Conté Paintings

A colorful self-portrait from Ben Fenske, staring at the viewer straight-on. Hues of red dominate. Unframed. Ben Fenske (b. 1978) although a native of Minnesota, and has been worki...

Graphite and conté crayon on paper Signed and dated, l.r. This artwork is offered by ClampArt, located in New York City. Mark Beard, born in 1956 in Salt Lake City, now lives in Ne...

Jean La Forgue (French 1901-1975) signed watercolour on paper, unframed painting: 8.5 x 10.5 inches provenance: the artists estate, France condition: very good and sound condition; ...

An early work on paper, by American Impressionist painter, Ben Fenske. It's rare to see a drawing like this from Fenske, especially of a self portrait. Fenske uses classical draftin...

Conté crayon on paper Signed and dated, l.r. This artwork is offered by ClampArt, located in New York City. Mark Beard, born in 1956 in Salt Lake City, now lives in New York City. ...

A portrait of a male head, in profile by BenFenske. The artist uses a variety of colors to convey a naturalist impression. Artist Bio Ben Fenske (b. 1978) although a native of Minn...

Boleslaw Cybis (1895-1957). Taos (Timeless Ritual), Indian Negro Series, 6 of 18. Conte on paper, sheet measures 18 x 23 inches. Small tear in sheet left margin. Evidence of alteration of image lower left where writing was probably removed before photographs require to create lithograph. The area has oxidized consequently. Signed by the artist some years after its creation in blue ink, lower left, ca. 1950's. the sheet is hinged at top margin, not glued down to backing board. Provenance: Cybis Archive. This original drawing was created in 1939-40 during an extensive visit to the Southwest US. The artist created 18 portraits and titled the series "Indian Negro Serie". Of the 18 images, 9 were selected to be included in a limited edition lithographic series some 30 years after creation. 1000 editions were printed. This is the original drawing upon which one of the images is based, and is thus unique. Of the 18 original drawings, 2 are owned by the polish government, 5 are in our collection and the other 11 are whereabouts unknown. The artist and his wife opened a porcelain factory in the 1950's, Cybis Studios. The only non-porcelain retail offering from the Cybis studio was a 1970s art issue called the Folio One. This was a limited edition reproduction series taken from nine conté drawings of Native Americans made by Boleslaw Cybis in 1939. Conté is the name of a type of crayon made of compressed charcoal or graphite mixed with wax or clay. The artist Georges Seurat was particularly fond of using conté for his drawings. Boleslaw Cybis was fascinated by the Native American (then typically referred to as American Indian) culture and peoples. This may seem odd when you consider that much of his ceramic-based works were distinctly Rococo and/or Old World European in style….a pretty stark contrast, I’d say! But Cybis was nothing if not eclectic in his tastes. The originals were reproduced as color lithographs, in an edition of 1000, in 1970. This meant “1000 of each individual print.” At present its original issue pricing is unknown, but a Spring 1972 dealer price list shows the full set of nine at $500. Individual prints could also be purchased at either $50 (for Comanche, Shoshone, or Apache) or $65 (for any of the other six)… representing a $40 savings when buying the entire folio at once versus singly. The Spring 1981 price list is the final one that shows the Folio One set for sale, still at the same price ($500) as it was a decade earlier. Individual prints are not available on that list. According to the 1979 Cybis catalog text “Each of the 12″ x 20″ prints is hand-numbered on heavy Beckett rag-content paper, with a specially designed validating hallmark in the lower right-hand corner, and carries an accompanying page with a brief tribal history.” The hallmark is blind-embossed, not surface printed. However, the Spring 1972 dealer price list cited above described the prints as being 17″ x 23″ in size. Checking past auction listings for the set, the actual prints are indeed 17″ x 23″, which means that the 12″ x 20″ size probably refers to the image area. The overall size of the set’s burlap-covered box is 18.5″ x 24.5″. These nine portraits represent seven different tribes: the Comanche, Shoshone, Taos, Apache, Hopi, Mohave, and Yuma. A bit of trivia is that only two of those tribes (Apache and Shoshone) were featured within the modern studio’s North American Indians porcelain...

A colorful sketch of a female bust, in the style of contemporary academic realism. Artist Bio Ben Fenske (b. 1978) although a native of Minnesota, a...

This is a drawing by James Childs (1945-2020) offered by CLAMP in New York City. Nick Xylouris 2004 Signed and titled, recto Graphite and Conté crayon on paper 12 x 8.25 inches

A fine French academic study sketch on paper of a classical head. The work is unsigned but very much in the style of the period and its early exponents such as Jacques-Louis David. ...

This drawing studied of Van Gogh's self-portrait at his Solo exhibition " Poets and Lovers" in National Gallery, London, 2024. Shizico Yi learned her craft in drawings from old mast...

'Portrait of a Gentleman in Montmartre Paris', pastel and charcoal on paper, Japanese School (1972). This accomplished portrait depicts an older gentleman seated in Place du Tertre, ...