Alan Witney

Alan Witney, Kentish Weald From The North Downs, Oil Painting

c. 1965

This mid-19th-century oil painting by Danish-American artist Joachim Ferdinand Richardt (1819-1895) depicts a congregation observing a river baptism, probably in the Mississippi River. In 2009, at President Obama’s Inauguration luncheon, a panoramic view of Niagara was selected as the backdrop to his speech. It’s a breathtaking image, capturing the sublimity of the American Falls and the Horseshoe Falls in all their iconic majesty. The ‘Maid-of-the-Mist’, negotiates the rapids, a mere speck within a broad expanse of water. While beyond, a colossal sheet of spray is sharply illuminated through passing clouds. It was painted by the son of a bookbinder, a humble Danish artist who travelled extensively across the United States to document its nature, buildings and civilization. Admired in his own lifetime, this unassuming adventurer produced scores of resplendent vistas but also numerous vignettes documenting everyday activities. Joachim Ferdinand Richardt was initially destined to become a carpenter but, thankfully, enrolled at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts where he studied under three distinguished masters. Blessed with a skill for drawing, he was awarded medals and in 1839 began exhibiting at the prestigious Charlottenborg Spring Exhibition. In 1841, the Danish Royal Family acquired one of his works and six years later granted him a five-year stipend. Richardt trained at a time of exceptional creative output whereby Denmark was developing a clearer identity. Dubbed ‘National Romanticism’, artists were extolling their country’s natural beauty, while also celebrating humble folk life within rural environs. Stylistically, their work is somewhat comparable with German Romanticism...

This early 20th-century autumnal oil painting by British artist Daniel Sherrin (1869-1940) depicts a rugged heath landscape under the glow of a setting sun. Sherrin was an accomplished painter of landscapes and maritime subjects. He spent the majority of his life in Seasalter, near Whitstable in Kent, where he became a local celebrity of repute. His father, John Sherrin RI RWS (1819-1896), was a painter of delicate still lifes in watercolour and trained by the distinguished William Henry Hunt (1790-1864). However, it’s unlikely that he provided any early tuition for his son as he actively dissuaded the young lad from entering the profession. As such, Sherrin was instead apprenticed to Peter Moore...

This early 20th-century oil painting by British artist Henry Hillingford Parker (1858-1930) depicts a Highland loch with cattle, track and mountain. Parker adored the natural world ...

This spirited 19th-century oil painting by Swedish artist Victor Forssell (1846-1931) depicts a river landscape with cottages and figure. Painted in 1...

This is a painting from my architectural series of works. I love this Richard Neutra house and enjoyed painting it and adding my style with sun loungers and various cacti and a limit...

Morris Kantor, American, 1896-1974 Seaside View, 1930 Hand signed M. Kantor and dated 1930 lower right Oil on canvas 22 1/4 x 19 1/4 inches 24 1/2 x 21 (frame) Morris Kantor (Belarusian: Морыс Кантор) (1896-1974) was a Russian Empire-born American painter based in the New York City area. This is a beautiful boat scene with a river or lake probably on Long Island. Born in Minsk on April 15, 1896, Kantor was brought to the United States in 1906 at age 10, in order to join his father who had previously relocated to the states. He made his home in West Nyack, New York for much of his life, and died there in 1974. He produced a prolific and diverse body of work, much of it in the form of paintings, which is distinguished by its stylistic variety over his long career. Perhaps his most widely recognized work is the iconic painting "Baseball At Night", which depicts an early night baseball game played under artificial electric light. Although he is best known for his paintings executed in a realistic manner, over the course of his life he also spent time working in styles such as Cubism and Futurism, (influenced by the Art Deco movement) and produced a number of abstract or non-figural works. A famous cubist, Futurist, painting of his "Orchestra" brought over 500,000$ at Christie's auction house in 2018. Kantor found employment in the Garment District upon his arrival in New York City, and was not able to begin formal art studies until 1916, when he began courses at the now-defunct Independent School of Art. He studied landscape painting with Homer Boss (1882-1956). In 1928, after returning to New York City from a year in Paris, Kantor developed a style in which he combined Realism with Fantasy, often taking the streets of New York as his subject matter. He did some moody Surrealist Nude paintings and fantasy scenes. In the 1940's he turned towards figural studies. Later in his career, Kantor himself was an instructor at the Cooper Union and also at the Art Students League of New York in the 1940s, and taught many pupils who later became famous artists in their own right, such as Knox Martin, Robert Rauschenberg, Sigmund Abeles and Susan Weil...

The Grand Canal, Venice Alvarez ( Mid 20th Century) signed oil on canvas, framed framed: 25 x 33 inches canvas: 20 x 28 inches provenance: private collection, France condition: very ...

Artist: Piry Rame, Czech/American (1921 - 2001) Title: Harbor Year: 1987 Medium: Oil on Two Joined Canvases, signed l.r. Size: 48 in. x 60 in. (121.92 cm x 152.4 cm) Piry Rame was born in Czechoslovakia and came to the US when she was 16. She graduated Hunter College and took up painting after graduation. She then studied at the Art Students League and at Pratt Institute. She later studied under Leo Manso...