Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 16

Morris Kantor
1927 Oil Painting Eiffel Tower Paris American Modernist Wpa Artist Morris Kantor

1927

$18,000
£13,683.85
€15,973.55
CA$25,273.22
A$28,673.01
CHF 15,014.18
MX$353,748.29
NOK 186,172.77
SEK 178,131.62
DKK 119,147.68
Shipping
Retrieving quote...
The 1stDibs Promise:
Authenticity Guarantee,
Money-Back Guarantee,
24-Hour Cancellation

About the Item

Morris Kantor New York (1896 - 1974) Paris from the Ile St. Louis, 1927 (view of Eiffel Tower) Oil painting on canvas Hand Signed lower left. Provenance: Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution ( bears label verso) Size: 20 3/4"H x 28 1/8"W (sight), 28.75 "H x 36"W (framed) Morris Kantor (Belarusian: Морыс Кантор) (1896-1974) was a Russian Empire-born American painter based in the New York City area. 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, 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. He married fellow artist Martha Ryther (1896–1981). He taught at the League from 1936 to 1972, until his illness prevented him from continuing to teach. In addition to his downtown Manhattan studio adjacent to Union Square, he also maintained a studio on Cape Cod in Wellfleet, Massachusetts. Like many American artists, in the 1920s he also spent time working in Paris, where his circle included sculptor Isamu Noguchi among others. The 1930s found him in the position of supervisor of the Federal Art Project Easel Painting Project in Rockland County, New York. In the 1940s some of his summers were spent in Monhegan, Maine. In the 1960s, Kantor exhibited his work at the Bertha Schaefer Gallery, New York, NY. He was active in sketching and drawing through the early 1970s, until shortly before his death. He died at the age of 77, after battling a two-year illness. Kantor's work is on display in many prominent museums, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Hirshhorn Museum. Awards and honors Logan Medal of the Art Institute of Chicago, 1931 Temple Medal of the University of Illinois, 1951 Active in both the Public Works of Art Program (PWAP): A federal New Deal program designed to support artists. and the Works Progress Administration or Work Projects Administration (WPA): He was counted amongst the American Scene and Regionalist painters who focused on scenes of rural life. These painters used a naturalistic style that romanticized life away from industrial settings. Some other well-known artists of this movement are Thomas Hart Benton, Grant Wood, and John Steuart Curry. He was also a proponent of Social Realism, focused on issues of social, racial, and economic injustice and hardship. Artists Jacob Lawrence, Romare Bearden, Reginald Marsh, and Dorothea Lange were all part of the Social Realism movement. During its eight years of operation, the WPA would include within its ranks such iconic artists as Adolph Gottlieb, William Gropper, Philip Guston, Morris Kantor, Lee Krasner, Louise Nevelson, Diego Rivera, Mark Rothko, Ben Shahn, the Soyers (Isaac, Moses, and Raphael), and many other Jewish artists. Today Kantor's work can be found in such institutions as: the Whitney Museum of American Art, NY; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY; the Museum of Modern Art, NY; the Art Institute of Chicago; and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Source: Peter Falk, Who Was Who in American Art His work is in a current show, Alone Together: Encounters in American Realism at the Westmoreland Museum of American Art. The exhibition includes major magic realist and American scene paintings from the collection of Jason Schoen, one of the most important holdings of such work in private hands. Including George Tooker. Grant Wood, Morris Kantor, Pavel Tchelitchew and Thomas Hart Benton.‏
  • Creator:
    Morris Kantor (1896 - 1974, Russian)
  • Creation Year:
    1927
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 28.75 in (73.03 cm)Width: 36 in (91.44 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Surfside, FL
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU38210347552

More From This Seller

View All
1930 Oil Painting Sea Side Sailboats American Modernist WPA Artist Morris Kantor
By Morris Kantor
Located in Surfside, FL
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...
Category

1930s American Modern Landscape Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Modernist Oil Painting George Schwacha Carnival Circus Big Top Ferris Wheel WPA
By George Schwacha Jr
Located in Surfside, FL
Hand signed lower left corner Oil on masonite Dimensions: Frame H 18.25" x W 22.25". Sight H 11.25" x W 15.25 This is a great scene, vintage Americana. Possibly Coney Island in Brook...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Masonite, Oil

Modernist Oil Painting George Schwacha Brooklyn Street Scene Fruit Market WPA
By George Schwacha Jr
Located in Surfside, FL
Hand signed lower left corner Oil on masonite Dimensions: Frame H 18.25" x W 22.25". Sight H 11.25" x W 15.25 This is a great scene, vintage Americana. Possibly Crown Heights in Broo...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Masonite, Oil

1972 Gestural Oil Painting Boat in Harbor Figural Abstraction Raoul Middleman
By Raoul Middleman
Located in Surfside, FL
Raoul Middleman (born 1935 in Baltimore, Maryland) is an American painter. Middleman has been a member of the Maryland Institute College of Art faculty since 1961. American University Museum at the Katzen Center has described Middleman as a "Baltimore maestro [whose] nudes are not pretty—they are sagging, dimpled, and real. His cityscapes reveal the underbelly of post-industrial rot, his narrative paintings give contemporary life to his personal obsessions. They are intelligent, messy, and utterly masterful." From an interview with RM "I was doing abstract art. Then Roy Lichtenstein came around, and I wanted to be current. I remember Grace Hartigan said, “You’ve gotta go to New York, seize destiny by the hand.” My friend Jon Schueler took my slides up to Eleanor Ward, who had the Stable Gallery. My Pop art paintings were discovered. I moved to New York into Malcolm Morley’s old loft down on South Street. Agnes Martin was upstairs... People who interest me come from different quarters. I knew guys around Schueler, like B.H. Friedman. But I also knew the Pop world pretty well – Al Hansen, Richard Artschwager, Lichtenstein. I became friends with Raoul Hague...
Category

1970s American Modern Landscape Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Large Modernist Oil Painting 1940s, Judaica Hasidic Shtetl Wagon Driver WPA Era
By Emanuel Glicenstein Romano
Located in Surfside, FL
Genre: Modern Subject: Landscape with figure of horse, driver and wagon Medium: Oil Surface: wood Board EMANUEL ROMANO Rome, Italy, b. 1897, d. 1984 Emanuel Glicen Romano was born in Rome, September 23, 1897. His father Henryk Glicenstein was a sculptor and was living in Rome with his wife Helena (born Hirszenberg) when Emanuel was born. His father obtained Italian citizenship and adopted the name Enrico. Emanuel was brought up in Italy, Switzerland, Germany, England and Poland. In 1926 Emanuel Glicenstein Romano and his father sailed for New York. They briefly visited Chicago. Romano's sister, Beatrice, and mother only joined them in New York years later. Romano changed his name on his arrival to America and some have erroneously speculated that this was to avoid antisemitic discrimination. In truth, as the son of a highly-regarded artist, Romano changed his name to ensure that any success or recognition he would later attain, would be the result of nothing other than his own merit as an artist, and not on account of his father's fame. In 1936 Romano was worked for the WPA Federal Art Project creating murals. ( there were many jewish artists active with in the WPA period. notably Chaim Gross, Ben Shahn, Isaac and Moses Soyer, Abraham Rattner and many others. During and immediately after World War II, Romano created a series of allegorical works depicting graphic holocaust images that were held closely by the family until after his passing. One of these works is now on permanent display in the Florida Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg Florida. Emanuel's father died in 1942 in a car accident before they could realize their shared dream of visiting Israel. In 1944 Romano, having completed his degree at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and the Art Institute of Chicago, began teaching at the City College of New York. Romano moved to Safed, Israel in 1953 and established an art museum in his father's memory, the Glicenstein Museum. COLLECTIONS Indianapolis Museum of Art Metropolitan Museum of Art Boston Fine Arts Museum Fogg Museum Musée Nacional de France Recently his work has been added to the Florida Holocaust Museum collection. His notable works include his holocaust themed allegorical paintings as well as portraits of Marianne Moore, his father and William Carlos Williams...
Category

1930s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Bathers at the Quarry 1940s American Modernist Oil Painting WPA era
By Theresa Berney Loew
Located in Surfside, FL
Swimmers and sun tanners at the local watering hole. Her birth name was Theresa Berney. At the time of her passing she was known as Theresa Loew. Birth place: Baltimore artist, blo...
Category

1940s American Modern Landscape Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

You May Also Like

Summer Resort in Michigan -Modernist Mid-Century Saugatuck Oil Painting
Located in Marco Island, FL
Summer Resort in Michigan is an exceptional work painted by the Chicago Modernist, William Schwartz. He studied at the Art Institute of Chicago shortly ...
Category

1940s American Modern Landscape Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Fish Story oil painting by Williams Charles Palmer
Located in Hudson, NY
This painting is illustrated in the Catalogue of the 1945 Encyclopedia Britannica Collection of Contemporary American Painting, p.84. Written and edited by Grace Pagano. "Painting ...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"Cruise Ship Rolls In" Mid 20th Century American Contemporary Modern Realism
Located in New York, NY
"Cruise Ship Rolls In" Mid 20th Century American Contemporary Modern Realism This is one sensational painting. And we can even identify the artist, but can't find anything about the...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"Glassblowers" American Scene Social Realism Mid-20th Century New York City WPA
By Ernest Fiene
Located in New York, NY
"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...
Category

1940s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

"History of US Postal Service" American Scene Social Realism WPA Modern Chicago
By Harold Haydon
Located in New York, NY
"History of US Postal Service" American Scene Social Realism WPA Modern Chicago Harold Haydon "History of the U.S. Postal Service" 21 x 25 1/2 inches O...
Category

1930s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Halleluja, A story
Located in Greenwich, CT
Initially read as archaic and simple, Halleluja is a complex celebratory spring painting full of color, imagination, and humor and combines many elements seen throughout her later ca...
Category

1940s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil