1950s Paintings

Charming mid century country landscape with cottage with thatched roof and chickens foraging. Signed "H. H." and dated "1955." Condition: good; some edge and corner wear consistent w...

Jean Salabet French, 20th Century La Place de L'Opera, Paris Jean Salabet was a School of Paris painter know for his colorful Parisian cityscapes. His work is comparable to those of...

Acrylic on masonite. This is a pivotal work in deep and radiant cobalt blue from 1950. It dipicts calligraphic and hieroglyph structures over a grid and pyramidal base by the first generation abstract expressionist. Provenance: Skinner: November 13, 1992 [Lot 00219}, The entry in the Skinner catalog indicates that the painting came directly from the artist to the family of the consignor to Skinner. Kaminsky Auctions. There is an unbroken paper trail that traces the ownership of the painting from the current owner, through two auction houses to the artist. Perfect unbroken provenance. Pousette-Dart was among the most inventive of the Abstract Expressionist generation, His uncanny talent was to expand the nature of abstraction and still make each mark each element very much his own; a reflection of what he called   "the concealed power of the spirit," he said, “not of the brute physical form."   His was not aiming for a singular, realized aesthetic formula but to expand the possibilities of painting; the transcendental in painting. Typical of such invention and exploration is this  painting  Untitled 1950 when the artist was only 34 years old and represented by one of the champions of the new American painting, Betty Parsons.  
A banner year for Pousette-Dart, the Museum of Modern Art acquired their first painting by the Minnesota born artist.  He worked on easel size works such as this painting an oil on masonite. At the same time Pousette-Dart was also working on larger scale works such as Path of the Hero, running over ten feet in length now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  Both contain fields of color articulated by a highly sophisticated white hieroglyphic vocabulary. Rather than demonstrate an expressionist sensibility, Pousette-Dart harnesses his more cerebral ideas transforming thick areas of paint into a more refined composition of geometric forms akin to the pattern and forms of say a stained glass window. In a way he is looking back at Fugue, 1940 a black and white composition which makes use of a similar format of painting albeit smaller. Color and form are minimal, but what Pousette-Dart has maximized is the rhythmic and syncopated character of painting casting his ideas into purely symbolic terms that one might link to the pictograms of Adolph Gottlieb. Nonetheless, nature is always at the core of Pousette-Dart’s thinking and dreaming. Here he has transformed the local Ramapo Mountains—where he will eventually move with his family to live and work— into a complex series of articulated fragments linked by style, scale and color.  The painting’s imagery built on two large triangles and reduced to just two colors, cobalt blue and white all outlined in black.  Pousette-Dart symbols stacked in horizontal and vertical rows:  blue is ground, white is language, symbolic of light, consciousness and awareness . The painting maintains a mystical character images compounded that formulate a secret code and linked to the series of white paintings Pousette-Dart authored in the first half of the 1950s. Get up close to the picture and you discover images within images a kind of picture puzzle...

This mesmerizing 1950s modern portrait features an oil on canvas painting by Maurice Ambroise Ehlinger (1896 - 1981). The model is Miss France Noel, a socialite from the Paris bourgeoisie. The piece is hand-signed in the bottom left corner. The canvas's back has the following caption: "Mademoiselle France Noel par M. Ehlinger - MCMLVII." The painting still has its original elegant ornate cerused or limed oak frame with gray painted liner. Measurements: With frame: 30.75 in wide (78 cm) x 36 in high (91.5 cm) x 2.75 in deep (7 cm). Opening view: 23 in wide (58.5 cm) x 28.25 in high (71.5 cm) Biography: Maurice Ehlinger (1896 - 1981). Painter, born in Champagney, Haute Saone, France in 1896. He spent part of his life in Moyenmoutier in the Vosges region. Ehlinger studied under Larcher at Nancy's Ecole des Beaux-Arts with funding from the City of Saint Die. Then, he went to Paris to follow the courses of masters Jules Adler and Francois Flameng...

This lovely British ballet oil painting is by noted artist Elizabeth Bridge. Painted in 1951, the composition is a male and female ballet dancer on...

A mid-century gouache on board painting by American female artist Harriet Holden Nash depicting an abstract Matisse like floral composition in shades of green and black. The board i...

Antique American modernist abstract expressionist oil painting. Oil on canvas. Signed. Framed.

Vaudeville Theatre by Edouard Cortes was painted circa 1955-60 and signed lower left. It is oil on canvas measuring 13x18 in original unlined condition. The piece is included in the ...

Jean Salabet French, 20th Century La Madeleine, Paris Oil on canvas 10 ¾ by 13 ¾ in. W/frame 16 ½ by 19 ½ in. Signed lower right Jean Salabet was a School of Paris painter know ...

Antique American modernist abstract oil painting. Oil on canvas. Framed. Signed.

Signed and titled oil on canvas figure in interior circa 1950 by Spanish post impressionist Emilio Grau Sala. The work depicts a red-haired lady in a red dress seated at a piano. A y...

Signed lower left "d'Anty" for Henry d'Anty (French, 1910-1998), titled verso "La Gondole" (The Gondola) and painted circa 1955. A vibrant view of the Grand Canal painted alla prima...

3809 Floating world surreal figurative painting signed on verso Mury

Very rare and well painted Formula Two racing painting. Oil on canvas. Unsigned. Nicely framed.

Antique American modernist abstract oil painting. Oil on canvasboard. No signature found. Framed. Image size, 24L x 18H.

A beautiful 1950's French post-impressionist oil on canvas depicting a view to the sea from a window and balcony. Excellent quality work, presented in a period painted Montparnasse ...

Inscribed lower right, 'Dominique' for John Augustus Dominique (American, 1893-1994) and dated 1955. Titled, verso, 'Laguna Coast' and bearing old galler...

Cover of The Saturday Evening Post, September 30, 1950 Puppies for Sale, the cover illustration for the September 30, 1950, issue of The Saturday Evening Post, is a remarkable examp...

Leo Schutzman (1878 - 1962) The Marriage Proposal, circa 1958 Oil on canvas 24 x 20 inches Signed lower left Leo (Kyle) Schutzman (1878-1962) developed ...

A large and elegant still life with grapes and pears on a table which also features a pristine white bowl and a candle stick. Painted with simplicity, clarity of structure, and restrained emotion, this is a superb modernist work by Jean Chauffrey (1911-) dating from circa 1950. At the time, Chauffrey had a contract with mythical Paris art dealers...

This stylish abstract cubist oil on board painting with a monogram signature "M.J." is from a German artist (20th Century). The colorful painting features a stylized abstract composi...

From the estate of Jerry Opper & Ruth Friedmann Opper Yellow Cubist FIgure c. 1940-1950's Gouache 15" x 18", silver wood frame 16"x19" Unsigned This striking gouache painting featur...

Antique modernist abstract painting by Elsie Orfuss (Born 1913). Oil on canvas. Signed on verso. Nicely framed. `

Jean Salabet French, B. 1900 Le Grand Hotel, Paris ,1954 Jean Salabet was a School of Paris painter know for his colorful Parisian cityscapes. His work i...

Thelma Corbin Moody Blue Mountains c. 1960's Gouache on Arches Paper 19 1/4" x 24 3/4", Unframed Unsigned Lovely, mid century gouache painting, b...

5183 Vintage painting of a vailed dark haired exotic woman Set in a modernist gilt frame Image size 19.5x15.5"

Dynamic mid century seascape capturing the moment a wave crashes upon the rocks at Emerald Bay, Laguna Beach, California by listed artist Mildred Ruth Finch Brown (American, 1891-1969), c.1955. Signed lower right: "Margaret Finch Brown." Titled in pencil on verso: "Wind and Wave" and stamped on the stretcher bar: "Original Oil Painting by Mildred Finch Brown, Laguna Beach, Calif." Presented in a rustic, carved wood frame with linen liner. Image, 20"H x 30"W. Mildred Ruth Finch Brown was born on October 24, 1891. She wed Leroy Brown in 1925. She began painting as a hobby in 1948. She was largely self- taught but studied with Bennett Bradbury...

Very nicely painted mid century modernist abstract oil painting. Framed. Oil on board. Signed. Image size, 26H by 19L.

Work on cardboard Gray wooden frame 52 x 44 x 5.5 cm This work of art is a striking still life where vibrancy of color and expressive texture take the foreground. The painting feat...

Striking female nude in reclined back seated position on red blanket in ink and watercolor by English artist Esther Meyer, circa 1950. Original artwork on paper displayed on a whit...

Impressive early American modernist abstract expressionist oil painting. Framed. Oil on canvas board.

Nicely painted mid century abstract oil painting by Ken Munowitz. Oil on canvas. Framed.

Forest Oasis, Mid-Century Pool Under Redwood Trees Landscape Beautiful mid-century redwood forest scene by Vladimir Shkurkin (1900-1990), c.1950. This st...

Beni E. Kosh/Charles Elmer Harris (American, 1917-1993) Meditation on African Sculpture, 1957 Oil on found wood panel Signed and dated lower left 20 x 15 inches Charles Elmer Harris...

Nude Exotic Women Bathing In A River Gouache, watercolor on paper 10.5x8.25 inches signed INYOMAN LILA BATUMAN Bali, dated indistinctly lower right corner.

3074 Italian Fisherman Portrait, oil on canvas applied to a board, displayed in a wood frame, signed lower left by E.Mori

This piece is a wonderful Mid Century pertinent example of Nannot de Groot's works from the prime of his career with thick use of impasto oil paint, and gestural brushwork throughout. In 1957 it was a transitional year from painting figures in his New York studio to his new studio into the countryside. And in 1959 he and his wife came back to Provincetown Massachusetts and rented a small cabin that was in a field belonging to Mary Cecil Allen on the west end. It was a small space, and there was a tree that was outside the front door, he was inspired and painted this tree over and over, and soon it was the beginning of a whole new series. The brush landscape that was outside of the window of the cabin became a focal point of this series and every year it would change, picking up inspiration to depict the tree in a new way each year. This piece is signed and dated 59' by the artist upper right corner and it comes housed with the original Mid-Century wood frame with gold rim and hanging wire on verso ready to be displayed. Art measures 49 x 51 inches Frame measures 50 x 52 inches Nanno de Groot was born on March 23 of 1913, in Balkbrug, Holland. He started drawing at six years of age. Although his father prevented him to study art at an early age, he moved to the United States in the year of 1941, and in 1946 at age 33 he discovered Picasso and he dedicated the rest of his life to painting and drawing. He worked for a year as a cartoonist for the San Francisco Chronicle. After his marriage to the New York School artist Elise Asher...

Artist: M. Colombo Visena Title: At Sea Medium: Oil on Canvas, signed lower right Date: circa 1955 Canvas Size: 22 x 28 inches Frame Size: 29.25 x 35 inches

5134 Cannery in the Pacific Northwest Framed Image size 11.5x15.5"

Very nice painting attesting to an artistic freedom of the artist, it is signed at the bottom right.

A dynamic & colorful, Abstract Expressionist Painting in Reds, Blues & Yellows by Artist Harold Haydon, Dated 1957. Framed in a dark, wood cube frame. Image size: 12" x 16". Fra...

Octave Denis Victor Guillonnet (1872 - 1967) Les Oliviers, A landscape with olive trees signed "EODV Guillonnet" lower right Oil on wood panel 38 x 46 cm...

Cover of The Saturday Evening Post Magazine, February 6, 1960 Caption: "The Cover: Artist John Clymer takes you to the summit of Washington state's Snoqualimie Pass, where they seem to have had a few snow flurries lately. Up there the moist westerly winds bump against sky-reaching peaks of the Cascade Range, with the result that the winds spill their contents before whistling dryly on down across the eastern slopes. Thus residents of places like Seattle living in a relatively balmy clime beside the Pacific's mild Japan current, can drive in an hour or two up to where skiing material is sometimes twenty feet thick if it's an inch. Indeed, when seasons overlap, a downlander might conceivably pick a rose and go skiing with it in his buttonhole. All of which, thanks to highway crews who blow off the blizzards, is a very felicitous geographic arrangement." John Ford Clymer's success as an artist can be traced to his boyhood in the Kittitas Valley located in the central regions of Washington state. It was there that he developed an enthusiasm for the world around him and an abiding respect for historical accuracy. Over the years John Clymer received numerous awards and honors including the revered Prix de West in 1976, from the national Academy of Western Art. Other great achievements included both gold and silver metals for his oils and charcoal drawings from the Cowboy Artists of America, "Western Artist of the Year" from the National Wildlife Art Collectors Society, and both John and Doris were honored at the Ellensburg National Art Show and Auction for their contributions to western heritage. John's highest honor came in 1988 when he was awarded the prestigious Rungius Medal from the Wildlife of American West Art...

Italian impressionist artist, circa 1950’s signed oil painting on canvas, framed in original frame framed: 22 x 26 inches canvas: 16 x 20 inches provenance: private collection, Belgi...

Edward Zutrau Untitled, 1957 Oil on linen 44 x 60 1/2 inches Edward Zutrau is among the American artists who worked within the whirlwind of diverse abstraction that blossomed in th...

'Self-Portrait of the Artist', oil on canvas, by Lilian E. Whitteker (1952). This may be the only self-portrait (or portrait) of Lilian Whitteker as her favourite subjects to paint w...

Adolf Arthur Dehn Haitian Scene A, ca. 1951 Watercolor gouache on board Signed on the front Frame included: held in vintage modern frame Measurements: Framed: 11 inches vertical by 13 inches horizontal by .75 Painting 4.5 inches by 6 inches Watercolor gouache, hand signed; framed with AAA Gallery label verso Signed on the front bearing the original label on the verso of Dehn's longtime gallery, the prestigious Associated American Artists Gallery, New York City. Provenance Associated American Artists Frame included: held in vintage frame with original label as provenance Dehn, an influential artist and teacher (and author of the definitive textbook of his era on watercolor painting) joined Associated American Artists gallery in 1941. Although this painting is undated, it is likely circa early 1950s, as in 1951 Dehn won a Guggenheim Fellowship, which enabled him to travel to Haiti -- the subject of this work. It was part of a series inspired by Dehn's visit to Haiti. Dehn, an influential artist and teacher (and author of the definitive textbook of his era on watercolor painting) joined Associated American Artists gallery in 1941. Although this painting is undated, it is likely circa early 1950s, as in 1951 Dehn won a Guggenheim Fellowship, which enabled him to travel to Haiti. ADLOF DEHN Adolf Dehn, American Watercolorist and Printmaker, 1895-1968 Adolf Dehn was an artist who achieved extraordinary artistic heights, but in a very particular artistic sphere - not so much in oil painting as in watercolor and lithography. Long recognized as a master by serious print collectors, he is gradually gaining recognition as a notable and influential figure in the overall history of American art. In the 19th century, with the invention of the rotary press, which made possible enormous print runs, and the development of the popular, mass-market magazines, newspaper and magazine illustration developed into an artistic realm of its own, often surprisingly divorced from the world of museums and art exhibitions, and today remains surprisingly overlooked by most art historians. Dehn in many regards was an outgrowth of this world, although in an unusual way, since as a young man he produced most of his illustrative work not for popular magazines, such as The Saturday Evening Post, but rather for radical journals, such as The Masses or The Liberator, or artistic "little magazines" such as The Dial. This background established the foundation of his outlook, and led later to his unique and distinctive contribution to American graphic art. If there’s a distinctive quality to his work, it was his skill in introducing unusual tonal and textural effects into his work, particularly in printmaking but also in watercolor. Jackson Pollock seems to have been one of many notable artists who were influenced by his techniques. Early Years, 1895 - 1922 For an artist largely remembered for scenes of Vienna and Paris, Adolf Dehn’s background was a surprising one. Born in Waterville, Minnesota, on November 22, 1895, Dehn was the descendent of farmers who had emigrated from Germany and homesteaded in the region, initially in a one-room log cabin with a dirt floor. Adolf’s father, Arthur Clark Dehn, was a hunter and trapper who took pride that he had no boss but himself, and who had little use for art. Indeed, during Adolf’s boyhood the walls of his bedroom and the space under his bed were filled with the pelts of mink, muskrats and skunks that his father had killed, skinned and stretched on drying boards. It was Adolf’s mother, Emilie Haas Dehn, a faithful member of the German Lutheran Evangelical Church, who encouraged his interest in art, which became apparent early in childhood. Both parents were ardent socialists, and supporters of Eugene Debs...

French painter Work on wood Silver wood frame 37 x 27 x 3 cm

A very good & large oil on canvas painting by California artist Ben Abril (1923-1995), Southern California, Los Angeles circa 1950. The artist a California native documented the city...

Beautiful mid-century Yosemite winter landscape by listed California artist Rowena Lung Alcorn (American, 1905-1996). The splendor of Yosemite in the snow is featured in this paintin...

Springtime near the Austrian Alps by Paul Kujal Serene depiction looking out over the water with the Austrian Alps in the background by Paul Kujal (Austr...

This lovely portrait oil painting is by noted Suffolk artist Sydney Seymour Lucas. Painted circa 1957 the sitter is Sheila de Quincey, who stood as a p...

3991A Vintage Impressionist landscape California coastal inlet. Set in a custom silvered wood frame Image size 23.5x19.5"

This stunning piece of art titled "Neve in Val Ceresio" is a captivating original work by renowned Italian artist Carlo Aimetti. Aimetti was known for his captivating scenes portrayi...

Flower market in front of the Madeleine in Paris. Oil on canvas, 54x65 cm In this fascinating painting by artist Constantin Kluge You can view Paris. This city is famous with many t...

Quaint historical landscape of the Wells Fargo Express Office building in the gold country town of Columbia State Historic Park in Columbia, California by ...

Oil paint on wood with original frame. Total size with frame: 60x50x5 cm

Stunning and bright mid-century abstracted Sedona desert landscape of red bluffs and Seguaro cactus by unknown artist, 1957. Signed lower left illegibly and dated "June 1957" on vers...