Arthur Smith

Original Arthur Smith Modernist Erotic Painting

20th Century

Richard Joseph Ericson (American, 1922-2010) Untitled, 1962 Oil on canvas 18 x 16 in. Framed: 20 x 18 in. Signed lower left: RJE '62 Richard Joseph Ericson (b. October 22, 1922-d. November 21, 2010), born in Chicago, Illinois. Son of Claire (b. 1899) and Arthur Ericson (b. 1899). His father was an accountant for a food products company and the family moved to Mount Vernon, Westchester County, New York, when he was a young child. Ericson, a twin, first began to draw at age five and took up painting in oils at age twelve. He studied at the Art Students League in New York City in 1941, where he received an honorable mention during the annual scholarship competition held that year. During this period he worked as a commercial artist. After America's entry in World War II Ericson enlisted in the Army in 1942, where he served as a warrant officer. He saw service in North Africa, France, and Germany. While overseas, he did many drawings of the places in which he was stationed. He eventually found himself guarding Italian prisoners of war who had been captured in Sicily and southern Italy. While performing his duties during 1943 and 1944 he found time to paint several important, large scale portraits of the prisoners who were happy to pose for him. As the war concluded he was able to visit Holland to study. After nearly three years overseas, Ericson returned to America and traveled back to his home town of Chicago where he furthered his studies at the Art Institute of Chicago. He married in 1948 and moved his young family to Mexico, where he attended Mexico City College. He studied art and exhibited while living there, receiving his Master of Arts degree, cum laude, in 1953. For a time after his return to the United States he taught art in Dutchess County, New York, where he and his wife built their own house by hand. Eventually the family, which would come to include seven sons, settled in Hicksville, Long Island, New York. Ericson joined the staff of Hicksville High School as the art teacher in 1962, a position he would hold until his retirement in 1983. As a teacher, Ericson was open to all fields and styles of art, constantly experimenting and experiencing new forms and styles. He had started printmaking in the late 1940's and continued to work in this medium for many years, producing mezzotints, etchings, and wood block prints. He also continued to paint, creating portraits, scenes in southern Dutchess County, and Long Island landscapes - for which he would become well known. Ericson grew to love the area in which he lived, and depicted it quite often in his paintings. He became enamored with the historic village of Cold Spring...

Anthony Triano (American, 1928-1997) Untitled, 20th Century Oil on canvas 14 1/8 x 18 in. Framed: 17 3/8 x 21 3/8 in. Signed lower right: Triano Proven...

Charleston Wilson (1919-?) Untitled (Modernist Portrait), 1970 Oil on board 19 1/4 x 14 3/4 in. Framed: 25 1/4 x 21 1/4 in. Signed lower left: Charleston Wilson '70 Charleston Wilson was born 1919. Death date and place are unknown. He was a portrait sketch artist...

Herman Hyneman (1849-1907) Sunday Morning, 1907 Oil on board 15 3/4 x 11 1/2 in. Framed: 21 1/3 x 17 1/2 in. Signed lower right: Copyright 1907 by H.N. Hyneman Inscribed verso: Sunday Morning by H.N. Hyneman The following is from Peter Jung who credits "a friend named Jeff Gold on Long Island." Herman N. Hyneman (1849 - 1907) was born in 1849 to one of the most prominent Jewish families in Philadelphia. Unlike most Jewish families of the time, his embraced and encouraged his artistic talent. In 1874, Hyneman followed his first cousin Moses Ezekiel, National Academy member, to Europe to study. They first went to Germany and then to France where Hyneman began eight years of study with Leon Bonnat, the French Master. In Paris, the twenty-five year old Hyneman resided in a studio building at 75 Boulevard Clichy, with expatriates Frederic Arthur Bridgeman, Charles Sprague Pearce, Milne Ramsey, and Edwin Blashfield. Hyneman was clearly exposed to the works of these more experienced artists, as well as that of Walter Gay. In 1879, one of Hyneman's genre paintings, entitled "Desdemona", was accepted into the Paris Salon. That painting received favorable reviews both in Europe, and later in Philadlephia where it was exhibited alongside the works of other Philadelphia Artists exhibiting at the Salon that included Thomas Eakins, Pearce, Edward May...

Mystery Italian Artist Untitled (Portrait of a Woman With Hat), 1985 Oil on canvas 31 1/2 x 23 3/4 in. Framed: 33 x 25 x 3/4 in. Signed an...

Mystery Italian Artist Untitled (Portrait of a Topless Woman), 1983 Oil on canvas 27 1/2 x 23 1/2 in. Framed: 28 1/2 x 24 1/2 in. Signed lower right

"Self Portrait" by Philadelphia born modernist painter Leon Kelly, is a moody and atmospheric self portrait of the artist in younger years at age 24. The 18" x 16" oil on board, fram...

Born in Savannah, Georgia in 1912, abstract expressionist painter Morris Shulman studied at the National Academy of Design, Art Students League and Hans Hofmann School of Art in New ...

In this painting, Nussbaum portrays a Rabbi, or Rebbe outside the synagogue The vibrant colors used in this painting seem to overlay each other without being previous mixed. Ervin B...

Oil on board, 1978. It depicts an abstracted portrait of a military man in an army uniform with medals. It is signed by the artist verso. Dimensions: sight size-22 inches tall X 19 1/4 inches wide. Framed-23 1/4 inches tall X 20 5/8 inches wide. All measurements are approximate. Dean Richardson...

Abram Tromka was born May 1, 1896 in Poland. At the age of seven he immigrated with his family to the United States, settling in New York City. It was on the boat coming to New York where Tromka first became interested in art. Fascinated by a woman who was painting, he decided that he wanted to become an artist. Upon arrival at immigration headquarters, Tromka’s family adopted the surname “Phillips,” which he kept until 1930. Hence the artist’s early works bear the signature — ‘Phillips.’ Having a rough childhood, Tromka left home at 15 and spent the remainder of his teenage years living at the Henry Street...

Simka Simkhovitch (Russian/American 1893 - 1949) This came with a small grouping from the artist's family, some were hand signed some were not. These were studies for larger paintings. Simka Simkhovitch (Симха Файбусович Симхович) (aka Simka Faibusovich Simkhovich) (Novozybkov, Russia May 21, 1885 O.S./June 2, 1885 N.S.—Greenwich, Connecticut February 25, 1949) was a Ukrainian-Russian Jewish artist and immigrant to the United States. He painted theater scenery in his early career and then had several showings in galleries in New York City. Winning Works Progress Administration (WPA) commissions in the 1930s, he completed murals for the post offices in Jackson, Mississippi and Beaufort, North Carolina. His works are in the permanent collections of the Dallas Museum of Art, the National Museum of American Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Born outside Kyiv (Petrograd Ukraine) into a Jewish family who owned a small department store. During a severe case of measles when he was seven, Simcha Simchovitch sketched the views outside his window and decided to become an artist, over his father's objections. Beginning in 1905, he studied at the Grekov Odessa Art School and upon completion of his studies in 1911 received a recommendation to be admitted to the Imperial Academy of Arts. Though he enrolled to begin classes in architecture, painting, and sculpture at the Imperial Academy, he was dropped from the school roster in December because of the quota on the number of Jewish students and drafted into the army. Simchovitch served as a private in the 175th Infantry Regiment Baturyn [ru] until his demobilization in 1912. Re-enrolling in the Imperial Academy, he audited classes. Simka Simkhovitch exhibited paintings and sculptures in 1918 as part of an exhibition of Jewish artists and in 1919 placed 1st in the competition "The Great Russian Revolution" with a painting called "Russian Revolution" which was hung in the State Museum of Revolution. In 1922, Simkha Simkhovitch exhibited at the International Book Fair in Florence (Italian: Fiera Internazionale del Libro di Firenze). In 1924, Simkhovitch came to the United States to make illustrations for Soviet textbooks and decided to immigrate instead. Initially he supported himself by doing commercial art and a few portrait commissions. In 1927, he was hired to paint a screen for a scene in the play "The Command to Love" by Fritz Gottwald and Rudolph Lothar which was playing at the Longacre Theatre on Broadway. Art dealers began clamoring for the screen and Simkhovitch began a career as a screen painter for the theater. Catching the attention of the screenwriter, Ernest Pascal, he worked as an illustrator for Pascal, who then introduced him to gallery owner, Marie Sterner. Simkhovitch's works appeared at the Marie Sterner Gallery beginning with a 1927 exhibit and were repeated the following year. Simkhovitch had an exhibit in 1929 at Sterner's on circus paintings. In 1931, he held a showing of works at the Helen Hackett Gallery, in New York City and later that same year he was one of the featured artists of a special exhibit in San Francisco at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park. The exhibit was coordinated by Marie Sterner and included four watercolors, including one titled "Nudes". He is of the generation of Russian Soviet artists such as Isaac Pailes, Serge Charchoune, Marc Chagall, Chana Orloff, Isaac Ilyich Levitan, and Ossip Zadkine. In 1936, Simkhovitch was selected to complete the mural for the WPA Post office project in Jackson, Mississippi. The mural was hung in the post office and courthouse in 1938 depicted a plantation theme. Painted on the wall behind the judge’s bench, “Pursuits of Life in Mississippi”, a depiction of black workers engaged in manual labor amid scenes of white professionals and socialites, was eventually covered over in later years during renovations due to its stereotypical African American imagery. The following year, his painting "Holiday" won praise at an exhibition in Lincoln, Nebraska. In 1940, Simkhovitch's second WPA post office project was completed when four murals, "The Cape Lookout Lighthouse and the Orville W. Mail Boat", "The Wreck of the Crissie Wright", "Sand Ponies" and "Canada Geese" were installed in Beaufort, North Carolina. The works were commissioned in 1938 and did not generate the controversy that the Jackson mural had. The main mural is "The Wreck of the Crissie Wright" and depicts a shipwreck which had occurred in Beaufort in 1866. "The Cape Lookout Lighthouse and the Orville W. Mail Boat" depicted the lighthouse built in 1859 and the mail boat that was running mail during the time which Simkhovitch was there. The boat ran mail for the area until 1957. "Sand Ponies" shows the wild horses common to the North Carolina barrier islands and "Canada Geese" showed the importance of hunting and fishing in the area. All four murals were restored in the 1990s by Elisabeth Speight, daughter of two other WPA muralists, Francis Speight...