Style - The Homestead and Grist Mill 1942 In the Hudson River School style by A (K) Mathieu (American, 19th-20th C). Harvest time at the Homestead with a hay wago...

Oil on canvas by Louis BERTHOMME SAINT-ANDRE, France, 1940s. Young Red-haired Woman. with frame: 74x63 cm - 29.1x24.8 inches ; without frame: 61x50 cm - 24x19.7 inches. Format 12F. ...

A stylish, vintage, 1940s fashion study featuring an elegant design for a woman's autumn suit. Inscription reads: "Brown and grey suit and cape affair from Town and Country, Blum's ...

Grotesque Expressionist Figural Scene Paris 1946 Symbolist Spanish Oil Painting Artist: Daniel Sabater Salabert Medium: Oil on panel Dimensions: 27 × 35 cm (10.6 × 13.8 in) Signature: Signed lower right Inscription: Paris 1946 (verso) Frame: Unframed Condition: Very good condition. Stable panel and original paint surface with age-appropriate craquelure Origin: Spain / Paris Period: 1946 Striking grotesque expressionist figural composition depicting a group of caricatured characters gathered around an open book filled with coins, executed by Spanish painter Daniel Sabater Salabert and inscribed Paris 1946. The theatrical arrangement suggests a symbolic or moralizing narrative scene, a recurring theme within Sabater’s most personal production associated with psychological satire and fantastical figuration. The exaggerated physiognomies, distorted facial structures and compressed spatial composition reinforce the expressive tension typical of European grotesque painting...

Gabriel Strandberg (1885–1966) Sweden View of Stockholm from Västerbron, 1943 signed and dated lower left oil on board unframed 36.5 × 55 cm (14.4 × 21.7 in) framed 46.5 × 65 cm (1...

A striking 1940s modernist gouache painting by Frederick Shane titled Artists Sketching (California), depicting three artists working outdoors against a sweeping mountainous landscap...

John Steuart Curry "Cockfight in Cuba," 1946 oil on canvas Image: 38.25 x 46.25 in Frame: 43.75 x 51.5 in Signed on reverse with initials JSC on lower right stretcher bar John Steu...

“The Champ, 1942” by Theodore Fried (1902-1980) This important portrait by Hungarian-American artist Theodore Fried depicts the legendary boxer Joe Louis aka “The Brown Bomber” and ...

John Steuart Curry "Sketching Wisconsin," 1946 oil on canvas 31.13 x 28 inches, canvas 39.75 x 36.75 x 2.5 inches, frame Signed and dated lower right Overall excellent condition Presented in a 24-karat gold leaf hand-carved wood frame John Steuart Curry (1897-1946) was an American regionalist painter active during the Great Depression and into World War II. He was born in Kansas on his family’s farm but went on to study art in Chicago, Paris and New York as young man. In Paris, he was exposed to the work of masters such as Peter Paul Rubens, Eugène Delacroix and Jacques-Louis David. As he matured, his work showed the influence of these masters, especially in his compositional decisions. Like the two other Midwestern regionalist artists that are most often grouped with him, Grant Wood (American, 1891-1942) and Thomas Hart Benton (American, 1889-1975), Curry was interested in representational works containing distinctly American subject matter. This was contrary to the popular art at the time, which was moving closer and closer to abstraction and individual expression. Sketching Wisconsin is an oil painting completed in 1946, the last year of John Steuart Curry’s life, during which time he was the artist-in-residence at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. The painting is significant in Curry’s body of work both as a very revealing self-portrait, and as a landscape that clearly and sensitively depicts the scenery of southern Wisconsin near Madison. It is also a portrait of the artist’s second wife, Kathleen Gould Curry, and is unique in that it contains a ‘picture within a picture,’ a compositional element that many early painting masters used to draw the eye of the viewer. This particular artwork adds a new twist to this theme: Curry’s wife is creating essentially the same painting the viewer is looking at when viewing Sketching Wisconsin. The triangular composition of the figures in the foreground immediately brings focus to a younger Curry, whose head penetrates the horizon line and whose gaze looks out towards the viewer. The eye then moves down to Mrs. Curry, who, seated on a folding stool and with her hand raised to paint the canvas on the easel before her, anchors the triangular composition. The shape is repeated in the legs of the stool and the easel. Behind the two figures, stripes of furrowed fields fall away gently down the hillside to a farmstead and small lake below. Beyond the lake, patches of field and forest rise and fall into the distance, and eventually give way to blue hills. Here, Curry has subverted the traditional artist’s self-portrait by portraying himself as a farmer first and an artist second. He rejects what he sees as an elitist art world of the East Coast and Europe. In this self-portrait he depicts himself without any pretense or the instruments of his profession and with a red tractor standing in the field behind him as if he was taking a break from the field work. Here, Curry’s wife symbolizes John Steuart Curry’s identity as an artist. Compared with a self-portrait of the artist completed a decade earlier, this work shows a marked departure from how the artist previously presented and viewed himself. In the earlier portrait, Curry depicted himself in the studio with brushes in hand, and with some of his more recognizable and successful canvases behind him. But in Sketching Wisconsin, Curry has taken himself out of the studio and into the field, indicating a shift in the artist’s self-conception. Sketching Wisconsin’s rural subject also expresses Curry’s populist ideals, that art could be relevant to anyone. This followed the broad educational objectives of UW’s artist-in-residence program. Curry was appointed to his position at the University of Wisconsin in 1937 and was the first person to hold any such position in the country, the purpose of which was to serve as an educational resource to the people of the state. He embraced his role at the University with zeal and not only opened the doors of his campus studio in the School of Agriculture to the community, but also spent a great deal of time traveling around the state of Wisconsin to visit rural artists who could benefit from his expertise. It was during his ten years in the program that Curry was able to put into practice his belief that art should be meaningful to the rural populace. However, during this time he also struggled with public criticism, as the dominant forces of the art market were moving away from representation. Perhaps it was Curry’s desire for public acceptance during the latter part of his career that caused him to portray himself as an Everyman in Sketching Wisconsin. Beyond its importance as a portrait of the artist, Sketching Wisconsin is also a detailed and sensitive landscape that shows us Curry’s deep personal connection to his environment. The landscape here can be compared to Wisconsin Landscape of 1938-39 (the Metropolitan Museum of Art), which presents a similar tableau of rolling hills with a patchwork of fields. Like Wisconsin Landscape, this is an incredibly detailed and expressive depiction of a place close to the artist’s heart. This expressive landscape is certainly the result of many hours spent sketching people, animals, weather conditions and topography of Wisconsin as Curry traveled around the state. The backdrop of undulating hills and the sweeping horizon, and the emotions evoked by it, are emphatically recognizable as the ‘driftless’ area of south-central Wisconsin. But while the Metropolitan’s Wisconsin Landscape conveys a sense of uncertainty or foreboding with its dramatic spring cloudscape and alternating bands of light and dark, Sketching Wisconsin has a warm and reflective mood. The colors of the foliage indicate that it is late summer and Curry seems to look out at the viewer approvingly, as if satisfied with the fertile ground surrounding him. The landscape in Sketching Wisconsin is also revealing of what became one of Curry’s passions while artist-in-residence at UW’s School of Agriculture – soil conservation. When Curry was a child in Kansas, he saw his father almost lose his farm and its soil to the erosion of The Dust Bowl. Therefore, he was very enthusiastic about ideas from UW’s School of Agriculture on soil conservation methods being used on Wisconsin farms. In Sketching Wisconsin, we see evidence of crop rotation methods in the terraced stripes of fields leading down the hillside away from the Curry’s and in how they alternate between cultivated and fallow fields. Overall, Sketching Wisconsin has a warm, reflective, and comfortably pastoral atmosphere, and the perceived shift in Curry’s self-image that is evident in the portrait is a positive one. After his rise to favor in the art world in the 1930’s, and then rejection from it due to the strong beliefs presented in his art, Curry is satisfied and proud to be farmer in this self-portrait. Curry suffered from high blood...

Mid Century Still Life Painting of Black Cat and Vase, Signed, 1940s Charming mid century still life of fruit, vase and black cat by Monterey ...

Hiroshi Honda Hatatatedai Signed upper right Ink on paper laid on canvas 35 x 92 inches Hiroshi Honda was an American painter who was born in Hilo, Hawaii, to Japanese parents who ...

The Market, (fauvist painting of NYC scene) 1940's. image is 10X 11.5 inches. Hand signed lower right Lower East Side Tenements Pushcart Market Watercolor on paper board. Samuel G...

Vintage Impressionist Oil Painting of Paris with Figures & Shops by American Artist, Caroline C Burnett (1877-1950) Art measures 24 x 20 inches...

This is no ordinary winter scene. It is the story of prosecution and survival; of resolve and resilience during World War 2, as it was experienced by German Expressionist Heinz Lohma...

Signed oil on canvas board figures in cityscape circa 1940 by sought after French impressionist painter Edouard Cortes. The work depicts an autumnal scene of the the Arc de Triomphe,...

René Mels (1909-1977) Portrait of a young man, signed lower right oil on canvas 73 x 60 cm Framed : 77.5 x 64.5 This impressive portrait is obviously tou...

August Frederick Biehle American, 1885-1979 Creek in the Forest, c. 1949 Gouache, watercolor and litho crayon on board Signed lower right, dated lower left 18 x 24 inches 23.25 x 29....

Road Less Traveled Hawaii Surrealist Mid Century Figurative Abstract Landscape Symbolistic and romantic Surrealist 1940s figurative abstract landscape with a figure journeying down a path in an idyllic landscape by Marguerite Louis Blasingame circa 1940-45. Signed Blasingame lower right corner; from a collection of her work. Unframed. Condition: Excellent; professionally cleaned and UV varnished. Image, 30"H x 20"W. Marguerite and her husband Frank Blasingame...

Original cover painting illustrating The Saturday Evening Post, May 8, 1948. "Bill, the Birdhouse Builder, lives and builds in Artist John Falter's home town, Atchison, Kansas, and ...

5-3494 Oil on canvas figurative traveling to the orient. Set in a silvered wood frame

5-3288 Oil on board set in a gilt wood frame Image size 19.5x15.5"

This striking 1949 gouache and wax painting by Howard Schleeter is a powerful example of mid-century American modernism rooted in the visual language of the Southwest. Titled Fetishe...

Clarence Holbrook Carter (American, 1904-2000) Winter Landscape, 1947 Oil on canvas Signed and dated lower left 19 x 22.5 inches 25 x 28.25 inches, framed Clarence Holbrook Carter a...