1940s Paintings

Vibrant mid century California landscape of the beautiful San Ynez Valley Indian Trail with Native American children walking towards the sunset by H. Hansen (American, 20th Century), 1944. The small figures walk through a majestic, sprawling landscape full of plants, rocks, and tall trees flanking this gorgeous trail that leads towards an epic mountain range in the distance. Signed and dated "H. Hansen 1944" lower left corner. Label on verso with title and "Rubicon Lodge" (an old California...

This captivating 1945 oil painting by acclaimed American artist Hayes Lyon beautifully portrays Bessy Lyon, the artist’s wife, in a warm and intimate composition. Rendered in soft ye...

"Untitled" oil on canvas painting by artist Alex Katz. Signed and dated A. Katz 46 recto lower right. Painted in 1946, during the period when Katz was studying at Cooper Union in New...

Rare Hawaiian landscape of coastal Maui. Oil on canvas. Framed. Signed. Oil on canvas. Image size, 20"H x 24"L.

Title: Landscape of Olot Artist: Joaquim Marsillach Codony (1905-1986) Year: 1945 Technique: Oil on canvas Dimensions: 23.6 x 28.7 in (60 x 73 cm) Location: Olot School, Catalonia Mo...

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

A fine impressionist winter landscape by German American artist Charles Jacob Young (aka C. Jac Jung) (1880-1940). Young was born in Rodenbach, Bavaria, Germany, immigrated to the Un...

Antique American school modernist still life painting. Oil on canvas. Framed. Signed.

1663 Over sized oil painting pf a parting couple during the Civil War

Nicely painted early 1900's oil painting. by Richard Hook. Great color and composition. Nicely framed.

Listed vintage oil painting of rolling waves in Gloucester, MA. This work was created by listed female artist Regina Gates. Regina Martin Gates was born in 1896 in Watervliet, Alban...

Henri Pierre Fortier, Untitled (Autumn Landscape), gouache, c. 1940s. Signed in ink. Inscribed 'To my Friend CLINTON R. MULFORD'. A fine, painterly watercolor, with rich, layered colors, on heavy dark brown drawing paper with approximately 1/4 inch margins; an unfinished figurative sketch...

Although born in Liberty, Indiana, Jay Hall Connaway (1893-1970) was fascinated by coastal life and marine scenery, an attraction that had profound effects on his life and artwork. A...

Antique American abstract mixed media painting. Oil gouache and crayon on board. Signed. Framed. Measuring 24 by 29 inches overall and 15 by 20 painting alone.

Artist born in Vienna, Austria in 1887. Died in 1970 in Geneva. Work on canvas

M R Webb Abstract Form 21 x 26 cm Signed to lower right Provenance: Family of A. E. Halliwell Little is known about A Searle beyond the fact that he studied under A E Halliwell, th...

A sadistic laughing Devil grinning a big smile is pictured hovering over a Hellfire. He is reveling while witnessing tiny ant-like sinners engage in eternal torture, torment, and co...

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

Antique American modernist still life oil painting. Oil on canvas. Signed. Framed. Measuring 17 by 23 inches overall and 16 by 22 painting alone.

A Transendental Abstraction by famed Chicago Modernist, William S. Schwartz titled "Impressions of the West #7". Anecdotally, Schwartz's notable "Impressions of the West" series wer...

Work on cardboard Brown wooden frame 55 x 47.5 x 4.5 cm his bold, vibrant work of art captures the essence of a bouquet of flowers in a crystalline vase of soft hues. Expressive brus...

6000 Antique birch trees landscape,oil on artist board displayed in a wood frame.Signed lower left by Mori.Image size 9.5 H x 7.5 W

Impressive early American modernist still life oil painting. Framed. Oil on canvas. Signed. Image size, 10H by 8L.

Appropriately called the "Mosaic" period for important historical artist Carl Holty, this is a super example! His color use during this time frame was lively as he always used sky b...

Paris: Place du Tertre and Sacre Coeur, the Roman Catholic Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Paris by Henri Miloch (1898-1979) signed lower right watercolour and gouache painting on ar...

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

A unique oil painting on canvas signed by Paul Lambert (1910–1970), a renowned French artist celebrated for his evocative portrayals of Parisian landscapes. This rare piece exemplifi...

Bill Crawford (1913-1982). Original illustration artwork depicting teams as they advance to the World Series. Depicted are representations of the St. Louis Cardinals and The Brooklyn...

Antique American regionalist modern landscape oil painting. Oil on canvas, circa 1940. Signed. Displayed in a period modern frame. Image, 30"L x 25"H.

Untitled (Collapsed Shacks), c. 1940s, oil on canvas, signed lower left, 20 ½ x 26 ½ inches, presented in a period frame This work is part of our exhibition America Coast to Coast: ...

Mid Century California Mountaintops Forest Landscape by Joseph Frey Beautiful and serene mid-century landscape of snowy California mountaintops by listed California artist Joseph Fr...

Elegant, brightly-colored floral still life by Massachusetts artist Marion Huse. Oil on board measures 21 3/8 x 17 3/8; framed dimensions are 29 5/8 x 25 5/8 x 1 5/8. Painting is sig...

This painting is part of our exhibition America Coast to Coast: Artists of the 1940s. Blue Lake, c. 1940s, oil on masonite, signed lower right, 20 x 36 inches, label and inscriptio...

A beautiful oil on board depicting Stonehenge, by modern British artist Vivian Bewick. Excellent quality study if the mysterious Bronze Age landmark. Inscribed with artist details o...

Work on cardboard Dimensions with frame : 46 x 53.5 x 4.5 cm This work, an impressionist landscape, aptly captures the tranquility and timeless grandeur of nature. In the foreground,...

Charming mid century still life of fruit, vase and black cat by Monterey artist Joseph Tanous (American, b. 1925), c. 1940-50. Signed lower left corner. Presented in rustic painted w...

A important American Impressionist painting by Isabella Howland (1895-1974), "Ocho Rios", Jamaica, 1940. Howland was active in both Boston & New York, this impressionistic painting d...

Donald Vogel’s paintings reflect his interest in seeking beauty in life and in sharing pleasure with his viewers. Vogel entreats us to "rejoice and celebrate each new day, knowing it...

Agudo Clará, Ignacio (Zaragoza 1880 – Ibiza 1966) ARTS On May 25, 1936, he married the painter Pura Ortí and with her and her family, he moved to Ibiza, facing the imminent Civil War. Settled in a house in Dalt Vila, he began to teach drawing and painting classes at the School of Arts and Crafts, and it was then that he decided to study Fine Arts, which he would do in Valencia in the 1940s. A little later, he decided to open his house-studio in Dalt Vila to the public, a circumstance that led him to request early retirement from the School of Arts and Crafts, and to dedicate himself entirely to his profession as a painter. As a figurative painter, he cultivated landscape and portrait, greatly influenced by German Romanticism...

Symbolic figurative abstract of wispy figures surrounding a heart by Marguerite Louis Blasingame (American; 1906-1947), circa 1940-45. Marguerite and her husband Frank Blasingame...

5-3086 oil on canvas set in a vintage gilt wood frame

Paris: Place de la Concorde looking towards Rue Royale by Henri Miloch (1898-1979) signed lower right and dated for 16th September 1948 watercolour and gouache painting on artist's paper, unframed Sheet:: 9.5 x 12.25 inches Very pretty painting by the highly regarded painter, Henri Miloch. It depicts Place de la Concorde with a cyclist making their way through the traffic. The artist was seated immediately by the fountain closest to Hotel de la Marine...

Impressive early American modernist abstract oil painting by Louis Wolchonok (1898 - 1973). Framed. Oil on board. Signed. Image size, 24H by 18L.

Finely painted and highly detailed winter landscape painting. Oil on board. Framed. Signed.

Antique impressionist still life painting by Irene ( I. Stry) Stry (1899/1904 - 1963). Oil on board, circa 1940. Signed. Image size, 24L x 20H.

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...

This Untitled Abstract Composition in Oil on Canvas signed Joe Stefanelli is a gem of Mid-Century American Abstraction. This painting brilliantly exemplifies the approach and movemen...

Symbolic and surreal landscape with a Makaula or seer and a woman seeking to know her future by Marguerite Louis Blasingame (American; 1906-1947), circa 1940-45. Marguerite and her h...

Beautiful mid century seascape of the waves spilling over the rocks into the tide pool by Margaret Esther Rogers (British/American, 1872-1961). Si...

Signed Lower Right by Artist The Saturday Evening Post Cover, September 23, 1944 A proponent of simplicity as a virtue, Stevan Dohan...

Hudson River School Style - The Homestead and Grist Mill 1942 In the Hudson River School style by A (K) Mathieu (American, 19th-20th C). Harvest time at the Homestead with a hay wago...

Work on canvas Dimensions with frame 58 x 66 x 5 cm This painting depicts three massive draft horses, majestically posed in an open field, under a soft, cloudy sky. The artist captur...

Signed figures in cityscape oil on canvas circa 1940 by sought after French impressionist painter Jules Rene Herve. The piece depicts a view of a crowded stall selling paintings besi...

Work on paper Original silver wooden frame with glass window 52 x 66,5 x 1,5 cm

#5-3302 Dog Hunting oil on canvas applied to a board ,displayed in a wood frame ,signed by Geyer. Image size 10.25 H x 13.50 W

A vibrant painting depicting an avenue lined with poplar trees in fall colors, prominently featuring a very large, centrally placed yellow poplar. Possibly an American poplar. The artist, Agda Holst, has employed a diverse palette of colors to the poplars, creating a dynamic and colorful composition. This oil on panel is signed and dated by Holst in 1948. The work exemplifies her use of color and form, characteristics that defined her artistic practice throughout her career. Agda Holst was a Swedish modernist painter known for her precise study of form, stylized compositions, and ability to merge structured geometry with expressive color. Her works, often still lifes, portraits, and figure studies, reflect a balance between naturalistic representation and modernist influences such as Cubism and New Objectivity. Holst's artistic journey began in 1907 at the Académie Colarossi in Paris, where she studied under Christian Krohg. Seeking further refinement, she moved to Munich between 1910 and 1911, studying with Julius Exter, known for his teachings in portrait and genre painting. In 1911–1912, she returned to Paris to study under Kees van Dongen, whose bold use of color and strong contrasts left a lasting impression on her work. The early 1920s marked another period of study in Paris, this time under André Lhote, who instilled in her a structured approach to composition and geometric clarity. Holst’s first public exhibition took place in 1916, when she displayed paintings in a bookstore...

5-2620 Vintage original colored pastel on paper displayed in a gilt wood frame under glass.Arist unknown

"Ole Swimmin Hole" Southern California Oil on canvas board 1930s Elegant mid century landscape depicting a lake and hillside in summer by well known and collected California artist ...

An original 1942 oil on board painting by American female artist Catherine Koenig depicting the interior of the Buffalo Art Institute which was home to the legendary Charles Burchfie...

This fantastic British 1940's figurative interior oil painting is by noted artist Leonard Fuller. Painted circa 1940, the colourful composition is looking into a busy Woolworths stor...