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1950s Paintings

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Period: 1950s
Orbs, Spiritual and Abstract Landscape
Located in Doylestown, PA
"Orbs" is a 38 x 50 inches, oil on canvas painting by American modernist and surrealist, female artist Peter Miller. The work is estate stamped 202141 on verso. The painting has been...
Category

American Modern 1950s Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

A Spring Sunset, Original Oil Painting from 1952
Located in Stockholm, SE
This exquisite painting by the artist Otto Lindberg (1880-1955) is a mesmerizing depiction of a spring sunset. Crafted in 1952, this piece stands as one of Lindberg's final paintings...
Category

Romantic 1950s Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Antique American School Modernist Abstract Cubist Framed Mid Century Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Nicely painted mid century abstract cubist oil painting. Great color and composition. Framed.
Category

Cubist 1950s Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Antique American School Female Artist Abstract Expressionist Cubist Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique modernist abstract painting by Elsie Orfuss (Born 1913). Oil on canvas. Signed on verso. Nicely framed. `
Category

Abstract Expressionist 1950s Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Circa 1950 gouache presents a scene of wine tasting
Located in PARIS, FR
The circa 1950 gouache presents a scene of wine tasting, likely intended as a poster project. It captures a group engaged in conversation and enjoyment, reflecting the conviviality o...
Category

1950s Paintings

Materials

Paper

Exhibited Abstract Expressionist Framed Modernist Street Scene Signed Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Nicely painted mid century abstract expressionist oil painting by Erwin Wending (1914 - 1993). Great color and composition. Framed. Signed. Exhibition and museum labels verso.
Category

Abstract Expressionist 1950s Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Abstract Moonlit Landscape, signed "Douvos"
Located in New Orleans, LA
Abstract Moonlit Landscape, signed and dated "Douvos"
Category

Abstract 1950s Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Abstract Painting of Shells
Located in Houston, TX
Small size watercolor image of shells. Painting is mainly blue, yellow and brown tones. Painting is framed in a painted wooden gold frame with a yellow matte. Dimensions without Fram...
Category

American Impressionist 1950s Paintings

Materials

Watercolor

"Zapotecan" Marion Greenwood, Indigenous Mexican Figurative Watercolor
Located in New York, NY
Marion Greenwood Zapotecan, 1956 Signed and dated Watercolor on paper 12 1/4 x 9 5/8 inches Provenance: Milch Galleries, New York Marion Greenwood, a painter and printmaker, was bo...
Category

1950s Paintings

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Pastel Bust Of A Naked Young Woman Signed by Fried Pal American artist
Located in Gavere, BE
"Pastel Bust Of A Naked Young Woman Signed Fried Pal" Pál Fried (June 16, 1893 in Hungary - March 6, 1976 in New York) was a Hungarian artist known for his erotic paintings of dance...
Category

American Realist 1950s Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Paper, Pastel

Framed American Modernist Abstract Expressionist Fauvist Landscape Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Vintage American abstract landscape oil painting. Oil on canvas. Signed. Framed.
Category

Abstract 1950s Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Dance Wands, Modernist Southwestern Still Life and Cultural Commentary
Located in Doylestown, PA
"Dance Wands" is a 36 x 24 inches, oil on canvas painting by American modernist and surrealist, female artist Peter Miller. The work is painted in a vibrant color palette, signed and...
Category

American Modern 1950s Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Untitled (The Opening), Abstraction by American Female Modernist
Located in Doylestown, PA
"Untitled (The Opening)" is a 36 x 30 inches, oil on canvas painting by American modernist and surrealist, female artist Peter Miller. The work is estate stamped #202157 on verso. Th...
Category

Abstract 1950s Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

“Abstract”
Located in Southampton, NY
Very unusual and boldly colored original oil on canvas abstract painting done by the Russian artist Gufor Malyanov. Signed in cyrillic verso, dated 1952 and titled in cyrillic “Abst...
Category

Modern 1950s Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Vintage American Modernist Abstract Geometric Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American modernist abstract oil painting. No signature found.
Category

Abstract 1950s Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

LA DEMONSTRATION (TITRE AU DOS)
Located in Aventura, FL
Original oil on canvas painting. Hand signed, titled and dated on verso by Roberto Matta. Frame size approx 38 x 46 inches. Artwork is in excellent condition. Certificate of A...
Category

Contemporary 1950s Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

'The Artist as a Young Man' by Hal Frater - Ashcan School Figurative Painting
Located in Carmel, CA
Hal Frater's "The Artist as a Young Man" is a striking oil on canvas that captures the essence of the artist himself, rendered in a raw, emotive style. The palette is earthy, with na...
Category

Ashcan School 1950s Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Mid Century Seascape and Figural Original oil painting on Linen
Located in Soquel, CA
Seascape Original oil painting on Linen 1956 Solitary figure on wharf by California artist Robert Watson, painted 1956 (1923 - 2004)The following, is from Tony Watson, son of the ar...
Category

1950s Paintings

Materials

Linen, Oil

Multicolored Vintage French Painting - Ceramic Pitchers in Mosaic Style
Located in Houston, TX
Richly-hued vintage French acrylic painting of three ceramic pitchers, in a style beautifully mimicking a mosaic, circa 1950. Original artwo...
Category

1950s Paintings

Materials

Paper, Acrylic

Portrait of Boy and Guitar Original oil by Angeli - Italy circa 1960
Located in Soquel, CA
Portrait of Boy and Guitar Original oil by Angeli - Italy circa 1960 Classical portrait of a young boy ad his guitar by Angeli, an unknown Italian painter (Italy, 20th Century). Roc...
Category

1950s Paintings

Materials

Linen, Oil, Stretcher Bars

Vintage Signed Nude Tropical Women Framed Landscape Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Vintgae signed tropical nude landscape oil painting. Oil on canvas. Signed. Framed. Image size, 20L x 29H.
Category

Impressionist 1950s Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Avant Printemps au Marais - Impressionist Riverscape Oil by Alexandre Jacob
Located in Marlow, Buckinghamshire
Signed oil on canvas landscape circa 1950 by popular French impressionist painter Alexandre Louis Jacob. The piece depicts horses and their carts being led across small stone bridges...
Category

Impressionist 1950s Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

School of Paris, Sleeping Woman, Nude, Oil on Canvas
Located in Saint Amans des cots, FR
Oil on canvas by Fortunato Pirazzini (1907-2003), School of Paris, ca.1950. "Sleeping woman, Nude". Measurements : with frame : 56x71 cm - 22x28 inches without frame : 46x61 cm - 18....
Category

Modern 1950s Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Antique American School Female Artist Abstract Expressionist Cubist Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique modernist abstract painting by Elsie Orfuss (Born 1913). Oil on canvas. Signed on verso. Nicely framed. `
Category

Abstract Expressionist 1950s Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Pont
Located in Lawrence, NY
Amaranth Ehrenhalt was a multifaceted artist best known for her paintings. She was part of the second generation of Abstract Expressionists, working first in New York in the early 19...
Category

Abstract Expressionist 1950s Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Bunch of Roses, Oil on Paper
By Gustave Lino
Located in Saint Amans des cots, FR
Oil on paper mounted on cardboard by Gustave Lino (1893-1961), France, 1950s. Bunch of Roses. Measurements : with frame: 73.5x58.6 cm - 28.9x23.1 inches without frame: 61x46 cm - 24...
Category

Realist 1950s Paintings

Materials

Paper, Oil, Cardboard

French Impressionist mid century cafe scene of two women seated in a Cafe
Located in Woodbury, CT
Francois Gall, Hungarian by birth, became an impressionist painter in the pure French tradition after he moved to Paris in 1936. He was born in Kolozsvar in the former  region of  Tr...
Category

Impressionist 1950s Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

American Winter Landscape 1951 Vintage Oil Painting by Impressionist Master
Located in Stockholm, SE
Peter Kurbatov (1907 – 1985), was a talented painter, graphic artist and writer. He lived a truly eventful life full of creative exploration. Despite the fact that this landscape was...
Category

Impressionist 1950s Paintings

Materials

Wood, Oil, Cardboard

Provence landscape by Edouard Arthur, Oil on canvas 82x66 cm
Located in Geneva, CH
Oil on canvas sold with frame Total size with frame 90x74 cm Edouard ARTHUR is an artist born in 1917 and died in 2002. His works have been sold at public auction 12 times, mainly ...
Category

Cubist 1950s Paintings

Materials

Oil

Mid Century Still Life with Apples and Pitcher Original Oil on Artist's Board
Located in Soquel, CA
Mid Century Still Life with Apples and Pitcher Original Oil on Artist's Board Vibrant still life by C. (Clarence) Leslie Oursler (American, 1913-1987). Classic American impressionis...
Category

Modern 1950s Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Illustration Board

Soleil de Novembre - Impressionist Riverscape Oil by Alexandre Jacob
Located in Marlow, Buckinghamshire
Signed oil on board landscape circa 1950 by popular French impressionist painter Alexandre Louis Jacob. The piece depicts a view of a marsh water mill. The yellow glow of the low Nov...
Category

Impressionist 1950s Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

School of Paris, Barbara, Oil on Canvas, 1950s
Located in Saint Amans des cots, FR
Oil on canvas dating from the 50s whose subject strangely resembles Barbara, the French singer. If it is really her, I am unable to confirm that she played the guitar, or that it is ...
Category

Neo-Expressionist 1950s Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Japanese Landscape Painting on Gilt Wood Panel
Located in Douglas Manor, NY
4013 Hand painted Japanese wood panel on gold leaf panel
Category

1950s Paintings

Materials

Gold Leaf

Untitled, Tidal Pool Abstraction
Located in Lawrence, NY
Like many of his compatriots of the time, Shulman transitioned from representation to abstraction in the post-WWII period as he studied with Hans Hoffman. Yet, his work, whether or a...
Category

Abstract Expressionist 1950s Paintings

Materials

Casein

Sidonia
Located in Lawrence, NY
Amaranth Ehrenhalt was a multifaceted artist best known for her paintings. She was part of the second generation of Abstract Expressionists, working first in New York in the early 19...
Category

Abstract Expressionist 1950s Paintings

Materials

Watercolor

People Lawn Bowling in Central Park New York City 1950 oil/canvas NYC blue green
Located in Rancho Santa Fe, CA
Aaron Berkman (1900 - 1991) “Bowling in Central Park” New York Oil on canvas 10 x 14 inches Signed and titled verso: Aaron Berkman 1950 Provenance: Private collection, USA Aaron Ber...
Category

American Modern 1950s Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Cordell
Located in Lawrence, NY
Amaranth Ehrenhalt was a multifaceted artist best known for her paintings. She was part of the second generation of Abstract Expressionists, working first in New York in the early 19...
Category

Abstract Expressionist 1950s Paintings

Materials

Watercolor

La Madeleine, Paris Street Scene
Located in Cotignac, FR
Mid 20th Century oil on canvas painting of a Paris street scene with the columns of La Madeleine in the distance, signed Deuvray bottom left. The canvas is on its original stretcher ...
Category

Modern 1950s Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Quai des bouquinistes- Impressionist Figures in Landscape Oil - Jules Rene Herve
Located in Marlow, Buckinghamshire
Signed figures in cityscape oil on original canvas circa 1950 by French impressionist painter Jules Rene Herve. The piece depicts a view of a bookseller's stall beside the River Seine in Paris, France, with blossom trees overhead. Signature: Signed lower left & again verso Dimensions: Framed: 21"x24" Unframed: 13"x16" Provenance: The Dominion Gallery - Montreal - Canada Jules Rene Hervé began his formal art studies in an evening school in Langres, France. Hervé was trained at the Ecole nationale supérieure d’arts decoratifs of Paris, and studied with Fernand Cormon and Jules Adler...
Category

Impressionist 1950s Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Portrait of Wife
Located in Scottsdale, AZ
Beautiful impressionistic portrait of Soviet master, Aleksei Belykh's, wife. Belykh was a Russian artist from Sverdlovsk. This painting is signed and dated and in great condition. ...
Category

Impressionist 1950s Paintings

Materials

Oil

"Late Sun" - Carmel by the Sea California Original Oil French Impressionism
Located in Soquel, CA
"Late Sun" - Carmel by the Sea California Original Oil French Impressionism Thick impasto and textured oil on linen circa 1962 by California artist Harry B. Lachman (American, 1886 - 1975). Besides being an American Impressionist, Harry was a honored French Impressionism artist as well. Lovely scene of Carmel by the Sea California of cottages and trees on a quiet lane. Some minor bowing of the canvas due to age and the heavy paints he used. Signed "Lachman" lower right Exhibited Dalzell Hatfield Galley, Beverly Hills 1959-1962 (partial Label on verso) Image, 18.25"H x 21.75"W Frame, 20.75"H x 24.5"W x 1"D A onetime magazine illustrator, Harry Lachman, born in LaSalle, Indiana June 29, 1886, became one of the leading European Post-Impressionist painters in the teens and twenties. By his late twenties, Lachman had established himself as an artist both in America and Europe. He exhibited in America at the National Academy of Design, New York, as well as the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Early on in his career Lachman traveled to Europe to paint and eventually lived at various times in France, Italy, Spain and Switzerland. In Europe, the painter's works were accepted at the annual Parisian Salons. Lachman worked as a set designer with the equally artistically-inclined film maker Rex Ingram...
Category

Impressionist 1950s Paintings

Materials

Linen, Oil

Freight Dock
By John Rockwell
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled "Freight Dock" is an original oil on canvas by noted American artist John Rockwell, 1902-1960 It is signed at the lower right corner by the artist, and also signe...
Category

Impressionist 1950s Paintings

Materials

Oil

Still Life of Fruits and Wine Carafe Large Framed Oil Painting
Located in ludlow, GB
George Leslie Reekie British 1911 - 1969 Painter in Oils of Still Life mostly featuring Flowers, Fruits and Wine Bottles. His work is detailed, precise and well executed and his ba...
Category

Realist 1950s Paintings

Materials

Oil

Surreal Children Fantasy Oil Painting 1956
Located in Douglas Manor, NY
3981 Children's fantasy figurative oil painting set in a hand painted oak frame Image size 15.5x19.25"
Category

1950s Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Vintage American Modernist Abstract Expressionist Framed Cubist Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American modernist abstract oil painting. Oil on canvas. Framed.
Category

Abstract 1950s Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Untitled Mid Century Abstract Oil Painting New York Artist
Located in Beachwood, OH
John Opper (American, 1908 - 1994) Untitled, 1959 Oil on board Signed and dated lower right 14.75 in. h x 18 in. w. 20 in. h. x 24.5 in. w., as framed John Opper described the 1930s...
Category

Abstract 1950s Paintings

Materials

Oil

The Gardener - Mid 20th Century Modern British Figurative Landscape Painting
Located in Sevenoaks, GB
A beautiful 1950's Modern British oil on canvas depicting a gardener with a ramshackle shed. The work is very similar in style and execution to the paintings of Cedric Morris from ...
Category

Impressionist 1950s Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Listed Signed Female Vintage Modernist Paris Cafe Street Scene
Located in Buffalo, NY
Listed female vintage modernist Paris cafe street scene by Elise Shaw. Oil on board. Framed.
Category

American Modern 1950s Paintings

Materials

Board, Gouache

Nature morte au bouquet d’animones Still Life Fruit & Flowers Scotch circa 1960
Located in Rancho Santa Fe, CA
Jacques Martin-Ferrières Nature morte au bouquet d’animones (Still life with anemones, oranges, lemons, bananas and a bottle of Johnnie Walker Red Scotch) Framed Dimensions: 35 x 2...
Category

Post-Impressionist 1950s Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Vintage Montmartre Paris Impressionist Oil Landscape 1950's
Located in Douglas Manor, NY
5-3253a Oil on canvas od the streets of Paris set in a vintage wood frame Image size 9.5x8"
Category

1950s Paintings

Materials

Oil

Mill in the marsh, Original Oil on Canvas, Signed, French Expressionist
Located in PARIS, FR
*Dimensions include the frame Claude Grosperrin's artwork is a vivid exploration of texture and abstraction, capturing the essence of a rustic landscape with a palpable sense of ene...
Category

Expressionist 1950s Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Still Life with Roses in a Vase Large Signed Oil Painting
Located in ludlow, GB
George Leslie Hunter British 1911 - 1969 George Leslie Reekie British 1911 - 1969 Painter in Oils of Still Life mostly featuring Flowers, Fruits...
Category

Realist 1950s Paintings

Materials

Oil

Violin Still Life Oil Painting 1950
Located in Douglas Manor, NY
3903 Colorful oil on canvas unframed of a violin still life
Category

1950s Paintings

Materials

Oil

Still Life - 1950s - Pio Semeghini - Painting - Contemporary
Located in Roma, IT
Hand signed and dated by the artist lower right. Includes a beautiful contemporary wooden gilded frame. In excellent conditions. References: - Catalogo della mostra di Pio Semeghini...
Category

Contemporary 1950s Paintings

Materials

Oil, Wood

"PRICKLY PEAR PATH " TEXAS HILL COUNTRY CACTUS Frame Size: 21 x 25
Located in San Antonio, TX
Porfirio Salinas (1910-1973) San Antonio Artist Image Size: 12 x 16 Frame Size: 21 x 25 Medium: Oil Dated 1958 "Prickly Pear Path" Texas Hill Country Biography Porfirio Salinas (1910-1973) Porfirio Salinas was a self-taught artist who painted landscapes of Central Texas with an emphasis on the vast bluebonnet fields that grow there in the springtime. Born in 1910 in Bastrop, Texas, he attended public schools in San Antonio. He also observed works in progress by the director of the San Antonio Art School, Jose Arpa, as well as landscape painter, Robert Wood. Wood is said to have paid Salinas five dollars a picture to paint bluebonnets because "he hated to paint bluebonnets". Salinas served in the military from 1943 to 1945. Although he was assigned to Fort Sam Houston, he was allowed to live at home. At the fort, Colonel Telesphor Gottchalk assigned him to paint murals for the officer's lounge and various other projects, and Salinas continued to be able to paint during his entire conscripted period. Even before he achieved notoriety among galleries, dealers, and museums, Salinas was widely followed and appreciated by many Texans, including former President Lyndon B. Johnson, who may be considered responsible for launching Salinas popularity beyond the boundaries of Texas. In 1973, Texas capital, Austin, honored Salinas for having "done much to bring the culture of Mexico and Texas closer together with his paintings". Salinas died in April 1973 in San Antonio, Texas. From the years of the Great Depression through President Lyndon Johnson's Great Society of the 1960s, Texan Porfirio Salinas (1910-1973) remained one of the Lone Star State's most popular artists. Today, his works remain popular with Texas collectors and those who love landscapes of the beautiful "Hill Country" that lies in the center of the state. One of the first Mexican-American painters to become widely recognized for his art, Salinas was a favorite of President Lyndon Johnson and his wife, Lady Bird Johnson, as well as of Sam Rayburn, the longest-serving Speaker of the House of Representatives, and Texas Governor John Connelly. In fact, President Johnson was so enamored with his Salinas paintings that the artist will forever be associated with America's first Texas-born President. Works by Porfirio Salinas are in a number of museum collections, grace the halls of the Texas State Capitol and the Governor's Mansion in Austin, and are included in virtually every major private collection of Early Texas Art. Porfirio Salinas was born on November 6, 1910 near the small town of Bastrop, Texas, about thirty miles from Austin. His father, Porfirio G. Salinas (1881-1967), and his mother, Clara G. Chavez, struggled to make a hardscrabble living as tenant farmers, but eventually were forced to give up farming. The family moved to San Antonio, where Salinas' father was able to get a job working as a laborer for the railroad, but the scenic area around Bastrop, with its pine trees and the wide expanse of the Rio Grande River, would forever remain a touchstone for the artist. For the rest of his life, Salinas and his brothers went back frequently to visit their grandmother in her little farmhouse. When in Bastrop, Porfirio painted on the banks of the Rio Grande or in the groves of pine trees. The Salinas family was close-knit and Porfirio was the middle child of five children, so he had an older brother and sister as well as a younger brother and sister. His mother was a native of Mexico, so throughout his childhood the family made the long drive to Mexico to visit Clara Salinas' family. As a child growing up in the bi-lingual section of San Antonio, Salinas drew and painted incessantly and by the time he was ten, he was already producing work that was mature enough to sell to his schoolteachers. Many years later in an article in the New York Times he was described as a "boy whose textbooks were seldom opened and whose sketchbook was never closed." Instead of studying, the young artist spent his spare time watching artists paint in and around San Antonio. As an aspiring painter, Salinas was fortunate to grow up in the historic city, which had the most active art scene in Texas. It was his exposure to older, professional painters that encouraged the precocious young painter to leave school early in order to help his family and pursue a career as a professional artist, despite his father's inability to see art as a career with any future for his son. When Salinas was about fifteen he came to know the artist Robert W. Wood (1889-1979). He met Wood while he was employed in an art supply store and he soon began to work as an assistant to the English-born painter, who had moved from Portland to San Antonio in 1924. Although the diminutive Englishman was already an established professional artist, he did not have a great deal of formal art training and so he was then studying with the academically trained Spanish painter Jose Arpa (1858-1952) in order to augment his knowledge and give his work a more polished look. Salinas was an eager young man, and while working in Wood's downtown San Antonio studio he learned to stretch canvases, frame paintings and to sketch in larger compositions from small plein-air studies for the English artist. He began to accompany Wood and Arpa to the hills outside San Antonio, where they painted small Plein-air studies of fields of blue lupin - the state flower, the famous "Bluebonnets" of Texas - in the springtime and scenes of the gnarled Red Oaks as they changed color in the fall. He was soon assisting Wood in the tedious work of painting the tiny blue flowers that collectors wanted to see in the landscapes they purchased of central Texas. According to a 1972 newspaper story, "Legend has it that one day in the 1920s artist Robert Wood decided he could not bear to paint another bluebonnet in one of his landscapes. He hired young Porfirio Salinas to paint them in for him at five dollars a painting." Whether this story is accurate or apocryphal isn't clear, but the ambitious and independent young Salinas wasn't destined to be anyone's assistant for very long. The formative event of Porfirio Salinas' teenage years was the Texas Wildflower Competitive Exhibitions, a Roaring-Twenties dream of the eccentric oilman Edgar B. Davis (1873-1951). These competitive shows of paintings of wildflowers and Texas life were mounted in San Antonio from 1927 to 1929. Held at the newly opened Witte Museum each spring, the exhibition featured large cash prizes donated by the philanthropic Davis, which were an inducement for artists to travel from all over the United States to paint in the Hill Country of Texas. The "Davis Competitions," as they were known, helped to cement San Antonio's reputation as an art center, a legacy that remains with the "River City" today. The shows generated a great deal of excitement in the area, helping to make celebrities of the some of the artists who had already settled there and encouraging others to make San Antonio their home. Over the three years that the wildflower competitions were held, more than 300 paintings were exhibited, and many thousands of viewers saw the paintings at the Witte Museum and on tours throughout the state and in New York. Each year Davis would generously purchase the winning paintings and then donate them to the San Antonio Art League. Young Porfirio Salinas would have been able to not only watch his two mentors - Robert W. Wood and Jose Arpa - paint the works that they entered in the Davis Competitions, he would have been able to see Arpa take several of the major prizes, receiving the judge's accolades for "Verbena," "Cactus Flower" and "Picking Cotton," works that are still on view at the San Antonio Art League Museum today. Unfortunately, Davis eventually put his donations to work in other charitable endeavors, bringing to an end the wildflower events, but only after they inspired Salinas and other young painters and had helped to make wildflower paintings the most sought-after subject for traditionalist Texas collectors. In 1930, when he was only twenty, Salinas hung out a shingle and began to paint professionally, augmenting the sales of his easel paintings with what little business he could garner by painting signs for local concerns. It was a struggle for the young artist to make a living, as the effects of the Great Depression were settling in. His early works are very similar to those of Robert Wood's, both in subject matter and treatment. Salinas did small paintings of Bluebonnets for the tourists who visited San Antonio to see the famous Alamo as well as paintings of the Texas missions. While a few of his early works have a soft, tonalist quality, with subtle gradations of sunset colors, most were painted in a style that fits well within the currents of the late American Impressionist style, with solid drawing and a warm, chromatic palette. Like Robert Wood's works of the 1930s, the paintings Salinas produced as a young man were usually well composed and detailed views of the spring wildflowers in full bloom in the Texas countryside. In contrast to Wood's work, however, early Salinas compositions were usually pure landscapes without the pioneer farms or dilapidated fences that Wood often used to add visual interest to his wildflower scenes, and he also painted scenes of San Antonio itself as his mentor Jose Arpa had done. To residents of the Hill Country, Salinas was especially adept at accurately capturing the palette of the region and its unique atmosphere. In 1939 Salinas began working with Dewey Bradford (1896-1985), one of the great characters of Texas art. Bradford was a second-generation dealer whose family operated the Bradford Paint Company in Austin, where they sold art supplies, framed artwork, restored paintings and exhibited paintings by Texas artists. Salinas was struggling when he met Bradford, but the older man took the young artist under his wing and began to sell his work reliably, even though the prices that people would pay for a painting were still low due to the lingering effects of the Great Depression. Bradford was a born salesman with a gift for storytelling, and truth be told, a bit of embroidery. The relationship between Bradford and Salinas was often rocky, but it was to last the rest of the artist's life and give him a modest sense of loyalty and security, things which are all too rare in the art world. While Bradford could be critical of his work, Salinas knew that he had a dealer who encouraged him, believed in him and was not shy about singing his praises to anyone who entered Bradford's store on Guadalupe Street. During the early years of World War II Salinas met a pretty Mexican woman from Guadalajara named Maria Bonillas, who was working as a secretary for the Mexican National Railways office in San Antonio. While he was walking downtown with a painting of a bullfighter under his arm, he started a conversation with the young woman, and things progressed rapidly. The couple were married on February 15, 1942 and settled into life in bi-lingual San Antonio and they eventually purchased a tidy stone home on Buena Vista street that had a detached studio in back. By the time the United States entered World War II, Salinas was starting to make a decent living selling his art and beginning to garner recognition across Texas. However, in 1943, like millions of other young men, he was drafted into the service of his country. Fortunately, as an older Army draftee with special talents, after his training he was assigned to Fort Sam Houston, right in San Antonio, allowing him to remain at home while still completing his obligation to "Uncle Sam." Because of his artistic abilities, Salinas was asked to do paintings for the Army as well as a mural for the Officer's Club, which has been re-discovered in recent years. In his spare time he kept working on landscapes and when the war ended in 1945, he was not faced with the same rocky transition from military to civilian life as many veterans. That same year, Salinas became a father as he and Maria celebrated the birth of his only child, Christina Maria Salinas. Like most landscape artists of the era, Salinas was an avid Plein-air painter, and he took his easel and paint box with him on trips throughout Texas and into Mexico. He and his wife traveled deep into her native country, where the artist painted the majestic volcanic peaks of Iztaccihuatl (known as the "Sleeping Woman" because of its unique shape) and Popocatepetl (called the "smoking mountain" because the volcano is still active), south of Mexico City. Salinas also painted studies of rustic villages and their residents. While his most popular paintings were always the scenes of the Texas Bluebonnets and other wildflowers that bloom all over the Hill Country in the spring, he also painted scenes of the twisted Texas oak trees of central Texas, the more arid landscapes of the Texas panhandle and West Texas, and the historic Texas missions; he even sold rapidly executed scenes of bullfights and cockfights for Mexican-American collectors. By the late 1940s, the American economy was finally growing again and wealthier Texans began to collect Salinas paintings, purchasing them from galleries in San Antonio and Dallas and at Dewey Bradford's County Store Gallery in Austin. Salinas also sold work to the Atlanta dealer Dr. Carlton Palmer, who represented Robert W. Wood for many years. In 1948 Palmer sold two large Salinas paintings to the Citizen National Bank in Abilene, Texas. Because Austin was the state capitol, Bradford counted many of the state's elite among his patrons, and due to his interest in history and literature, he played a large role in the cultural history of central Texas. Bradford introduced a number of the major Texas political figures to Salinas' work, including Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908-1973), who was then in the House of Representatives and on his way to winning a controversial election that vaulted him in the United States Senate. Johnson became an enthusiastic collector, as did his political mentor, the legendary House Speaker Sam Rayburn (1882-1961). Johnson decorated his Washington offices with Salinas paintings and he brought a number of them home to his vast LBJ Ranch, near Johnson City, Texas. In spite of his important patrons, Salinas went through a fallow and difficult period in the late 1950s. He had a volatile temperament, which made relationships difficult, and it took great patience for his wife to help him manage his career. As Salinas entered middle age his work began to sell steadily, but except for tourists who purchased his paintings in San Antonio, he was known primarily only to Texas art collectors. All that changed in 1961 with the election of John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) to the Presidency of the United States and his running mate Lyndon Johnson to the Vice Presidency. Johnson was an expansive, larger-than-life character and his status as a long, tall Texan in a cowboy hat was a large part of his imposing political image. During his storied career in the House of Representatives and the United States Senate, Johnson and Lady Bird Johnson (1912-2007) spent their time in Washington in a modest house on the edge of Rock Creek Park, but this home would not do for a Vice President. So, in 1961, the Johnsons purchased a French chateau-styled home in the Spring Valley section of the Capitol. Obtained from the famed socialite and ambassador Perle Mesta (1889-1975), the house came with a fine collection of French furniture and tapestries, and the designer Genevieve Hendricks was hired to meld the French look with objects from the Johnsons' overseas travels and paintings of the flora and fauna of their native Texas. Featured prominently in the foyer were the paintings of Porfirio Salinas. Because of the Johnsons' patronage, his work was mentioned in Time Magazine and other national publications. Lady Bird Johnson loved her landscapes of the Texas Hill Country and told reporters that, "I want to see them when ever I open the door, to remind me where I come from." After President Kennedy's death thrust Lyndon Johnson into the Presidency, he brought his Salinas paintings into the historic halls of the White House, further enhaning the Texas painter's national reputation. At the time of the President Kennedy's assassination, Salinas had completed a scene of a horse drinking titled "Rocky Creek" that was to have been presented to Kennedy during his ill-fated visit to Dallas. Instead, in an effort to memorialize the fallen President, Salinas painted a symbolic work of a lone horse depicted against foreboding clouds. During his tenure in the White House, President Johnson presented a Salinas landscape as a state gift to the President of Mexico, Gustavo Diaz Ordaz (1911-1979). During the 1960s, Salinas paintings sold briskly and, thanks to Presidential patronage, for escalating prices. In an interview with a writer from the New York Times, President Johnson enthused about the work of "his favorite artist" and said that, "his work reminds me of the country around the ranch." Salinas was invited to the LBJ Ranch frequently during the Johnson administration and his paintings were hung throughout the ranch, in the President's offices and even in the private quarters of the White House. The connection to President Johnson was a great boon to sales of Salinas paintings, and in 1964, when the demand was at its height, Texas Governor John Connelly (1917-1993) was told that all Salinas'work was sold and that he would have to wait for a painting. In 1960, a half century after his birth, Salinas was honored by his home town of Bastrop, a celebration that touched the modest artist. In 1962 Salinas was given a solo exhibition at the Witte Museum in San Antonio that featured more than twenty of his works. By the early 1960s, sales of reproductions of the artist's landscapes by the New York Graphic Society and other publishers grew rapidly, enlarging his audience throughout the United States. In 1967, Dewey Bradford helped to organize the production of a book of Texas stories titled "Bluebonnets and Cactus" (Austin: Pemberton Press: 1967), which was profusely illustrated with paintings by Salinas. His works were still popular when Salinas died after a brief illness in April of 1973, just a few months after former President Johnson's passing. He was memorialized in the City of Austin by Porfirio Salinas Day, which honored him for having "done much to bring the culture of Mexico and Texas together with his paintings." Bastrop, Texas, the city of the artist's birth, has been holding a Salinas Art Exhibition annually since 1981. He painted hundreds of scenes of the wildflowers, including the various varieties of Blue Lupin, the state flower, as well as other flowering flora. These show the influence of his artistic mentors Robert W. Wood and Jose Arpa Y Perea. Salinas also painted a number of scenes of Prickly Pear Cactus that show the influence of the English painter Dawson Dawson-Watson (1864-1939), who painted many such works during his tenure in Texas. He painted the more arid Texas landscape infrequently and these works are very rare today and sought after by collectors from the Texas Panhandle and West Texas. Salinas also painted many river landscapes along the Guadalupe, Rio Frio, the San Antonio and the Rio Grande. On trips to his wife's homeland of Mexico, he painted a number of scenes of the volcanic peaks as well as scenes of peasant villages and villagers. Figurative paintings are rare among Salinas' works and these scenes of bullfights, fandangos and cock fights are probably the least sought after of his paintings. There are also a small number of modest marines, painted on trips to the Texas and California coast. Salinas paintings are highly prized by collectors of early Texas art, with the paintings of wildflowers in greatest demand. Works by Porfirio Salinas can be found in a number of public collections, including the Panhandle Plains Historical Museum in Canyon, Texas; the Texas State Capitol; the Texas Governor's Mansion; the Lyndon Baines Johnson Ranch; the Sam Rayburn Library and Museum in Bonham, Texas; Amarillo High School; the Witte Museum in San Antonio; the historic Joan and Price Daniel House in San Antonio; the Stark Museum in Orange, Texas; the R.W. Norton Art Gallery in Shreveport, Louisiana; the Sangre de Cristo Arts Center in Pueblo, Colorado; Texas A & M University and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. Salinas has been featured in a number of reference works as well as anthologies devoted to American Western Art...
Category

Impressionist 1950s Paintings

Materials

Oil

'Large Abstract', San Francisco Bay Area, North Beach, Beat, Beatnik, Big Sur
Located in Santa Cruz, CA
Signed lower right, 'K. Sanzenbach' for Keith Sanzenbach (American, 1931-1964) and dated 1956. Additionally signed, verso, and with the artist's Lagunitas, California address. The ...
Category

Abstract Expressionist 1950s Paintings

Materials

Masonite, Oil, Gouache

American Impressionist Floral Table Setting Still Life 1950
Located in Douglas Manor, NY
3771 Oil on canvas of a still life table setting Set in a hand carved vintage frame Image size 11.5x15.5" Illegibly signed lower left
Category

1950s Paintings

Materials

Oil

Impressionist Landscape French Abandoned Village 1950
Located in Douglas Manor, NY
5-3737 Acrylic on artist board set in a vintage wood frame
Category

1950s Paintings

Materials

Acrylic

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