1940s Paintings

Antique American modernist abstract painting. Oil on canvas, circa 1940. Housed in a vintage frame. Image size, 18L x 24H.

Jean Young (1914-1995), British, Rhododendrons, oil on canvas, signed and dated L/R

Cecilia "Peach" Taylor (Mrs Reginald B. Taylor) Folk Art watercolor painting of horses titled "White Horse Farm) painted in 1948 A classic example of self t...

Work on cardboard Molded frame in gilded wood 41 x 49 x 4 cm

SALE ONE WEEK ONLY This painting of four different species of fish that can be found in South Korea is from the mid-20th century Korean artist Kim Kyung. Seafood from both the seas that surround the peninsula and from its rivers are an integral part of the livelihood and cuisine of Koreans. Kim Kyung (in Hanja, 金耕, in Hangul 김경) was born in South Korea, his real name, under the current Revised Romanization was Kim Gyeong-Eun (in Hanja 金萬斗, in Hangul 김경은). His name follows the East Asian convention of family name first, though some Western galleries choose to reorder his name with the Western convention as Kyung Kim. He was born in Hadong, Gyeongnam during the Imperial Japanese occupation, as the eldest son of a poor farm family, and at the age of 18 he entered the art department of Japan University. In 1943, he returned to his hometown to escape being drafted into the Japanese army...

Signed lower left and verso--C Griffin. American there are a couple of possibilities. A very finished still life.

Philippe Marie Picard (1915-1997) French French Landscape oil on canvas signed Ph m Picard dated a tergo 16.4 -46 canvas size 12.99 x 22.04 inches (33 x 56 cm ) frame 23.03 x 31.49 inches (58.5 x 80 cm) Provenance: A Swedish private collection. The Artist: The year was 1915, and Philippe Marie was born in the small village of Neuvy-le-Roi in France. His parents were Albert Picard and Marie Lehoux; he had a total of six siblings. After studying at the Lycée Descartes in Tours, he entered the studio of the artist François Sicard...

Vintage American modernist still life painting. Oil on canvas, circa 1950. No signature found. Framed. Image size, 21"L x 13"H.

Work on cardboard Golden wooden frame 46 x 53.5 x 4.5 cm

Work on canvas Golden wooden frame 63 x 55 x 5 cm

Signed lower right, 'K. H. Kaneko'; additionally inscribed, verso, 'K. H. Kaneko' and dated 1946 A substantial, Post-Impressionist oil on canvas showing a view of Montmartre lookin...

From The British mandate Pre State of Israel Palestine Period. Eliahu Sigad (Eliyahu Sigard), painter, born 1901, Lithuania. Founder of Israeli Painters' Association. Educated in Europe. Prizes in Israel, Exhibitions in Israel and various countries of the world. Died 1975. Education Riga, architecture and drawing Colarossi Academy, Paris, France 1930 Grande Chaumiere, Paris, France Awards And Prizes 1938 Dizengoff Prize 1945-46, Dizengoff Prize 1945 Ramat Gan...

Wonderfully vibrant Taos, New Mexico landscape painting by unknown artist , Circa 1940. Unsigned. Unframed. Image size: 6"H x 8"W.

Six O-Clock, c. 1942, oil on canvas, 30 x 20 inches, signed and titled several times verso of frame and stretcher (perhaps by another hand), marked “Rehn” several times on frame (for the Frank K. M. Rehn Galleries in New York City, who represented Craig at the time); Exhibited: 1) 18th Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary American Oil Paintings from March 21 to May 2, 1943 at The Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. #87, original price $450 (per catalog) (exhibition label verso), 2) Craig’s one-man show at the Frank K. M. Rehn Galleries, New York City, from October 26 to November 14, 1942, #10 (original price listed as $350); and 3) Exhibition of thirty paintings sponsored by the Harrisburg Art Association at the State Museum of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg in March, 1944 (concerning this exhibit, Penelope Redd of The Evening News (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania) wrote: “Other paintings that have overtones of superrealism inherent in the subjects include Tom Craig’s California nocturne, ‘Six O’Clock,’ two figures moving through the twilight . . . .” March 6, 1944, p. 13); another label verso from The Museum of Art of Toledo (Ohio): original frame: Provenance includes George Stern Gallery, Los Angeles, CA About the Painting Long before Chris Burden’s iconic installation outside of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Urban Light, another artist, Tom Craig, made Southern California streetlights the subject of one of his early 1940s paintings. Consisting of dozens of recycled streetlights from the 1920s and 1930s forming a classical colonnade at the museum’s entrance, Burden’s Urban Light has become a symbol of Los Angeles. For Burden, the streetlights represent what constitutes an advanced society, something “safe after dark and beautiful to behold.” It seems that Craig is playing on the same theme in Six O-Clock. Although we see two hunched figures trudging along the sidewalk at the end of a long day, the real stars of this painting are the streetlights which brighten the twilight and silhouette another iconic symbol of Los Angeles, the palm trees in the distance. Mountains in the background and the distant view of a suburban neighborhood join the streetlights and palm trees as classic subject matter for a California Scene painting, but Craig gives us a twist by depicting the scene not as a sun-drenched natural expanse. Rather, Craig uses thin layers of oil paint, mimicking the watercolor technique for which he is most famous, to show us the twinkling beauty of manmade light and the safety it affords. Although Southern California is a land of natural wonders, the interventions of humanity are already everywhere in Los Angeles and as one critic noted, the resulting painting has an air of “superrealism.” About the Artist Thomas Theodore Craig was a well-known fixture in the Southern California art scene. He was born in Upland California. Craig graduated with a degree in botany from Pomona College and studied painting at Pamona and the Chouinard Art School with Stanton MacDonald-Wright and Barse Miller among others. He became close friends with fellow artist Milford Zornes...

Antique American modernist landscape oil painting. Oil on canvas, circa 1940. Signed illegibly lower left. Image size, 36L x 24H. Housed in a period modern frame.

Work on wood Golden wooden frame 46 x 38 x 3 cm

Work on canvas Gilded wood frame 28,5 x 38 x 3 cm

Provenance: Daughter of artist, Fletcher Gallery, Woodstock, NY De Diego was known for his "lyrical" works (his term), which combined elements of surrealism, cubism and the social commentary of the politically active Mexican painters. Born in Madrid in 1900, Julio De Diego left home at the age of 15 to apprentice as a scene painter for theaters. After service in the Spanish army...

We are proud to present outstanding original oil on canvas by American artist William Gropper (1897-1977.) William Gropper was an artist and illustrator, known for his exceptional a...

Clarence Holbrook Carter (American, 1904-2000) Still Life with Apples, 1940 Oil on canvas Signed and dated upper right 18 x 24 inches Clarence Holbrook Carter achieved a level of national artistic success that was nearly unprecedented among Cleveland School artists of his day, with representation by major New York dealers...

Rabbit Hunters, egg tempera on Masonite, 12 x 9 inches, 1947, signed and dated lower left, signed, titled and dated verso “Rabbit Hunters Egg Tempera Roger Medearis 1947,” exhibited ...

WPA era signed framed modernist oil painting of houses and trees in summer with a stormy cloud in Colorado by Paul K. Smith in shades of green, ...

Very well painted 1947 winter landscape by E.G. Seifert. I cannot find any information on this obviously talented artist. It is an oil on board measuring 20 inches wide by 16 high. T...

"Femme Rousse Sur Fond Vert" is an original oil on canvas impressionistic portrait of a woman by Albert Bertalan. A red-headed lady in a purple and white striped collared coat sits in front of a green background daydreaming about something personal. The painting is framed with an ornate gold frame. From the late 19th century until World War Two, Paris was the center of the art world. Artists and intellectuals from around the globe descended on Paris, drawn by the atmosphere of creative freedom established by the French Impressionists. Because of the Impressionists’ innovations the direction of art had changed forever, the times were ripe for another Renaissance. The School of Paris, as this broad-based group of artists are referred to embodied the spirit of modernism. Albert Bertalan was born on September 21, 1899 in Jaszbereny, Hungary. He is known for painting compositions of figures in unique environments, including women by the sea, among other similar subject matters. He studied at the Nagybanyai Art School under some of the most important Hungarian artists, including Ivànyi Grünwald...

Juanita Guccione (1904 - 1999) Study for Ladders, 1948 Gouache on paper 17 x 13 inches Signed lower left, dated, and inscribed “Study for Oil Painting...

Work on canvas with frame. Total size with frame: 36x42x5 cm

Oil and encaustic on canvas. Russian-Jewish-American artist Nahum Tschacbasov (1899-1984) is known for his intriquing cubo-surrealistic-symbolist works which feature a strong psycho...

Maurice Asselin (1882-1947) A Still life with a book Signed upper right Oil on canvas 54 x 65 cm no frame In good condition, a small superficial scratch on the lower right side, ...

Work on canvas Molded plaster frame and gilded wood 56 x 70 x 6 cm

Threshing 1940. Canvas, oil. 54.5x73.5 cm Artist painted scene of every day life of countryside people in working atmosphere - threshing and haying. There is captured two haystacks, tractor, barn, and people in working process. Information about artist...

Gorgeous heavily impasto landscape that captures the high summer charm. Unknown artist, (Edda or Edde) Partial illegible signature/inscribed lower r...

Antique American school modernist portrait oil painting. Oil on canvas. Signed. Framed. Image size, 20L x 18H.

Work on paper Beige wooden frame with glass pane 48 x 67.3 x 3.3 cm

Work on wood Golden wooden frame 41 x 57 x 3.5 cm

American Impressionist

David Arnold Burnand (Swiss artist 1888-1975) 107 auctions in Switzerland. Oil paint on cardboard with frame Total size with frame 40x50 cm One...

Antique American oil painting of panoramic mountain range by George Browne (1918 - 1958). Oil on board, circa 1940. Signed on verso. Displayed in a period giltwood frame. Image, 1...

Erik Ortvad (Danish, 1917 - 2008) Abstract Landscape, 1946 Oil on canvas Signed and dated lower right 32 X 37.5 inches 35 x 40.5 inches, framed Born in 1917 in Copenhagen, Erik Ortvad was a surrealist painter and a founding member of the COBRA art...

Work on canvas Golden wooden frame 57 x 74 x 3 cm Paul GAGARIN (1885-c.1980), Pavel Konstantinovich GAGARIN. Russian painter, emigrated to France in 1921 then worked in Brazil where...

Signed lower right, 'Jay Risling' (American, 1896-1993) and dated 1941. A psychologically penetrating study of a contented, golden-eyed ginger cat shown re...

A magnificent oil on canvas by Russian American WPA artist Nahum Tschacbasov (1899-1984), dating from 1943. Depicting a Maternity scene - or possibly a m...

'The Port of Algiers", original lithograph, by Albert Marquet (circa 1940s). Marquet spent five years in Algiers, between 1940-45. Due to his travelling, harbour scenes were an impor...

Moonlight Shanties, c. 1940s, oil on canvas, 24 x 18 inches, signed lower right, signed and titled verso About the Painting In Moonlight Shanties, Joachim depicts a lower-class neighborhood sitting along-side an elevated road or railway which crowds out the small nearby houses and structures. Joachim’s use of an expressionist palette and gestural brushstrokes together with the isolated figures obscured in the shadows, create a feeling of unease, isolation and even loneliness. From the 1920s through 1940s, American artists commonly employed expressionist conventions in their social realist works which portrayed the gritty side of urban America, especially the communities of the city-dwelling poor. Expressionist styles were considered appropriate for bridging the gap between the modernist idea of art-for-art’s-sake and the narrative qualities demanded by the dual crises of the Great Depression and World War II. Moonlight Shanties successfully uses these expressionist methods to portray a neighborhood and its people who appear to be literally and figuratively “on the edge.” About the Artist Paul Lamar Joachim...

Work on canvas Golden wooden frame 80 x 91.5 x 6 cm

Signed lower left, 'Hortense M. Gordon' for Hortense Crompton Mattice Gordon (Canadian, 1886-1961) and dated 1949. Previously with: Dominion Gallery of Montreal (stamp, verso). Phot...

Eric James Mellon (1925-2014) Eric James Mellon was a painter, printmaker and ceramicist who was born in Watford, Hertfordshire. In his early teens he attended Watford Technical an...

Alphons (Alfons) Müller (Swiss, * 24.8.1898 Mitlödi, † 8.6.1955 Biel) ' Im Häfeli ' The small harbor at the Lake of Biel / Bienne in Switzerland • Oil on artist board, ca. 47 x 38 cm • Frame, ca. 54 x 45 cm • Signed bottom right Alphons Müller lived and worked in the watch industries in Biel/Bienne in Switzerland up to about 1933. He then decided to become a full-time artist and painted landscapes, still lifes, portraits/nudes in various styles up to his early death in 1955. Alphons Müller was the proverbial hardworking bohemian artist. He lived in a small cold room above a pup and often struggled to make ends meet. On one hand he would paint commercial views of local beauty spots - often of the Lake of Bienne. These paintings were generally executed using very thin paint layers (to make the expensive material last longer ...) in a very bright impressionist style. On the other hand, he would create intelligent, generous and deep reaching images - especially during the war. In the late thirties he meets his two loyal patrons, the baker Werner Gass and the pharmacist...

Gouache on paper, 18 7/8 x 14 3/4 in. Signed (at lower right): Morris; (with monogram, on the back): GLKM [monogram] / 1932 [sic] Executed circa late 1940s A passionate advocate of abstract art during the 1930s and 1940s, George L. K. Morris was active as a painter, sculptor, editor, and critic. An erudite man with an internationalist point of view, Morris eschewed the social, political, and figural concerns that preoccupied so many artists of Depression-era America, believing that painters should focus their attention on the beauty, refinement, and simplicity of pure form instead. His goal, he said, was “to wedge the expression further and further into the confines of the canvas until every shape takes on a spatial meaning” (as quoted in Ward Jackson, “George L. K. Morris: Forty Years of Abstract Art,” Art Journal 32 [Winter 1972–73], p. 150). Born into an affluent family in New York City, Morris was a descendent of General Lewis Morris, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. From 1918 until 1924, he attended the Groton School in Connecticut, studying classics and art. He continued to focus on literature and art while attending Yale University (1924–28), an experience that prepared him well for his future activity as an artist-critic. After graduating in 1928, Morris studied at the Art Students League of New York, working under the realist painters John Sloan and Kenneth Hayes Miller, as well as Jan Matulka, the only modernist on the faculty. In the spring of 1929, Morris traveled to Paris with Albert E. Gallatin, a family friend and fellow painter who introduced him to leading members of the Parisian avant-garde, including Jean Arp, Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Jean Hélion, and Piet Mondrian. Morris also took classes at the Académie Moderne, studying under Fernand Léger and Amédée Ozenfant, important exponents of Synthetic Cubism who influenced his aesthetic development. Indeed, after experimenting with the simplified forms of Modernism for a few years, Morris moved on to abstraction by 1934, adopting a hard-edged, geometric approach inspired by Leger’s cubist style and the biomorphic shapes of Arp and Joan Miró. Following his return to New York in 1930, Morris built a white-walled, open-spaced studio (inspired by that of Ozenfant, which had been designed by Le Corbusier) on the grounds of Brockhurst, his parents’ 46-acre estate in Lenox, Massachusetts. In 1935, he married the painter and collagist Estelle “Suzy...

An original oil painting by American artist Rudolph Wedow. This fantastic painting depicts Antelope Dancers in San Felipe Pueblo in New Mexico. Created...

Here for your consideration is a well executed oil on canvas painting by the well known American marine artist C. Hjalmar “Cappy” Amundsen. Signed lower right “Wm Lawrence” one of the the pseudonyms used by Amundsen. Condition of the painting is good to very good. Some crazing in the sky but no restorations. In its original wood antique white pickled oak frame. Overall measurements are 20 by 24 inches. Provenance: a Long Island, New York collector. C. Hjalmar "Cappy" Amundsen Born: 1911 - New York City Died: 2001 - East Moriches, New York Known for: Impressionist whaling scenes, harbor views, ships and seascapes Name variants: D Ainsley, Casper Hjalmar Amundsen, Hjalmar Amundsen, Hjalmar "Cappy" Amundsen, Ernest Cramer, JJ Enwright, C Hjalmar, W Hughes, William Lawrence, F H McKay...

Antique American modernist landscape painting. Oil on canvas, circa 1930. Signed. Housed in period frame. Image size 45L x 32H.

Carlota Rosales Martínez de Pedrosa was born in Madrid in 1872 and was the second daughter of the painter Eduardo Rosales, after the birth the Rosales...

Elegant 1940's still-life of pussy willows in a white vase with a rich royal blue drape by an unknown artist (American, 20th Century). Unsigned and unfram...

Lionel S. Reiss (1894 - 1988) Lobstermen in Gloucester, Massachusetts, circa 1943 Watercolor on paper Sight 17 1/2 x 23 inches Signed lower left Provenance: Private Collection, Las Vegas, Nevada In describing his own style, Lionel Reiss wrote, “By nature, inclination, and training, I have long since recognized the fact that...I belong to the category of those who can only gladly affirm the reality of the world I live in.” Reiss’s subject matter was wide-ranging, including gritty New York scenes, landscapes of bucolic Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and seascapes around Gloucester, Massachusetts. However, it was as a painter of Jewish life—both in Israel and in Europe before World War II—that Reiss excelled. I.B. Singer, the Nobel Prize winner for Literature, noted that Reiss was “essentially an artist of the nineteenth century, and because of this he had the power and the courage to tell visually the story of a people.” Although Reiss was born in Jaroslaw, Poland, his family immigrated to the United States in 1898 when he was four years old. Reiss's family settled on New York City’s Lower East Side and he lived in the city for most of his life. Reiss attended the Art Students League and then worked as a commercial artist for newspapers and publishers. As art director for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, he supposedly created the studio’s famous lion logo. After World War I, Reiss became fascinated with Jewish life in the ‘Old World.’ In 1921 he left his advertising work and spent the next ten years traveling in Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. Like noted Jewish photographers Alter Kacyzne and Roman Vishniac, Reiss depicted Jewish life in Poland prior to World War II. He later wrote, “My trip encompassed three main objectives: to make ethnic studies of Jewish types wherever I traveled; to paint and draw Jewish life, as I saw it and felt it, in all aspects; and to round out my work in Israel.” In Europe, Reiss recorded quotidian scenes in a variety of media and different settings such as Paris, Amsterdam, the Venice ghetto, the Jewish cemetery in Prague, and an array of shops, synagogues, streets, and marketplaces in the Jewish quarters of Warsaw, Lodz, Krakow, Lublin, Vilna, Ternopil, and Kovno. He paid great attention to details of dress, hair, and facial features, and his work became noted for its descriptive quality. A selection of Reiss’s portraits appeared in 1938 in his book My Models Were Jews. In this book, published on the eve of the Holocaust, Reiss argued that there was “no such thing as a ‘Jewish race’.” Instead, he claimed that the Jewish people were a cultural group with a great deal of diversity within and between Jewish communities around the world. Franz Boas...

Landscape with a river. 1947. Oil on cardboard, 50x72 cm Harijs Veldre (Bullis till 1947) (1927.8.III – 1999.6.V) Harijs Veldre learned in Riga school of appl...

Ralph Pallen Coleman (American 1892-1968) A Monumental Painting of "The Resurrection of Jesus Christ", circa 1940. Measuring 102" high x 77" wide (framed), this massive oil on canvas painting is truly one of a kind. The quality throughout the entire painting is masterful. The painting is very realistically painted with bright, vibrant, colors which shows the artists true passion and love for Jesus and Christianity. Ralph Pallen Coleman was an American painter and illustrator. His career spanned more than half a century during which he illustrated stories for many magazines, and later, religious illustrations and paintings which provided images of Christianity to millions of people during the 1950s-1960's. A native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he grew up and lived there throughout his 75 years. He received his formal art education at the Philadelphia School...

Antique American modernist oil painting by Harry Lane. Oil on canvas, circa 1940. Signed. Exhibited. Framed. Image size, 20L x 16H.

Lionel S. Reiss (1894 - 1988) New York City Skyline View from the East River Watercolor on paper 13 x 19 inches Signed lower left In describing his own style, Lionel Reiss wrote, “By nature, inclination, and training, I have long since recognized the fact that...I belong to the category of those who can only gladly affirm the reality of the world I live in.” Reiss’s subject matter was wide-ranging, including gritty New York scenes, landscapes of bucolic Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and seascapes around Gloucester, Massachusetts. However, it was as a painter of Jewish life—both in Israel and in Europe before World War II—that Reiss excelled. I.B. Singer, the Nobel Prize winner for Literature, noted that Reiss was “essentially an artist of the nineteenth century, and because of this he had the power and the courage to tell visually the story of a people.” Although Reiss was born in Jaroslaw, Poland, his family immigrated to the United States in 1898 when he was four years old. Reiss's family settled on New York City’s Lower East Side and he lived in the city for most of his life. Reiss attended the Art Students League and then worked as a commercial artist for newspapers and publishers. As art director for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, he supposedly created the studio’s famous lion logo. After World War I, Reiss became fascinated with Jewish life in the ‘Old World.’ In 1921 he left his advertising work and spent the next ten years traveling in Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. Like noted Jewish photographers Alter Kacyzne and Roman Vishniac, Reiss depicted Jewish life in Poland prior to World War II. He later wrote, “My trip encompassed three main objectives: to make ethnic studies of Jewish types wherever I traveled; to paint and draw Jewish life, as I saw it and felt it, in all aspects; and to round out my work in Israel.” In Europe, Reiss recorded quotidian scenes in a variety of media and different settings such as Paris, Amsterdam, the Venice ghetto, the Jewish cemetery in Prague, and an array of shops, synagogues, streets, and marketplaces in the Jewish quarters of Warsaw, Lodz, Krakow, Lublin, Vilna, Ternopil, and Kovno. He paid great attention to details of dress, hair, and facial features, and his work became noted for its descriptive quality. A selection of Reiss’s portraits appeared in 1938 in his book My Models Were Jews. In this book, published on the eve of the Holocaust, Reiss argued that there was “no such thing as a ‘Jewish race’.” Instead, he claimed that the Jewish people were a cultural group with a great deal of diversity within and between Jewish communities around the world. Franz Boas...