Skip to main content
Video Loading
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 18

Jenne Magafan
Jenne Magafan 1946 “Deserted Street” Oil on Canvas, Colorado/Woodstock Modernist

1946

$9,950
£7,533.10
€8,724.21
CA$14,081.52
A$15,777
CHF 8,204.73
MX$191,150.16
NOK 104,531.84
SEK 97,584.10
DKK 65,124.41

About the Item

This evocative 1946 oil on canvas painting, titled Deserted Street, was created by Colorado/Woodstock modernist Jenne Magafan (1916–1952). The work depicts a solitary figure wandering through a ghost town, framed by rustic buildings, telephone poles, and distant mountains. The painting captures the quiet desolation and reflective mood of the American West in the post-WPA era, offering a compelling glimpse into mid-20th-century landscape and social commentary. Measuring 24 x 30 inches for the image, and presented in a custom gold frame with outer dimensions of 32 ⅜ x 38 ⅝ x 1 ⅞ inches, the painting remains in excellent vintage condition, with its original vibrancy fully intact. Provenance: Private Collection, Denver, Colorado About the Artist: Jenne Magafan, alongside her twin sister Ethel, rose to prominence as a notable WPA-era muralist and modernist painter. Born in Chicago and raised in Colorado, she studied at the Broadmoor Art Academy and apprenticed under Frank Mechau. Jenne earned national recognition for her public murals, commissioned across the United States as part of New Deal art programs. Magafan’s work reflects a sensitive and modernist approach to the American landscape, emphasizing both place and narrative. Her art is held in prestigious collections including the Denver Art Museum and the Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art. Despite her early passing in 1952, her distinctive vision continues to influence and inspire collectors and historians of 20th-century American art. This painting represents a rare opportunity to acquire a significant 1940s American Modernist work by a key figure of the WPA era, combining historical importance with striking visual impact.
  • Creator:
    Jenne Magafan (1916 - 1952, American)
  • Creation Year:
    1946
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 32.5 in (82.55 cm)Width: 38.5 in (97.79 cm)Depth: 1.75 in (4.45 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Denver, CO
  • Reference Number:
    Seller: 258851stDibs: LU27310250622

More From This Seller

View All
Martyl Schweig 1942 Oil Painting, Victor, Colorado, Ghost Town Landscape
By Martyl Suzanne Schweig Langsdorf
Located in Denver, CO
This stunning original 1942 oil painting, titled "Victor, Colorado", is by acclaimed American artist Martyl Suzanne Schweig (1918–2013). A vibrant and historically rich landscape, this work captures the abandoned ghost town of Victor, Colorado, set against the majestic backdrop of the Rocky Mountains. Rendered in rich hues of green, gold, and earthy brown, Schweig brings to life the rugged beauty and quiet mystery of Colorado’s once-booming mining towns. The painting was completed during a plein-air painting trip with noted artist Adolph Dehn...
Category

1940s American Modern Landscape Paintings

Materials

Oil, Masonite

WPA 1940s Framed Figurative Village Landscape with Figures, Houses & Mountains
By Charles Ragland Bunnell
Located in Denver, CO
This evocative watercolor painting, titled The Way War First Comes (1940), was created by noted American artist Charles Ragland Bunnell (1897-1968) during the Depression era. The pie...
Category

1940s American Modern Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor

Ghost Town, Colorado Prospector Scene by Harold Skene, Vintage Western Painting
By Harold Vincent Skene
Located in Denver, CO
“Ghost Town” by Harold Skene (1883–1978) is a striking vintage oil painting that captures the haunting beauty of Colorado’s mining past. In this evocative Western landscape, a lone prospector and his pack mule stand amid the weathered ruins of an abandoned mountain town. The late summer or early autumn setting is rendered in rich, earthy tones—golden yellows, sage greens, dusty pinks, and soft blues—creating a vivid sense of atmosphere and place. Painted in oil on board and signed by the artist at the lower right, this work is also titled and dated on the verso. It reflects Skene’s architectural training and his artistic roots in the early 20th-century Colorado art scene. The painting is presented in a classic mahogany frame, with outer dimensions measuring 30 x 35.5 x 2.75 inches; image size is 24 x 30 inches. A graduate of Harvard’s School of Architecture, Harold Skene studied at the Denver Art Academy and the Broadmoor Art Academy and was an assistant to noted Western artist Allen Tupper True...
Category

1960s American Impressionist Landscape Paintings

Materials

Oil

Abandoned (Colorado) - 20th Century American Modern Landscape Oil Painting
By William Sanderson
Located in Denver, CO
"Abandoned (Colorado)" is a captivating oil painting by renowned artist William Sanderson (1905-1990), showcasing a desolate house set against the rolling green hills of Colorado. Th...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Modern Landscape Paintings

Materials

Oil

Artists Sketching, California, 1940s Large Modernist Gouache Painting, Landscape
By Frederick Shane
Located in Denver, CO
This original 1940s American Modernist gouache painting, "Artists Sketching (California)," captures a dynamic scene of three artists at work against a majestic mountain backdrop. With expressive brushwork and a rich color palette, the piece embodies Frederick E. Shane’s signature blend of realism and modernist abstraction. Signed, titled, and dated by the artist in the lower margin, this remarkable artwork reflects the era’s Regionalist influence and the artist’s keen eye for capturing creative moments in the natural landscape. The painting is professionally housed in a custom archival frame, ensuring long-term preservation. Frame dimensions: 25.5 x 37.5 x 1.5 inches. Image size: 20.25 x 29.75 inches. Provenance: Estate of the Artist, Frederick Shane About the Artist: Frederick E. Shane (1906-1992) A celebrated Missouri Regionalist painter and printmaker, Frederick E. Shane was known for his compelling genre scenes, landscapes, seascapes, and portraits in a variety of media, including oil, watercolor, gouache, tempera, and lithography. While fundamentally a realist, Shane often incorporated elements of abstraction, expressionism, and surrealism, adding depth and emotion to his compositions. During the summers of 1925-26, Shane studied under Randall Davey at the Broadmoor Academy in Colorado Springs, an institution founded in 1919 by philanthropists Spencer and Julie Penrose. Shane remained closely connected to the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, the Academy’s successor, throughout the 1940s and early 1950s, participating in Artists West of the Mississippi exhibitions and forming lasting friendships with key figures like Boardman Robinson and Adolph Dehn...
Category

1940s American Modern Landscape Paintings

Materials

Gouache

1932 Eliot Candee Clark Pueblo Near Santa Fe Southwest Landscape Oil on Board
Located in Denver, CO
This captivating 1932 oil on board painting, Pueblo Near Santa Fe, New Mexico, is a remarkable example of Eliot Candee Clark’s (1883–1980) masterful landscape work. A celebrated Denv...
Category

1930s American Impressionist Landscape Paintings

Materials

Oil

You May Also Like

R. QUEYRIE, Walking the Streets, Oil on Hardboard, 1950s
Located in Saint Amans des cots, FR
Oil on hardboard signed R. QUEYRIE, France, 1950s. "Walking the streets". With frame: 55x47 cm - 21.65x18.5 inches - without frame: 46x38cm - 18.1x15 inches. 8F format. Signed "R. Qu...
Category

1950s Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Panel

WPA "New Americans" Exceptional Antique 1941 WPA Exhibited Carnegie Painting
Located in Exton, PA
Monumental, important WPA painting by Percy Albee. The painting is oil canvas measuring 36" x 48". Titled verso "New Americans", this WPA painting was exhibited at the Carnegie Insti...
Category

1940s American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

The Lonely Road by William Charles Palmer
Located in Hudson, NY
The Lonely Road (1940) Tempera on panel 12" x 16" 19 1/2" x 23 1/2" x 1 1/2" framed Hand-signed "Palmer '40" lower center. Provenance: Midtown Galleries, New York, NY (labels verso...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Tempera, Panel

Cityscape Mid-20th Century Modern Social Realism American Scene Regionalism WPA
Located in New York, NY
Cityscape Mid-20th Century Modern Social Realism American Scene Regionalism WPA Samuel Thal (1903 to 1964) "Cityscene" 12 x 16 inches Oil on board, c. 1940s Signed verso Framed: 19...
Category

1940s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Board, Oil

Antique American Modernist Street Scene Vintage Original Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Vintage American school modernist cityscape painting. Oil on canvas, wrapped to board. No signature found.
Category

1950s Modern Landscape Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"Glasco Landscape" Albert Heckman, circa 1940 New York Modernist Landscape
By Albert Heckman
Located in New York, NY
Albert Heckman Glasco Landscape, circa 1940 Signed lower right Oil on canvas 25 1/4 x 39 1/2 inches Albert Heckman was born in Meadville, Western Pennsylvania, 1893. He went to New York City to try his hand at the art world in 1915 after graduating from high school and landing a job at the Meadville Post Office. In 1917, at the age of 24, Heckman enrolled part-time in Teachers' College, Columbia University's Fine Arts Department to begin his formal art education. He worked as a freelance ceramic and textile designer and occasionally as a lecturer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In the early 1920s, at the age of almost 30, he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Columbia Teachers College. He was especially impacted by his instructor at Columbia, Arthur Wesley Dow. After graduating, he was hired by the Teachers' College as a Fine Arts instructor. He stayed with Columbia Teachers' College until 1929, when he left to attend the Leipzig Institute of Graphic Arts in Leipzig, Germany. Isami Doi (1903-1965), who was born in Hawaii, was arguably his most impressive student at Columbia. Doi is now regarded as one of the most prominent artists hailing from Hawaii. Heckman became an active member and officer of the Keramic Society and Design Guild of New York in the 1920s as part of his early commercial art career. The Society's mission was to share knowledge and showcase textile and ceramic design exhibits. In 1922, Heckman married Florence Hardman, a concert violinist. Mrs. Heckman's concert schedule during the 1920s kept Albert and Florence Heckman apart for a significant portion of the time, but they spent what little time they had together designing and building their Woodstock, New York, summer house and grounds. A small house and an acre of surrounding land on Overlook Mountain, just behind the village of Woodstock, were purchased by Albert and Florence Heckman at the time of their marriage. Their Woodstock home, with its connections, friendships, and memories, became a central part of their lives over the years, even though they had an apartment in New York City. Heckman's main artistic focus shifted to the house on Overlook Mountain and the nearby towns and villages, Kingston, Eddyville, and Glasco. After returning from the Leipzig Institute of Graphic Arts in 1930, Mr. Heckman joined Hunter College as an assistant professor of art. He worked there for almost thirty years, retiring in 1956. Throughout his tenure at Hunter, Mr. Heckman and his spouse spent the summers at their Woodstock residence and the winters in New York City. They were regular and well-known guests at the opera and art galleries in New York. Following his retirement in 1956, the Heckmans settled in Woodstock permanently, with occasional trips to Florida or Europe during the fall and winter. Mr. Heckman's close friends and artistic career were always connected to Woodstock or New York City. He joined the Woodstock art group early on and was greatly influenced by artists like Paul and Caroline Rohland, Emil Ganso, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Andre Ruellan, and her husband, Jack...
Category

1940s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil