Paul C. Stahr

Lady Liberty Playing Cards

Medium: Acrylic Airbrush and Pastel on Board Signature: Signed Middle Right

Woman standing in a gown. Signed and dated lower left. Charles Allan Gilbert chose art as a career after discovering his talent while sketching during a childhood as invalid. Following training at the Art Students League, he went to Paris while his teachers were Constant and Laurens. He returned to the U.S to begin a very successful illustration career, with a special aptitude for the portrayal of beautiful young women. Their portraits were included in several gift books...

June 1925 McCalls magazine 'To the Girls of St. Agnes Seminary' Neysa Moran McMein – later Mrs. John Baragwanath – wanted, as a girl in Quincy, Illinois, to be a musician. Although she changed her mind and attended the Art Institute of Chicago, she paid her way through school by writing music and playing piano in a ten-cent store. During World War I, she went to France under the auspices of the YMCA, and entertained the troops with her singing and piano accompaniment to showings of Winsor McCay’s animated film “Gertie the Dinosaur”. She painted her first McCall’s magazine cover in 1923, and for many years made pastel portraits of beautiful or notable young women for McCall’s monthly issues, as well as occasional covers for the Woman’s Home Companion, McClure’s, Photoplay, and The Saturday Evening Post. She also regularly contributed her drawings to the annual New York Times’ Hundred Neediest Cases. McMein was equally noted as a hostess and friend of such notables as Alexander Woollcott, Irving Berlin, Marc Connolly, Ben Lillie, Irene Castle...

Date: 1927 Medium: Pastel on Paper Dimensions: 24.00" x 19.00" Signature: Signed Lower Right Saturday Evening Post Cover, November 5, 1927

Signature: Cosmopoilitan Magazine Cover, February 1942

Portrait of young William Lancaster Signed lower right

This charming pastel painting on paper was designed by Pio Santini (1908-1986) and named: nude with lace. The artist's signature, Santini, can be found in the bottom left corner of the artwork. Lovely romantic composition with a nude young lady kneeling and holding a piece of white lace. Flamboyant magenta red drape background. The painting remains in its original frame, which features delicately carved wood, a gesso finish, an off-white wood liner, and glass protection. The piece is in good condition but has a dark stain and some small chips on the edges of the original wood frame. Measurements: With frame: 22.75 in. wide (58 cm) x 26 in. high (66 cm) Opening view: 14.50 in. wide (36.5 cm) x 17.75 in. (45 cm). Artist Biography: Pio Santini (1908-1986) Pio Santini was born on April 17, 1908, close to Rome, in Tivoli, Italy. He showed a precocious and pronounced artistic taste and gifts, to begin with, drawing and painting. From his childhood drawings, as early as 5 or 6 years old, he was gifted and had a technique above the average. As early as 1933, Pio Santini moved to Paris, in the Montparnasse district, also known as The Artists Area, where he settled in his first Parisian studio. He is recognized as a member of the Academy of Paris, a significant art movement in the first half of the 20th century, alongside Amedeo Modigliani and other Italian artists. While attending the classes of the Estienne School for further training in plastic art, Pio Santini started to attract attention in various Parisian Salons (particularly the Winter Salon, the Independents Salon, and the French Artists Salon) and to find a place in the Parisian universe of painting, as is shown in the press of the time. The Second World War, which pitted his country of birth against his adopted nation, created conflicting emotions in him. During this time, the concept of a united and reconciled Europe took root in his mind. In a way, he played a part in the resuming cultural exchanges between France and Italy by founding the association The Romans in Paris after the war, and especially by creating and animating the Villa D’Este Prize for about ten years, rewarding each year a French artist or writer by offering, a one month stay at the Villa, in Tivoli. Later, the Montparnasse Prize would reward Italian artists in Paris, in the same way. While devoting himself to painting, he worked as an art illustrator for edition and press and left us a rich but unrecognized work from this period. In the early 1960s, Pio Santini decided, imperiously and bravely, to live on his painting. A member of the Society of Independent Artists since 1934, he then actively participated in numerous collective exhibitions in France and abroad. He regularly exhibited in Parisian Salons, most of which he was a member: the Independents Salon, the Autumn Salon, the Winter Salon, the National Salon of the Fine Arts, and the Comparison Salon. A regular participant in the prestigious Salon des Artistes Français, he was often rewarded: Great Price of the Salon in 1970, then in 1974, a gold medal in 1971, and Prize-winner of the Ernest Marché Prize in 1974. Pio Santini lived his last years in his house in Garches, near Paris. He worked there until the last moment and died of illness at the age of 78. Keeping himself a part of the avant-garde of contemporary art, Pio Santini developed a personal work of formal coherence very steadily. He is a two-time artist, one of the beginnings of his career, the Thirties, and the other one, his rebirth, the Sixties, when the artist can again devote himself to painting. Between these two periods, the Second World War badly hit the pictorial growth of Pio Santini. However, everything had started under the best auspices for the young painter whose desire to devote himself to painting is evident in his self-portrait of 1928 as a manifesto. In the 1930s, following the revolutions of cubism, abstraction, and surrealism, figurative and sensual...

Antique Dog Painting of "Mignonne" dated 1876 Louis Eugène Bourgeois (French 1831-1878) Pastel on cardboard Signed lower left "E. Bourgeois" Inscribed upper right "Mignonne." Rever...

On the cardboard applied on the frame there is an annotation, belonging to some of the old owners, reporting the names of the portrayed in Kurrent handwriting: "Urgroßvater Ludwig Fr(ei)h(e)r(r) von Keller" "Urgroßmutter Fr(ei)h(e)r(rin) von Keller geb(oren) von Niebecker". So we can deduce that the models were Ludwig Friedrich Heinrich Ferdinand Baron of Keller (1760-1835), a German politician who was the director of the district of Prussia, and his wife Auguste Johanne Henriette Baroness of Niebecker (1760-1832). Their high class provenience is highlighted by the not contained expressive liveliness, by the proud pose imitating movement and by the elegance of the clothes which fabric seems palpable (especially sincere is the evanescent depiction of the pleated veil of the gorget and the adorned with arabesques decoration of the sleeves and the vest). The two pieces can be attributed to John Singleton Copley...

Red Grooms (American, b. 1937) Jackson Pollock, 1986 Pastel on paperboard 9 1/4 x 9 1/4 inches Signed and dated lower right Provenance: Hirschl & Adler Modern, New York Charles Rog...

"Remember Me" is a poignant piece of art that evokes a powerful sense of nostalgia and remembrance. The piece centers around the face of a character, depic...

Valley of No Shadows is an original painting by Fredrick Idele. Fredrick created Valley of No Shadows with Acrylic, Pastel, and Charcoal on a 24W by 24H inches Card. "Valley of No Shadows" is a captivating artwork that portrays a peaceful state of mind where fears and worries are conquered, and inner peace is found. The artwork features a character adorned with African symbols...