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American Realist Figurative Paintings

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Style: American Realist
"Pay Day" American Scene Social Realism WPA Era Mid 20th Century Modern Workers
Located in New York, NY
"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...
Category

1940s American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Hopper's Chair
Located in Boston, MA
Thomas Darsney’s paintings reveal a palpable tension between the tactile sensuousness of fabric and the subdued brushstrokes of paint made flesh. United by this visual juxtaposition,...
Category

2010s American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Panel

Circus Wagons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
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...
Category

1920s American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Watercolor

Winter Sunset
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled "Winter Sunset" c.1990, is an oil painting (mixed media) on hardboard by German/American artist Frank Kecskes Jr. It is signed at the lower right corner by the ar...
Category

Late 20th Century American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

Feeling the Light
Located in Denver, CO
Lone figure by window
Category

2010s American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Wood Panel

"La Cage Aux Fowls" - Surreal Figurative Abstract
Located in Soquel, CA
"La Cage Aux Fowls" A tongue in cheek swipe at the artist and his muse, the nude and of course the chicken. An oil on canvas circa 1980, signed G. Lester of Ardsley, New York (Americ...
Category

1980s American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"Shoes" - Late 20th Century City Figure Painting
Located in New Orleans, LA
In addition to having his work in museums and fine corporate collections, Alabama artist Donny Finley showed for years at prestigious Bryant Galleries on ...
Category

Late 20th Century American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

"The Courtship" Wayman Adams, circa 1920 New Orleans Figures in Interior Scene
Located in New York, NY
Wayman Adams The Courtship, circa 1920 Signed upper right; titled on the reverse Oil on board 16 x 12 inches Adams was born on a farm in rural Indiana near Muncie. His father, a horse farmer and amateur artist, encouraged the younger Adams’ interest in art. At age twenty-one, Adams moved to Indianapolis to attend the John Herron Art Institute. There, he began to paint portraits. He took two trips to Europe, the first in 1910 when he traveled to Italy with William Merritt Chase. Two years later, he accompanied Robert Henri to Spain where he met fellow artist Margaret Boroughs, whom he married six years later. In 1914, Adams painted a series of portraits for the city hospital in Indianapolis. He was to paint children whose families had been in the United States for generations and also children of immigrants to represent the various nationalities of which the city was composed. It was considered to be one of the most ambitious public art projects in Indiana’s history. Originally, twenty-four portraits were to be done; while some are now missing, they were all initially installed in the pediatric ward of the hospital. After painting a portrait of author...
Category

1920s American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Steel Magnolia, Oil Painting
Located in San Francisco, CA

Artist Comments
Artist David Shepherd paints a hyperrealistic image of an eye surrounded by dewy magnolias in full bloom. He explores the idea of united humanity by obscuring the identity of his subject. "As we move forward in history, we move past the limitations of gender and race to see all people as equal and able to have a voice in society and be seen as beautiful," says David. The piece draws a symbolic comparison between the uniqueness of every flower and the singularity of a person.


About the Artist
Canadian artist David Shepherd fuses techniques from both old and modern masters to create contemporary interpretations of the human form. While offering strong nods to pop art and cubism, the work remains grounded by David’s training in 19th Century academic realism. Combining discrete techniques within a single tableau is initially jarring to the viewer, creating an unexpected visual complexity in the work and demonstrating the artist’s breadth of skills. “I think in the future we will be much more interested in works of art that show a mastery of multiple styles,” says David. Each artwork effectually suggests the surreal nature of human existence within a convoluted modern society.


Words that describe this painting: flower, floral, portrait, child, realism, hyperrealism, photorealism, eye, beauty, rainbow, bright, love, petals, detailed, oilpaint, people, people, flora, realism, oil painting, white


Steel Magnolia...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

Your Eye Is A Diamond (ii), Oil Painting
Located in San Francisco, CA

Artist Comments
"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength while loving someone deeply gives you courage," says artist David Shepherd. He presents a vibrant, realistic piece of a face covered in vibrant flowers. A prismatic light...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

"See No Evil" oil painting, self portrait of artist covering her eyes with hands
Located in Sag Harbor, NY
"See No Evil" is an oil painting. It depicts a woman, the artist, Maryann Lucas covering her eyes with her hands. The two tone composition represents the artist's astrological sign, ...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

'Sketching Wisconsin' original oil painting, Signed
Located in Milwaukee, WI
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...
Category

1940s American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Healthy Choices II, Oil Painting
Located in San Francisco, CA

Artist Comments
Artist David Shepherd paints a hyperrealistic close-up image of lips sipping on a flower. A torrent of dewy nectar drips slowly to the subject's mouth. Her sp...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

Passing Ships in the Night, Oil Painting
Located in San Francisco, CA

Artist Comments
Provocative hyperrealist oil painting created with breathtaking detail. Artist David Shepherd explains that he used the glass surface in this piece as a light...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

Figurative portrait of a young girl "GirlFriends #1"
Located in East Quogue, NY
Figurative portrait oil painting on panel of a young girl by Judith Raphael Size: 7 x 5 inches (unframed) Judith Raphael creates portraits invented from various sources, including photos from family albums, children, grandchildren, cell phone snaps of friends, magazines, and always art history. Influenced by European painters like Balthus, Lucien Freud, and Paula Rego. Raphael portrays young girls whom she adapts in aggressive postures to gently mock the macho stance of classical male sculpture...
Category

Early 2000s American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Acrylic, Panel

Surya
Located in Burlingame, CA
The paintings from Willard Dixon's "NEWS series" are generally taken from small black and white newspaper photos from the artist's daily reading of the news. He changes the images somewhat by cropping them, taking things out, adding color, etc. But the image is definitely something seen originally by someone else. “I must say”, says Dixon, “I have rather strong feelings about these images myself. I see them at least in part as an homage to the intrepid photographers on the front lines who are telling truth to the world about what’s actually going on out there.” This is 'Surya', which is hindu for sun; A 48 x 60 inch oil on canvas painting depicting a kaleidoscope of colorful women...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Gaining Ground, Oil Painting
Located in San Francisco, CA

Artist Comments
Artist David Shepherd promotes and explores the idea of united humanity regardless of who he paints. Focusing on the eye in this hyperrealistic piece, he surr...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

Market Place, Taxco Mexico, Oil Painting by Fil Mottola
By Fil Mottola
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Fil Mottola, American (1915 - 2008) Title: Market Place, Taxco Mexico Medium: Oil on Masonite, signed l.r. Size: 30 x 40 inches [76 x 102.5 cm] Framed: 38 x 48 inches [96.5 ...
Category

1980s American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Masonite, Oil

Boy with Fish, Oil Painting on Board by Thomas Kerry
Located in Long Island City, NY
Boy with Fish Thomas Kerry, British/American Date: circa 1970 Oil on Board, signed and dedicated verso Size: 24 x 20 inches Frame Size: 29 x 25 inches
Category

1970s American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

Ship Breaking
Located in Burlingame, CA
'Ship Breaking' by Willard Dixon. These paintings are generally taken from small black and white newspaper photos from Willard Dixon’s daily reading of the news. Dixon changes the images somewhat by cropping them, taking things out, adding color, etc. But the image is definitely something seen originally by someone else. “I must say”, says Dixon, “I have rather strong feelings about these images myself. I see them at least in part as an homage to the intrepid photographers on the front lines who are telling truth to the world about what’s actually going on out there.” Willard Dixon Born: Kansas City MO, 1942 Education: Art Students League, New York, NY Cornell University Brooklyn Museum School San Francisco Art Institute, M.F.A. 1969 Awards and Commissions N.E.A. Fellowship Grant- 1989 California Supreme Court Mural Commission- 1998 Las Vegas Federal Courthouse Commission, G.S.A.-1998 Teaching 1989-90: San Francisco State University 1975: San Francisco Art Institute Realism Seminar 1974-76: Academy of Art College, San Francisco, CA 1973-74, 1976: California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland, CA 1971-72: California State University, Hayward, CA One Man Exhibitions 2020: Evening Light, Andra Norris Gallery, Burlingame, CA 2015: Willard Dixon Portraits College of Marin Fine Art Gallery, Kentfield 2014: SFMOMA Artists Gallery, San Francisco, CA. 2008: SFMOMA Artists Gallery, San Francisco, CA. 2005: Fischbach Gallery, NYC,NY 2005: Dolby Chadwick Gallery, San Francisco, CA 2004: Fischbach Gallery, NYC, NY. 2002: Earl McGrath Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 2002: Bolinas Museum, Bolinas, CA 2001: Hackett Freedman Gallery, San Francisco, CA 2000: Fischbach Gallery, NYC , NY 2000: Hearst Art Gallery, St. Mary’s College, Moraga, CA 1998: Hackett Freedman Gallery, SF, CA 1997: Tatistcheff/Rogers Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 1996, 1995: Contemporary Realist Gallery (now Hackett Freedman Gallery) 1994: Fischbach Gallery 1993: Contemporary Realist Gallery 1992: Fischbach Gallery 1991: Earl McGrath Gallery, 454 North, Los Angeles, CA 1990: Fischbach Gallery 1989: William Sawyer...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Plastic
Located in San Francisco, CA

Artist Comments
In this hyperrealistic painting, David depicts a model holding plastic to her face. The work is meant as a commentary on global warming and a need to plan fo...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

Large Scale 1920s Portrait of Florence Foster Jenkins, Amateur Soprano Singer
Located in Soquel, CA
A fine, large-scale portrait of a Philadelphia lady, fabled soprano singer Florence Foster Jenkins, by Richard Langtry Partington (American, 19...
Category

1920s American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Linen, Oil

Modernist Oil Painting Social Realist Kids and Cat in Red Wagon WPA Style
Located in Surfside, FL
Oil on artist's board, 20th century, signed Paul Zimmerman Reminiscent of the Mid Century Social Realist and WPA works of Ben Shahn this captures a group of tenement children of mixe...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Woman on a Park Bench, Modern Oil Painting by Sandu Liberman
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Sandu Liberman, Romanian/Israeli (1923 - 1977) Title: Woman on a Park Bench Year: Circa 1970 Medium: Oil on Canvas, unsigned Size: 24 x 24 in. (60...
Category

1970s American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

Horseman and cattle
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork "Horseman with Cattle" c.1990 is an oil painting on canvas by noted American artist John Stanford. It is signed at the lower right corner by...
Category

Late 20th Century American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

Smoke Screen
Located in Fairfield, CT
Represented by George Billis Gallery, NYC & LA -- Alex Roulette’s paintings depict false realities. The artist constructs landscapes from numerous source photographs, which he uses a...
Category

2010s American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Linen, Oil

"Apples" Oil Painting
Located in Denver, CO
Gregory Block's (US based) "Apples" is a still life oil painting that depicts a glass bowl of reddish Apples sitting in situ with a knife and halved Apple slices in a dark interior. ...
Category

2010s American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

James Elliott Bama Oil on Board "And Then There Was One"
Located in San Francisco, CA
James Elliott Bama was born in 1926 in New York City. He studied at the Arts Student League and became a very successful illustrator for magazines like ...
Category

1960s American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

Industrial Railroad WPA Mid 20th Century American Scene Rural Modern Realism
Located in New York, NY
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...
Category

1940s American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

UNION SQUARE Depression Era Oil Painting WPA Realism American Scene Realism NYC
Located in New York, NY
UNION SQUARE Depression Era Oil Painting WPA Realism American Scene Realism NYC Jo Cain (1904 – 2003) "Union Square" 24 x 36 inches Oil on canvas, c.1940s S...
Category

1940s American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Under the Surface
Located in Fairfield, CT
Represented by George Billis Gallery, NYC & LA -- Alex Roulette’s paintings depict false realities. The artist constructs landscapes from numerous source photographs, which he uses a...
Category

2010s American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Linen

Original Vintage Illustration Boy with Horse Oil Painting Americana
By Ariane Beigneux
Located in Surfside, FL
This painting, exemplifies the type of traditional portraits the artist Ariane Beigneux was specially known for. Here, Beigneux depicts the portrait of a little boy and horse in a realistic, and seemingly idealized manner. The artist uses local colors and controlled brushstrokes to render the subject, paying close attention to details adding a special clarity to the naturalism of the portrait. it is painted on Whatman illustration board. some drawing in the margins. Ariane Beigneux was born to French parents in Roxbury, CT in 1918 and passed in 2011. She studied art at the National Academy of Design with Gifford Beal, Sidney Dickinson and Ivan Olinsky and at the Art Students League in New York with Jon Corbino and Jean Liberte. Ariane painted professional artist childrens portraits for six decades. Her work was included in the book 6 Artists Paint a Portrait: Alfred Chadbourn...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Illustration Board

Santa Claus Christmas Eve original Southern Air Transport Illustration
Located in San Francisco, CA
Incredibly detailed Original illustration of Santa Claus on what I imagine is Christmas Eve. He must be falling behind schedule as he has commandeered planes instead of reindeers. I ...
Category

20th Century American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Gouache

"Tuscany Hillside" Oil painting of rural Italian landscape, dirt road on green
Located in Sag Harbor, NY
An oil painting of a landscape in Tuscany. Rolling hills, a winding dirt-road, Cyprus trees, and a small farm-house cottage, underneath a pale blue sky. Rows of vines descend the hil...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Linen, Panel

"Double Shadow", Oil Painting
Located in Denver, CO
Kevin Weckbach's (US based) "Double Shadow" is an original, hand made oil painting that depicts a busy city avenue filled with throngs of bundled walkers casting long shadows on the ...
Category

2010s American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

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

1980s American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Flower Garden, Cape Cod, Mid-Century Cleveland School Painting
Located in Beachwood, OH
Carl Frederick Gaertner (American, 1898-1952) Flower Garden, Cape Cod, c. 1940s Gouache on illustration board 17.5 x 29 inches 27 x 39 inches, as framed Carl Gaertner was one of the greatest painters to emerge from the Cleveland School...
Category

1940s American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Gouache

Unique Painting By Albert Pels WPA Artist!
By Albert Pels
Located in New York, NY
Albert Pels (1910-1998) Painting of a group of figures, c. 20th century. 12 x 16 in. Framed dimensions: 19 1/2 x 23 1/4 in. Albert Pels was an art educator and painter of figures, genre scenes, urban and rural images, and illustration. He also did murals and worked in the mediums of oil, fresco, and watercolor. He was born on May 7, 1910, in Cincinnati, Ohio and died at the age of eighty-eight on January 25, 1998 in New York City. Albert Pels was the son of Samuel and Frieda Pels. He had two children, Joan Barbara and Richard J.A. with his first wife Gertrude Ethel Jaeckel. He later married Yolanda Zemfler, a painter of impressionist art. While in Ohio, Pels attended the Cincinnati Art Academy in 1931 where he won several scholarships. After moving to New York, he continued his education at the Art Students League, Beaux Arts and the American School. At the Art Students League, Pels studied under Thomas Hart Benton, Kenneth Hayes Miller, and Alexander Brook. Under the tutelage of these mentors, Pels evolved his technique and style. Pels was a member of the National Society of Mural Painters, the Salmagundi Club, and the Society of Independent Artists. He was on the board of directors of the Arts Students League in 1939, as well as, on the board the WPA Artists...
Category

20th Century American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Love Story. Mid Century Desaturated Color
Located in Miami, FL
Most likely for Redbook, Cosmopolitan, Collier's Weekly, Good Housekeeping or Macall's
Category

1950s American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Gouache, Board

Tetris by Ali Mourabet, Contemporary Cityscape, Aerial View Art, Original art
Located in Deddington, GB
Tetris by Ali Mourabet [2021] original and hand signed by the artist Acrylic on canvas Image size: H:80 cm x W:60 cm Complete Size of Unframed Work: H:80 cm x W:60 cm x D:2.5cm Sold...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Western Scene (Cowboy on Horseback)
Located in Surfside, FL
This is an oil on artist board (unframed) by the important Hungarian-born and internationally celebrated Denes de Holesch (1910-1983). Denes de Holesch was an international equestrian artist. His works have been exhibited all over the world, including in New York, Beverly Hills, Boston, Chicago, Paris, Mexico City, Montreal, Tokyo, Sydney, and Madrid. His horse paintings fall into one of seven themes, including polo, cowboys, circus, rodeo, hunt, bull-fight, race-course and running free. His mastery of the subject has been compared to that of Picasso, Delacroix and Franc Marc. 1910 Denes Dezo George de Holesch was born on 9 February, 1910 at Banska-Bystrica, Northern Hungary. He was the third child and youngest son of Hugo de Holesch, an architect and Margit, nee Wagner. Many generations of the de Holesch family had worked as professional architects. He studied at the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest on a scholarship. Early in his career he traveled to China, Japan, Philippines, Java, Bali and Australia, where his reputation grew rapidly. Here he produced portraits in oils, and lithographs of the Chinese, as well as landscape works in oils,depicting the local countryside, and canal, street and city scenes. His exposure to the arts of the Chinese, with their simplicity of line, greatly influenced his later works. In 1939 he established a studio at Lavender Bay near Sydney. In 1940 he exhibited at the Macquarie Galleries in Sydney. In 1944 he married Joyce Greer, the Melbourne concert pianist. In 1945 the couple moved to New York where his interest in horses grew. He held exhibitions at Gallery Wildenstein, Herve, and FAR Gallery. In 1946 Holesch moved to Montreal where he exhibited at the National Gallery of Montreal. In 1947 he moved to Boston where he continued painting portraits and horses. He exhibited there at the Ehrmann and Vose galleries. Later in the year he moved to San Francisco where he was invited to participate in the "Renoir to Picasso" Exhibition held at the Maxwell Gallery.1946 He moved to Montreal, Canada and exhibited at the National Gallery of Montreal. (Frederic Remington and Charles Russell) 1947 Early in the year he moved to Boston and continued painting portraits and horses. In June, he painted the portrait of Harvard Law School Dean, Erwin N. Griswold, and in October his works were exhibited at Margaret Brown's Galerie Intime, Newbury Street, Boston. 1948 He produced a clay sculpture head of Egon Petri, one of a number of clay sculptures that he produced. He also produced a number of wood carvings. His paintings were chosen for inclusion in a Group Exhibition in the National Gallery of San Francisco, and in the important and prestigious 'Renoir to Picasso' Exhibition held at Maxwell's Galleries, 372 Sutter Street, San Francisco. 1953 His works were included in a Group Impressionists Exhibition held at the Ohana Gallery, London 1954 He travelled to New York, where he was commissioned to paint Herbert Gasser, Nobel Prize Winner in Biochemistry. 1955 He returned to England, and then travelled to Paris to exhibit works in the Galerie Marcel Lenoir. 1956 He again returned to New York to work on portrait commissions and for exhibitions of his works, mainly of horses. These exhibitions were held in New York, Boston, San Francisco and late in the year at the Galleries of Frank J. Oehlschlaeger at 107 East Oak Street, Chicago. During this year, visits with his family to Ringling Circus and to a rodeo in Tucson, Arizona must have impressed him greatly, for images of these events soon appeared on his canvases. His work was greatly admired by Hollywood film- stars, such as Ann Rutherford and Burt Lancaster, and David Niven purchased one of the horse paintings to give as his wedding present to Grace Kelly on her marriage to Sovereign Prince Rainier III of Monaco. 1959 The prints of 'Courtship' and 'Chargers' were produced. It has been estimated that close to a million copies of his prints were sold over the next ten years, with 'Courtship' being advertised by Stern's Book Dpt. on 5th Avenue, New York along with prints by Picasso, Degas, Goya, Modigliani, Renoir and Van Gogh. 1960 He moved to Antibes, on the French Riviera in the South-East of France. An exhibition of his works was held in the Galerie des Etats-Unis, Cannes and his works were now permanently exhibited at Galerie Madsen, Rue St. Honore, Paris and Galerie Davis, Place Vendome, Paris. 1961 Known to Picasso, he was invited to attend a special bull-fight held in the South of France, which was organized for Pablo Picasso's 80th birthday. 1975 He moved from Voulangis to Castelfontana in the Dorf Tirol overlooking Merano, Italy. He remained there for close to a year and exhibited his works in a group exhibition in Merano in which works by Salvador Dali and Annigoni were also displayed. 1979 He returned to the old farmhouse at Voulangis. During this time he painted the portrait of Pope John Paul II. 1989 a catalog and biography of Holesch entitled Holesch Horse Paintings 1910-1983 was published by Andrew Mackenzie...
Category

20th Century American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Scouting
Located in Palm Desert, CA
"Scouting" is an oil on canvas painting by Frank Tenney Johnson. The framed piece measures 23 3/4 x 27 3/4 x 3 1/4 inches. Johnson was well-known for his work of the American west, particularly for his portrayal of cowboys at night, lit by moonlight. Johnson utilized knives and fingers when painting, so his work is recognizable for its distinctive marks. Provenance: Biltmore Galleries, Scottsdale...
Category

Early 20th Century American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"Aspen Autumn II", Oil Painting
Located in Denver, CO
Christopher Clark's (US based) "Aspen Autumn II" is an original, handmade oil painting that depicts a forest of Aspen trees in Fall colors of orange and yellow. Bio/artist statement: Christopher has been an artist since early childhood, when he would watch Bob Ross...
Category

2010s American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Oil Painting, Lawrence Kelsey, Central Park, Spring Afternoon
Located in White Plains, NY
'Central Park, Spring Afternoon' 2009 by American artist, Lawrence Kelsey. Oil on panel, 19.5 x 13.5 in. / Handmade gold frame: 24 x 18 in. Depicting a view of Central Park in New Yo...
Category

Early 2000s American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Panel

The Race
By William John Hennessy
Located in New York, NY
William John Hennessy was born in Ireland. He came to America in 1849 with his mother and brother a year after his father had fled their homeland after taking part in the unsuccessful Young Ireland Party uprising. The Hennessys settled in New York, and when young William came of age, he decided upon a career as an artist. At the age of fifteen, he enrolled at the National Academy of Design, where he learned to draw from the antique, and the following year he was granted admission to the Academy’s life-drawing class. Hennessy first exhibited at the National Academy in 1857, starting a continuous run of appearances in their annuals that lasted until 1870, when he expatriated himself to Europe. During his time in America, Hennessy was principally known as a genre painter and prolific illustrator for such publications as Harper’s Weekly and a number of books, including illustrated works of William Cullen Bryant...
Category

19th Century American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Blue , American Realist painter, Representational Figurative art, Portrait
Located in Houston, TX
Blue is painted in the style of American Realism. The painting is Representational Figurative art which is a time consuming process especially with portraits and figurative art. T...
Category

2010s American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

"Light Pattern Dance", Encaustic Painting
Located in Denver, CO
Kevin Weckbach's (US based) "Light Pattern Dance" is an original, hand made oil painting that depicts a busy city sidewalk where passerby walk along the city avenue lined with towering buildings of a bustling neon metropolis. Artist Statement: "Subject matter to me is a vehicle for me to explore how I observe life. My urban influences are an assembly of varied fabrics stitched together to form a tapestry. It is not to resemble a literal story of what it is; moreover, it is a quilt that explains my visual expression. What I find particularly interesting in human intervention in nature is how we are still intertwined with it. Roads, buildings, and farmlands bend with the natural curves of mountains, hills, and streams. City nights are lit up like lightning bugs...
Category

2010s American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Board, Encaustic

Man on a Park Bench
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Harry McCormick, American (1942 - ) Title: Man on a Park Bench Year: circa 1985 Medium: Oil on Canvas, signed l.r. Size: 58 x 72 in. (147.32 ...
Category

1980s American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

Herbert Davidson Magical Realism Boy Finds Nude Woman Sand Sculpture Beach 1970s
Located in Rancho Santa Fe, CA
An amazing, magical realism painting by renowned artist, Herbert Laurence Davidson (1930-2018). This painting depicts a young boy’s innocent discovery on the beach of a sand sculptur...
Category

Late 20th Century American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Cotton Canvas, Oil

George Washington Marine Procession New York Presidential Inauguration, Life Mag
Located in Miami, FL
"The Great Man Comes to Take His Oath" Life Magazine Spread, July 4th, 1960, This epic narrative depicts the celebration of George Washington's inauguration, en route to Federal Hall...
Category

1930s American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

Saturday Evening Post cover, August 29, 1959. - Americana
Located in Miami, FL
This classic Post cover combines the vastness of the American West landscape with the intimacy of iconic Americana: two kids swimming in a rura...
Category

1950s American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

"Unemployed" WPA American Scene Social Realism Mid 20th Century Modern
Located in New York, NY
"Unemployed" WPA American Scene Social Realism Mid 20th Century Modern William Gropper (1898 - 1977) Unemployed 20 x 16 inches Oil on canvas, 1937 Signed lower right Provenance: Estate of the artist Bio Throughout his life, William Gropper used his artistic talents to protest social injustice. Born in New York City, he grew up there in poverty and left high school to work as a dishwasher and delivery boy. He eventually began a career in art and was able to study with Robert Henri and George Bellows from 1912 to 1915. He adopted their realistic painting style, and his own work expressed sympathy for common laborers and outrage at society's ills. In 1919 Gropper established a reputation as a political cartoonist working for the New York Tribune. His blunt, forceful style attracted the attention of other publications, and he provided illustrations and cartoons for a variety of magazines, from the left-wing New Masses to mainstream Vanity Fair. Like many social realist artists of the 1930s, Gropper supported liberal political causes, depicting subjects such as the plight of migrant laborers and striking factory workers. In his first gallery exhibition in 1936 at ACA Galleries, Gropper's work was so well received by critics, collectors, and artists that the following year he had two one-man exhibitions at ACA Galleries. In 1937, Gropper traveled west on a Guggenheim Fellowship and visited the Dust Bowl and the Hoover and Grand Coulee Dams, sketching studies for a series of paintings and a mural he painted for the Department of the Interior. That same year he had paintings purchased by both the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art. Gropper exhibited at the 1939 New York World's Fair, Whitney Museum of American Art (1924-55), Art Institute of Chicago (1935-49), Carnegie International (1937-50), Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (1939-48), and National Academy of Design (1945-48). He was a founder of the Artists Equity Association and member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters. From 1940 to 1945 William Gropper was preoccupied with anti-Nazi cartoons...
Category

1930s American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Bathers 1940s Mid 20th Century American Scene Social Realism WPA Modern Ashcan
Located in New York, NY
Bathers 1940s Mid 20th Century American Scene Social Realism WPA Modern Ashcan Marion Gilmore (1909-1984) Bathers 15 1/2 x 19 1/2 inches oil on canvas boar...
Category

1940s American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Grisha Sleeping
Located in Sag Harbor, NY
An oil painting of a man resting on a bed. His arms reach to the left of the panel, and one leg bent, the other extending towards the end of the bed and the viewer. The edges of the ...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Panel

Rolls Royce, Oil Painting by John McCormick
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: John McCormick, American Title: Rolls Royce Year: 1983 Medium: Oil on Canvas Size: 18 in. x 32 in. (45.72 cm x 81.28 cm)
Category

1980s American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

African Tribal Celebration: Alex Haley Roots for Readers Digest
Located in Miami, FL
Complex and detailed epic scale history painting of an African tribal celebration with an on-looking king. The work has an abundant amount o...
Category

1970s American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Gouache

"Eggs" Oil Painting
Located in Denver, CO
Gregory Block's (US based) "Eggs" is an oil painting that depicts a blue mason jar full of eggs on a wooden shelf floating among clouds and a bright bl...
Category

2010s American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

"Artichokes" contemporary realist oil painting still life, green and purple hues
Located in Sag Harbor, NY
"Artichokes" is a contemporary realist oil painting still life, with its green and purple hues dominating the neutral surroundings. A rustic wooden bowl holds two whole artichokes, a...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Linen, Oil

American Realist figurative paintings for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic American Realist figurative paintings available for sale on 1stDibs. Works in this style were very popular during the 21st Century and Contemporary, but contemporary artists have continued to produce works inspired by this movement. If you’re looking to add figurative paintings created in this style to introduce contrast in an otherwise neutral space in your home, the works available on 1stDibs include elements of blue, orange, purple, pink and other colors. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including David Shepherd, Carl Bretzke, Christopher Clark, and Bruce Adams. Frequently made by artists working with Paint, and Oil Paint and other materials, all of these pieces for sale are unique and have attracted attention over the years. Not every interior allows for large American Realist figurative paintings, so small editions measuring 1.75 inches across are also available. Prices for figurative paintings made by famous or emerging artists can differ depending on medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $51 and tops out at $2,750,000, while the average work sells for $5,502.

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