1940s Paintings

Oil on canvas. Framed. Signed.

This original vintage painting by Charles Ragland Bunnell (1897–1968), titled Quitting Time from his Black and Blue Series (1941), exemplifies the artist’s signature Abstract Structu...

5-3256a Figurative Landscape in the Tuileries gardens in Paris Image size 7.5x9.5" Set in a vintage wood and gesso frame

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...

This vintage 1940s oil on canvas painting by Colorado artist Irene Fowler (1884–1969) beautifully captures the vibrant autumn landscape of Boulder Canyon. With a masterful eye for color and atmosphere, Fowler presents majestic mountain peaks framed by glowing Aspen trees in their fall brilliance, their leaves shimmering in radiant shades of gold, orange, and red. The scene reflects both the serenity and dramatic character of Colorado’s rugged wilderness, offering a timeless vision of the Rocky Mountains. Fowler’s keen observation of light and painterly brushwork bring the landscape vividly to life, evoking the crisp mountain air and golden glow of a Colorado autumn day. Her ability to balance natural grandeur with intimate detail makes this work an exceptional example of early 20th-century Western American painting. The painting itself measures 22 ¼ x 18 ¼ inches and is presented in a custom gilded frame with outer dimensions of 25 ¼ x 21 ¼ x 1 ½ inches, enhancing its elegance and making it ready for display. Signed by the artist in the lower right corner. About the Artist: Irene Fowler (1884–1969) was a pivotal figure in Denver’s early 20th-century art community. Born in Illinois, she later settled in Colorado, where she became both a respected public school teacher and a founding member of the Denver Artists Guild (now the Colorado Artists Guild). Best known for her en plein air landscapes, Fowler captured the beauty of Colorado’s mountains, Aspen groves, and mining towns with an extraordinary sensitivity to light, color, and atmosphere. She exhibited widely throughout her career, including at the Schlier Gallery, Chappell House, University Club...

Work on canvas

Original oil on wooden panel painting of a lively interior scene composed of two colorfully dressed can can girls preforming in front of a packed house of interested spectators. Signed lower left “N. Barerra”. Circa 1945. Condition is very good. Recently professionally cleaned and varnished. The painting is housed in a new custom gold leaf frame. Overall framed measurements are 16.5 by 19.5 inches. Provenance: A Bellport, Long Island collector. Nicolas Barerra is a painter born in Russia, now Ukraine in 1919. He studied at the Leningrad Academy of Fine Arts. He was a war correspondent and published drawings for American newspapers. After the war, he settled in Marseille where he worked as an illustrator and made a living from the sale of his paintings. He was a friend of Albert Camus and Patricia...

5140 Oversized Antique French oil painting depicting a Frenchman in an interior scene Framed

This evocative vintage oil painting from the 1930s–1940s by Denver modernist Paul K. Smith beautifully depicts a classic adobe church in New Mexico, likely insp...

Paris: City Winter Scene by Henri Miloch (1898-1979) watercolour and gouache painting with charcoal on artist's paper, unframed Sheet: 9.75 x 13.5 inches Intriguing painting by the...

5-3744A. Oil on canvas of a tranquil landscape with an abandoned cabin Framed in a wood frame Image size 19.5x11.5" Initialed lower left A.M

Vintage American modern abstract oil painting. Oil on canvas, circa 1960. Unsigned. Image size, 48L x 36H. Unframed.

3910C Antique impressionistic winter landscape.Oil on canvas applied to board Displayed in a gilt wood frame, Signed lower left by Johanssen. Image size 17.5 H x 23.5 W

Children play first aid with a dog in the bathroom as their mother looks on in surprise Medium: Oil on board Artwork: 20" x 30" Frame: 26" x 36" Signed: 'Douglass' (Upper Left)

Work on canvas

Albert Heckman Cubist Landscape Oil on canvas 16 x 20 inches Albert Heckman was born in Meadville, Western Pennsylvania, 1893. He went to New York City to try his hand at the art w...

A dramatic mid-century western figurative action scene depicting a shootout in an old western town by Randy Steffen (American, 1917-1977), 1947. Several ...

Impressive early French impressionist Paris street scene oil painting. Framed. Oil on canvas. Signed. Image size, 24H by 40L.

Work on wood This abstract work is distinguished by its dynamic curves and vivid colors. Dominated by shades of red, blue and green, it evokes a fluid dance of organic forms. The sin...

This striking British Post Impressionist portrait oil painting is by noted Manchester artist Harry Rutherford. Painted circa 1940, the portrait is of a dark haired young woman in a f...

Vintage French modernist South France landscape oil painting from the cirlce of Andre LHote. Apparently unsigned. Very finely painted. Oil on canvas, lain to board. Framed. Measu...

5131 Vintage framed oil painting of grist mill in a snow filled landscape Signed B.Burt Image size 19.5x23.5

3830 Oil on canvas streets of old Paris Image size 8x10"

Incredible early American modernist interior scene by Anthony Toney (1913 - 2004) . Oil on canvas. Framed. Signed. Measuring 26 by 32 overall and 18 by 24 painting alone.

Post Office WPA Mural Study American Scene Social Realism Modern 20th Century Carlos Lopez (1910-1953) "Bounty" WPA Mural Study for Michigan Post Office 19 ½ x 22 ½ inches Oil on B...

Initialed lower right, 'Kay' for Kay Christensen (Danish, 1899-1981), dated verso, "27 October 1948" and titled, 'Paris'. A serene, Parisian cityscape showing an aerial perspective ...

Beautiful 1940's impressionist landscape by Elmer Stanhope (1907-1956) Titled "Monterey Bay" Oil on canvas The canvas measures 24" x 30", while the frame measures 30" x 36"

5109 Japanese peasant worker Set in custom wood frame Signed lower right Image size 23.5x19.5

'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...

Jean Dominique Van Caulert, (1897-1979), although most often associated with his celebrity portraits and works for the theater, he was also a true symbolist in the tradition of the Belgian symbolist's. "The Nurturing", oil on canvas, dated 1947, is Van Caulert's depiction of the nurturing of post war Europe, as the shrouded woman offers an apple to an androgynous figure.

Oil on canvas. Framed. Image size, 18H x 24L.

Mid Century Abstract Original Painting - Blue Calligraphy on Crimson Water in Oil and Tempera on Paper Wonderful Bay Area abstract composition by San Francisco's artist Honora Berg ...

"6th Avenue El" American Scene Social Realism Mid-20th Century New York City Ernest Fiene (1894-1965) "6th Avenue El" 12 1/4 x 14 1/4 Oil on canvas board, c. 1940s Signed lower righ...

Magnolia, c. 1946, oil on canvas, signed lower left, 22 3/4 x 25 3/4 inches, this original oil painting was part of Reindel's Flowers of Our Land series, commissioned by the John M...

6069 Oil on canvas of Parisians strolling in the park set in a period frame Image size 22.5x27.5"

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...

Artist: A. Colucci Title: Village Market Year: circa 1940 Medium: Oil on Board, Signed l.r. Size: 32 x 53 inches (81.28 x 134.62 cm) Frame: 38 x 60 inches (96.52 x 152.4 cm)

Title: Interior with Fruits and Portrait Artist: Signed as J. Guinovart Attribution: Possibly a very early work by Josep Guinovart (1927–2007) Technique: Oil on canvas Dimensions: 46...

John Steuart Curry "Sketching Wisconsin," 1946 oil on canvas 31.13 x 28 inches, canvas 39.75 x 36.75 x 2.5 inches, frame Signed and dated lower right Overall excellent condition Presented in a 24-karat gold leaf hand-carved wood frame John Steuart Curry (1897-1946) was an American regionalist painter active during the Great Depression and into World War II. He was born in Kansas on his family’s farm but went on to study art in Chicago, Paris and New York as young man. In Paris, he was exposed to the work of masters such as Peter Paul Rubens, Eugène Delacroix and Jacques-Louis David. As he matured, his work showed the influence of these masters, especially in his compositional decisions. Like the two other Midwestern regionalist artists that are most often grouped with him, Grant Wood (American, 1891-1942) and Thomas Hart Benton (American, 1889-1975), Curry was interested in representational works containing distinctly American subject matter. This was contrary to the popular art at the time, which was moving closer and closer to abstraction and individual expression. Sketching Wisconsin is an oil painting completed in 1946, the last year of John Steuart Curry’s life, during which time he was the artist-in-residence at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. The painting is significant in Curry’s body of work both as a very revealing self-portrait, and as a landscape that clearly and sensitively depicts the scenery of southern Wisconsin near Madison. It is also a portrait of the artist’s second wife, Kathleen Gould Curry, and is unique in that it contains a ‘picture within a picture,’ a compositional element that many early painting masters used to draw the eye of the viewer. This particular artwork adds a new twist to this theme: Curry’s wife is creating essentially the same painting the viewer is looking at when viewing Sketching Wisconsin. The triangular composition of the figures in the foreground immediately brings focus to a younger Curry, whose head penetrates the horizon line and whose gaze looks out towards the viewer. The eye then moves down to Mrs. Curry, who, seated on a folding stool and with her hand raised to paint the canvas on the easel before her, anchors the triangular composition. The shape is repeated in the legs of the stool and the easel. Behind the two figures, stripes of furrowed fields fall away gently down the hillside to a farmstead and small lake below. Beyond the lake, patches of field and forest rise and fall into the distance, and eventually give way to blue hills. Here, Curry has subverted the traditional artist’s self-portrait by portraying himself as a farmer first and an artist second. He rejects what he sees as an elitist art world of the East Coast and Europe. In this self-portrait he depicts himself without any pretense or the instruments of his profession and with a red tractor standing in the field behind him as if he was taking a break from the field work. Here, Curry’s wife symbolizes John Steuart Curry’s identity as an artist. Compared with a self-portrait of the artist completed a decade earlier, this work shows a marked departure from how the artist previously presented and viewed himself. In the earlier portrait, Curry depicted himself in the studio with brushes in hand, and with some of his more recognizable and successful canvases behind him. But in Sketching Wisconsin, Curry has taken himself out of the studio and into the field, indicating a shift in the artist’s self-conception. Sketching Wisconsin’s rural subject also expresses Curry’s populist ideals, that art could be relevant to anyone. This followed the broad educational objectives of UW’s artist-in-residence program. Curry was appointed to his position at the University of Wisconsin in 1937 and was the first person to hold any such position in the country, the purpose of which was to serve as an educational resource to the people of the state. He embraced his role at the University with zeal and not only opened the doors of his campus studio in the School of Agriculture to the community, but also spent a great deal of time traveling around the state of Wisconsin to visit rural artists who could benefit from his expertise. It was during his ten years in the program that Curry was able to put into practice his belief that art should be meaningful to the rural populace. However, during this time he also struggled with public criticism, as the dominant forces of the art market were moving away from representation. Perhaps it was Curry’s desire for public acceptance during the latter part of his career that caused him to portray himself as an Everyman in Sketching Wisconsin. Beyond its importance as a portrait of the artist, Sketching Wisconsin is also a detailed and sensitive landscape that shows us Curry’s deep personal connection to his environment. The landscape here can be compared to Wisconsin Landscape of 1938-39 (the Metropolitan Museum of Art), which presents a similar tableau of rolling hills with a patchwork of fields. Like Wisconsin Landscape, this is an incredibly detailed and expressive depiction of a place close to the artist’s heart. This expressive landscape is certainly the result of many hours spent sketching people, animals, weather conditions and topography of Wisconsin as Curry traveled around the state. The backdrop of undulating hills and the sweeping horizon, and the emotions evoked by it, are emphatically recognizable as the ‘driftless’ area of south-central Wisconsin. But while the Metropolitan’s Wisconsin Landscape conveys a sense of uncertainty or foreboding with its dramatic spring cloudscape and alternating bands of light and dark, Sketching Wisconsin has a warm and reflective mood. The colors of the foliage indicate that it is late summer and Curry seems to look out at the viewer approvingly, as if satisfied with the fertile ground surrounding him. The landscape in Sketching Wisconsin is also revealing of what became one of Curry’s passions while artist-in-residence at UW’s School of Agriculture – soil conservation. When Curry was a child in Kansas, he saw his father almost lose his farm and its soil to the erosion of The Dust Bowl. Therefore, he was very enthusiastic about ideas from UW’s School of Agriculture on soil conservation methods being used on Wisconsin farms. In Sketching Wisconsin, we see evidence of crop rotation methods in the terraced stripes of fields leading down the hillside away from the Curry’s and in how they alternate between cultivated and fallow fields. Overall, Sketching Wisconsin has a warm, reflective, and comfortably pastoral atmosphere, and the perceived shift in Curry’s self-image that is evident in the portrait is a positive one. After his rise to favor in the art world in the 1930’s, and then rejection from it due to the strong beliefs presented in his art, Curry is satisfied and proud to be farmer in this self-portrait. Curry suffered from high blood...

Albert Heckman Cubist Landscape Signed lower right Oil on canvas 21 3/4 x 30 inches Albert Heckman was born in Meadville, Western Pennsylvania, 1893. He went to New York City to tr...

A long and quiet night in the hotel lobby is depicted by Clyde Singer in this moody and still painting. Entitled Hotel Night Lobby (1947), Singer paints a moment of solitude during ...

5-3494 Oil on canvas figurative traveling to orient. Set in a silvered wood frame

This vintage 1941 gouache painting on paper, titled Birth of Mind, signed and dated lower right, is a striking example of retrofuturism by Charles Ragland Bunnell, a prominent artist from the Broadmoor Academy...

Albert Heckman Woodstock Landscape Oil on board 8 x 10 inches Albert Heckman was born in Meadville, Western Pennsylvania, 1893. He went to New York City to try his hand at the art ...

Antique American winter landscape oil painting. Oil on canvas. Signed. Framed. Measuring: 26 by 30 inches overall, and 20 by 24 painting alone.. In excellent original condition. Han...

This is a very stylized and powerful portrait by the noted artist Frank Anderson Trapp. It is dated 1940, and is very much in the modern style of French painters Ferdinand Leger...

Carl Frederick Gaertner (American, 1898-1952) Rocky Cove, 1947 Oil on canvas Signed lower left 24 x 30 inches 31 x 37 inches, framed Carl Gaer...

Vintage American realist dog portrait oil painting. Oil on board. Framed. Signed. In excellent original condition. Handsomely framed in a modern wood molding. Excellent conditio...

Work on canvas with a frame; total size 80x93 cm

Maud Tausey Fangel - Baby Painter. In profile, we see a charming, young, ruddy-cheeked, blond girl with pig tales in a bright red-orange dress. She is reading Snow White as a sma...

Stowe Vermont Village Sleigh Ride - Mid Century Winter Figurative Landscape A bright, crisp morning and a sleigh ride through new snow in Stowe, Vermont...

Signed lower right, 'Wm. P. Krehm' for William Krehm (American, 1901-1968) and painted circa 1940. A period oil painting showing a mountainous, desert landscape at dusk, most likely a view of a Santa Ana River tributary in Southern California's Inland Empire, painting the hills and stream in variegating tones of rose, lilac and dusty pink. Born in Kansas, William Krehm moved to California in the early part of the 1930s, where he established himself as an art teacher in Banning and studied under Dana Bartlett, William T. McDermitt, Jack Wilkinson Smith and James Swinnerton...

Basketball Player Gouache on card stock, c. 1940 Signed by the artist in ink lower center A study for the fresco mural in the Social Security Buildin...

Title: Sun and Fishing on the Costa Brava Artist: Joaquín Terruella Matilla (Barcelona, 1891 – 1957) Technique: Oil on canvas Dimensions: 60 x 73 cm (23.6 x 28.7 in) Support: Can...

A substantial and atmospheric winter landscape showing a view of fields and farm buildings draped in snow. Signed with initials lower right, 'V.G.K.' for Victor Georg Kuhnel, (Danis...

Still life with cucumbers and Borjomi Middle of the 1940s, oil on cardboard, 51x66 cm Harijs Veldre (Bullis till 1947) (1927.8.III – 1999.6.V) Harijs Veldre learned in Riga school ...

3821 Antique landscape oil pastel of Hudson North Creek Image size 10x13.5"

Gorgeous landscape of Sierra Mountains and lake in autumn by Oliver Glen Barrett (American, 1903 - 1970), circa 1940. Signed lower right corner; ti...

John Steuart Curry "Cockfight in Cuba," 1946 oil on canvas Image: 38.25 x 46.25 in Frame: 43.75 x 51.5 in Signed on reverse with initials JSC on lower right stretcher bar John Steu...

This watercolor painting features the majestic Mount Ararat, viewed from the valley where the artist resided. It exemplifies the distinctive style of Martiros Saryan, showcasing his ...