1920s Art

Karl Michel, 'Mehr Sonne fur 1924. Viel Gluck Wunscht Karl Michel U. Frau', woodcut, 1924, edition 20. Signed, dated, and numbered 'op. 162' and '15/20' in pencil. Signed in the image, lower left. A fine, richly-inked impression on buff wove paper, with full margins (1 1/2 to 2 3/4 inches), in very good condition. Printed by the artist. Scarce. Matted to museum standards, unframed. New Year's Greeting – English translation: "More Sun for 1924. Good Luck Wishes from Karl Michel and his Wife." Image size 4 5/8 x 4 3/4 inches (118 x 121 mm); sheet size 7 3/4 x 10 inches (198 x 254 mm). ABOUT THE ARTIST Karl Michel (1889-1984) was a noted graphic designer and expressionist printmaker during Germany's pre-Nazi Weimar Republic (1919-1933). Michel’s work was the subject of a feature article in the influential German graphic design magazine Das Plakat...

Signed Lower Left by Artist Liberty Magazine Cover July 14, 1928 This artwork was also reproduced as the cover illustration of the 1997 book 'The Modernization of Fatherhood' by Ra...

Nude Oil on canvas, 1923 Signed and dated lower left: Wm. Wiessler, '23 (see photo) Condition: excellent Canvas size: 24 1/4 x 29 1/4" Frame size: 33 5/8 x 38 5/8" Provenance: Estate of the Artist Radecki Galleries, South Bend Thomas French Fine Art...

Yunkers, Adja (American, born Latvia, 1900-1983). NANIGOS - CUBA, 1927. Miller 1. Color Woodcut. Edition of 250 published in Sweden in 1942 in the magazine Creation (Miller notes an ...

KATHE KOLLWITZ (German 1867 -1945) STADTISCHES OBDACH (Urban Shelter) 1926 (Knesebeck 226, Klipstein 219.bB), Lithograph from the unsigned edition for the annual edition of the Kuns...

Title: Fireworks 花火 Series: The Second Collection of Modern Beauties (Gendai bijin shū dai nishū 現代美人集第二輯) Date: 1932 A young woman is shown enjoying the summer fireworks, her face shown in profile as she looks towards the display. She holds a summer fan on her lap, and her kimono features large blue stripes and is tied with a colorful obi that features a morning glory pattern. The summer evening sky is a soft grey rather than a deep black, perhaps reflecting the brightness of the fireworks. Numbered verso, from a limited edition of 250 prints. Condition: Excellent impression, color and condition. Publisher: Watanabe Shôzaburô Literature: See “All the Woodblock Prints of Shinsui Ito...

Medium: Oil on Canvas Signature: Signed Lower Left

Les Andelys by Ludovic-Rodo Pissarro (1878 - 1952) Watercolour and ink on paper 28 x 38 cm (11 x 15 inches) Inscribed, dated and signed lower left, Les Andelys 1927 Ludovic Rodo Thi...

Samuel Chamberlain, 'Soaring Steel', drypoint, 1929, edition 100, Chamberlain and Kingsland 79. Signed, titled, and numbered '64/100' in pencil. Annotated '48.00' in pencil, in the artist's hand, bottom right margin. A superb, finely-detailed impression, with selectively wiped plate tone, on heavy Rives cream wove paper; full margins (1 3/8 to 1 7/8 inches), in excellent condition. Matted to museum standards, unframed. The subject of the print is the construction of the Daily News Building in Chicago, Illinois. Image size 12 1/4 x 9 1/2 inches (311 x 241 mm); sheet size 15 1/2 x 12 3/8 inches (394 x 314 mm). Impressions of this work are held in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, Boston Public Library, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Museum of Modern Art, New York Public Library, University of Michigan Museum of Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Western Australia Museum. ABOUT THE ARTIST 'There is something about the atmospheric vibrancy of an etching which imparts a peculiar and irresistible life to architectural drawing...A copper plate offers receptive ground to the meticulously detailed drawing which so often appeals to the architect'. —Samuel Chamberlain, from the Catalogue Raisonné of his prints. Samuel V. Chamberlain (1896 - 1975), printmaker, photographer, author, and teacher, was born in Iowa. His family moved to Aberdeen, Washington in 1901, and in 1913, Chamberlain enrolled in the University of Washington in Seattle, where he studied architecture under Carl Gould. By 1915, he was enrolled in the School of Architecture of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston. With the United States' involvement in the First World War, Chamberlain sailed to France, where he volunteered in the American Field Service. In 1918, he was transferred to the United States Army to complete his tour of duty. After the war, he returned to Boston and resumed his architectural studies, which he eventually discontinued, working for a few years as a commercial artist. Chamberlain received the American Field Service Scholarship in 1923, which he used to travel to Spain, North Africa, and Italy. In 1924 he was living in Paris, where he studied lithography with Gaston Dorfinant and etching and drypoint with Edouard Léon, publishing his first etching the following year. In 1927, he studied drypoint with Malcolm...

Erté first met the legendary beauty Ganna Walska in 1920 when she contacted him about creating designs for her nascent opera career. He created many designs over the years for her, i...

Au Japon Pochoir (Stencil Print), 1925 Signed by the artist in pencil lower right (see photo) Signed in the image lower left (see photo) Stamped verso: Made in France Note: The artist won a gold medal in Paris in 1925 for his porchoirs Condition: excellent Image size: 11 1/2 x 13 inches Sheet size: 20 x 25 3/4 inches The artist is Italian, Vittorio Accornero de Testa, working in Paris. The image combines Art Deco and Japonism, two of the most famous styles of the period of the 1920's. Condition: Excellent, never matted or framed Victor Max Ninon (Vittorio Accornero de Testa, Italian, 1896-1982) Biography Vittorio Accornero de Testa was born in Casale Monferrato in 1896. He completed his first studies at the "Leardi" institute, but was forced to interrupt them due to the war events of the First World War . At 19 he was second lieutenant of the Alpine troops and in 1916 he took one of the first pilot's licenses. During the war he knows the bitterness of shooting down in air combat (for which he is decorated), but also the good fortune to stay alive, albeit with a disability. His art blossomed in the postwar period, first signing his works simply Ninon and then, probably at the suggestion of a French publisher, under the pseudonym of "Victor Max Ninon" (Victor and Max indicate strength and masculinity, Ninon boyhood) .In 1919 and 1924 he made illustrations for theGiornalino della Domenica , also together with his first wife Edina Altara , for Ardita and La Lettura . In 1923 he won the cover competition organized by the magazine El Hogar of Buenos Aires and in 1925 with his pochoirs he imposed himself in Paris at the international exhibition of modern decorative and industrial arts , obtaining a gold medal. In the same year he made two covers for the US magazine The Smart Set . In the 1920s he made numerous series of art deco style postcards for the Milanese publishing house Degami . On June 4, 1929, aGenoa embarks on the Conte Grande together with his wife Edina Altara , for New York . The two stayed in the American metropolis for a few months: in this period Accornero worked on the creation of theatrical sets and created some covers for Country Life magazine . Accornero gets awards and prizes, but the great economic crisis of the time and the nostalgia for Italy convince the two to return to their homeland, where they resume their activity as illustrators. In 1934 Accornero moved to Milan, separated amicably from his wife and continued to dedicate himself to the illustration of children's books, abandoning the pseudonym Victor Max Ninon. It illustrates about 60 books, from the fables of Andersen , Perrault and Grimm , to the tales of Poe , as well as the famous Pinocchio and Cuore published by Mondadori, Mursia, Hoepli, Martello. Several books illustrated by Accornero have been published in French, Spanish, German and English. In addition to the periodicals already mentioned, he collaborates on the first edition of the Encyclopedia of Boys , Mondadori, and with the Italian magazines Lidel , Il Secolo XX, The Italian Illustration , Fantasies of Italy , The Woman , Cordelia , For You Lady , Grace , Metropolis , La Domenica del Corriere , The Corriere dei Piccoli . In 1936 enters the world of cinema, creating sets and costumes for Wedding Vagabonde of Guido Brignone and The White Squadron of Augustus Genina . From 1935 to 1950 he also devoted himself to the theater, taking care of sets and costumes for numerous operettas, ballets and performances at the Scala in Milan and for the Milanese theaters Manzoni, Lirico and Olympia. Stages Marcello di Giordano, Nina pazza d'amore by Paisiello, I cantori di Nurimberga by Wagner, La Bohème by Puccini and other works. For this activity he is also cited in the Theater encyclopedia. In the 1940s and 1950s he wrote and illustrated six books for children for Mondadori: Tomaso (1944), Giacomino (1949), Tomaso Cacciatore (1950), Zio Stefano (1950), In Campagna che delizia! (1953), Tomaso, dear Tomaso (1955). His illustrations of Perrault's Tales published in those years by Hoepli are famous. His art in the fifties evolves towards hyperrealism . There are many personal exhibitions in Italy and abroad, including those at the Gallerie Gussoni (1959) and Bolzani (1963 and 1966) in Milan and Walcheturm (1962) in Zurich. Eminent critics praise his work, from Orio Vergani to Enrico Piceni, from Reto Roedel to De Chirico himself. On the Domenica del Corriere , the journalist, writer and painter Dino Buzzati...

When André Kertész moved to Paris from his native Hungary in 1925, he quickly became immersed in the city’s artistic milieu. The Dutch painter Piet Mondrian had been living in Paris ...

This supremely elegant photograph illustrates why Imogen Cunningham’s botanical pictures are a keystone of modernist photography. In the 1920s, Cunnin...

En Espagne Pochoir (silk screen) printed in colors Signed by the artist in pencil lower right The artist won a gold medal in Paris in 1925 for his pochoirs Condition: Excellent Image size: 11-1/2 x 13" Sheet size: 19 1/2 x 24 3/4"; The artist won a gold medal in Paris in 1925 for his porchoirs The artist is Italian, Vittorio Accornero de Testa, working in Paris. The image combines Art Deco and Japonism, two of the most famous styles of the period of the 1920's. Biography Vittorio Accornero de Testa was born in Casale Monferrato in 1896. He completed his first studies at the "Leardi" institute, but was forced to interrupt them due to the war events of the First World War . At 19 he was second lieutenant of the Alpine troops and in 1916 he took one of the first pilot's licenses. During the war he knows the bitterness of shooting down in air combat (for which he is decorated), but also the good fortune to stay alive, albeit with a disability. His art blossomed in the postwar period, first signing his works simply Ninon and then, probably at the suggestion of a French publisher, under the pseudonym of "Victor Max Ninon" (Victor and Max indicate strength and masculinity, Ninon boyhood) .In 1919 and 1924 he made illustrations for theGiornalino della Domenica , also together with his first wife Edina Altara , for Ardita and La Lettura . In 1923 he won the cover competition organized by the magazine El Hogar of Buenos Aires and in 1925 with his pochoirs he imposed himself in Paris at the international exhibition of modern decorative and industrial arts , obtaining a gold medal. In the same year he made two covers for the US magazine The Smart Set . In the 1920s he made numerous series of art deco style postcards for the Milanese publishing house Degami . On June 4, 1929, aGenoa embarks on the Conte Grande together with his wife Edina Altara , for New York . The two stayed in the American metropolis for a few months: in this period Accornero worked on the creation of theatrical sets and created some covers for Country Life magazine . Accornero gets awards and prizes, but the great economic crisis of the time and the nostalgia for Italy convince the two to return to their homeland, where they resume their activity as illustrators. In 1934 Accornero moved to Milan, separated amicably from his wife and continued to dedicate himself to the illustration of children's books, abandoning the pseudonym Victor Max Ninon. It illustrates about 60 books, from the fables of Andersen , Perrault and Grimm , to the tales of Poe , as well as the famous Pinocchio and Cuore published by Mondadori, Mursia, Hoepli, Martello. Several books illustrated by Accornero have been published in French, Spanish, German and English. In addition to the periodicals already mentioned, he collaborates on the first edition of the Encyclopedia of Boys , Mondadori, and with the Italian magazines Lidel , Il Secolo XX, The Italian Illustration , Fantasies of Italy , The Woman , Cordelia , For You Lady , Grace , Metropolis , La Domenica del Corriere , The Corriere dei Piccoli . In 1936 enters the world of cinema, creating sets and costumes for Wedding Vagabonde of Guido Brignone and The White Squadron of Augustus Genina . From 1935 to 1950 he also devoted himself to the theater, taking care of sets and costumes for numerous operettas, ballets and performances at the Scala in Milan and for the Milanese theaters Manzoni, Lirico and Olympia. Stages Marcello di Giordano, Nina pazza d'amore by Paisiello, I cantori di Nurimberga by Wagner, La Bohème by Puccini and other works. For this activity he is also cited in the Theater encyclopedia. In the 1940s and 1950s he wrote and illustrated six books for children for Mondadori: Tomaso (1944), Giacomino (1949), Tomaso Cacciatore (1950), Zio Stefano (1950), In Campagna che delizia! (1953), Tomaso, dear Tomaso (1955). His illustrations of Perrault's Tales published in those years by Hoepli are famous. His art in the fifties evolves towards hyperrealism . There are many personal exhibitions in Italy and abroad, including those at the Gallerie Gussoni (1959) and Bolzani (1963 and 1966) in Milan and Walcheturm (1962) in Zurich. Eminent critics praise his work, from Orio Vergani to Enrico Piceni, from Reto Roedel to De Chirico himself. On the Domenica del Corriere , the journalist, writer and painter Dino Buzzati...

L'Enfant Et Le Maître Décole (The Child and the School Teacher Etching with hand coloring by Chagall, 1927-1930 Signed in the plate lower right (see photo) From La Fontaine Les Fable...

Landscape with Trees Watercolor on paper, 1929 Signed in pencil lower right corner Obviously influenced by the Cezanne works in the collection of his patron Alfred C. Barnes of Phila...

(A charming lady chatting with a lady perfect in every possible way) Signed in the plate. No pencil signed impressions are existent. Edition: 368 (including 50 imps on japan) includi...

Samuel Chamberlain, 'Manhattan Old and New', drypoint, 1929, edition 100, Chamberlain and Kingsland 81. Signed, titled, and numbered '81/100' in pencil. Titled and annotated '30.00' in pencil, in the artist's hand, bottom margin. Matted to museum standards, unframed. A superb, finely-detailed impression, with selectively wiped plate tone, on heavy Rives cream wove paper; full margins (1 1/2 to 2 1/4 inches), in excellent condition. The subject of the print is the lower Manhattan cityscape just before the Depression. Image size 8 3/4 x 6 13/16 inches (222 x 173 mm); sheet size 12 3/4 x 10 inches (324 x 254 mm). Impressions of this work are held in the collections of the National Gallery of Art and the Zimmerli Art Museum. ABOUT THE ARTIST 'There is something about the atmospheric vibrancy of an etching which imparts a peculiar and irresistible life to architectural drawing...A copper plate offers receptive ground to the meticulously detailed drawing which so often appeals to the architect'. —Samuel Chamberlain, from the Catalogue Raisonné of his prints. Samuel V. Chamberlain (1896 - 1975), printmaker, photographer, author, and teacher, was born in Iowa. His family moved to Aberdeen, Washington in 1901, and in 1913, Chamberlain enrolled in the University of Washington in Seattle, where he studied architecture under Carl Gould. By 1915, he was enrolled in the School of Architecture of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston. With the United States' involvement in the First World War, Chamberlain sailed to France, where he volunteered in the American Field Service. In 1918, he was transferred to the United States Army to complete his tour of duty. After the war, he returned to Boston and resumed his architectural studies, which he eventually discontinued, working for a few years as a commercial artist. Chamberlain received the American Field Service Scholarship in 1923, which he used to travel to Spain, North Africa, and Italy. In 1924 he was living in Paris, where he studied lithography with Gaston Dorfinant and etching and drypoint with Edouard Léon, publishing his first etching the following year. In 1927, he studied drypoint with Malcolm Osborne...

Anton Schutz, 'Heart of San Francisco', etching, c. 1927, edition not stated. Signed in pencil. A superb, richly-inked impression, on cream wove paper; the full sheet with margins (2...

Les Baigneuses by Paulémile Pissarro (1884-1972) Oil on canvas 89 x 118 cm (35 x 46 ¹/₂ inches) Signed and dated lower right, Paulémile - Pissarro. 1928. This work is accompanied by...

Signed and dated lower left by Artist

Karl Michel, 'Viel Gluck 1923 Wunscht der Graphikverlag, J.G. Holzwarth/Bad Rothenfelde', woodcut, 1922, edition 20. Signed and numbered op. 135d and 20/20 in pencil. Signed in the image, lower left. Annotated 'Vorgesdruck' [artist’s proof] in pencil. A fine, richly-inked impression, on heavy, cream Japan paper, with full margins (5/8 to 1 1/8 inches), in good condition. With the artist’s blind stamp in the top left margin. Printed by the artist. Matted to museum standards, unframed. New Year's Greeting - "1923, Good Luck Wishes from the Graphic Press, J.G. Holzwarth/Bad Rothfelde." Image size 5 x 3 1/2 inches (127 x 89 mm); sheet size 6 5/8 x 5 7/8 inches (168 x 149 mm). ABOUT THE ARTIST Karl Michel (1889-1984) was a noted graphic designer and expressionist printmaker during Germany's pre-Nazi Weimar Republic (1919-1933). Michel’s work was the subject of a feature article in the influential German graphic design magazine Das Plakat (The Poster) in 1920. An anti-war advocate, Michel created a suite of 12 wood engravings depicting his impressions of the humanitarian toll of WWII entitled ‘Humanitas’ (Humanity). The German publishing house Greifenverlag published the series in a reduced folio of unsigned prints. Michel’s graphic work is held in the permanent collections of the Auckland War Memorial Museum (New Zealand), Frederikshavn Kunstmuseum & Exlibrissamling (Denmark), Museum of Applied Arts (Budapest), The Robert Gore Rifkind Center for German Expressionist Studies at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the German Expressionism...

Signed & Dated Lower Right by Artist Hendryx, James B. “The Round Seven Mystery.” The American Boy, September 1922: 9. caption: The sheepman eyed him with a hostile glare. ‘Why didn’t you ride right through ’em?’ he asked. Hendryx, James B. Connie Morgan in the Cattle Country. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1923: 96. caption: The sheepman eyed him with a hostile glare. “Why didn’t you ride right through ’em?” he asked Exhibitions: 1925 Washington; 1935 FAO Schwartz

Signed Lower Right by Artist July 1927 Cover of Good Housekeeping

KATHE KOLLWITZ (1867-1945) GEFALLEN (Killed in Action) 1920 (Klipstein 153 (1st state, a of c of 2 states) Lithograph on laid paper. Image 16 ¼ x 15 ¼ inches, Large Full Sheet, 25 ½...

Signed Lower Right by Artist Titled on the reverse: May I Have the Pleasure Good Housekeeping cover, November 1926 As Jessie Willcox Smith biographer S. Michael Schnessel has a...

FRANCES H. GEARHART (1869-1958) (Mt.) SAN JACINTO c. 1926 Color block print. Signed in pencil. Unknown edition but uncommon. Image 6 5/8 x 4 1/8 inches. On Gearhart's typical fibr...

*UK BUYERS WILL PAY AN ADDITIONAL 20% VAT ON TOP OF THE ABOVE PRICE SOLD UNFRAMED The Dancers by Orovida Pissarro (1893 - 1968) Etching 19 x 24 cm (7 ¹/₂ x 9 ¹/₂ inches) Signed an...

Louis Lozowick, 'Tanks #1', lithograph, 1929, edition 50, Flint 39. Signed, titled, and numbered '11/50' in pencil. Signed with the artist's monogram in the stone, lower left. A superb, richly-inked impression, on cream wove paper, the full sheet with margins (3/4 to 1 7/8 inches), in excellent condition. Matted to museum standards. Image size 13 15/16 x 8 1/16 inches (355 x 204 mm), sheet size 15 3/4 x 11 1/4 inches (400 x 286 mm). Exhibited: 'The American Scene: Prints from Hopper to Pollock', Stephen Coppel, The British Museum, 2008. Literature: 'Prints and Their Creators, A World History', Carl Zigrosser, Crown Publishers Inc, 1974; 'American Lithographers...

Signed Lower Right by Artist Cover of The Saturday Evening Post, December 18, 1926

Karl Michel, 'Elisabeth', woodcut, edition 20, 1923. Signed, dated, and numbered 'op.142b' and '12/20' in pencil. Signed in the block, lower left. Annotated 'Vorgesdruck' [artist’s proof] in pencil. A fine impression, on heavy fibrous Japan paper, with full margins (1 3/16 to 3 1/2 inches), in good condition. Printed by the artist, With the artist’s blindstamp in the bottom center margin. Scarce. Matted to museum standards, unframed. Image size 4 15/16 x 6 inches (131 x 152 mm); sheet size 10 x 6 inches (254 x 152 mm). ABOUT THE ARTIST Karl Michel (1889-1984) was a noted graphic designer and expressionist printmaker during Germany's pre-Nazi Weimar Republic (1919-1933). Michel’s work was the subject of a feature article in the influential German graphic design magazine Das Plakat (The Poster) in 1920. An anti-war advocate, Michel created a suite of 12 wood engravings depicting his impressions of the humanitarian toll of WWII entitled ‘Humanitas’ (Humanity). The German publishing house Greifenverlag published the series in a reduced folio of unsigned prints. Michel’s graphic work is held in the permanent collections of the Auckland War Memorial Museum (New Zealand), Frederikshavn Kunstmuseum & Exlibrissamling (Denmark), Museum of Applied Arts (Budapest), The Robert Gore Rifkind Center for German Expressionist Studies at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the German Expressionism...

Signed Lower Left by Artist

Signed Lower Right by Artist ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’ Magazine advertisement: RCA Victor: ‘‘Talking Machine’’ phonograph ca. 1925

Advertisement for the Interwoven Stocking Company, New Brunswick, NJ.

Pamela Bianco, 'Fruit Piece', lithograph, c. 1925. Signed and titled in pencil. Signed in the stone, lower left. Annotated 'No. 8' in pencil, upper right...

Signed Lower Right by Artist Story Illustration for Hearst's International, January 1923.

Signed Lower Right by Artist The Saturday Evening Post, May 25, 1929. While his work graced the covers and pages of many famous American magazines between the 1920s and 1940s (inc...

LIFE Magazine cover, December 15, 1921 "Coles Phillips embodies innovative American periodical and advertising design between 1911 and 1927, a period considered a Golden Age of illu...

Signed Lower Right by Artist “As the stage swung down into the city, he pointed out a girl strolling along with a greyhound on a leash of a blue silk ribbon” Magazine story illustra...

Signed Lower Left by Artist. Literary Digest Cover, October 3, 1920. Written on back 'Property of Funk & Wagnalls'. Provenance: From a Wantagh NY Estate

Signed Lower Left by Artist Collier's Weekly magazine cover, April 23, 1921

Untitled Graphite on paper, 1930 Signed and dated upper right (see photo) Exhibited: Francis Nauman, Leon Kelly: Draftsman Extraordinaire, New York, April 4 - May 23, 2014. (label) C...

*UK BUYERS WILL PAY AN ADDITIONAL 5% IMPORT DUTY ON TOP OF THE ABOVE PRICE Promeneuse sur un chemin by Paulémile Pissarro (1884-1972) Watercolour and pencil on paper 30.5 x 35 cm (1...

Signed on Reverse by Artist Advertisement for the Interwoven Stocking Company, New Brunswick, NJ.

MAX KAUS (German 1891-1977) KOPF (Head( (Rifkind 1387) Woodcut, unsigned, monogram in block. As issued as plate 1 from “Genius” Zeitschrift für werdende und alte Kunst, vol. 2, no. ...

Brooklyn Waterfront Lithograph, 1931 Signed, titled, and dated in pencil by the artist Edition: Undetermined (very small), plus artist's proofs Printed by Meister Schulz, Berlin Provenance: Estate of the artist Virginia Dehn, the artist's widow Dehn Quests Bibliography: Lumsdaine and O'Sullivan 152 Illustrated: Adams, The Sensuous Life of Adolf Dehn, Fig. 9.14, page 213 (This impression) Adolf Dehn, American Watercolorist and Printmaker, 1895-1968 Adolf Dehn was an artist who achieved extraordinary artistic heights, but in a very particular artistic sphere—not so much in oil painting as in watercolor and lithography. Long recognized as a master by serious print collectors, he is gradually gaining recognition as a notable and influential figure in the overall history of American art. In the 19th century, with the invention of the rotary press, which made possible enormous print runs, and the development of the popular, mass-market magazines, newspaper and magazine illustration developed into an artistic realm of its own, often surprisingly divorced from the world of museums and art exhibitions, and today remains surprisingly overlooked by most art historians. Dehn in many regards was an outgrowth of this world, although in an unusual way, since as a young man he produced most of his illustrative work not for popular magazines, such as The Saturday Evening Post, but rather for radical journals, such as The Masses or The Liberator, or artistic “little magazines” such as The Dial. This background established the foundation of his outlook, and led later to his unique and distinctive contribution to American graphic art. If there’s a distinctive quality to his work, it was his skill in introducing unusual tonal and textural effects into his work, particularly in printmaking but also in watercolor. Jackson Pollock seems to have been one of many notable artists who were influenced by his techniques. Early Years, 1895-1922 For an artist largely remembered for scenes of Vienna and Paris, Adolf Dehn’s background was a surprising one. Born in Waterville, Minnesota, on November 22, 1895, Dehn was the descendent of farmers who had emigrated from Germany and homesteaded in the region, initially in a one-room log cabin with a dirt floor. Adolf’s father, Arthur Clark Dehn, was a hunter and trapper who took pride that he had no boss but himself, and who had little use for art. Indeed, during Adolf’s boyhood the walls of his bedroom and the space under his bed were filled with the pelts of mink, muskrats and skunks that his father had killed, skinned and stretched on drying boards. It was Adolf’s mother, Emilie Haas Dehn, a faithful member of the German Lutheran Evangelical Church, who encouraged his interest in art, which became apparent early in childhood. Both parents were ardent socialists, and supporters of Eugene Debs. In many ways Dehn’s later artistic achievement was clearly a reaction against the grinding rural poverty of his childhood. After graduating from high school in 1914 at the age of 19—an age not unusual in farming communities at the time, where school attendance was often irregular—Dehn attended the Minneapolis School of Art from 1914 to 1917, whose character followed strongly reflected that of its director, Munich-trained Robert Kohler, an artistic conservative but a social radical. There Dehn joined a group of students who went on to nationally significant careers, including Wanda Gag (later author of best-selling children’s books); John Flanagan (a sculptor notable for his use of direct carving) Harry Gottlieb (a notable social realist and member of the Woodstock Art Colony), Elizabeth Olds (a printmaker and administrator for the WPA), Arnold Blanch (landscape, still-life and figure painter, and member of the Woodstock group), Lucille Lunquist, later Lucille Blanch (also a gifted painter and founder of the Woodstock art colony), and Johan Egilrud (who stayed in Minneapolis and became a journalist and poet). Adolf became particularly close to Wanda Gag (1893-1946), with whom he established an intense but platonic relationship. Two years older than he, Gag was the daughter of a Bohemian artist and decorator, Anton Gag, who had died in 1908. After her husband died, Wanda’s mother, Lizzi Gag, became a helpless invalid, so Wanda was entrusted with the task of raising and financially supporting her six younger siblings. This endowed her with toughness and an independent streak, but nonetheless, when she met Dehn, Wanda was Victorian and conventional in her artistic taste and social values. Dehn was more socially radical, and introduced her to radical ideas about politics and free love, as well as to socialist publications such as The Masses and The Appeal to Reason. Never very interested in oil painting, in Minneapolis Dehn focused on caricature and illustration--often of a humorous or politically radical character. In 1917 both Dehn and Wanda won scholarships to attend the Art Students League, and consequently, in the fall of that year both moved to New York. Dehn’s art education, however, ended in the summer of 1918, shortly after the United States entered World War I, when he was drafted to serve in the U. S. Army. Unwilling to fight, he applied for status as a conscientious objector, but was first imprisoned, then segregated in semi-imprisonment with other Pacifists, until the war ended. The abuse he suffered at this time may well explain his later withdrawal from taking political stands or making art of an overtly political nature. After his release from the army, Dehn returned to New York where he fell under the spell of the radical cartoonist Boardman Robinson and produced his first lithographs. He also finally consummated his sexual relationship with Wanda Gag. The Years in Europe: 1922-1929 In September of 1921, however, he abruptly departed for Europe, arriving in Paris and then moving on to Vienna. There in the winter of 1922 he fell in love with a Russian dancer, Mura Zipperovitch, ending his seven-year relationship with Wanda Gag. He and Mura were married in 1926. It was also in Vienna that he produced his first notable artistic work. Influenced by European artists such as Jules Pascin and Georg Grosz, Dehn began producing drawings of people in cafes, streets, and parks, which while mostly executed in his studio, were based on spontaneous life studies and have an expressive, sometimes almost childishly wandering quality of line. The mixture of sophistication and naiveté in these drawings was new to American audiences, as was the raciness of their subject matter, which often featured pleasure-seekers, prostitutes or scenes of sexual dalliance, presented with a strong element of caricature. Some of these drawings contain an element of social criticism, reminiscent of that found in the work of George Grosz, although Dehn’s work tended to focus on humorous commentary rather than savagely attacking his subjects or making a partisan political statement. Many Americans, including some who had originally been supporters of Dehn such as Boardman Robinson, were shocked by these European drawings, although George Grocz (who became a friend of the artist in this period) admired them, and recognized that Dehn could also bring a new vision to America subject matter. As he told Dehn: “You will do things in America which haven’t been done, which need to be done, which only you can do—as far at least as I know America.” A key factor in Dehn’s artistic evolution at this time was his association with Scofield Thayer, the publisher of the most notable modernist art and poetry magazine...

Lake fog Year: circa 1928-1932 Medium: lithograph Pencil signature, numbered 6 Image size: 9 9/16 x 11 7/16 Harold Keeler was born in Denver, Colorado in 1905. He studied at both th...

Edouard Benedictus, 'Variations, plate 10' from the portfolio 'Variations Quatre-Vingt-Six Motifs Décoratifs en Vingt Planches', color pochoir, edition not stated, 1923. Signed in the matrix, in the left bottom margin. A superb, painterly impression, with fresh, vivid colors and metallic silver, on heavy, cream wove paper with margins (1 to 1 3/4 inches). A repaired tear in the center left margin, not affecting the image, in good condition. Archivally sleeved, unmatted. Image size 14 3/8 x 11 9/16 inches; sheet size 17 3/8 x 13 7/8 inches. The pochoir production is by Jean Saudé, the French printmaker known for his mastery of the technique and the author of the first how-to book on the pochoir process. Published by Éditions Albert Levy, Librairie Centrale des Beaux-Arts, Paris. Collections: Metropolitan Museum of Art, Minneapolis Institute of Art, New York Public Library, Victoria and Albert Museum. Additional works from this suite of vibrant Art Deco floral designs are available from Keith Sheridan LLC...

Chinois inventa, dit-on, la poudre a canon, nous en fit don (The Chinese invented gunpowder, they say, and made is a gift of it) Aquatint, roulette, drypoint, acid bite, and scorper, 1926 From: Miserere, Plate 38 Initially started by Ambrose Vollard, this portfolio was published in 1948 by Editions de l'Etoile Filante, Paris This image is the cover illustration for the 1938 MOMA catalog...

untitled (polo player on horseback) Chalk on tan paper, c. 1920 Unsigned Provenance: Gift of the artist William McGill (Keller's student) Image size: 4 3/8 x 5 ...

Image dimensions: 7 ¼ x 10 ½ inches Framed dimensions: 16 ½ x 20 inches To produce his murals, Sargent painted monumental canvases in his studios in London and Boston, adhering them...

Signed "Howard Chandler Christy" Lower Left "There in a box hammock was Phil Hanrihan sprawling, a woman in a scarlet shawl clinging, her cheek against his." Story illustration for ...

Signed by Artist Advertisement for the Interwoven Stocking Company, New Brunswick, NJ.

Advertisement for the Interwoven Stocking Company, New Brunswick, NJ.

Ceremonial Dance by Orovida Pissarro (1893 - 1968) Etching 19.2 x 24.8 cm (7 ½ x 9 ¾ inches) Signed and dated lower right Orovida 1927 Inscribed lower left Final state no. 12/35 and ...

Advertisement for the Interwoven Stocking Company, New Brunswick, NJ.

Initialed and dated lower right

Advertisement for the Interwoven Stocking Company, New Brunswick, NJ.