Stephen Bower

'John and Mimi with Tim', John Lennon, England, Manchester College of Art

1982

Signed lower left, 'Leon Franks'; additionally signed and titled, 'Portrait of a Girl', on old label verso. A bravura brushwork study of a young woman wearing a floral patterned shirt gazing calmly towards the viewer. A noted portrait and still life painter, Leon Franks studied at the Academie Julian and Grande Chaumiere in Paris and, subsequently, in Los Angeles at the Chouinard Art Institute and the Los Angeles Art Center. Franks additionally studied privately with Nicolai Fechin, Will Foster and F. Tolles Chamberlain. Before settling in Los Angeles in 1936, where Franks continued his education and began designing for the movie industry, he did portraits and decorations for Vancouver theaters. The author of several 'How to Paint' books, including titles 'How to Do Still Life' (1952) and 'Leon Franks on Techniques' (1964), Franks was a teacher. He privately taught several artists, including Vernon...

Signed lower left, 'Clement' for Gad Frederick Clement (Danish, 1867-1933) and painted circa 1920. Titled, verso, on old exhibition label, 'Fra Haven' (From the Garden). Additionally signed, verso, on stretcher bar and titled, 'Vesterby, Skagen' Exhibited: Skagen Museum, circa 1920, from label, verso. 'Helsinki Art Gallery, 1928', from label, verso. 'Danish Art Convention Forum, 1929', from label, verso. Gad Clement created this luminous painting in the garden of the Vesterby beach house where he and his wife, the artist Martha 'Tupsy' Clement, summered from 1908-1920. A substantial and well-exhibited work, it shows Tupsy at her easel beside their daughters, Bitten (b.1912) and Lillemor (b.1909). Fusing the ideal with the intensely personal, the artist has lyrically captured both the bonds of maternity and the dreamland of childhood. Gad Frederick Clement first studied at Copenhagen's Technical School (1883–1885) before attending the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris (1885-1888). Returning to Denmark, he continued his studies under Laurits Tuxen...

Signed lower left, 'Sarah H. Hobson' and dated, '1936'. A delicately modeled, gouache and watercolor study of a young woman with copper hair. Sarah Villarette Hoover Hobson studied...

A delicately-observed, three-quarter length oil portrait of a young woman in society, fashionably dressed in a pinch-waisted, embroidered chiffon ball-gown and wearing a gold pendant and teardrop earrings with tea roses in her hair; the subject shown gazing towards the viewer with candor and good humor. Displayed in a period, black-walnut frame with period gilt liner. Danish School...

Signed lower left, 'Muff' for Orla Muff (Danish, 1903-1984), titled, 'Nana' and dated 1934. After winning a national drawing competition at the age of 14, Orla Muff studied with the theatrical painter, Carl Lund from 1917-1921. He followed this with extended study throughout Europe, including in Stockholm and Paris. He achieved widespread acclaim as a designer of elaborate Art Deco sets for prominent European revues and theatrical productions, including for Copenhagen’s Folk Theater and Max Reinhardt...

Signed lower left with monogram, 'P.T.' for Pearl Took (American, 1928-2012); additionally signed verso, dated 1977 and titled 'Sheila Antoine'. Born in England, Pearl Took first st...

"Ballerinas" impressionist painting by Andre Gisson (1921-2003). Soft colors and bright light are hallmarks of Gissons work. This is rare subject manor for the artist. Although Ame...

"Ballerinas" impressionist painting by Andre Gisson (1921-2003). Soft colors and bright light are hallmarks of Gisson's work. This is rare subject manor for the artist. Although Am...

Wonderful impressionist painting. Full of light, color, and movement. "The Flamenco Dancer by J. Charles Arter ( American 1860-1923). Oil on canvas. Signed upper left. Circa 1900. Unframed. Born in Hanoverton, Ohio, Charles Arter studied in Cincinnati and Paris at the Academie Julian. He had studios in Venice, London and New York and painted portraits of many famous personages including Pope Pius X...

Bohemian woman Budapest, Hungary 1925 by Bertha De Hellebranth. Fabulous period painting brings to life the bohemian intelligentsia of Europe in the 1920's. I believe the painting is of the artists sister Elena Maria De Hellebranth. Both sisters were accomplished artist and worked and exhibited together. See the photo of the sisters Elena on the left and Bertha on the right. Oil on canvas. In a period frame. Signed lower right. Inscribed on reverse. Provenance: label from Newman Galleries Philadelphia. BIOGRAPHY ; Bertha de Hellebranth and her sister Elena were born into a cultured upper-class family in Budapest, Bertha in 1899, Elena in 1897. Their father was a lawyer and their mother a student of Franz Liszt's last living pupil. Both sisters showed artistic potential early, beginning to paint at four or five years of age. Their parents encouraged them, and had the means to send them to the best art schools of the time. They studied at the Academy of Fine Art in Budapest, at the Académie Julian and the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris, and painted portraits of European nobility. As Patricia Fazekas points out, "Growing up in a family of privilege, they seemed to have unusual access to many illustrious people." So we should not be surprised to find among their subjects members of high society, such as Count Andrássy Gyula, the Russian-born Princess Baby Galitzine, and Admiral Horthy Miklós, the Regent. Later on, their subjects included American heiress Gladys Vanderbilt (Countess László Széchenyi), President Theodore Roosevelt's granddaughter Paulina Longworth and former President Dwight D. Eisenhower.Often, the sisters would paint the same subject at the same time, offering the sitter a choice of portraits. Most often, the sitter wanted both renditions.While Elena concentrated on working in oil and watercolor, Bertha used gouache and oil to achieve her effects. Elena gave lectures and workshops, was a writer and also wrote popular and ecclesiastical music, while Bertha also went in for sculpture and handicrafts.From the mid-thirties until World War II, Bertha and Elena divided their time between their home in Budapest and a home on the ocean at Ventnor, NJ. In 1925, they showed their work at the Nemzeti Szalon in Budapest, and in 1926, they had a joint exhibition of their portraits in the US. Both exhibited their work at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and most major museums and galleries in the US. Bertha also had exhibits at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Both Bertha and Elena were Fellows of the Royal Society of Art (London), and garnered numerous prizes. Bertha was awarded First Prize by the National Academy of the American Water Color Society one year, and the Grand Prize of the Audubon Society. She was one of the founders of the now defunct World League of Hungarian Artists Abroad (Külföldi Magyar Képz?m?vészek Világszövetsége), and received a Gold Medal from the Cleveland Árpád Akadémia in 1963. (Elena also received the Akadémia's gold medal in 1965.) Their work is found in museums and galleries too numerous to mention.The de Hellebranth sisters were devout Catholics, and this is evident in their many portraits of clerics...

Christopher Clark's (US based) "Waiting" is an oil painting that depicts a female figure juxtaposed with a busy city avenue. Christopher has been an artist since early childhood, w...

Louis Recchia's (US based) "Seurat's Studio with Picasso" is an oil painting that depicts a collage like combination of pop imagery and picasso like style with yellow and white flowe...