Leon Kelly

Landscape with Trees

1929

Arctic Light-Orange Sun Unsigned Gouache on Japanese fibrous paper Series: Tundra Paintings Exhibited: Karl Zerbe, Gouaches of the Artic Nordness Gallery, (Madison Avenue, NY) Feb 3 through Feb 23, 1958 Cat. No. 12 (label with work, see photo...

Jersey Shore III Casein on Masonite, 1967 Signed lower right (see photo) Initialed, dated and titled verso Provenance: Estate of the artist Virginia Dehn (the artist's widow) Dehn Qu...

Park Scene (Chelsea, Manhattan) Oil on artist's board, c. 1947-49 Signed lower right (see photo) Provenance: Estate of the artist Dehn Heirs Condition: Good, needs a light cleaning Original wormy chestnut frame Painting size: 9 1/4 x 12 inches Frame size: 14 1/4 x 17 inches One of the earliest know Virginia Dehn paintings after her marriage to Adolf in 1947. The lived in Chelsea at 433 West 21st St. Inscription by artist verso: Virginia Dehn 443 W. 21 St. New York City V.70 Virginia Dehn From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Virginia Dehn Virginia Dehn in her studio in Santa Fe Virginia Dehn (née Engleman) (October 26, 1922 – July 28, 2005) was an American painter and printmaker. Her work was known for its interpretation of natural themes in almost abstract forms. She exhibited in shows and galleries throughout the U.S. Her paintings are included in many public collections. Life Dehn was born in Nevada, Missouri on October 26, 1922.] Raised in Hamden, Connecticut, she studied at Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri before moving to New York City. She met the artist Adolf Dehn while working at the Art Students League. They married in November 1947. The two artists worked side by side for many years, part of a group of artists who influenced the history of 20th century American art. Their Chelsea brownstone was a place where artists, writers, and intellectuals often gathered. Early career Virginia Dehn studied art at Stephens College in Missouri before continuing her art education at the Traphagen School of Design, and, later, the Art Students League, both located in New York City. In the mid-1940s while working at the Associated American Artists gallery, she met lithographer and watercolorist Adolf Dehn. Adolf was older than Virginia, and he already enjoyed a successful career as an artist. The two were married in 1947 in a private ceremony at Virginia's parents house in Wallingford, Connecticut. Virginia and Adolf Dehn The Dehns lived in a Chelsea brownstone on West 21st Street where they worked side by side. They often hosted gatherings of other influential artists and intellectuals of the 20th century. Among their closest friends were sculptor Federico Castellón and his wife Hilda; writer Sidney Alexander and his wife Frances; artists Sally and Milton Avery; Ferol and Bill Smith, also an artist; and Lily and Georges Schreiber, an artist and writer. Bob Steed and his wife Gittel, an anthropologist, were also good friends of the Dehns. According to friend Gretchen Marple Pracht, "Virginia was a glamorous and sophisticated hostess who welcomed visitors to their home and always invited a diverse crowd of guests..." Despite their active social life, the two were disciplined artists, working at their easels nearly daily and taking Saturdays to visit galleries and view new work. The Dehns made annual trips to France to work on lithographs at the Atelier Desjobert in Paris. Virginia used a bamboo pen to draw directly on the stone for her lithographs, which often depicted trees or still lifes. The Dehns' other travels included visits to Key West, Colorado, Mexico, and countries such as Greece, Haiti, Afghanistan, and India. Dehn's style of art differend greatly from that of her husband, though the two sometimes exhibited together. A friend of the couple remarked, "Adolf paints landscapes; Virginia paints inscapes." Virginia Dehn generally painted an interior vision based on her feelings for a subject, rather than a literal rendition of it.] Many of her paintings consist of several layers, with earlier layers showing through. She found inspiration in the Abstract Expressionism movement that dominated the New York and Paris art scenes in the 1950s. Some of her favorite artists included Adolf Gottileb, Rothko, William Baziotes, Pomodoro, and Antonio Tapies. Dehn most often worked with bold, vibrant colors in large formats. Her subjects were not literal, but intuitive. She learned new techniques of lithography from her husband Adolf, and did her own prints. Texture was very important to her in her work. Her art was influenced by a variety of sources. In the late 1960s she came across a book that included photographs of organic patterns of life as revealed under a microscope. These images inspired her to change the direction of some of her paintings. Other influences on Dehn's art came from ancient and traditional arts of various cultures throughout the world, including Persian miniatures, illuminated manuscripts, Dutch still life painting, Asian art, ancient Egyptian artifacts...

Jersey Shore III Casein on Masonite, 1967 Signed lower right (see photo) Initialed, dated and titled verso Provenance: Estate of the artist Virginia Dehn (the artist's widow) Dehn Quests Created on location on the Jersey Shore. The Jersey Shore was the main playground for thousand to escape the summer heat of New York. This small painting shows Dehn's mastery of patterning color to depict movement and recreation. Part of a suite of paintings done on this theme. Within a year of it's creation, Dehn dies from a heart attack. Casein on Masonite Condition: Excellent Image: 6 x 11" Frame: 9 3/8 x 14 1/2" Adolf Dehn, American Watercolorist and Printmaker, 1895-1968 Adolf Dehn was an artist who achieved extraordinary artistic heights, but in a very particular artistic sphere—not so much in oil painting as in watercolor and lithography. Long recognized as a master by serious print collectors, he is gradually gaining recognition as a notable and influential figure in the overall history of American art. In the 19th century, with the invention of the rotary press, which made possible enormous print runs, and the development of the popular, mass-market magazines, newspaper and magazine illustration developed into an artistic realm of its own, often surprisingly divorced from the world of museums and art exhibitions, and today remains surprisingly overlooked by most art historians. Dehn in many regards was an outgrowth of this world, although in an unusual way, since as a young man he produced most of his illustrative work not for popular magazines, such as The Saturday Evening Post, but rather for radical journals, such as The Masses or The Liberator, or artistic “little magazines” such as The Dial. This background established the foundation of his outlook, and led later to his unique and distinctive contribution to American graphic art. If there’s a distinctive quality to his work, it was his skill in introducing unusual tonal and textural effects into his work, particularly in printmaking but also in watercolor. Jackson Pollock seems to have been one of many notable artists who were influenced by his techniques. Early Years, 1895-1922 For an artist largely remembered for scenes of Vienna and Paris, Adolf Dehn’s background was a surprising one. Born in Waterville, Minnesota, on November 22, 1895, Dehn was the descendent of farmers who had emigrated from Germany and homesteaded in the region, initially in a one-room log cabin with a dirt floor. Adolf’s father, Arthur Clark Dehn, was a hunter and trapper who took pride that he had no boss but himself, and who had little use for art. Indeed, during Adolf’s boyhood the walls of his bedroom and the space under his bed were filled with the pelts of mink, muskrats and skunks that his father had killed, skinned and stretched on drying boards. It was Adolf’s mother, Emilie Haas Dehn, a faithful member of the German Lutheran Evangelical Church, who encouraged his interest in art, which became apparent early in childhood. Both parents were ardent socialists, and supporters of Eugene Debs...

This striking 20th-century modernist watercolor by Richard K. Ayers depicts a captivating scene of an old mine and houses in Cortez, Colorado. The artwork features a rich color palette of blue, green, gold, and brown, capturing the rugged beauty of the landscape with a unique, abstract perspective. Presented in a custom frame with all archival materials, the outer dimensions of the piece measure 36 ½ x 30 ½ x ¾ inches, with an image size of 24 ¾ x 18 ¾ inches. About the Artist: Richard K. Ayers (1921–2003) was a talented artist who studied at Miami University...

This stunning gouache painting by Wolfgang Pogzeba (1936-1982) captures the beauty of Acoma Pueblo, New Mexico, depicting a dramatic cliffside landsca...

A Large, Dynamic 1950s Mid-Century Modern Watercolor of Lower Manhattan, New York City by Noted Chicago Artist, Francis Chapin (Am. 1899-1965). The image is watercolor, pastel and c...

This original 1940s grayscale watercolor by Charles Ragland Bunnell captures a semi-abstracted view of the Golden Cycle Mill in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Rendered in subtle blacks and grays, this striking WPA-era landscape melds industrial subject matter with a modernist aesthetic. The piece exemplifies mid-20th-century American regionalism, blending expressive abstraction with historical significance. The painting measures 8 1/8 x 9 5/8 inches (sight size) and is showcased in a custom black frame measuring 18 x 19 ½ x 1 ⅜ inches, making it an elegant addition to any collection of American art or industrial landscapes. The Golden Cycle Mining and Reduction Company was a vital part of Colorado’s early 20th-century mining boom, located in what is now Old Colorado City. Bunnell’s work documents this industrial heritage through a modernist lens, offering a unique narrative of regional development. About the Artist: Charles Ragland Bunnell (1897–1968) was a key figure in Colorado’s art scene and a pioneer of American Modernism and abstraction. Trained at Broadmoor Art Academy, he combined American Scene painting with abstract forms. Bunnell contributed to New Deal art...