Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 8

Leon Kelly
Bathers, Modernist Nudes, Oil on Canvas, Signed and Titled

About the Item

"Bathers" by Philadelphia born modernist painter Leon Kelly, is a fantasy nude scene of two female figures, one with towel in hand, one only depicted as a portrait within the painting. The 16" x 20" oil on canvas is signed in the lower right, as well as signed and titled on verso. Provenance: Private collection, New Hope, Pennsylvania Leon Kelly (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1901 - 1982) was a student and teacher at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, studying under controversial teacher and modernist Arthur B. Carles who greatly impacted and influenced Kelly's career and painting style. Having been awarded the prestigious Cresson Traveling Fellowship, he was able to study in Europe and gained much recognition in the Paris art world. His striking modernist, surrealist, cubist, and abstract paintings in figure genre, landscapes, and still lives have been widely exhibited throughout the United States, including Philadelphia and New York and can be found in numerous national and international, permanent collections, including but not limited to the Philadelphia Museum of Art and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Kelly was a regular exhibitor at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Annuals. In the 1920's Kelly created mostly paintings of Cubist style. By the 1940's he moved towards Surrealism and in 1942 earned himself a one-man exhibition by Julien Levy, the most preeminent gallery dealer for European Surrealist painters and the Avant Garde in the 1930's and 40's. Levy was a strong advocate of Kelly's work, exhibited his paintings many times throughout the years, and the two of them remained in close contact even after the closing of the gallery in 1948. Leon Kelly taught at the Academy from 1961 - 1973 and died at age 81, living in isolation on an island off the coast of New Jersey.
  • Creator:
    Leon Kelly (1901-1982, American)
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 21 in (53.34 cm)Width: 25 in (63.5 cm)Depth: 2 in (5.08 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
    The painting is in excellent and original condition, it has been cleaned and varnished. The frame shows signs of wear. Additional shipping options available upon request.
  • Gallery Location:
    Doylestown, PA
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU140227087102
More From This SellerView All
  • Venus Retrieved from the Hands of Death, Surrealist, Nudes, 1959, Oil on Canvas
    By Leon Kelly
    Located in Doylestown, PA
    "Venus Retrieved from the Hands of Death" by Philadelphia born modernist painter Leon Kelly, is a fantasy nude group scene of one female and two male figures. The 49" x 36" oil on ca...
    Category

    1950s Surrealist Nude Paintings

    Materials

    Canvas, Oil

  • Woman at Basin, Picasso Style Portrait of a Female Nude, American Modernist
    By Leon Kelly
    Located in Doylestown, PA
    "Woman by Basin" by Philadelphia born modernist and surrealist painter Leon Kelly, is a framed and matted portrait of a female nude. The 22.5" x 17.75" mixed media on artist board i...
    Category

    1920s American Modern Nude Paintings

    Materials

    Mixed Media

  • Secundo Congreso Feminino, Large Canvas Surrealist Female Group Portrait, 1969
    By Leon Kelly
    Located in Doylestown, PA
    "Secundo Congreso Feminino " by Philadelphia born modernist painter Leon Kelly, is a large scale, surrealist painting of a group gathering showing women in the nude. The 60" x 42" oi...
    Category

    1960s Surrealist Portrait Paintings

    Materials

    Canvas, Oil

  • Spring , Modernist Native American Ceremonial Scene and Cultural Commentary
    Located in Doylestown, PA
    "Spring" is a 25 x 30 inches, oil on canvas painting by American modernist and surrealist, female artist Peter Miller. The work is signed and titled on verso, and painted in a vibran...
    Category

    1940s American Modern Landscape Paintings

    Materials

    Canvas, Oil

  • Self Portrait, Oil on Board, Signed and Dated, 1925, American Modernist
    By Leon Kelly
    Located in Doylestown, PA
    "Self Portrait" by Philadelphia born modernist painter Leon Kelly, is a moody and atmospheric self portrait of the artist in younger years at age 24. The 18" x 16" oil on board, fram...
    Category

    1920s American Modern Portrait Paintings

    Materials

    Oil, Board

  • Winter Horses and Sleigh, Snow Landscape of North American Frontier and Pioneers
    Located in Doylestown, PA
    "Winter, Horses and Sleigh" is a 30 x 50 original oil on canvas, snowy landscape by Pennsylvania painter C F Witman. The subject of the painting is of the North American/Canadian fro...
    Category

    19th Century American Realist Landscape Paintings

    Materials

    Canvas, Oil

You May Also Like
  • Queen of the Night, narrative, partial nude figure, red colors, ethnic fabrics
    By Audrey Anastasi
    Located in Brooklyn, NY
    ABOUT the artist: Audrey Frank Anastasi is a prolific feminist artist, working in painting, drawing, collage, mixed media, & printmaking. She is also curator, gallerist, educator and arts advocate. Most of Ms. Anastasi's figurative works are painted with her non-dominant left hand. She has created large bodies of works of birds, animals and birch trees. She has had 20 solo & 200 group shows. Her "ref-u-gee" series will be shown in 2020 at Medgar Evers College in collaboration with the Valentine Museum of Art, Brooklyn. Accompanying the show will be a limited-edition monograph w/ over 180 images and a foreword by Phyllis Braff. Ms. Anastasi's collage series was exhibited at Welancora Gallery, Brooklyn, in May, 2019. In 2018, ten paintings were exhibited in "Painting to Survive," curated by Yale critic Jonathan Weinberg. Book and catalog publications include "Stations of the Cross", SPQR press, BREUCKELEN magazine, “Audrey Frank Anastasi”, catalog essay Cindy Nemser, and "Collage," essay by Giancarlo T. Roma. Public art includes a portrait of Jo Davidson...
    Category

    2010s American Modern Figurative Paintings

    Materials

    Canvas, Oil

  • Smash or Pass
    Located in New York, NY
    2023, Oil on canvas
    Category

    2010s American Modern Figurative Paintings

    Materials

    Canvas, Oil

  • Rare Modernist Oil Painting Line Drawing Nude Man Louis Stettner
    By Louis Stettner
    Located in Surfside, FL
    Signed and Dated Modern Line Drawing Oil Painting of Nude Man. Louis Stettner (November 7, 1922 – October 13, 2016) was an American photographer of the 20th century whose work included streetscapes, portraits and architectural images of New York and Paris. His work has been highly regarded because of its humanity and capturing the life and reality of the people and streets. Starting in 1947, Stettner photographed the changes in the people, culture, and architecture of both cities. Stettner also spent significant time sculpting and painting, as well as mixing his work and “painting” on some of his photographic images. He continued to photograph New York and Paris up until his death. Louis Stettner was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Austrian immigrant parents where he was one of four children. His father was a cabinet maker, and Louis learned the trade when young, using the money he earned to support his growing love of photography. He decides to be a photographer after seeing photographs by Alfred Stieglitz and Weegee. He was given a box camera as a child, and his love affair with photography began. His family went on trips to Manhattan and visited museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where his love of art began. At 18, in 1940, Stettner enlisted in the United States army and became a combat photographer in Europe for the Signal Corps. After a brief stint in Europe he was sent to New Guinea, the Philippines, and Japan. Back from the war he joined the Photo League in New York. Through the Photo League’s exhibits, Stettner was further exposed to the work of Weegee, Edward Weston, and Lewis Hine. Stettner visited Paris in 1946 and in 1947 moved there. From 1947 to 1949 he studied at the "Institut des Hautes Études Cinématographiques" in Paris and received a Bachelor of Arts in Photography & Cinema. He went back and forth between New York and Paris for almost two decades and finally settled permanently in Saint-Ouen, near Paris, in 1990. Stettner still frequently returned to New York. Stettner's professional work in Paris began with capturing life in the post-war recovery. He captured the everyday lives of his subjects. In the tradition of the Photo League, he wanted to investigate the bonds that connect people to one another. In 1947 he was asked by the same Photo League to organize an exhibition of French photographers in New York. He gathered the works of some of the greatest photographers of the era, including Robert Doisneau, Brassaï, Edouard Boubat, Izis Bidermanas, and Willy Ronis. The show was a big success and was largely reviewed in the annual issue of U.S. Camera. Stettner had begun a series of regular meetings with Brassaï who was a great mentor and had significant influence on his work. In 1949, Stettner had his first exhibition at the "Salon des Indépendants" at the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. In 1951 his work was included in the famous Subjektive Fotografie exhibition in Germany. During the 1950s he free-lanced for Time magazine, Life, Fortune, and Du (Germany). While in Paris he reconnected with Paul Strand, who had also left New York because of the political intolerance of the McCarthy era—Strand had been a founder of the Photo League that would be blacklisted and then banned during those years. In the 1970s Stettner spent more time in New York City, where he taught at Brooklyn College, Queens College, and Cooper Union. In his own social realist work, Stettner focused on documenting the lives of the working class in both Paris and New York. He felt that the cities belong to the people who live there, not to tourists or visitors. His upbringing caused him to take great care in capturing the simple human dignity of the working class. He also captured noteworthy architectural images of both cities, including bridges, buildings, and monuments. Stettner produced well-known silver gelatin prints in fine images, including: Aubervilliers, Brooklyn Promenade...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary American Modern Figurative Paintings

    Materials

    Canvas, Oil

  • "Morning" Nude Couple in Bed - Figurative Composition in Oil on Canvas
    Located in Soquel, CA
    Delicate and expressive depiction of a nude couple by Byron Richard Rodarmel (American, 1932-2007). A couple is intertwined on a bed, rendered in a soft palette of peach, yellow, pin...
    Category

    Mid-20th Century American Modern Figurative Paintings

    Materials

    Canvas, Oil

  • Three Poses - Nude Figure Study by Patricia Gren Hayes
    By Patricia Gren Hayes
    Located in Soquel, CA
    Three Poses - Nude Figure Study by Patricia Gren Hayes Three nude women serving as models in an art class, showing different expressions by American painter, Patricia Gren Hayes (Ca...
    Category

    1970s American Modern Figurative Paintings

    Materials

    Canvas, Oil

  • Mid Century Sitting Nude Figurative
    By Elmer Albritton
    Located in Soquel, CA
    Mid Century figurative painting of a pensive sitting nude figure with moody, mid-century color palette in the background. Attributed to Elmer S. Albritton, unsigned (American, 1922-...
    Category

    1960s American Modern Nude Paintings

    Materials

    Canvas, Oil, Cardboard

Recently Viewed

View All