American Modern Paintings

"Winter" American Modernism WPA Regionalism Landscape Mid-Century Magic Realism. 30 x 40 inches. Oil on canvas, c. 1960s, Signed lower right. As we list the painting now, the work is currently being cleaned, restored and a hand carved frame is being built. Additional photos will be uploaded as soon as possible. Our gallery, Helicline Fine Art, just launched our new digital exhibition: American Art: The WPA and Beyond. Three dozen paintings, works on paper and sculptures which are available here on 1stDibs. In person viewings can be arranged by appointment at our midtown Manhattan gallery. Provenance: "Winter" was originally purchased by Stanley Byer. Mr. Byer owned homes in Key West, New York City, and Washington, D.C. He purchased the painting from Dunning Auction in 1984 in Elgin, Illinois. Mr. Byer was related to Abraham Weiss from Florida. Saul Babbin, now deceased was a cousin of Mr. Weiss. I purchased the painting from Joy Babbin, Mr. Babbin's wife, now living in from New Mexico. Dale Nichols (1905 – 1995) Artist, printmaker, illustrator, watercolorist, designer, writer and lecturer, Nichols did paintings that reflected his rural background of Nebraska where he was born in David City, a small town. Although he did much sketching outdoors, most of his paintings were completed in his studio and often included "numerology, magic squares...

Leonard Creo (American, 1923-2019) Untitled, c. 1960s Oil on canvas 29 x 48 in. Framed: 30 1/8 x 49 1/4 x 1 1/2 in. Signed lower right: Creo Creo was bor...

A unique, humorous and colorful landscape painting by Harold Haydon depicting the artist painting alongside cows. The painting dates from 1941. Harold Emerson Haydon was born in Fo...

A wonderful painting in the style clearly identified with the artist.

Beni E. Kosh/Charles Elmer Harris (American, 1917-1993) Untitled Oil on canvas board Estate stamped #611 verso 24 x 18 inches Charles Elmer Harris was born in 1917 in Cleveland, Oh...

This painting was done early in Clyde Singer's career while at the Art Students League in New York. It was purchased directly from the artist in 1988.

Bela de Tirefort (1894 – 1993) Snow at Madison Square Park, 1951 Oil on canvasboard 16 x 20 inches Signed and dated lower left; signed and titled on the reverse on artist label Prov...

Clarence Holbrook Carter (American, 1904-2000) Medieval Heads, 1966 Acrylic on scintilla Signed and dated upper right 23.5 x 30 inches Clarence Holbrook...

Crying Clown Portrait in Oil on Canvas Portrait of a sad clown by San Francisco artist John Peers (American, 1922-2009). This portrait is closely fra...

When I think of where McCauley fits into American art, as a contemporary painter, sculptor and naturalistic interpreter, I place him in the same philosophical tribe as Walton Ford, A...

Cowgirl in the Studio - Figurative Study in Oil on Canvas A woman in a vest, cowboy hat, and boots by American painter, Patricia Gren Hayes (b. 1932). The model is sitting on a stoo...

"ULANDA - Painting in Studio Class" Figurative Study Oil on Canvas A dark-haired woman is standing at an easel, by American painter, Patricia Gren Hayes (b. 1932). The subject is ca...

Clarence Holbrook Carter (American, 1904-2000) Mandala No. 15, 1969 Acrylic on paper Signed and dated verso 27.5 x 22 inches Clarence Holbrook Carter achieved a level of national ar...

A gem of a painting depicting a Nantucket lighthouse by Francis Chapin, from around 1950. Francis Chapin, affectionately called the “Dean of Chicago Painters” by his colleagues, was...

"Coney Island" Brooklyn NYC Amusement Park Mid-century American Scene WPA Modern Ludwig Bemelmans (1898 – 1962), “Coney Island" 35 x 27 inches Oil on board Signed lower left Origin...

"Madam Suburbia" (Woman and Baby by the Yellow Window) in Oil on Canvas An auburn-haired woman sits in a chair with her infant child, by American painter, Patricia Gren Hayes (b. 19...

Signed and dated lower right: DALE NICHOLS 1953; on stretcher bar: “STARS” by Dale Nichols

Northwoods, 2001. Signed and dated Military Enamel, Watercolor, Glitter, Decal, Aluminum Paint on Aluminum. Bears a label from Angles Gallery verso. Tom LaDuke (born 1964) is an Am...

Clarence Holbrook Carter (American, 1904-2000) Maze, 1982 Acrylic on cardboard Signed and dated upper right 7 x 9.5 inches A surrealist mid-century figural abstract painting. Clar...

A vibrant Precisionist still-life painting of a jug & a plate by artist Harold Haydon, dating from 1932. Harold Emerson Haydon was born in Fort William, Ontario, Canada in 1909. H...

A colorful view of Martha's Vineyard by Francis Chapin, from the 1930s. Francis Chapin, affectionately called the “Dean of Chicago Painters” by his colleagues, was one of the city’s most popular and celebrated painters in his day. Born at the dawn of the 20th Century in Bristolville, Ohio, Chapin graduated from Washington & Jefferson College near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania before enrolling at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1922. He would set down deep roots at the Art Institute of Chicago, exhibiting there over 31 times between 1926 and 1951. In 1927 Chapin won the prestigious Bryan Lathrop Fellowship from the Art Institute – a prize that funded the artist’s yearlong study trip to Europe. Upon his return to the United States, Chapin decided to remain in Chicago, noting the freedom Chicago artists have in developing independently of the pressure to conform to pre-existing molds (as was experienced by artists in New York, for example). Chapin became a popular instructor at the Art Institute, teaching there from 1929 to 1947 and at the Art Institute’s summer art school in Saugatuck, Michigan (now called Oxbow) between 1934 – 1938 (he was the director of the school from 1941-1945). A prolific painter, Chapin produced numerous works while traveling in Mexico, France, Spain, Saugatuck and Martha’s Vineyard, where he frequently spent summers and taught at the Old Sculpin Gallery there. Chapin was best recognized for his dynamic and vibrant images of Chicago during the 1930s and 40s. Chapin was a resident of the Old Town neighborhood where he lived and kept his studio on Menomonee Street for many years. Described as a “colorful figure, nearly 6 feet 6 inches tall, and thin, and usually wearing tweeds”, it is easy to imagine Chapin at work observing the busy street life of the city. In addition to his many exhibitions at the Art Institute of Chicago, Chapin’s work was shown during his lifetime at such institutions as the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia; the Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D.C.; the National Academy of Design, New York; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York and the Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, among others. Francis Chapin’s paintings are represented in the collections the Art Institute of Chicago; the Friedman Collection, Chicago; the Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown; the Denver Art Museum; the Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse; the Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach...

A vibrant Precisionist still-life painting of a pitcher and squash by artist Harold Haydon, dating from ca. 1931. Harold Emerson Haydon was born in Fort William, Ontario, Canada in ...

(Note: This work is part of our exhibition Connected by Creativity: WPA Era Works from the Collection of Leata and Edward Beatty Rowan) Oil on canvas, 18 x 14 inches unframed, 22 x 18 inches framed, signed and dated lower right, inscribed “Mother and Son by Herman Maril ‘31” and “property Edward B. Rowan Falls Church VA” verso Literature: i) Dows, Olin, Herman Maril, The American Magazine of Art, Vol. 28, No. 7 (July 1935), p. 407 (illustrated with the title “Mare and Colt...

When I think of where McCauley fits into American art, as a contemporary painter, sculptor and naturalistic interpreter, I place him in the same philosophical tribe as Walton Ford, A...

A painting depicting a lighthouse in Martha's Vineyard by Francis Chapin, from around 1950. Francis Chapin, affectionately called the “Dean of Chicago Painters” by his colleagues, w...

In this painting by Judith Shahn, the artist renders a boat and dock in a series of lines. The artist takes a naive approach at depicting the subject by simplifying the elements in t...

Harvey Gregory Prusheck (Slovenian/American, 1887-1940) Bison Oil on board Signed lower right 9.5 x 11.5 inches 16.5 x 18 inches, framed Harvey Gregory Prusheck was a Slovenian-Amer...

When I think of where McCauley fits into American art, as a contemporary painter, sculptor and naturalistic interpreter, I place him in the same philosophical tribe as Walton Ford, A...

When I think of where McCauley fits into American art, as a contemporary painter, sculptor and naturalistic interpreter, I place him in the same philosophical tribe as Walton Ford, A...

This oil painting from the 65s by California Artist Bruce McCracken derives its title and inspiration from the mythical Arno River in Tuscany. Dividing the historic city of Florence into two distinct parts, the Arno has long captivated the collective imagination and continues to be a subject of exploration for many contemporary artists. Set against the backdrop of the Arno's picturesque banks, the artist likely sought inspiration from the vantage point of the Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge) in Florence. The painting is divided into two distinct horizons. The upper section showcases architectural buildings poised upon a medieval arch...

A view of Oak Bluffs, MA on Martha's Vineyard by Francis Chapin, from around 1950. Francis Chapin, affectionately called the “Dean of Chicago Painters” by his colleagues, was one of...

George Gustav Adomeit (American, 1879-1967) Coastal Scene Oil on canvas Signed lower left 19 x 23 inches 21.5 x 25.5 inches, framed A major painter of American scene subjects, Georg...

A colorful view of Menemsha in Martha's Vineyard by Francis Chapin, from around 1950. Francis Chapin, affectionately called the “Dean of Chicago Painters” by his colleagues, was one...

Melissa Sims’ work utilizes motifs from collage and pop art, in that several different images are combined into one cohesive but surreal landscape. Sims c...

I would like to write a couple of words about the Heroine of my paintings - LIPOCHKA. "I'm Lipochka, hello!" - that's how she used to introduce herself to men. By passport - Olympia....

This is a one-of-a-kind small painting, it was a study for a larger series of patterns and color studies. Measuring 8x10, entitled “ Field of marsh grass “. The medium is oil on canv...

Untitled Diptych, painting by Suzanne Law. Framed Overall size: Image size: 12.6 in. H x 34.2 in W Frame size: 18.1 in. H x 44.8 in W x 1 in D Individual size: Image size: 12.6 in. ...

'Abandoned (Colorado)' is an oil painting by William Sanderson (1905-1990) depicting an abandoned house in green grass hills. Presented in a custom frame measuring 13 ¼ x 16 ½ inches; image size measures 8 ½ x 11 ¼ inches. Painting is in good condition - please contact us for a detailed condition report. About the Artist: Born Latvia 1905 Died Colorado 1990 The elder son of a construction engineer, he was born Wilhelm Tsiegelnitsky in a seaside resort near Riga, Latvia, then part of the Russian Empire. His father, Grigori Mojesevich (later Anglicized to Gregory) was of Russian-Jewish heritage, while his mother Berta (Bertha) came from a German-Jewish background. Because preference in awarding construction contracts at that time were being given to members of the Russian Orthodox Church, his father had the whole family baptized in that church which he kept a secret from Sanderson’s grandparents. His father’s profession took the family to a number of cities in various parts of the Russian Empire including Warsaw, Kharkhov, Kiev, and Samarkand in Asia. To his mother’s annoyance, he scribbled on anything within easy reach, deciding by age ten that he would make art his lifetime goal. During the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 the family lived with relatives in Rostov-on-the-Don where his mother enrolled him in the local Chinyenov Art School, marking the first step in his art career. Feeling that they would have no place in the new Communist political reality, in 1921 the family left Rostov for Kiev, emigrating to Italy and Greece on short-term visas before arriving in New York two years later, sponsored by Gregory’s relatives in New Jersey. The Tsiegelnitsky surname was changed to the more pronounceable Siegel. Experiencing the frustration shared by most immigrants seeking to establish themselves in a new, unfamiliar environment, Sanderson sufficiently mastered English by 1924 to attend the Fawcett School of Industrial Art in Newark (later the Newark School of Fine and Industrial Art) where he studied with Ida Wells Stroud, herself a student of William Merritt Chase and Arthur Dow and part of the early twentieth-century Arts & Crafts Movement. Seeking a more challenging curriculum, he enrolled at the National Academy of Design in Manhattan (1924-1927), studying painting with Charles Hawthorne, etching with William Auerbach-Levy, and life drawing with Charles L. Hinton. Sanderson won the Suydam Medal for Life Drawing, First Prize in Composition, and Honorable Mention in Etching. He also briefly attended the Art Students League in New York in 1928, studying lithography with Charles Locke who in 1936 taught a summer course in the medium at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. However, Sanderson quit the League when he could no longer afford the tuition. With his art studies behind him, he began a successful career in illustration in New York. Briefly associated with the Evening Graphic, he maintained a decade-long affiliation with the New Masses, honored to be in the company of such established artist-contributors as Jean Charlot, Stuart Davis, Adolf Dehn, Louis Lozowick, Reginald Marsh, Jan Matulka and Boardman Robinson – some of whom later were affiliated with the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center in the 1930s and 1940s. As a young immigrant he came to share some of the popular views of the left-wing intellectual community in American in the 1920s and early 1930s; but in 1936 he severed his connections with the New Masses because he did not like the direction it had taken by that time. In 1929, the year of the stock market crash and the onset of the Great Depression, he began doing commercial book illustration in New York which he continued until being drafted during World War II. However, his steady income disqualified him from participation in the Works Progress Administration (WPA)-era art projects. A barometer of his success was his inclusion in the Fifth Exhibition of American Book Illustration in 1935 sponsored by American Institute of Graphic Arts whose jurors included Edith Halpert of The Downtown Gallery in New York. Among the book titles he illustrated were: Marian Hurd McNeeley, The Jumping Off Place; P.N. Krasnoff, Yermak the Conqueror; Joe Lederer, Fanfan in China; Fay Orr, Freighter Holiday; and The Cavalcade of America. His images of a covered wagon and a Daniel Boone prototype in the last-named publication anticipate subjects he later explored more fully in his easel painting in Colorado with likenesses such as The Woman of the Plains and Hombre. In the 1930s and early 1940s he also produced illustrations and covers for leading American magazines such as The New Yorker, Esquire, Cue, and Harper’s. In 1931 he became a naturalized U.S. citizen in Manhattan and by 1936 began informally using Sanderson as his surname, making the change official in 1941. In 1937 he was given a solo show at the American Contemporary Art (A.C.A.) Gallery in New York. The following year he became art director at the McCue Ad Agency in New York where he worked until after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Looking forward to the day when he could give up illustration for the fine arts, his career change was set in motion when he was drafted into the U.S. Army in March 1942. After basic training at Kessler Field near Biloxi, Mississippi (where the Tuskegee Airmen also trained) he shipped out at his own request to Lowry Air Force Base in Denver, becoming part of the Army Air Corps and taking an instant liking to Colorado. At Lowry his humorous drawings of barracks life were published in the base newspaper, The Rev-Meter. In the summer of 1943 he had his first solo exhibition in Colorado at the Denver Art Museum-Chappell House that consisted of black-and-white drawings of army life. He also began painting watercolor scenes from memory of his previous life in the East. His two visits to Vance Kirkland’s studio in Denver’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, while stationed at Lowry, occasioned a lifelong friendship and professional association. On Sanderson’s excursion in 1943 to the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center he met his future wife, Ruth Lambertson from Cedar Falls, Iowa, whom he married eight weeks later, initiating a union lasting forty-seven years. His fluency in Russian landed him an assignment as an interpreter with the American ground forces meeting up with the Soviet Army marching westward toward Berlin in the last months of World War II. His impressions and photos of the bombed-out city formed the basis of his montage, Berlin 1945, painted in Denver in 1947. Its palette and collage-like quality and that of some of his other paintings from this period reflect the influence of American modernist, Stuart Davis. Following his military discharge and some brief design work for the Kistler Stationery Company and the A.B. Hirschfeld Press in Denver, Sanderson swapped commercial art for academia in 1946 when Vance Kirkland hired him as Assistant Professor of Advertising Design at the University of Denver, which subject he taught until retiring in 1972. Along with Kirkland and other faculty artists, he became a charter member of the 15 Colorado Artists. Founded in 1948, the group comprised some of the state’s leading contemporary artists seeking to distance themselves from much of the traditional imagery then being produced and exhibited in Denver and elsewhere. Reflecting the viewpoint of his fellow charter members Sanderson said, "I’m very taken with the nature scenes in this region, but it’s not the function of the artist to paint them when there are photographers around." Paraphrasing Picasso, the leading representative of contemporary art at that time, he added: "The painting is the artist’s representation of what nature is not." The financial security and stability of his teaching position at the University of Denver (DU) gave him the freedom to develop his easel painting. He produced a large body of oils and watercolors in both stylized Realism and Surrealism depicting, respectively, Colorado-inspired subject matter and social criticism of modern life and industrial civilization. One of his first canvases, Steamship Ruth, titled in honor of his wife and incorporating elements remembered from the port of Rostov in Russia has large, precisely-arranged areas of flat color with crisp edges seen in many of his Colorado paintings in the 1950s and 1960s. Similarly, Mountain Rhythm employs a bright palette and undulating lines conveying his fascination with the overall composition of irregular mountain and cloud shapes. Trailer Park, near the foothills west of Denver, provided abundant material for a geometric form study, while Composition with Fried Eggs in the Denver Art Museum’s collection essentially is a semi-cubistic arrangement of interlocking planes and spaces that was reproduced in the August 25, 1952, issue of Time Magazine. His work was also shown in group exhibitions outside Colorado at the Dallas Fine Art Museum, Museum of New Mexico (now, New Mexico Museum of Art) in Santa Fe, Joslyn Memorial Museum in Omaha, San Francisco Art Association, Salt Lake City Art Center, and the Cedar City Art Museum Association in Utah. The positive notice accorded his work in the early 1950s earned him a commission from the Ford Motor Company to illustrate an article, Fort Garland, by Marshall Sprague in the June 1954 issue of Ford Times. (Similar commissions were also given at that time to Denver’s Vance Kirkland and Richard Sorby.) In the mid-1950s Sanderson also executed several murals in different techniques for secular and religious buildings in Colorado, reminiscent of artists’ commissions under the Federal Arts Projects (FAP) during the Depression era: the Graland School lobby and the Colorado Tobacco Building, both in Denver; St. Joseph’s School, Salida; Mesa Elementary School, Cortez; as well as the Andrew Jackson Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee. Sanderson’s life in Europe and illustration work for the New Masses in New York made him very aware of ethnic and racial prejudice. He said, "I believe the artist is first of all a human being with the ability to see and depict the hope, aspirations and the despair of other human beings." In the 1950s he recorded the political movement for Black racial equality in paintings such as Noon Hour, Whites Only...

This delicate oil and ink painting on panel by Dusso depicts a beautiful and graceful woman seen from behind, her nude figure enhanced by the framing of her hair. She holds a vase in...

A small, exquisite, Precisionist painting of a yellow rose by New York artist Harry Lane. Lane's work can be found in the collections of the Met...

Clarence Holbrook Carter (American, 1904-2000) Double Ovoids with Blue and Black, 1960s Acrylic on scintilla 15.25 x 12.25 inches A surrealist mid-century figural abstract painting....

"Twilight of History" is an original oil on board painting by Frederick Shane (1906-1992) from 1947. Shane's reflection of the twilight of our existence is shown with three creatures...

Clarence Holbrook Carter (American, 1904-2000) Transection with Architectural Forms, c. 1980s Acrylic and graphite on board 12 x 20 inches A surrealist mid-century figural abstract ...

This is a very stylized Southwest landscape that appears to document a small church that existed at one time, perhaps in the Palm Springs or Santa Fe area. It is very reminiscent of...

A Modernist landscape painting with figures by artist (William) Davenport Griffen. His paintings tend to be rare. (William) Davenport Griffen was born in 1894 in Millbrook, NY. He graduated from Iowa State College in Ames, IA in 1918 with a B.S. in Civil Engineering; however, Griffen’s true love was painting. In 1919, he enrolled in the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts and subsequently studied at the Art Institute of Chicago from 1923-1928. In 1926, he was awarded the American Travel Scholarship and began painting in Provincetown, MA. In 1928, he was awarded the John Quincy Adams Scholarship and spent six months painting in Paris, France. Griffen also painted in the U.S. Virgin Islands for 11 months between 1930-1931. Griffen had one-man exhibitions of his Virgin Islands paintings...

"Tailor" WPA American Scene Social Realism Modernism Mid Century Modern Fashion The board measures 9 1/2 x 15 1/2. Provenance: Mervin Jules Estate. Bio A painter, illustrator, pri...

Swimmers and sun tanners at the local watering hole. Her birth name was Theresa Berney. At the time of her passing she was known as Theresa Loew. Birth place: Baltimore artist, blo...

Carl Gustaf Simon Nelson, American (1898-1988) "Nude Musicians," 30 x 35 inches, oil on canvas Signed and dated 1938 signature lower right. Provenance: Collection of Seymour Stein Bio Carl Gustaf Simon Nelson (1898 - 1988) A painter, graphic artist and teacher whose paintingfocus was color and content landscapes, Nelson at age five immigrated with his family to Sioux City, Iowa from Sweden in 1903. He studied at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts* from 1920 to 1921, then at the Art Students League* in New York from 1923 to 1927 with Kimon Nicolaides and Kenneth Hayes Miller. He taught at the American Peoples School of New York, an adult education project; at the Cambridge School of Design from 1948 to 1952; and finally at the Boston YMCA until 1968. His work was exhibited at the Carnegie...

This painting is from the series 'Rollers & skate', a series of variations on California's skateboard culture of the 70s, which takes a new turn today. The artist defends feminist va...

American School, Artist Unknown

A "Thumb Box" (or diminutive) painting of sailors in Hanover, NH by Harold Haydon. Harold Emerson Haydon was born in Fort William, Ontario, Canad...

(Note: This work is part of our exhibition Connected by Creativity: WPA Era Works from the Collection of Leata and Edward Beatty Rowan) Oil on canvas, 24 ½ x 19 ½ inches unframed, 32 x 27 inches framed, signed and inscribed “Adrian Dornbush/ Flower Still Life” verso, a remnant of exhibition label verso, stamped “1454” verso, original frame Exhibited: i) Midwestern Artist’s Exhibition Representative Work from Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska & Colorado, Kansas City Art Institute, February 1 to March 2, 1931, no. 34 (see catalog with a listing of work with this title); and ii) Special Display and Sale of Late Oil Paintings Produced by Cedar Rapids Own Artists from the Little Gallery, at Newman’s Department Store, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, March 1932 (see [Advertisement], The Gazette (Cedar Rapids, Iowa), March 15, 1932 – listing a work with this title, together with paintings by fourteen other artists, including Grant Wood, Marvin Cone...

A "Thumb Box" (Diminutive) painting of Vermont by Harold Haydon. Harold Emerson Haydon was born in Fort William, Ontario, Canada in 1909. Haydon came ...

Oil on canvas painting, titled 'Early Spring' (Thompson's Studio) painted in 1933 and signed by John Edward Thompson (1882-1945). Impressionist style portrayal of the artists studio ...

William Stephens Shields, Jr., 1925 - 2010 Untitled 1990 Oil on canvas 60"x48" artist framed Signed lower right William Stephens Shields, Jr., 1925 - 2010 He was born in san Franc...

This large painting is a ca. 1960 copy of a famous Rockwell Kent painting that was executed in Vermont in 1921. The work is oil on canvas and well represents the original image, tho...

John Evans (American, b. 1945), Untitled oilstick on paper, signed in pencil lower center, gallery label (Allan Stone Gallery, New York) affixed verso, sheet: sight size is 22"h x 3...

A small, colorful Modernist landscape painting by Harold Haydon, depicting "Western View from Sun Deck on Ajax Mt., Aspen, Colo.", dated 1955. This pain...