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1930s Paintings

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Period: 1930s
Medium: Watercolor
Simka Simkhovitch WPA W/C Painting Gouache American Modernist Bouquet of Flowers
Located in Surfside, FL
Simka Simkhovitch (Russian/American 1893 - 1949) This came with a small grouping from the artist's family, some were hand signed some were not. These were studies for larger paintings. This is a miniature watercolor and gouache vibrant, colorful bouquet of flowers in a vase. Simka Simkhovitch (Симха Файбусович Симхович) (aka Simka Faibusovich Simkhovich) (Novozybkov, Russia May 21, 1885 O.S./June 2, 1885 N.S.—Greenwich, Connecticut February 25, 1949) was a Ukrainian-Russian Jewish artist and immigrant to the United States. He painted theater scenery in his early career and then had several showings in galleries in New York City. Winning Works Progress Administration (WPA) commissions in the 1930s, he completed murals for the post offices in Jackson, Mississippi and Beaufort, North Carolina. His works are in the permanent collections of the Dallas Museum of Art, the National Museum of American Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Born outside Kyiv (Petrograd Ukraine) into a Jewish family who owned a small department store. During a severe case of measles when he was seven, Simcha Simchovitch sketched the views outside his window and decided to become an artist, over his father's objections. Beginning in 1905, he studied at the Grekov Odessa Art School and upon completion of his studies in 1911 received a recommendation to be admitted to the Imperial Academy of Arts. Though he enrolled to begin classes in architecture, painting, and sculpture at the Imperial Academy, he was dropped from the school roster in December because of the quota on the number of Jewish students and drafted into the army. Simchovitch served as a private in the 175th Infantry Regiment Baturyn [ru] until his demobilization in 1912. Re-enrolling in the Imperial Academy, he audited classes. Simka Simkhovitch exhibited paintings and sculptures in 1918 as part of an exhibition of Jewish artists and in 1919 placed 1st in the competition "The Great Russian Revolution" with a painting called "Russian Revolution" which was hung in the State Museum of Revolution. In 1922, Simkha Simkhovitch exhibited at the International Book Fair in Florence (Italian: Fiera Internazionale del Libro di Firenze). In 1924, Simkhovitch came to the United States to make illustrations for Soviet textbooks and decided to immigrate instead. Initially he supported himself by doing commercial art and a few portrait commissions. In 1927, he was hired to paint a screen for a scene in the play "The Command to Love" by Fritz Gottwald and Rudolph Lothar which was playing at the Longacre Theatre on Broadway. Art dealers began clamoring for the screen and Simkhovitch began a career as a screen painter for the theater. Catching the attention of the screenwriter, Ernest Pascal, he worked as an illustrator for Pascal, who then introduced him to gallery owner, Marie Sterner. Simkhovitch's works appeared at the Marie Sterner Gallery beginning with a 1927 exhibit and were repeated the following year. Simkhovitch had an exhibit in 1929 at Sterner's on circus paintings. In 1931, he held a showing of works at the Helen Hackett Gallery, in New York City and later that same year he was one of the featured artists of a special exhibit in San Francisco at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park. The exhibit was coordinated by Marie Sterner and included four watercolors, including one titled "Nudes". He is of the generation of Russian Soviet artists such as Isaac Pailes, Serge Charchoune, Marc Chagall, Chana Orloff, Isaac Ilyich Levitan, and Ossip Zadkine. In 1936, Simkhovitch was selected to complete the mural for the WPA Post office project in Jackson, Mississippi. The mural was hung in the post office and courthouse in 1938 depicted a plantation theme. Painted on the wall behind the judge’s bench, “Pursuits of Life in Mississippi”, a depiction of black workers engaged in manual labor amid scenes of white professionals and socialites, was eventually covered over in later years during renovations due to its stereotypical African American imagery. Simka painted what he thought was typical of Jackson. His impression of pre-civil rights Mississippi was evidently Greek Revival column houses, weeping willow trees, working class families, and the oppression of African Americans. He painted African American men picking cotton, while a white man took account of the harvest and a white judge advised a white family, calling it Pursuits of Life in Mississippi. Though clearly endorsed by the government and initially generally well-received, the mural soon raised concerns with locals as the climate toward racial segregation began to change. The main concern was whether depictions that show African Americans in subjugated societal roles should be featured in a courtroom. The following year, his painting "Holiday" won praise at an exhibition in Lincoln, Nebraska. In 1940, Simkhovitch's second WPA post office project was completed when four murals, "The Cape Lookout Lighthouse and the Orville W. Mail Boat", "The Wreck of the Crissie Wright", "Sand Ponies" and "Canada Geese" were installed in Beaufort, North Carolina. The works were commissioned in 1938 and did not generate the controversy that the Jackson mural had. The main mural is "The Wreck of the Crissie Wright" and depicts a shipwreck which had occurred in Beaufort in 1866. "The Cape Lookout Lighthouse and the Orville W. Mail Boat" depicted the lighthouse built in 1859 and the mail boat that was running mail during the time which Simkhovitch was there. The boat ran mail for the area until 1957. "Sand Ponies" shows the wild horses common to the North Carolina barrier islands and "Canada Geese" showed the importance of hunting and fishing in the area. All four murals were restored in the 1990s by Elisabeth Speight, daughter of two other WPA muralists, Francis Speight...
Category

American Modern 1930s Paintings

Materials

Gouache, Board, Watercolor

Original Painting Cathedral Interior New Yorker Cover Proposal 1939 Jesus Church
Located in New York, NY
Original Painting Cathedral Interior New Yorker Cover Proposal 1939 Jesus Church Antonio Petruccelli (1907 – 1994) Cathedral New Yorker cover proposa...
Category

American Realist 1930s Paintings

Materials

Gouache, Board

Baseball New Yorker Cover Proposal c. 1930s Yankee Stadium American Scene Modern
Located in New York, NY
Antonio Petruccelli (1907 - 1994) Fly Ball New Yorker cover proposal. c. 1930s 12 1/4 X 8 1/4 inches (sight) Framed 18 X 14 inches Gouache on board...
Category

American Modern 1930s Paintings

Materials

Gouache, Board

Original Painting Fortune Cover Published 1937 American Modern - Met Museum Now
Located in New York, NY
Original Painting Fortune Cover Published 1937 American Modern - Met Museum Now NEWS: A printed copy of this magazine is included in The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s current exhibition, “Art for the Millions: American Culture and Politics in the 1930s” Antonio Petruccelli...
Category

American Modern 1930s Paintings

Materials

Gouache, Board

Study, preparatory work for “La Princesse”, watercolor and pencil on paper
Located in PARIS, FR
Raphael DELORME (1886-1962) Study, preparatory work for “La Princesse” Watercolor and pencil on paper Annotated “La Princesse” 30,5 x 22,5 cm Small folds and small stains Born in 18...
Category

Art Deco 1930s Paintings

Materials

Watercolor, Pencil

Woman in profile, watercolor and pencil on paper
Located in PARIS, FR
Raphael DELORME (1886-1962) Study of a woman in profile Watercolor, gouache and pencil on paper Illegible annotation in the lower right corner 31 x 20 cm Small needle holes at the to...
Category

Art Deco 1930s Paintings

Materials

Watercolor, Pencil

Antique American Female WPA Modernist New Jersey Dock Scene Signed Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Finely painted American school modernist dock scene by Eleanor Beatrice Acker (Born 1907). Watercolor and gouache on paper. Nicely framed. Signed and dated. Artist biography; Ele...
Category

Modern 1930s Paintings

Materials

Watercolor

Study, preparatory work for “La Princesse”, watercolor and pencil on paper
Located in PARIS, FR
Raphael DELORME (1886-1962) Study, preparatory work for “La Princesse” Watercolor and pencil on paper Annotated “La Princesse” 30,5 x 22,5 cm Small folds and small stains Born in 18...
Category

Art Deco 1930s Paintings

Materials

Pencil, Watercolor

Boats at Sunset, Original Gouache on Paper, Impressionist style, French Painter
Located in PARIS, FR
*Dimensions include the frame This French watercolor dating from around 1930 conveys a serene maritime scene that resonates with the aesthetic principles of the Impressionists. The ...
Category

Impressionist 1930s Paintings

Materials

Gouache, Laid Paper

Bad Ischl Austria
By Franz Weidinger
Located in Buffalo, NY
An original antique watercolor painting by well listed Austrian artist Franz Weidinger. This work is signed and titled lower left and housed in a be...
Category

Impressionist 1930s Paintings

Materials

Laid Paper, Watercolor

1930 Watercolor by J. Castelli for the Centenaire de l'Algérie
Located in PARIS, FR
Watercolor In 1930, the gifted artist J. Castelli crafted a remarkable aquarelle to commemorate the Centenaire de l'Algérie, marking one hundred years of Algeria's historical and cu...
Category

1930s Paintings

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Art Deco Movie Set 20th Century American Modernism Hollywood WPA Social Realism
Located in New York, NY
Art Deco Movie Set 20th Century American Modernism Hollywood WPA Social Realism Arthur Rosenman Ross (1913 - 1981) Art Deco Movie Set, Probably MGM Studios, 1937 17 x 27 inches Gouache on illustration Board Signed Art Ross, ‘37 lower right Provenance: Estate of the artist. BIO Arthur Rosenman Ross was a key figure in automotive design at General Motors during America's "Golden Age" of auto design, the 1930's through the 1950s. He attended the Art Institute of Chicago from age 17, exhibiting a special interest for automotive renderings and the female figure. In 1934, he changed his name from Rosenman to Ross, fearing his Jewish ancestry could prejudice his career prospects. At age 20, he turned down job offers from MGM Studios in Hollywood and Duesenberg to work at General Motors alongside the Legendary Harley Earl in 1935. He was hand picked by Mr. Earl and assigned to GM's War and Camouflage Division in 1937 through WW2. It was during this pivotal period in which he executed some extraordinary military aircraft artworks, likely used between GM and America's military aeronautics companies in design preparation for WW2. General Motors played an important role in helping America's aircraft manufacturers preceding and during the war. Just after the war in 1945, Mr. Ross was rewarded by GM, being made Chief Designer of Cadillac, then two years later becoming Chief at Oldsmobile until his retirement in 1959. He was in large part responsible for some of GM's classic Cadillac designs such as the Cadillac Sixty Special, Fleetwood, LaSalle and GM's first concept car, the extraordinary Buick Y-Job. Mr. Ross was an exceptionally charismatic and vivacious man who quite by chance, befriended His idol, Salvador Dali at GM in 1955. They talked about art, cars and girls late into the evening, according to his son, Carter Ross. He had a gift in rendering the erotic arts...
Category

Art Deco 1930s Paintings

Materials

Board, Gouache

Airacuda Fighter Planes Art Deco Machine Age 20th Century American Modernism
Located in New York, NY
Airacuda Fighter Planes Art Deco Machine Age 20th Century American Modernism Arthur Rosenman Ross (1913 - 1981) Bell YFM-1 Airacuda Fighter Planes 17 1/2 x 26 1/2 inches Gouache, Airbrush and Ink on Illustration Board, 1938 Signed A. Ross lower right Provenance: Estate of the artist. BIO Arthur Rosenman Ross was a key figure in automotive design at General Motors during America's "Golden Age" of auto design, the 1930's through the 1950s. He attended the Art Institute of Chicago from age 17, exhibiting a special interest for automotive renderings and the female figure. In 1934, he changed his name from Rosenman to Ross, fearing his Jewish ancestry could prejudice his career prospects. At age 20, he turned down job offers from MGM Studios in Hollywood and Duesenberg to work at General Motors alongside the Legendary Harley Earl in 1935. He was hand picked by Mr. Earl and assigned to GM's War and Camouflage Division in 1937 through WW2. It was during this pivotal period in which he executed some extraordinary military aircraft artworks, likely used between GM and America's military aeronautics companies in design preparation for WW2. General Motors played an important role in helping America's aircraft manufacturers preceding and during the war. Just after the war in 1945, Mr. Ross was rewarded by GM, being made Chief Designer of Cadillac, then two years later becoming Chief at Oldsmobile until his retirement in 1959. He was in large part responsible for some of GM's classic Cadillac designs such as the Cadillac Sixty Special, Fleetwood, LaSalle and GM's first concept car, the extraordinary Buick Y-Job. Mr. Ross was an exceptionally charismatic and vivacious man who quite by chance, befriended His idol, Salvador Dali at GM in 1955. They talked about art, cars and girls late into the evening, according to his son, Carter Ross. He had a gift in rendering the erotic arts...
Category

American Modern 1930s Paintings

Materials

Ink, Gouache, Board

City Nocturne
Located in Lawrence, NY
Irving Lehman was a New York School artist whose work was influenced by constructivism and cubism. He exhibited at the Whitney, the Brooklyn Museum, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, and many other institutions. This work shows an abstracted view of New York rooftops...
Category

Constructivist 1930s Paintings

Materials

Gouache

Fernand Léger 'Mandoline et pommes' 1938
Located in Miami, FL
FERNAND LEGER (1881–1955) Gouache paint on paper, signed with the artist's initials F.L and dated 1938.
Category

1930s Paintings

Materials

Gouache

(Untitled) Fabric Design
By Marguerite Gross
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Untitled (Fabric Design) Annotated on the verso with the studio address of the artist Signed in ink lower right corner: “Marguerite Gross” Gouache on heavy paper, 1930-1939 In 1930 ...
Category

Abstract 1930s Paintings

Materials

Gouache

Sonia Delaunay 1930 Compositions Couleurs Idees Pochoir #7
Located in Bristol, CT
Sonia Delaunay (1885-1979) Planche 7 pochoir from the portfolio "Compositions, couleurs, idees" 1930 Image Sz: 12"H x 10"W Frame Sz: 15"H x 13"W w/ gilt bamboo frame
Category

1930s Paintings

Materials

Gouache

Whitehall Building, July 1939 - Harbor Seascape with Tugboat in Watercolor
Located in Soquel, CA
Whitehall Building, July 1939 - Harbor Seascape with Tugboat in Watercolor Detailed harbor landscape by Ernest Clegg (British, 1976-1954). The Whitehall Building towers over the sce...
Category

Impressionist 1930s Paintings

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Forgotten Journey, 20th Century British Artist, Signed and Dated 1939
Located in London, GB
Watercolour and ink on paper, signed and dated '1939' bottom left and entitled on the reverse Image size: 18 x 9 inches (45.75 x 23 cm) Original frame This is a wonderfully moving w...
Category

Modern 1930s Paintings

Materials

Watercolor, Ink

St, Louis River Mural Study American Scene Social Realism Mid 20th Century WPA
Located in New York, NY
St, Louis River Mural Study American Scene Social Realism Mid 20th Century WPA Jo Cain (1904-2003) The Drama of the St. Louis Great River 23 1/4 x 25 ½ inches Gouache on board c. 19...
Category

American Realist 1930s Paintings

Materials

Gouache, Board

Haying
Located in Raleigh, NC
Rgrfinearts presents a rare WPA mural study by the African American artist Carl G. Hill. Mr. Hill was a student at the National Academy of Design and also at the Harkem Community School where he studied under Riva Helfond. During WW2 he enlisted in the Merchant Marines...
Category

Realist 1930s Paintings

Materials

Watercolor

Art Deco Figurative Gouache of A Woman with a Tulip
Located in Douglas Manor, NY
3770 Art Deco gouache figurative figurative painting of a woman and a tulip Set in a hand made wood frame Image size 8.5x11.5"
Category

1930s Paintings

Materials

Gouache

Large Tel Aviv Orchestra Israeli Bezalel School Modernist Painting Moshe Matus
By Moshe Matus (Matusovsky)
Located in Surfside, FL
Moshe (Matusovski) Matus (Polish Israeli , 1908-1958), Depicting an orchestral concert. Hand signed lower right. Dimensions: (Frame) H 31" x W 37", (Sight) H 21" x W 28" Moshe ...
Category

Modern 1930s Paintings

Materials

Paper, Gouache

"Love and the Lieutenant" Story Illustration, Woman's Home Companion
Located in Fort Washington, PA
Signed "Norman Price" Lower Right "Gray! What are you doing here without your uniform?" Illustration for "Love and the Lieutenant" by Robert W. Chambers, published in Woman's Home C...
Category

1930s Paintings

Materials

Watercolor, Gouache

Theater Spain. Paper, mixed media, 9.7x8.3 cm
Located in Riga, LV
Theater Spain. Paper, mixed media, 9.7x8.3 cm watercolor, ink on paper. Adolfs Zardins (1890 08 II Riga, Latvia – 1967 07 II Jurmala, Latvia), painter. Only in 1990 his relatives gi...
Category

Modern 1930s Paintings

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

1939 Mexican Farm Worker WPA Artist Adolf Dehn American Modern Gouache Painting
Located in Surfside, FL
ADOLF ARTHUR DEHN (American, 1895-1969) Portrait of Mexican Man with Agave Cactus plant, 1939, Gouache Painting Hand signed and dated '39 lower left. Whitney Museum of American Art, N.Y. Label verso sight: 20.5 in. X 15 in. Frame is 32 X 24 inches This was subsequently made into a lithograph in 1941 titled Man From Orizaba Standing in the foreground of an agave field is man wearing a straw hat, a white button up collared shirt, white pants and sandals. The man has shaggy black hair, a beard and moustache and large eyes. His right hand is clenched as if holding something and his left hand is open holding some flower-like objects. He stands in the middle of a large agave plant that expands the width of the composition. In the middle ground are large agave plants in subsequent rows. Behind the agave plantation is a mountain range with snow covered peak on the right hand side. Above the mountain range is a partially cloudy sky. Adolf Dehn (November 22, 1895 – May 19, 1968) was an American artist known mainly as a lithographer. Throughout his artistic career, he participated in and helped define some important movements in American art, including regionalism, social realism, and caricature. A two-time recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship, he was known for both his technical skills and his high-spirited, droll depictions of human foibles. Dehn was born in 1895 in Waterville, Minnesota. He began creating artwork at the age of six, and by the time of his death had created nearly 650 images. Dehn went to the Minneapolis School of Art (known today as the Minneapolis College of Art and Design), where he met and became a close friend of Wanda Gag. In 1917 he and Gág were two of only a dozen students in the country to earn a scholarship to the Art Students League of New York. He was drafted to serve in World War I in 1918, but declared himself a conscientious objector and spent four months in a guardhouse detention camp in Spartanburg, SC and then worked for eight months as a painting teacher at an arm rehabilitation hospital in Asheville, NC. Later, Dehn returned to the Art Students League for another year of study and created his first lithograph, The Harvest. In 1921 Dehn's lithographs were featured in his first exhibition at Weyhe Gallery in New York City. From 1920 to 1921 in Manhattan, he was connected to New York's politically left-leaning activists. In 1921, he went to Europe. In Paris and Vienna he belonged to a group of expatriate intellectuals and artists, including Andrée Ruellan, Gertrude Stein, and ee cummings...
Category

American Modern 1930s Paintings

Materials

Gouache

Portrait of a Young Man
Located in Lawrence, NY
Gouache Estate of Samuel Esses Beautifully framed Never afraid of trying new styles, curious and opinionated, constantly engaged with the world around him, Rolph Scarlett more tha...
Category

Expressionist 1930s Paintings

Materials

Gouache

Lace Makers, Chioggia, Gouache, Italy Scene
Located in Rockport, MA
Elsie Palmer Payne, the wife of Edgar Payne, was noted for her contributions as an artist in her own right. She worked in various artistic mediums, ...
Category

American Impressionist 1930s Paintings

Materials

Gouache

Tavern on the Green (New Yorker Magazine cover proposal)
Located in Wilton Manors, FL
Barbara Shermund (1899-1978). Tavern on the Green. Watercolor and ink on paper, 9 3/8 x 12 inches. Unsigned. Excellent condition. Provenance: Ethel ...
Category

Realist 1930s Paintings

Materials

Ink, Watercolor

Notre Dame de Paris II
Located in London, GB
'Notre Dame de Paris II', gouache on paper, by Lucien Génin (circa 1930s). One of two paintings of Notre Dame by this artist held by our gallery, it is also an absolutely charming and now, historic depiction from the 1930s, of the most famous cathedral in France. This version uses more exaggerated brushstrokes with strong colours attesting to its expressionist roots. Notre Dame is one of the most widely recognised symbols of the city of Paris and the French nation. As the cathedral of the Archdiocese of Paris, Notre-Dame contains the cathedra of the Archbishop of Paris. Approximately 12 million people visit Notre-Dame annually, making it the most visited monument in the city. While undergoing renovation and restoration, the roof of Notre-Dame caught fire on the evening of 15 April 2019. Burning for around 15 hours, the cathedral sustained serious damage. The government of France hopes the reconstruction can be completed by Spring 2024, in time for the opening of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. Unlike the actual cathedral, this artwork is in good condition, is newly framed and glazed and signed by the artist in the lower right hand corner. Upon request a video may be provided. About the Artist: After the devastation of the First World War, Lucien Génin (1894 - 1953) left his provincial home in the autumn of 1919 to find his fortune among the lively Parisians in the heart of Montmartre. Génin befriended the painters Frank Will, Gen Paul, Émile Boyer, Marcel Leprin...
Category

Expressionist 1930s Paintings

Materials

Paper, Gouache

Chrysanthemums
Located in East Grinstead, GB
Jacob Epstein produced a number of watercolours of flowers during the 1930's until the outbreak in 1939. This particular picture is very well balanced and is one of the best presente...
Category

1930s Paintings

Materials

Watercolor

The old sinner and the female figure. Paper, mixed media, 13x15.5 cm
Located in Riga, LV
The old sinner and the female figure. Paper, mixed media, 13x15.5 cm watercolor, ink on paper. Adolfs Zardins (1890 08 II Riga, Latvia – 1967 07 II Jurm...
Category

Modern 1930s Paintings

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Gouache on Board Painting Titled "Barbecue Stand", by Aaron Bohrod, circa 1935
Located in New York, NY
Aaron Bohrod, 1907-1992 Barbecue Stand, circa 1935 Gouache on board Signed Lower left: “Aaron Bohrod” Inscribed and signed on verso Bohrod-1 Provenance: Private estate, Rhode Island...
Category

1930s Paintings

Materials

Gouache

San Francisco Cable Car WPA Artist Adolf Dehn Modernist Art Gouache Oil Painting
Located in Surfside, FL
ADOLF ARTHUR DEHN (American, 1895-1969) San Francisco Bay Area street scene, with Trolley, Streetcar, Cable Car with bay and Alcatraz Island in background. Hand signed LRC. Sight 19" x 15", overall 23" x 19". Adolf Dehn (November 22, 1895 – May 19, 1968) was an American artist known mainly as a lithographer. Throughout his artistic career, he participated in and helped define some important movements in American art, including regionalism, social realism, and caricature. A two-time recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship, he was known for both his technical skills and his high-spirited, droll depictions of human foibles. Adolph Dehn was born in 1895 in Waterville, Minnesota. He began creating artwork at the age of six, and by the time of his death had created nearly 650 images. Dehn went to the Minneapolis School of Art (known today as the Minneapolis College of Art and Design), where he met and became a close friend of Wanda Gag. In 1917 he and Gág were two of only a dozen students in the country to earn a scholarship to the Art Students League of New York. He was drafted to serve in World War I in 1918, but declared himself a conscientious objector and spent four months in a guardhouse detention camp in Spartanburg, SC and then worked for eight months as a painting teacher at an arm rehabilitation hospital in Asheville, NC. Later, Dehn returned to the Art Students League for another year of study and created his first lithograph, The Harvest. In 1921 Dehn's lithographs were featured in his first exhibition at Weyhe Gallery in New York City. From 1920 to 1921 in Manhattan, he was connected to New York's politically left-leaning activists. In 1921, he went to Europe. In Paris and Vienna he belonged to a group of expatriate intellectuals and artists, including Andrée Ruellan, Gertrude Stein, and ee cummings...
Category

American Modern 1930s Paintings

Materials

Oil, Gouache

Life Magazine Art Deco Showgirls Cartoon
Located in Wilton Manors, FL
Barbara Shermund (1899-1978). Showgirls Cartoon for Life Magazine, 1934. Ink, watercolor and gouache on heavy illustration paper, matting window measures 16.5 x 13 inches; sheet measures 19 x 15 inches; Matting panel measures 20 x 23 inches. Signed lower right. Very good condition with discoloration and toning in margins. Unframed. Provenance: Ethel Maud Mott Herman, artist (1883-1984), West Orange NJ. For two decades, she drew almost 600 cartoons for The New Yorker with female characters that commented on life with wit, intelligence and irony. In the mid-1920s, Harold Ross, the founder of a new magazine called The New Yorker, was looking for cartoonists who could create sardonic, highbrow illustrations accompanied by witty captions that would function as social critiques. He found that talent in Barbara Shermund. For about two decades, until the 1940s, Shermund helped Ross and his first art editor, Rea Irvin, realize their vision by contributing almost 600 cartoons and sassy captions with a fresh, feminist voice. Her cartoons commented on life with wit, intelligence and irony, using female characters who critiqued the patriarchy and celebrated speakeasies, cafes, spunky women and leisure. They spoke directly to flapper women of the era who defied convention with a new sense of political, social and economic independence. “Shermund’s women spoke their minds about sex, marriage and society; smoked cigarettes and drank; and poked fun at everything in an era when it was not common to see young women doing so,” Caitlin A. McGurk wrote in 2020 for the Art Students League. In one Shermund cartoon, published in The New Yorker in 1928, two forlorn women sit and chat on couches. “Yeah,” one says, “I guess the best thing to do is to just get married and forget about love.” “While for many, the idea of a New Yorker cartoon conjures a highbrow, dry non sequitur — often more alienating than familiar — Shermund’s cartoons are the antithesis,” wrote McGurk, who is an associate curator and assistant professor at Ohio State University’s Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum. “They are about human nature, relationships, youth and age.” (McGurk is writing a book about Shermund. And yet by the 1940s and ’50s, as America’s postwar focus shifted to domestic life, Shermund’s feminist voice and cool critique of society fell out of vogue. Her last cartoon appeared in The New Yorker in 1944, and much of her life and career after that remains unclear. No major newspaper wrote about her death in 1978 — The New York Times was on strike then, along with The Daily News and The New York Post — and her ashes sat in a New Jersey funeral home...
Category

Art Deco 1930s Paintings

Materials

Ink, Gouache

Fancy Department Store Satirical Cartoon
Located in Wilton Manors, FL
Barbara Shermund (1899-1978). Fancy Department Store Satirical Cartoon, ca. 1930's. Ink, watercolor and gouache on heavy illustration paper, panel measures 19 x 15 inches. Signed lower right. Very good condition. Unframed. Provenance: Ethel Maud Mott Herman, artist (1883-1984), West Orange NJ. For two decades, she drew almost 600 cartoons for The New Yorker with female characters that commented on life with wit, intelligence and irony. In the mid-1920s, Harold Ross, the founder of a new magazine called The New Yorker, was looking for cartoonists who could create sardonic, highbrow illustrations accompanied by witty captions that would function as social critiques. He found that talent in Barbara Shermund. For about two decades, until the 1940s, Shermund helped Ross and his first art editor, Rea Irvin, realize their vision by contributing almost 600 cartoons and sassy captions with a fresh, feminist voice. Her cartoons commented on life with wit, intelligence and irony, using female characters who critiqued the patriarchy and celebrated speakeasies, cafes, spunky women and leisure. They spoke directly to flapper women of the era who defied convention with a new sense of political, social and economic independence. “Shermund’s women spoke their minds about sex, marriage and society; smoked cigarettes and drank; and poked fun at everything in an era when it was not common to see young women doing so,” Caitlin A. McGurk wrote in 2020 for the Art Students League. In one Shermund cartoon, published in The New Yorker in 1928, two forlorn women sit and chat on couches. “Yeah,” one says, “I guess the best thing to do is to just get married and forget about love.” “While for many, the idea of a New Yorker cartoon conjures a highbrow, dry non sequitur — often more alienating than familiar — Shermund’s cartoons are the antithesis,” wrote McGurk, who is an associate curator and assistant professor at Ohio State University’s Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum. “They are about human nature, relationships, youth and age.” (McGurk is writing a book about Shermund. And yet by the 1940s and ’50s, as America’s postwar focus shifted to domestic life, Shermund’s feminist voice and cool critique of society fell out of vogue. Her last cartoon appeared in The New Yorker in 1944, and much of her life and career after that remains unclear. No major newspaper wrote about her death in 1978 — The New York Times was on strike then, along with The Daily News and The New York Post — and her ashes sat in a New Jersey funeral home...
Category

Realist 1930s Paintings

Materials

Ink, Gouache

Standing Figure
Located in Long Island City, NY
A shy and dirty man stands alone in a muted landscape, his hand timidly resting on his collarbone. His clothes are disheveled, a dark pair of overalls slouching across his too-narrow...
Category

Cubist 1930s Paintings

Materials

Gouache

Study for the Mural "Westward Movement"
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Study for the Mural "Westward Movement" Graphite, watercolor, gouache and paint on paper, 1936 Signed in pencil lower center (see photo) A study leading up to his mural Justice of th...
Category

American Realist 1930s Paintings

Materials

Gouache

Allegoric Composition
Located in Long Island City, NY
Benjamin Bennon most prominently worked in the cubist tradition, stretching and fracturing the figures of his subjects in order to take new approaches to their meaning and interpreta...
Category

Cubist 1930s Paintings

Materials

Gouache

Simka Simkhovitch WPA Artist Oil Painting Gouache American Modernist Powerline
Located in Surfside, FL
Simka Simkhovitch (Russian/American 1893 - 1949) This came with a small grouping from the artist's family, some were hand signed some were not. These were studies for larger paintings. Simka Simkhovitch (Симха Файбусович Симхович) (aka Simka Faibusovich Simkhovich) (Novozybkov, Russia May 21, 1885 O.S./June 2, 1885 N.S.—Greenwich, Connecticut February 25, 1949) was a Ukrainian-Russian Jewish artist and immigrant to the United States. He painted theater scenery in his early career and then had several showings in galleries in New York City. Winning Works Progress Administration (WPA) commissions in the 1930s, he completed murals for the post offices in Jackson, Mississippi and Beaufort, North Carolina. His works are in the permanent collections of the Dallas Museum of Art, the National Museum of American Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Born outside Kyiv (Petrograd Ukraine) into a Jewish family who owned a small department store. During a severe case of measles when he was seven, Simcha Simchovitch sketched the views outside his window and decided to become an artist, over his father's objections. Beginning in 1905, he studied at the Grekov Odessa Art School and upon completion of his studies in 1911 received a recommendation to be admitted to the Imperial Academy of Arts. Though he enrolled to begin classes in architecture, painting, and sculpture at the Imperial Academy, he was dropped from the school roster in December because of the quota on the number of Jewish students and drafted into the army. Simchovitch served as a private in the 175th Infantry Regiment Baturyn [ru] until his demobilization in 1912. Re-enrolling in the Imperial Academy, he audited classes. Simka Simkhovitch exhibited paintings and sculptures in 1918 as part of an exhibition of Jewish artists and in 1919 placed 1st in the competition "The Great Russian Revolution" with a painting called "Russian Revolution" which was hung in the State Museum of Revolution. In 1922, Simkha Simkhovitch exhibited at the International Book Fair in Florence (Italian: Fiera Internazionale del Libro di Firenze). In 1924, Simkhovitch came to the United States to make illustrations for Soviet textbooks and decided to immigrate instead. Initially he supported himself by doing commercial art and a few portrait commissions. In 1927, he was hired to paint a screen for a scene in the play "The Command to Love" by Fritz Gottwald and Rudolph Lothar which was playing at the Longacre Theatre on Broadway. Art dealers began clamoring for the screen and Simkhovitch began a career as a screen painter for the theater. Catching the attention of the screenwriter, Ernest Pascal, he worked as an illustrator for Pascal, who then introduced him to gallery owner, Marie Sterner. Simkhovitch's works appeared at the Marie Sterner Gallery beginning with a 1927 exhibit and were repeated the following year. Simkhovitch had an exhibit in 1929 at Sterner's on circus paintings. In 1931, he held a showing of works at the Helen Hackett Gallery, in New York City and later that same year he was one of the featured artists of a special exhibit in San Francisco at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park. The exhibit was coordinated by Marie Sterner and included four watercolors, including one titled "Nudes". He is of the generation of Russian Soviet artists such as Isaac Pailes, Serge Charchoune, Marc Chagall, Chana Orloff, Isaac Ilyich Levitan, and Ossip Zadkine. In 1936, Simkhovitch was selected to complete the mural for the WPA Post office project in Jackson, Mississippi. The mural was hung in the post office and courthouse in 1938 depicted a plantation theme. Painted on the wall behind the judge’s bench, “Pursuits of Life in Mississippi”, a depiction of black workers engaged in manual labor amid scenes of white professionals and socialites, was eventually covered over in later years during renovations due to its stereotypical African American imagery. Simka painted what he thought was typical of Jackson. His impression of pre-civil rights Mississippi was evidently Greek Revival column houses, weeping willow trees, working class families, and the oppression of African Americans. He painted African American men picking cotton, while a white man took account of the harvest and a white judge advised a white family, calling it Pursuits of Life in Mississippi. Though clearly endorsed by the government and initially generally well-received, the mural soon raised concerns with locals as the climate toward racial segregation began to change. The main concern was whether depictions that show African Americans in subjugated societal roles should be featured in a courtroom. The following year, his painting "Holiday" won praise at an exhibition in Lincoln, Nebraska. In 1940, Simkhovitch's second WPA post office project was completed when four murals, "The Cape Lookout Lighthouse and the Orville W. Mail Boat", "The Wreck of the Crissie Wright", "Sand Ponies" and "Canada Geese" were installed in Beaufort, North Carolina. The works were commissioned in 1938 and did not generate the controversy that the Jackson mural had. The main mural is "The Wreck of the Crissie Wright" and depicts a shipwreck which had occurred in Beaufort in 1866. "The Cape Lookout Lighthouse and the Orville W. Mail Boat" depicted the lighthouse built in 1859 and the mail boat that was running mail during the time which Simkhovitch was there. The boat ran mail for the area until 1957. "Sand Ponies" shows the wild horses common to the North Carolina barrier islands and "Canada Geese" showed the importance of hunting and fishing in the area. All four murals were restored in the 1990s by Elisabeth Speight, daughter of two other WPA muralists, Francis Speight...
Category

American Modern 1930s Paintings

Materials

Gouache, Oil, Board

Original Painting. Colliers Magazine Cover Published 1933 Wedding Illustration
Located in New York, NY
Original Painting. Colliers Magazine Cover Published 1933 Wedding Illustration Antonio Petruccelli (1907 - 1994) The Wedding Colliers published, June 17, 1933 17 1/4 X 11 1/2 inches (sight) Framed 23 1/4 X 17 1/2 inches Gouache on board Signed lower right BIOGRAPHY: Antonio Petruccelli (1907-1994) began his career as a textile designer. He became a freelance illustrator in 1932 after winning several House Beautiful cover illustration contests. In addition to 24 Fortune magazine covers, four New Yorker covers, several for House Beautiful, Collier’s, and other magazines he did numerous illustrations for Life magazine from the 1930s – 60s. ‘Tony was Mr. Versatility for Fortune. He could do anything, from charts and diagrams to maps, illustrations, covers, and caricatures,’ said Francis Brennan, the former art director for Fortune. Over the course of his career, Antonio won several important design awards, designing a U.S. Postage Stamp Commemorating the Steel Industry and designing the Bicentennial Medal...
Category

American Realist 1930s Paintings

Materials

Gouache, Board

View of Montmartre from Rue Lepic
Located in London, GB
'View of Montmartre from Rue Lepic', gouache on paper (circa 1930s), by Lucien Génin. Montmartre became a hub for European artists in the late 19th century. Many of the era’s most re...
Category

1930s Paintings

Materials

Paper, Gouache

At the theatre
Located in Genève, GE
Work on paper Golden wooden frame with glass pane 47.7 x 35.5 x 1.5 cm
Category

1930s Paintings

Materials

Crayon, Watercolor, Gouache

Portrait of Chinese Couple. Pearl S. Buck Tiger Tiger Illustration Cosmopolitan
Located in Miami, FL
Among the many accolades I would grant Dean Cornwell, the one that rises to the top would be that he is one of America's greatest portrait painters. With a few strokes, he captures h...
Category

American Realist 1930s Paintings

Materials

Gouache

Rare 1930s New York Tenement Market Scene Gouache Painting (WPA Era) Jewish Art
Located in Surfside, FL
Abram Tromka was born May 1, 1896 in Poland. At the age of seven he immigrated with his family to the United States, settling in New York City. It was on the boat coming to New York where Tromka first became interested in art. Fascinated by a woman who was painting, he decided that he wanted to become an artist. Upon arrival at immigration headquarters, Tromka’s family adopted the surname “Phillips,” which he kept until 1930. Hence the artist’s early works bear the signature — ‘Phillips.’ Having a rough childhood, Tromka left home at 15 and spent the remainder of his teenage years living at the Henry Street...
Category

American Modern 1930s Paintings

Materials

Gouache

Nuclear Warhead American Mid-Century Modern Published Illustration Lamp Magazine
Located in New York, NY
Nuclear Warhead American Mid-Century Modern Published Illustration Lamp Magazine Antonio Petruccelli (1907 - 1994) Nuclear Warhead Lamp Magazine, ...
Category

American Realist 1930s Paintings

Materials

Gouache, Board

Eltham, London 1932
Located in East Grinstead, GB
Francis Dodd R.A. 1874-1949, British portrait and landscape artist, draughtsman and printmaker. Eltham, London is very close to where Dodd lived in Blackheath an area which was well ...
Category

1930s Paintings

Materials

Watercolor

Original Painting. New Yorker Cover Proposal Baseball c. 1939 Modern Cubist Deco
Located in New York, NY
Original Painting. New Yorker Cover Proposal Baseball c. 1939 Modern Cubist Deco Antonio Petruccelli (1907 - 1994) Play Ball New Yorker cover proposal, c. 1939 12 x 8 inches (sight) Framed 18 1/2 X 14 3/4 inches Gouache on board Estate sticker verso BIOGRAPHY: Antonio Petruccelli (1907-1994) began his career as a textile designer. He became a freelance illustrator in 1932 after winning several House Beautiful cover illustration contests. In addition to 24 Fortune magazine covers, four New Yorker covers, several for House Beautiful, Collier’s, and other magazines he did numerous illustrations for Life magazine from the 1930s – 60s. ‘Tony was Mr. Versatility for Fortune. He could do anything, from charts and diagrams to maps, illustrations, covers, and caricatures,’ said Francis Brennan, the former art director for Fortune. Over the course of his career, Antonio won several important design awards, designing a U.S. Postage Stamp Commemorating the Steel Industry and designing the Bicentennial Medal...
Category

American Modern 1930s Paintings

Materials

Gouache, Board

American Scene Industrial Modern Lamp Magazine Illustration Mid-Century c. 1930s
Located in New York, NY
American Scene Industrial Modern Lamp Magazine Illustration Mid-Century Antonio Petruccelli (1907 - 1994) Oil Terminal Lamp Magazine, published, c. 1930s. 15 3/4 X 12 inches (image) 18 X 14 inches board Gouache on board Signed lower right unframed BIOGRAPHY: Antonio Petruccelli (1907-1994) began his career as a textile designer. He became a freelance illustrator in 1932 after winning several House Beautiful cover illustration contests. In addition to 24 Fortune magazine covers, four New Yorker covers, several for House Beautiful, Collier’s, and other magazines he did numerous illustrations for Life magazine from the 1930s – 60s. ‘Tony was Mr. Versatility for Fortune. He could do anything, from charts and diagrams to maps, illustrations, covers, and caricatures,’ said Francis Brennan, the former art director for Fortune. Over the course of his career, Antonio won several important design awards, designing a U.S. Postage Stamp Commemorating the Steel Industry and designing the Bicentennial Medal...
Category

American Modern 1930s Paintings

Materials

Gouache, Board

Original Painting. Colliers Cover Published. American Scene Christmas Modern
Located in New York, NY
Original Painting. Colliers Cover Published American Scene Christmas Modern Antonio Petruccelli (1907 - 1994) Man with Ribbon Colliers published,...
Category

American Modern 1930s Paintings

Materials

Gouache, Board

Original Painting. New Yorker Mag Cover Proposal WPA Mid Century American Scene
Located in New York, NY
Original Painting. New Yorker Mag Cover Proposal WPA Mid Century American Scene Antonio Petruccelli (1907 – 1994) Perplexed Gentleman New Yorker cover proposal, c. 1939 13 1/4 X 8 ...
Category

American Modern 1930s Paintings

Materials

Gouache, Board

Art Week Poster Design American Scene Modern c. 1930s WPA Era Illustration
Located in New York, NY
Art Week Poster Design American Scene Modern c. 1930s WPA Era Illustration Antonio Petruccelli (1907 - 1994) Art Week 22 X 17 inches Gouache on board, c. 19...
Category

American Modern 1930s Paintings

Materials

Gouache, Board

Original Painting Steel Workers Fabric Design Industrial Deco American Modernism
Located in New York, NY
Original Painting Steel Workers Fabric Design Industrial Deco American Modernism Antonio Petruccelli (1907 - 1994) Steel Workers Textile design 19 1/4 X ...
Category

American Modern 1930s Paintings

Materials

Gouache, Board

Cadets Football New Yorker Mag Cover Proposal American Scene Modern Illustration
Located in New York, NY
Cadets Football New Yorker Mag Cover Proposal American Scene Modern Illustration Antonio Petruccelli (1907 – 1994) Cadets Football Game New Yorker cover proposal, c. 1939 14 1/4 X 1...
Category

American Modern 1930s Paintings

Materials

Gouache, Board

House Beautiful Cover Proposal. American Scene Social Realism Industrial WPA
Located in New York, NY
House Beautiful Cover Proposal. American Scene Social Realism Industrial WPA Antonio Petruccelli (1907 – 1994) Mixing Mortar 12 1/2 X 14 3/4 inche...
Category

American Modern 1930s Paintings

Materials

Gouache, Board

Original Painting Published Fortune Mag Cover 1935 Jewels Jewelry Illustration
Located in New York, NY
Original Painting Published Fortune Mag Cover 1935 Jewels Jewelry Illustration Antonio Petruccelli (1907 – 1994) Fortune cover published, Decembe...
Category

American Modern 1930s Paintings

Materials

Gouache, Board

Original Painting New Yorker Mag Cover proposal. Army Wedding American Scene WPA
Located in New York, NY
Original Painting New Yorker Mag Cover proposal. Army Wedding American Scene WPA Antonio Petruccelli (1907 – 1994) Army Wedding New Yorker cover proposal, c. 1939 11 1/2 X 8 inches ...
Category

American Realist 1930s Paintings

Materials

Gouache, Board

"Tugboat at Dock, " Reginald Marsh, Modern WPA Industrial Ship
Located in New York, NY
Reginald Marsh Tugboat at Dock, circa 1937 Signed lower right Watercolor and pencil on paper 13 3/4 x 20 inches Housed in a Lowy frame. Provenance: Sotheby'...
Category

Modern 1930s Paintings

Materials

Paper, Watercolor, Pencil

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