Realist Figurative Paintings

Barbara Shermund (1899-1978). Real Estate Agent, ca 1950. Ink, watercolor and gouache on heavy illustration paper, panel measures 19 x 15 inches. Signed lower right. Very good condition with light staining at top and one small glue oxidation spot appearing above crocked picture on wall. Unframed. Provenance: Ethel Maud Mott Herman, artist (1883-1984), West Orange NJ. For two decades, she drew almost 600 cartoons for The New Yorker with female characters that commented on life with wit, intelligence and irony. In the mid-1920s, Harold Ross, the founder of a new magazine called The New Yorker, was looking for cartoonists who could create sardonic, highbrow illustrations accompanied by witty captions that would function as social critiques. He found that talent in Barbara Shermund. For about two decades, until the 1940s, Shermund helped Ross and his first art editor, Rea Irvin, realize their vision by contributing almost 600 cartoons and sassy captions with a fresh, feminist voice. Her cartoons commented on life with wit, intelligence and irony, using female characters who critiqued the patriarchy and celebrated speakeasies, cafes, spunky women and leisure. They spoke directly to flapper women of the era who defied convention with a new sense of political, social and economic independence. “Shermund’s women spoke their minds about sex, marriage and society; smoked cigarettes and drank; and poked fun at everything in an era when it was not common to see young women doing so,” Caitlin A. McGurk wrote in 2020 for the Art Students League. In one Shermund cartoon, published in The New Yorker in 1928, two forlorn women sit and chat on couches. “Yeah,” one says, “I guess the best thing to do is to just get married and forget about love.” “While for many, the idea of a New Yorker cartoon conjures a highbrow, dry non sequitur — often more alienating than familiar — Shermund’s cartoons are the antithesis,” wrote McGurk, who is an associate curator and assistant professor at Ohio State University’s Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum. “They are about human nature, relationships, youth and age.” (McGurk is writing a book about Shermund. And yet by the 1940s and ’50s, as America’s postwar focus shifted to domestic life, Shermund’s feminist voice and cool critique of society fell out of vogue. Her last cartoon appeared in The New Yorker in 1944, and much of her life and career after that remains unclear. No major newspaper wrote about her death in 1978 — The New York Times was on strike then, along with The Daily News and The New York Post — and her ashes sat in a New Jersey funeral home...

Ancient pine. 1958, cardboard, oil, 53.5x43.5 cm This painting of pine is made in best traditions of realism, which is accurate, detailed, unembellished depiction of nature in this case. Realism rejects imaginative idealization in favor of a close observation of outward appearances. Artist captured sunny atmosphere and summertime in this work when nature is flourishing in best possible forms, shapes and colors. Information about artist...

Beautifully executed mid century landscape of the Italian Alps Lago di Landro with sailboat and reflecting Dolomites mountains on the water. Circa 1950. S...

Real Socialism,Moscow,1970,Russia,Orange,Men at Work,Propaganda VIKTOR A. KONOVALOV (Uidol, Vladimir region 1912 – Moscow 1995) Russian painter and gr...

Oil on canvas by Roger Chapelain-Midy (1904-1992), France, 1956. The Pool. Measurements : with frame: 77x98 cm - 30.3x38.6 inches, without frame: 60x81 cm - 23.6x31.9 inches, 25P format. Signed 'Chapelain Midy' and autographed "For Peter, in memory of the summer 56" in the lower left (see photo). About Chapelain-Midy : Roger Chapelain, known as Chapelain-Midy was born on August 24, 1904 in Paris. Born as Chapelain, he will add the name of the second husband of his mother. His vocation as a painter is early. Very young, he went to the Louvre to copy the paintings of the great masters. In 1926, he enrols at the Colarossi Academy. Charles Picart-Ledoux is a teacher there and gives him friendly advices. In 1927, at age 19, he makes his first sending to the Salon d'Automne. He carries out advertising work for some income that allows him to ensure his daily life. He then exhibits at the Salon des Indépendants and at the Salon des Tuileries from 1929. It is in 1930 that he makes his first exhibition at the gallery Drouant, rue de Rennes in Paris. He wins the Prix des Muses, awarded by a jury of painters and writers, that allows him to discover the Italy of the Renaissance. Then he travels to Spain, Holland, Belgium and United Kingdom. In 1934, the City of Paris and the French State made their first purchases, inaugurating a long series of acquisitions. In 1935 he exhibited at the Bernheim Gallery. He gets married that same year and settles rue Lhomond in the 5th arrondissement of Paris where he lived for the rest of his life. In 1937, he exhibits at the Venice Biennale. He wins the Carnegie Award. He makes his first decorations: Théâtre du Palais de Chaillot, pavilion of Syria and Lebanon at the International Exhibition with Jean Picard Ledoux...

Harvesting. 1956. Cardboard, oil, 23x33 cm Zeberins Indrikis Born 1882. 30. 08 – 1969. 18. 05 Latvian painter, book illustrator, cartoon illustrator Zeberins got a bi...

Gorgeous mid century portrait of Mary with stoic expression in nocturnal setting. Unsigned. Condition: Good. Presented in rustic gilt-ton...

Stately portrait of a Filipino woman wearing indigenous clothing by Antonio Dumlao (Filipino, 1912-1983). Signed and dated "Dumlao 51" in the lower righ...

Stately portrait of a Filipino man wearing indigenous clothing by Antonio Gonzales Dumlao (Filipino, 1912-1983). Signed and dated "Dumlao 51" in the lower right corner. Presented in a wood frame with a brown mat and glass. Image size: 22"H x 16"W. Paper has yellowed. On request we can have the paper cleaned and brightened. Antonio Dumlao (1912-1983) was born in Intramuros, Manila and graduated from the School of Fine Arts at the University of the Philippines in 1923. He began his career in the arts at the Antonio Garcia...

Highly detailed rendering of tropical blue birds in lush, green landscape. Artist signed bottom right corner, Nuch or Huch. Unframed. Image size, 10.125"H x 8"L.

Pierre de Clausade (1910-1976) La Mare Nièvre France 20th Century, Post-War, French River Landscape Seascape Painting. Unique Original, Oil on canvas, signed on the lower left. A v...

Pierre de Clausade (1910-1976) Sur le Cote, Bretagne 20th Century, Post-War, French Landscape Seascape Painting Oil on canvas, Signed on the lower right Height 54cm x width 73cm (21 ...