1940s Figurative Paintings

This piece is framed. Approximate Date: 1943 Medium: Oil on Canvas Signature: Unsigned Size: 25.00" x 37.00" Advertisement for Maxwell House Coff...

Date: December, 1946 Medium: Gouache and Graphite on Board Dimensions: 17.50" x 26.75" Signature: Unsigned "The Clever Sister." Illustration for the first part of the story of the s...

Industrial Railroad WPA Mid 20th Century American Scene Rural Modern Realism Large oil on canvas genre painting depicting laborers working on a railroad, with rural landscape in the...

Oil on canvas. Framed. Signed lower right.

This tribute painting to Flemish art by an unknown artist portrays figures inside a mansion with a yellow and black checkerboard floor and a stained-glass window with brilliant color...

3901 Posing Nude a 1940's oil on canvas Signed Pascal La Rocca Unframed Some losses to paint.

Signed and dated nude figure in interior oil on canvas by French post impressionist painter Pierre De Belay. This work depicts a painting of Pierre De Belay's wife - Helene. Here she...

Hawaiian Symbolism Figurative & Landscape Oil painting of Mauna Uhane (Mountain Spirit) Symbolic and surreal landscape with a figure of spirit ascen...

Jules Schyl (Sweden, 1893-1977) Title: Ballet Dancers A Ballet Dancer painting is a rare find for an artist mostly known for his oeuvre with Cubism and Expressionist paintings. The current painting has many similarities with Degas sketches...

Guillermo Meza (Mexican, 1917-1997) Sentada Desnuda, 1941 Oil on canvas Signed and dated lower right 23.5 in. h. x 19.5 in. w. 31 in. h. x 27 in. w., as framed He was born in México...

Romantic still-life of a beautiful porcelain lady and her two dogs - perhaps Borzoi - set among a display of fresh cut lilies by listed artist Nell Walker Warner (American, 1891-1970). Signed "Nell Walker Warner" lower left. Displayed in a giltwood frame with linen liner. Image, 30"H x 36"L. Nell Walker Warner was born in Richardson County, Nebraska on April 1, 1891. She was educated in Colorado Springs, Colorado and graduated from the Lexington College in Missouri in 1910. She moved to California in 1916 where she studied and graduated from the Los Angeles School of Art and Design. After her marriage to Dr. Bion Smith Warner in 1920, the couple settled in La Canada. During the 1920's, Nell was the curator of the Tuesday Afternoon Club in Los Angeles and further studied with Nicolai Fechin, Paul Lauritz and Fritz Werner. Her floral paintings are radiant; an article in the Christian Science Monitor stated, ''California flowers...

Original oil on masonite painting of Fleet Week with sailors flirting with young women on the dock by the American artist, Sarah Pace Carothers Rhode. ...

An original oil painting by American artist Rudolph Wedow. This fantastic painting depicts Antelope Dancers in San Felipe Pueblo in New Mexico. Created...

Dennis Ainsley: 1880-1952. He was born in Illinois but spent a lot of time painting in France. This fabulous oil on canvas measures 36 inches wide by 24 inches high.. The beautiful f...

Artwork measures 48" x 30" and framed 56 ¼" x 38 ¼" x 3" Provenance: John Heller Gallery, NYC, circa 1975 (label verso) The artist's daughter Corbino Galleries, Sarasota, FL (1990)...

"High School Dance" WPA Mid-20th Century Modern American Scene Social Realism Heusing (20th Century) "High School Dance" 27 x 32 inches Oil on canvas Signed and dated '47 Lower Righ...

Gorgeous European figurative of a simpler time. Horses being watered in the plains by Janos Viski (Hungarian/American 1891-1965), circa 1940. Signed lower ...

Story illustration for "Illegitimate" by Nelia Gardner White for the Ladies' Home Journal, published June 1944, page 25. The full caption reads: "The children danced around her, cha...

Clarence Holbrook Carter (American, 1904-2000) Hospitalities Long Past, 1941 Oil on canvas Signed and dated lower right 37 x 27 inches "Looking into store front windows has always i...

Saturday Evening Post Cover, August 5, 1944 Framed Measurements: 36.00" x 29.50" Signature: Signed Lower Left

John Edward Costigan Autumn Wood Interior, 1946 Signed, lower left "J.E. Costigan N.A." Oil on canvas 24 x 30 inches John Costigan was a self-taught painter and trained printer dis...

Castelli Romani is an original painting on canvas realized by Luigi Campanelli (1943). Hand-signed, dated and numbered on the back: L. Campanelli 1982...

Story illustration for The Robe (People's Book Club) written by Lloyd Douglas, 1942 "Father had bought Demetrius six years ago and presented him to Marcellus on his seventeenth birt...

Work on canvas

This WPA-era signed oil painting by Paul K. Smith captures a stormy summer landscape in Colorado, featuring houses and lush trees under dramatic storm clouds. Painted in rich shades ...

We are proud to present outstanding original oil on canvas by American artist William Gropper (1897-1977.) William Gropper was an artist and illustrator, known for his exceptional a...

This original 1942 oil painting, titled "Victor, Colorado", by Martyl Suzanne Schweig (1918-2013), captures the rugged beauty of Colorado’s iconic mining landscape. The painting depicts a ghost town in the foreground with the majestic Rocky Mountains in the background, completed in vibrant shades of green, gold, and brown. Schweig painted this scene during a trip with fellow artist Adolph Dehn...

Adolf Dehn: 1895-1968. Well listed American artist with a high auction record of $20,000 which was achieved this year. He was born in Minnesota and studied at Minneapolis School of F...

In this work we find the image of the Buddha and several pomegranates, symbolizing fertility. The choice of combining objects and materials of different nature becomes an unmistakable feature of his style. A taste for the intrinsic qualities of different materials, specifically chosen for their characteristics of gloss transparency and sphericity, not least, the optical precision with which the different surfaces are rendered. Croatto creates images where reality is transformed into a magical and suspended atmosphere. Bruno Croatto...

"Money Lender" WPA American Scene Social Realism Modernism Mid Century Mervin M Jules (1912-1994 "The Money Lender" 15 1/2 x 20 1/2 inches Oil on board, c. 1940s Signed lower left F...

Medium: Oil on Canvas The oil on canvas illustration is bearing a Saturday Evening Post label verso, used to illustrate the short story There Is No Love, in the October 18th, 1941 i...

Cecil Chichester Woodstock in Winter, circa 1947 Signed lower left Oil on artist's board 12 x 16 inches Provenance Private Collection, Rhinebeck, New...

"Pay Day" American Scene Social Realism WPA Era Mid 20th Century Modern Workers Don Freeman (1908-1978) Pay Day 20 x 30 inches Oil on board, c. 1940s Signed lower right BIO Illustr...

Hazel Janicki (American, 1918-1976) Ballet Mirage, 1945 Oil and encaustic on panel Signed and dated lower left 18.25 x 16 inches 26.5 x 24.5 inches, framed Exhibited: Cleveland Muse...

Serenity is an impressive, giant oil painting realized by the Italian painter Felice Carena in 1948. Signed lower left. Not framed, framing optio...

Parade Mexicaine by Jean Dufy (1888-1964) Gouache on Ingres paper 45.1 x 55.6 cm (17³/₄ x 21⁷/₈ inches) Signed Jean Dufy lower centre Executed circa 1948-1950 Provenance Galerie Kät...

Colliers Magazine 1947 American Scene Social Realism Modern Families in the Snow Katherine Wiggins (American 20th Century) "The Shrimp" 20 x 24 inch...

This original 1949 gouache and wax painting, titled Fetishes, is by renowned New Mexico modernist artist Howard Schleeter (1903-1976). Signed and dated by the artist on the lower rig...

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...

Outdoor View is an original painting in mixed media and oil realized in the 1940s by Caroline Hill (1935-1983). The artwork is hand-signed on the lower left. Good conditions. This...

Saint-Germain-des-Prés. 1946. Oil on canvas, 73x92 cm

Symbolic and surreal landscape with three women in a mystical garden setting walking toward a plaque "The dream and the dreamer are one" by Marguerite Louis Blasingame (American; 190...

Dorothy King was born and lived in London in 1907. She studied at the Hornsey School of Art under JC Moody, then briefly at the Slade School of Fine Art with Randolph Schwabe. She to...

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...

Les Guilleries. Original oil on canvas Casimiro Martínez Tarrassó, a painter known simply as Tarrassó. He was trained at the La Llotja School in Barcelona. He completed his studies i...

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...

"Glassblowers" American Scene Social Realism Mid-20th Century New York City WPA Ernest Fiene (1894-1965) Glass Blowers 28 x 23 inches Oil on canvas board Signed and dated 1944 lower...

Corn Kachina, by Riley Sunrise, Quoyavema, Hopi, Kachina, Dancer, painting Artist Signature - Riley Sunrise (1914-2006) Quoyavema “Another of the earlier Hopi artists, Riley Sunrise (Quoyavema) worked with Fred Kabotie and Waldo Mootzka in illustrating John Louw Nelson’s Rhythm for Rain. He is also known as Quoyavema or Kwayeshva, according to Nelson. His paintings are comparable to Fred Kabotie’s, with some of them showing more action and most of them revealing less detail. Sunrise is represented in the collections of the Denver Art Museum, Gilcrease Institute (Tulsa), and the Southwest Museum. The Museum of the American Indian in New York has an extensive collection of his paintings of native Hopi dances.” (Clara Lee Tanner: Southwest Indian...

Hawaiian Symbolism Flowering Tree and Acolytes Symbolism Landscape Symbolic landscape with four figures worshiping flowering tree by Marguerite Louis Blasingame (American; 1906-1947)...

Nicely painted mid century impressionist bather scene by John Edward Costigan (1888 - 1972). Oil on board. Framed. Signed verso.

Alexander Sharpe Ross - or Alex Ross. This work is a perfect artistic statement with every formal element in perfect harmony. It's a masterf...

A modern interpretation of the biblical story Suzanna and the Elders. Signed lower right Ink and wash on paper The Downtown Gallery Felix Landau Gallery Ernest Brown & Phillips, Ltd...

Yellow and blue-toned abstract impressionist portrait of a boy by Danish artist Hans Christian Bärenholdt. Signed by the artist at the bottom right. Hung in a gold carved frame. Dim...

Initialed lower right, 'A.F' (American, 20th century) and painted circa 1940. A tonalist study of a young woman with bobbed brown hair, shown gazing to the ...

The Beach Modern Impressionist Oil Painting Marguerite Rousseau was born in 1888 in Belgium died in 1948. She is known​ for her French Impressionist style in her earlier work, she was painting parks...

Beautiful oil on canvas painting with aerosol spray paint of two reclining figures by the well known Russian/American artist, Nahum Tschacbasov. Signed upper right and dated 1949. ...

Signed lower right, 'Mogens Hertz' (Danish, 1909-1999) and dated 1949. A large, Post-Impressionist figural oil showing a pregnant young woman, draped from the waist down, with her hands resting serenely in her lap. Seated beside a garden door, she is gently dappled by golden sunlight that filters in through verdant foliage. Painted when the artist was forty years old, Hertz has accomplished a lyrical, light-suffused study of his beautiful and enigmatic young subject. Mogens Hertz first studied with the Academician, Laurits Ring and, subsequently, with the Danish Impressionist, Rostrup Boyesen. In 1930, after an influential study trip to Paris, Hertz continued his formal studies at Copenhagen's Charlottenborg Academy before moving to the countryside outside Gudhjem. There, he became a co-founder of the Bornholm School. His work there came to exemplify the group's lyrical portrayal of idyllic landscapes, painted in a loose and painterly, Impressionist style that often borders on abstraction. From 1930-1941, Hertz traveled and studied widely, including to France, Holland, Germany, Norway and Sweden. He was the recipient of numerous medals, prizes and juried awards including the August Schiøtt scholarship (1948) and the Frederik Sødring prize (1939). Over the course of a long and distinguished career, he exhibited widely and with success including, from 1937, at the Royal Danish Academy's Charlottenborg Spring Exhibition, at the Bornholm Art Museum and the Vejen Art Museum, among others. Mogens Hertz is well-listed in relevant art biographical reference works including Benezit's definitive dictionary of artists. We are pleased to offer a major work from the artist's middle period. Reference: E. Benezit, Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs, et Graveurs, Jacques Busse, 1999 Nouvelle Édition, Gründ 1911, Vol. 6, p. 954; Weilbach, Dansk Kunstnerleksikon, the Castle and Cultural Agency, Copenhagen; Chr. F. Beck i: Da. Kunst, nr. 90, maj 1950; Helge Ernst...

A strong modernist oil painting depicted in the 1940's by Spanish painter Julio Moises. Mostly known for his abstract figures on canvas, this piece is a w...

Fantastic magazine cartoon illustration by American Artist, Leo Nowak (1907-2001). Ink, gouache and crayon in illustration paper, image measures 7.5 x 9.5 i...

Beautiful mid century figurative landscape of a contemplative woman in Cotswold village, England by David L. Ghilchik (b. 1892 Romania; d. 1972 London), c.1945. Signed lower right "Ghilchik." Presented in rustic wood frame. Image measures: 14.5"H x 17.5"W. With frame, measures: 21"H x 25"W x 2"D. David Louis Ghilchik was a painter, and cartoonist for Punch Magazine and the Daily Sketch. He was the son of Abraham Josef Ghilchik, who traded in lace and linen, and his wife Sali. The family settled in Salford in 1920, where David enrolled at the Manchester School of Art and studied under Adolphe Valette...

Eric James Mellon (1925-2014) Eric James Mellon was a painter, printmaker and ceramicist who was born in Watford, Hertfordshire. In his early teens he attended Watford Technical and Art Institute to prepare for a career in the local printing industry and at weekends he would Harrow School of Art for life drawing and pottery classes. In 1944 he enrolled at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London to study book production and printmaking. The wood-engraver John Farleigh...

A dramatic mid-century western figurative action scene depicting a shootout in an old western town by Randy Steffen (American, 1917-1977), 1947. Several ...

"6th Avenue El" American Scene Social Realism Mid-20th Century New York City Ernest Fiene (1894-1965) "6th Avenue El" 12 1/4 x 14 1/4 Oil on canvas board, c. 1940s Signed lower righ...

Signed indistinctly, lower right, and painted circa 1935. A strongly animated, vertically stacked figurative painting filled with compressed energy and an atmosphere of psychologic...

Super rare World War Two period scene of St Pauls's Cathedral, London during the Blitz. Very few scenes of the Blitz were painted and this piece dated August 1945 was painted a few ...

Symbolic and surreal landscape with figure eminating life force by Marguerite Louis Blasingame (American; 1906-1947), circa 1940-45. Marguerite and her husband Frank Blasingame...

Mid-century oil on masonite modern painting by the well known Russian/American artist, Nahum Tschacbasov. Signed top left and dated 1949. Titled verso. Condition is fair. Provenanc...

Belgian artist Miette Braive(1916-2000), was classically trained in Belgium, before moving to Paris to pursue her art career as first a student and then a contemporary of the French ...

A charming portrait of a Black woman with stylized hairstyle of the period - Midtown Galleries label on verso, Unframed Signed and date...

"Money Lender" WPA American Scene Social Realism Modernism Mid Century Mervin M Jules (1912-1994 "The Money Lender" 15 1/2 x 20 1/2 inches Oil on board, c. 1940s Signed lower left F...

Nathan Hoffman Brighton Beach, July 31, 1946 Signed, dated, and estate stamped on the reverse Oil on artist's board 10 x 13 1/2 inches Provenance: Esta...

Fiocchetto is an artwork realized by Elica Balla (Rome,1914 - 1993) Hand signed lower right. Hand signed and titled o rear. Good conditions!

Just discovered within an exceptional private west coast collection, the signature and inscription on this incredible small oil on paper, is at the moment, undecypherable, we are res...