1940s Paintings

My Only Working Tool, 1949, oil on panel, signed and dated lower right, 16 x 12 inches, remnant of exhibition label verso, exhibited at the Art News Second Annual National Amateur Co...

Untitled (Modernist Three-Panel Screen), 1948, mixed media on paperboard mounted into a three-section screen, 58 x 45 inches, signed and dated on each panel upper right This work i...

Antique American modernist abstract painting. Oil on board, circa 1940. Signed. Image size 22L x 30H. Housed in a period modern frame.

Vintage American school signed french bulldog pastel painting. Pastel on paper. Framed. Signed illegibly.

Portia Novella Le Brun or “Stephanie” Oil pastel on paper, 1941 Preliminary study for this work on the reverse (see last illustration) Signed in ink lower left Provenance: William Pe...

Gouache on Paper From the Estate of Samuel Esses and by descent Never afraid of trying new styles, curious and opinionated, constantly engaged with the world around him, Rolph Scarl...

Antique American modernist signed seascape oil painting. Oil on canvas. Signed. Framed.

This lovely watercolor painting on Arches paper features a landscape view in Provence. This typical Mediterranean country house in the south of France has a veranda and the Saint Vic...

Vintage 1930s - 1940s oil painting of an adobe church in New Mexico with a brilliant blue sky and clouds (likely Rancho de Taos), circa 1940. Painted by Denver modernist, Paul K...

Like it’s listed companion piece, this is a late Art Deco/Moderne architectural painting with vibrant colors and bold composition. This work is untitled but features a whimsical and futurist metropolis. The oil on canvas measures 24” wide by 30” high and with its original silvered frame 27 1/2” x 33 1/2” overall. Unlike its companion work, it is not signed or labeled. This painting dates to ca. 1940. Joseph Albert Sutter was born in Switzerland in 1891 and arrived in Los Angeles in 1926. He became active in the 1930’s Federal Art Program...

Work on cardboard

Gouache on board Estate of Sam Esses Never afraid of trying new styles, curious and opinionated, constantly engaged with the world around him, Rolph Scarlett more than once proved t...

Byron Browne was an important American modernist painter. Ink, tempera, and crayon on paper Signed and dated lower right.

Bert Geer Phillips (1868-1956) Original Oil On Board In good condition Measures 22x17 International buyers most cover shipping cost

This retablo was purchased by the gallery in Mexico City. I knew the family that sold this retablo to me. The writing says" August 8,1944,I give thanks...

Watercolor on paper

Arthur Dove: 1880-1946. One of the most important early American Modernists and Abstract Expressionists. He has had auction results over $8,000,000 and that record was 2 weeks ago. A...

"Abstractions" by American modernist painter Leonard Nelson is a double sided work on paper. The front is 10.5" x 7.5" and the back side drawing is 10" x 6.75". Both sides are signed and dated "Nelson 46", and the artworks are matted and framed behind glass. Leonard Nelson (1912 - 1993) Born in Camden, New Jersey, Nelson applied for a scholarship at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, regardless of having no portfolio. He was persuasive enough to be given one semester and subsequently was awarded an Academy fellowship to study painting. Nelson went on to earn the Academy's prestigious Cresson Traveling Scholarship award in 1939. He studied at PAFA from 1936 - 1940 with, among others, Henry McCarter...

Antique American modernist abstract painting. Watercolor, and pastel on paper. Framed. Signed. Image size, 6.5H by 10L

Antique American abstract minimalist painting. Oil and gouache on paper, circa 1950. Housed in a period frame. Image size, 22L x 30H.

Vintage modernist still life painting by Virginia Tillou (1906 - 1995). Oil canvas. Housed in a period Heydenryk frame. Image size, 12L x 18H. Sig...

Original vintage 1940s Modernist Landscape painting of Red Rocks Park, Colorado by Vance Kirkland (1904-1981). Titled, "Ed (Hicks) Sketching at Red Rocks". This regionalist mountain landscape painting is set near Red Rocks Park, Morrison, Colorado (just west of Denver). The figure in the painting is of Kirkland's friend, Ed Hicks. Watercolor on paper, signed and dated, January 1943, lower left and titled verso by the artist. Painted in colors of red, brown, blue, and green. Presented in a custom gold leaf frame, outer dimensions measure 34 ¾ x 42 ⅞ x 1 ¼ inches. Painting as shown within the mat and frame measures 21 x 29 inches. Provenance: Private Collection, Denver, Colorado About the Artist: Variously referred to as the “Father of Modern Colorado Painting,” “Dean of Colorado Artists” and “Colorado’s pre-eminent artist,” Kirkland was an inventive, visionary painter who spent fifty-two years of his fifty-four year career in Denver. Of the approximately 1,200 paintings he created, about 550 from the first half of his career (1927-1953) are water-based media: acquarelle, gouache, casein and egg tempera, with a few oils. In the latter half of his career (1953-1981) he used oil and his unique oil and water mixture. He also produced five hundred drawings and some ten prints, mostly lithographs on stone, while also engaged in teaching full-time for most of the period. To show people “something they have never seen before and new ways to look at things,” he felt he needed to preserve his artistic freedom. Consequently, he chose to spend his entire professional career in Denver far removed from the established American art centers in the East and Midwest. “By minding my own business and working on my own,” he said, “I think it was possible to develop in this part of the country… I’ve developed my kind of work [and] I think my paintings are stronger for having worked that way.” The geographical isolation resulting from his choice to stay in Colorado did not impede his creativity, as it did other artists, but in fact contributed to his unique vision. The son of a dentist, who was disappointed with his [son’s] choice of art as a career, Kirkland flunked freshman watercolor class in 1924 at the Cleveland School of Art (now the Cleveland Institute of Art) for putting colors into his landscapes that did not exist in nature and for competing colors. Not dissuaded, he won first prize for his watercolors in his junior and senior years. [While in Cleveland,] he studied with three influential teachers. Henry Keller, included in the prestigious New York Armory Show in 1913, introduced him to designed realism which he later used in his Colorado landscapes in the 1930s and 1940s. His other teachers were Bill Eastman, who studied with Hans Hofmann and appreciated all the new movements in modern art, and Frank Wilcox, a fine watercolorist. While a student at the Cleveland School of Art, Kirkland concurrently took liberal arts courses at Western Reserve and the Cleveland School of Education and taught two freshman courses in watercolor and design, receiving his diploma in painting from the school in 1927 by doing four years of work in three. The following year he received a Bachelor of Education in Art degree from the same institution. In 1929 he assumed the position of founding director of the University of Denver’s School of Art, originally known as the Chappell School of Art. He resigned three years later when the university reneged on its agreement to grant its art courses full recognition toward a Bachelor of Arts degree. His students prevailed on him to continue teaching, resulting in the Kirkland School of Art which he opened in 1932 at 1311 Pearl Street in Denver. The building, where he painted until his death in 1981, formerly was the studio of British-born artist, Henry Read, designer of the City of Denver Seal and one of the original thirteen charter members of the Artists’ Club of Denver, forerunner of the Denver Art Museum. The Kirkland School of Art prospered for the next fourteen years with its courses accredited by the University of Colorado Extension Center in Denver. The teaching income from his art school and his painting commissions helped him survive the Great Depression. The U.S. Treasury Department’s Section of Fine Arts commissioned from him two post office murals, Cattle Roundup (1938, Eureka, Kansas), and Land Rush (1940, Sayre, Oklahoma). He also did murals for several Denver clients: the Gerald Hughes mansion (1936, later demolished), Arthur Johnson home (1936-37, Seven Drinks of Man), Albany Hotel (1937, later demolished), Neustetter’s Department Store (1937, “History of Costume,” three of five saved in 1987 before the building interior was demolished in advance of its condo conversion), and the Denver Country Club (1945, partially destroyed and later painted over). In 1953 the Ford Times, published by the Ford Motor Company, commissioned Kirkland along with fellow Denver artists, William Sanderson and Richard Sorby, to paint six watercolors each for the publication. Their work appeared in articles [about] Colorado entitled, “Take to the High Road” (of the Colorado Rockies) by Alicita and Warren Hamilton. Kirkland sketched the mountain passes and high roads in the area of Mount Evans, Independence Pass near Aspen, and Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park. In 1946 Kirkland closed his art school when the University of Denver rehired him as director of its School of Art and chairman of the Division of Arts and Humanities. In 1957...

'Nude Posing on the Sofa', oil on canvas, by Louis Latapie (circa 1940s). From a long line of renowned paintings whose subject is reclining nudes, this ext...

Wonderful 1945 scenic watercolor of Italian Alps with Dolomites covered in snow in background. This is double sided with landscape on verso. Signed ...

Work on canvas Gilded wooden frame 60 x 71 x 4,5 cm

Abstract landscape, oil painting This is hand signed lower right dated 1947 There is also a hand written inscription in french lower left. Moussia Toulman ( 1903-1997), Artist and poet, was born in Uman Ukraine (famed as the tomb site of Chassidic Rebbe Nachman of Breslov) and came to Israel (British mandate Palestine) when she was 19 years old. Just a few months after her arrival she married, settled in Metula however, she didn’t forgo her ambition to study art. In 1923 she enrolled to study at the Bezalel Art Institute in Jerusalem and completed her studies there in 1926. Like Ziona Tagar, who preceded her a few years earlier, Moussia Toulmann chose to become an artist-woman in the full significance of the term. She wasn’t satisfied with the local studies framework that was available and chose to continue her studies in Paris, France which at that time was considered the art capital. From 1929 onwards Musia lived in Paris, studied art and joined the ‘Independent Salon’ society. She made contacts with artists and writers and exhibited during the 1930’s in a number of select group exhibitions. In 1936 Tolman visited Israel and forged bonds with artists she studied with at Betzalel, among them Aharon Avni, Gliksberg and Avigdor Stematsky. She exhibited at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art in 1936 in a group exhibition with Aharon Avni, Arie Aroch, Yosef Zaritsky, Mordechai Levanon, Eliyahu Sigad, Chaya Schwartz, and Yehezkel Streichman. She painted landscapes and portraits and presented one of the works she painted in Paris to the Tel Aviv museum. It was a portrait of the poet and art critic Gustave Kahn who had died the same year. Moussia returned to Paris and exhibited a one-man show just before the outbreak of the Second World War. During the war all the works she exhibited in this exhibition were lost without a trace and Moussia Toulman herself wandered around France moving from one hiding place to another. After the war, in 1946 Moussia Toulman continued painting but was reluctant to exhibit her works. She became a well-known public figure and volunteered for aid programmes for Holocaust survivors, especially orphans. Later on she founded together with Mane Katz, Jacques Atlan and other artists the ‘Art’ organization with the object of developing cultural ties with Israel and to aid Israeli artists during their stay in Paris. In addition to painting Moussia Toulman wrote poetry, published articles and was involved in art criticism. She was included in the rare publication of 'Association des artistes, peintres et sculpteurs juifs de France' in French and Yiddish. The School of Paris Jewish artists included Edmond Kayser, Abram Krol, Meyer Lazar, David Lan-Bar, Jacques Lipchitz, Jacques Loutchansky, Lubitch, Rene Mendes-France, Adolphe Milich, Lea Nikel, Jules Pascin, David Peretz, Camille Pissarro, Nathan Rapoport, Moussia Toulman, Roger Worms...

'The Fisherman', oil on board, by Gabriel Vié (circa 1940s). This artwork depicts a solitary man fishing in a river surrounded by abundant foliage. He is p...

Date: December, 1946 Medium: Gouache and Graphite on Board Dimensions: 17.50" x 26.75" Signature: Unsigned "The Clever Sister." Illustration for the first part of the story of the s...

Antique American modernist landscape painting by Marion D Freeman Wakeman (1891 - 1953). Oil on canvas. Framed. Signed. Image size, 26H x 20L

Vintage Paris School signed original oil painting. Oil on board, circa 1950. Signed illegibly. Displayed in a period wood frame. Image, 12"L x 16"H.

A vibrant, Miro like work celebrating his exhibition at the famous Kootz gallery. This piece serves as historical work and and artistic expression of joie de vivre! In 1947 Hans Ho...

The well known and highly regarded landscape and figure painter Nicolai S. Cikovsky was born in Russia in 1894. He studied at the Vilna Art School, 1910-1914; the Penza Royal Art School, 1914-1918; and Moscow High Tech Art Institute, 1921-1923. Thus he came of age during a period of momentous cultural, political, and social upheaval. In the aftermath of the civil war, he left Russia and emigrated to the United States in 1923, exhibiting in that year in New York City at the Charles Daniels Gallery and, in the early 1930s, the Downtown Gallery and the Whitney Museum of American Art. In 1942, Cikovsky began spending summers on Long Island, New York, in the North Sea area, where he moved permanently in the late 1970s. Best known for his plein air landscapes of bucolic Hampton Bays, NY and figurative works, Cikovsky was lauded for his ability to infuse his art with feeling, capturing the spirit of a place. In Long Island he was one of the Hampton Bay Group of artists.The informally noted leader of the group was dramatic and acclaimed Blaue Reiter,Futurist- Expressionist fellow Russian artist David D. Burliuk. Emigre artists who would later be involved in the group came to America around the same time but under different circumstances. Burliuk and Cikovsky left an unhospitable Bolshevik Russia following Worl War II , arriving here in 1922 & 1923, respectively. The Soyer twins, Moses and Raphael, arrived as youngsters in 1912, fleeing Tsarist anti-Jewish persecution. John Graham (b. Ivan Dombrovski) and Arshile Gorky (formerly Vosdanig Adoian) arrived in 1920 in search of a place to make a living as artists. George Constant arrived from Greece in 1910 seeking an art education. Once in New York, these artists sought out places to exhibit their work. Ultimately, the downtown Manhattan gallery scene united them with many other artists emigre artists. Cikovsky was a member of New York City institutions, including the National Academy of Design (Associate 1968; Academician 1970); National Institute of Arts and Letters; and Society of Painters, Sculptors, and Cikovsky’s works were exhibited & won prizes in the most important exhibitions of the day, including the Brooklyn Museum's 1926 International Exhibition of Modern Art, the National Academy of Design & Art Institute of Chicago annuals, and at the NY World’s Fair...

Estate stamped and accompanied by a COA from the estate. Early abstraction ala Gorky. The history of the New York School painters is still being written, but Price earned a well-deserved place from the beginning. Price was one of the youngest of the first generation Abstract Expressionist circle of painters working in New York after WWII. Though only in his late twenties he began exhibiting in 1948 in New York at Hugo, Bodely, Iolas and Egan galleries. In a 1949, showing at Peridot galleries, Price was hailed for his breakthrough "Maze Series." A complex interweaving of organic shapes, automatic in nature and sometimes resembling bones or body parts, the "Maze" paintings exuded a pulsating energy that brought him critical acclaim. He received rave reviews in Art Digest, the New York Times and the New York Tribune. Price's earliest work was biomorphic or surrealist in nature, influenced by the automatism of Andre Breton and his school. By 1946, his work began to move away from this style to an all-over, decentralized style which became the "Maze" works and ultimately AbEx works which saw their culmination in the "Black Warrior" series. When the "Club" was started, Price was invited to join and forged close relationships with other members of the New York School including Fritz Bultman, Giorgio Cavallon, Weldon Kees, Bradley Walker Tomlin...

Provenance: Frédérique Tison, Château de Chassy (Burgundy-Franche Comté - France) Bibliography: J. Clair, V. Monnier Balthus, catalogue raisonné of the complete works, Gallimard, Pa...

Artist: Josef Hallberg (Austrian, Born in 1912- ) Title: The Ploughman Medium: Oil on Panel Dimensions: Framed 14” x 12”, Unframed 9” x 7” Description An oil painting of an Aust...

Antique American modernist landscape painting signed "Welch '42". Oil on board, circa 1942. Signed. Image size, 16L x 14H. Housed in a modern frame.

5-3475 Oil on canvas applied to board Set in a vintage gilt wood frame

Mid-century modern still-life oil painting of black-eyed susans on a table set with fruit by San Diego artist Elizabeth Evelyn Sherman Sellon (American, 1896-1986). Unsigned and unframed. Image size: 24"H x 20"W. A member of the San Diego Art Guild, Elizabeth exhibited throughout Southern California in the 1920s and 1930s. She studied and worked in Paris, New York and Santa Fe, New Mexico. One of her still life paintings was exhibited at the California Pacific...

Artist: Roger Etienne, French/American (1922 - ) Title: Portrait of a Girl Year: 1949 Medium: Gouache On Paper, signed and dated Size: 20 x 16 in. (50.8 x 40.64 cm) Frame Size: 29 x ...

Complex and masterfully thought out the composition of rifle, gun shells, target shapes, and buck shots. Most likely done for a ad or men's magazine. Signed lower right Atherton. Housed in a rustic House of Heydenryk frame...

Vintage circa 1930s-1950s original oil painting of Boulder Canyon - a Colorado Landscape painting with mountains and Aspen trees with autumn/fall coloring. Presented in a custom gold frame, outer dimensions measure 25 ¼ x 21 ¼ x 1 ½ inches. Image size is 22 ¼ x 18 ¼ inches. About the Artist: Born Illinois, 1884 Died Denver, Colorado 1969 An important figure in the development of Denver as an artistic city, Irene Fowler was a public school teacher and founding member of the Denver Artist’s Guild (now the Colorado Artist’s Guild) in addition to being a prolific artist. She exhibited in Denver at the Schlier Gallery (where she had a solo exhibition), at the Chappell House, the University Club...

Beautiful mid century California landscape of trees reflecting over a nearby lake by an unknown artist (American, 20th Century), c.1940s. This idyllic setting is dotted with wild flo...

Samuel Grunvald excelled at watercolors and was a native New Yorker who portrayed his city as such as he depicted its skyline, architecture and particular character with love and ent...

A modern interpretation of the biblical story Suzanna and the Elders. Signed lower right Ink and wash on paper The Downtown Gallery Felix Landau Gallery Ernest Brown & Phillips, Ltd...

Signed lower right, 'Buk' for Eduard Buk Ulreich (American, 1889-1966), dedicated lower right, 'Made for Ruth M.' and painted circa 1945. Titled verso 'Birds in Flight', additionally...

Swiss painter Sculptor, painter and ceramist. Landscape. Wall painting and drawing Work on cardboard

Another female artist in need of rediscovery. Strautin was good friends with Lee Krasner and Jackson Pollock and lived near them in Greenwich Village.

Antique American modernist abstract oil painting by Lela "Jackie" Axline (1910-1998). Oil on board, circa 1940. Signed. Displayed in a period modern frame. Image, 15"L x 19"H.

Antique American modernist abstract oil painting by Lela "Jackie" Axline (1910-1998). Oil on board, circa 1940. Signed. Displayed in a period modern frame. Image, 16"L x 24"H.

Village is an original drawing in pen realized by Enrico De Tomi in 1947 ca, hand-signed on the lower-left of margin. In good condition. Sheet dimension :18.5 x 24 cm. The artwork...

Detailed and vibrant mid century mountain village landscape by an unknown artist. Signed ("Dosa" or "Josa") and dated ("47") in the lower ri...

Watercolor of an old California mission. Signed lower right illegibly and dated 1940. Displayed in a brown wood frame with double matting. Shipped w...

Artist: Alexander Nepote – American (1913-1986) Title: Untitled Year: circa 1940 Medium: Watercolor Size: 14.5 x 22 inches. Signature: Signed lower right Condition: Excellent Frame:...

Approximate Date: 1949 Medium: Mixed Media on Paper Dimensions: 18.50" x 22.00" Signature: Signed Lower Right Story Illustration

Medium: Oil on Board Signature: Unsigned "Defense on the sea begins on the shore." Study for a World War II propaganda poster for the "Industr...

Lilac Nude is an original artwork realized by Maurice Rouzée in the 1940s. Tempera on paper. Hand-signed by the artist on the lower left margin. Good conditions, except for some smal...

Medium: Watercolor on Paper Signature: Unsigned

A whimsical modernist painting depicting an old home on a dark and stormy night. Unsigned but with an important look and feel created by a talented hand.