1940s Art

Born in Szeged, Hungary, he became one of the better known and successful illustrators of the Golden Age of Illustration, completing over 100 books. Among them are "A Treasury of Verse for Little Children," "The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam," and "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner." He is probably best known for pen and ink drawings of mythology subjects geared towards children. He studied at Budapest Technical University and attended art schools in Munich and Paris before moving to London at age 23. In 1907, he began illustrating children's books and did a series of annual gift books...

A beautiful post-impressionist interior still life oil on canvas depicting a guitair and fruits on a chair, by modern Belgian artist and sculptor Roger Duterme. Ther work is signed ...

Stunning desert landscape of red rocks and desert shrubs by California artist Olive Von Bergen (American, 20th Century). Signed “Olive Von Bergen” in ...

Lithograph and stencil on vélin paper. Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Good condition. Notes: From the album, Cahiers d'Art N°24, 1949. Published and printed by Éditions des Cahi...

Danse Macabre is an original Rare Book illustrated by Frans Masereel (1889 – 1972) in 1941. Original Edition. 950 numbered copies. Published by Lang, ...

Mid Century Fingerpainted Landscape in Acrylic, in Diamond-Shaped Frame Unique landscape by Hollywood, California artist Genevieve"Gen" Matucha (American, 1903-1989). The scene dep...

Medium: Lithograph on vélin paper Year: 1948 Paper Size: 16.54 x 11.81 inches Inscription: Inscription: Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued Notes: From the album, Carnet de dessins de...

Bungalow (fauvist painting of New York scene) 1940's. image is 10X 11.5 inches. Hand signed lower right Country Scene Samuel Grunvald was a Hungarian born American WPA artist known for abstract, landscape and seascape paintings. Arrived in the USA from Hungary in 1921 and settled in New York City where he studied at the Art Students League. Grunvald worked for the Federal Art Project, taught at Colony House in NYC. Member: Art Guild, Watercolor Society, New York Watercolor Club. exhibited at Montross Gallery, NYC, World House Galleries, NYC, Leonard Hutton Gallery, NYC, Associated American Artists Gallery and the A.C.A. Gallery. Gunvald's work spanned many modern American movements from the WPA to Abstract Expressionist painting. He was a member of the American Watercolor Society and the Brooklyn Society of Artists. He exhibited with both of these organizations and at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. He was involved the the WPA being a Federal Arts Project artist. A number of prominent Jewish artists participated in this New Deal program among them Ben Shahn, Joseph Solman, William Gropper, Philip Guston Adolph Gottlieb, Mark Rothko, Milton Avery, Ben Shahn, the Soyers (Isaac, Moses, and Raphael), and many others Grunwald exhibited alongside other popular artists such as Paul Klee, Jean Arp, Max Ernst and Charles Burchfield. He also taught and lectured on art and easel painting, Federal Art Project, NYC. His work is included in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art and The Jewish Museum, New York. Americana. The Catskills became a major resort destination for Jewish New Yorkers in the mid-20th century. Borscht Belt is an informal term for the summer resorts of the Catskill Mountains in Sullivan and Ulster counties in upstate New York which were frequented by Ashkenazi Jews. At its peak of popularity, about 500 resorts operated in the region. Later changes in vacationing patterns have led most of those travelers elsewhere, although there are still bungalow communities and summer camps in the towns of Liberty, Bethel, Monticello and Fallsburg catering to Orthodox Jewish populations. Borscht Belt, The term, which derives from the name of a beet soup popular with people of Eastern European origin, can also refer to the Catskill region itself. In August, 1969, the Catskills were the site of a music and art festival in the town of Bethel, which had originally been planned for Woodstock, New York. Thirty-three of the best-known musicians of the era appeared during a sometimes rainy weekend in front of nearly half a million concertgoers. The event, featuring liberal drug use and nudity, exemplified the counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s. Select Exhibitions A.C.A. Gallery Associated American Artists Gallery, 1936-1955 American Watercolor Society, 1932-1942 New York Watercolor Club, 1935-1937 Humanist Art...

Medium: Lithograph and stencil on vélin paper Year: 1945 Paper Size: 13 x 17 inches Inscription: Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued Notes: From the folio, Degas, Ten Ballet Sketches,...

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Signed pointillist interior and seascape oil on canvas circa 1940 by French neo-impressionist painter Jeanne Selmersheim-Desgrange. The piece depicts a breakfast table set up beside ...

A ca. 1940s graphite on paper mural study of a Chicago city scene by notable Modern artist Rudolph Weisenborn. Artwork size: 12 1/2" x 9 1/4". Archivally matted to 18" x 16". Provenance: Estate of the artist. Rudolph Weisenborn was born in Strassburg, Germany in 1881, but was orphaned at the age of nine. He was taken-in by Mid-Western farmer Thomas Westaby and spent his early years in Wisconsin, Iowa and North Dakota. Weisenborn first attended the University of North Dakota in 1898, then the Students School of Art in Denver. Various accounts have him working out west as a gold miner and cowboy. Around 1912, he settled in Chicago and worked as a window designer for Marshall Field’s. Weisenborn is best known as the founder of the Chicago No-Jury Society of Artists. The group was founded because many artists could not get their work accepted into the mainstream Art Institute shows. Weisenborn is quoted as saying that he harbored feelings of disdain for any jury and that his own paintings were frequently rejected by conservative jurors. He was also involved and helped found other radical artist’s groups such as the Salon des Refuses, Cor Ardens and Neo-Arlimusic. In 1936, he helped found the New York-based American Abstract Artist’s Group. He created the only abstract mural for the 1933 Century of Progress Exhibition in Chicago and also worked for the Federal Arts Project in the Easel Division. His WPA murals can be found in Crane Technical High School and Nettlehorst Elementary School in Chicago, IL. In 1945, Chicago businessman Herman Spertus...

André Masson, French (1896 -1987) - Désespoir pour les Poèmes d'Emily Brontë, Year: circa 1945, Medium: Lithograph on thin wove paper, signed and numbered in pencil, Edition: 12/3...

Medium: original etching. Printed in 1946 at the atelier Quesneville on BFK Rives paper and published in a limited edition of 300 for the "Alternance" portfolio (a collective art and...

A mid-century, stone lithograph titled 'Christopher' by Nura Woodson Ulreich (American, 1899-1950), created in 1943 and with certification of authenticity stamped verso. A bright and...

Medium: offset lithograph (after the Rodin watercolor). Printed in 1945 on Vélin de Lana paper and published in Paris by the Musée Rodin in an edition of 2500. Image size: 7 1/4 x 5 ...

This artwork masterfully captures the interplay between human form and sculptural abstraction. A pair of real feet is delicately intertwined with sculpted counterparts, forging a str...

Nicely executed early 1900s American impressionist coastal seacape painting. Oil on canvas. In excellent original condition. Handsomely framed in a period giltwood molding. Excel...

Substantial and period mid-century still life of a bowl of bearded irises with a parrot figurine by noted California artist Nell Walker Warner (American, 1891-1970), c.1940's. A charming parrot statue...

Behold the original lithographic Petty Pin-up, a unique vertical-format piece. The see-through bathing suit she wears seems to make her glow, especially with her red hair peeking fro...

A beautiful oil on board depicting Stonehenge, by modern British artist Vivian Bewick. Excellent quality study if the mysterious Bronze Age landmark. Inscribed with artist details o...

Pablo Picasso, Spanish (1881 - 1973) - La Fosse Commune, Year: 1947, Medium: Etching on Arches, Image Size: 10 x 8.75 inches, Size: 11 x 17.75 in. (27.94 x 45.09 cm), Reference: Blo...

Signed Lower Right by Artist The Saturday Evening Post Cover, September 23, 1944 A proponent of simplicity as a virtue, Stevan Dohan...

ANTON REFREGIER (1905 – 1979) DISCOVERY OF GOLD, 1949. Color serigraph. Signed and numbered in pencil, edition of 90. Image 23 ¼ x 21 ¾" Large sheet, 29 3/4 x 25 ¼”. Printed title...

Rare 1940s Original Vintage Gelatin Silver Photograph by DOUGLAS JULEFF - also known as DOUG OF DETROIT - of model BOB GIBE. Photograph is an excellent example of Juleff's masterful ...

This is an original hand signed (I believe it is also hand colored but i am not positive) Artists Proof Lithograph of a Circus scene. This depicts a trapeze artist an acrobat on the high wire. This came from a portfolio inscribed by Vertes and also signed by the Surrealist Jean Cocteau. MARCEL VERTES FRENCH HUNGARIAN 1895(Ujpest, Hungary)-1961(Paris, France) art deco artist.Vertes was born in Hungary and died in Paris, but spent a lot of time in New York as well. He was noted as a painter, illustrator, designer and scenic mural painter. His whimsical images graced the pages of Vogue and Harper's Bazaar. Continuing in the footsteps of Boutet, Forain, Erte, Toulouse-Lautrec and others. Concentrating upon scenes of Paris street life...

Clyde Singer was a master of capturing the small and significant moments of everyday life. This painting, titled Girl Reading Card, 1948, is one of those perfect scenes that he docu...

Medium: original lithograph. Printed in Paris by Mourlot and published by Pierre à Feu and Maeght Editeur for the Marcel Duchamp / André Breton project "Surréalisme en 1947". Issued ...

1663 Over sized oil painting pf a parting couple during the Civil War

Work on canvas with a frame; total size 80x93 cm

José Miret Aleu (1912-1999) - Girl in profile - Oil on canvas Oil measurements 41x33 cm. Frame size 50x42 cm. Painter born in Barcelona in 1912. He studied drawing at the Baixas Aca...

A Quiet River - Oil on Canvas Oil painting depicting a river flowing through a grove of trees. Vibrant green trees surround the river, hues of deep greens make up the trees to the l...

Medium: Lithograph and stencil on vélin paper Year: 1945 Paper Size: 13 x 17 inches Inscription: Signed in the plate and unnumbered, as issued Notes: From the folio, Degas, Ten Balle...

Work on cardboard Dimensions with frame : 46 x 53.5 x 4.5 cm This work, an impressionist landscape, aptly captures the tranquility and timeless grandeur of nature. In the foreground,...

Ira Moskowitz, 'Navajo Trading Post', lithograph, 1946, edition 30, Czestochowski 161. Signed and dated in the stone, lower left. A fine, richly-inked impression, on cream wove paper, with full margins (1 1/2 to 3 1/8 inches). Pale mat line, otherwise in excellent condition. Matted to museum standards, unframed. Image size 11 11/16 x 15 1/2 inches (297 x 395 mm); sheet size 16 5/16 x 191/8 inches (414 x 486 mm). ABOUT THE ARTIST Ira Moskowitz was born in Galicia, Poland, in 1912, emigrating with his family to New York in 1927. He enrolled at the Art Student's League and studied there from 1928-31. In 1935, Moskowitz traveled to Paris and then lived until 1937 in what is now Israel. He returned to the United States in 1938 to marry artist Anna Barry in New York. The couple soon visited Taos and Santa Fe in New Mexico, returning for extended periods until 1944, when they moved there permanently, staying until 1949. During this especially productive New Mexico period, Moskowitz received a Guggenheim fellowship. His work was inspired by the New Mexico landscape and the state’s three cultures (American Southwest, Native American, and Mexican). He focused on Pueblo and Navajo life, producing an extensive oeuvre of authentic American Indian imagery. He and Anna also visited and sketched across the border in Old Mexico. While in the Southwest, Moskowitz flourished as a printmaker while continuing to produce oils and watercolors. Over 100 of Moskowitz’s works depicting Native American ceremonies were used to illustrate the book American Indian Ceremonial Dances by John Collier, Crown Publishers, New York, 1972. After leaving the Southwest, printmaking remained an essential medium for the artist while his focus changed to subject matter celebrating Judaic religious life and customs. These works were well received early on, and Moskowitz was content to stay with them the rest of his life. From 1963 until 1966, Moskowitz lived in Paris, returning to New York City in 1967, where he made his permanent home until he died in 2001. Shortly before his death, Zaplin-Lampert Gallery of Santa Fe staged an exhibition of the artist's works, December 2000 - January 2001. Other one-person shows included the 8th Street Playhouse, New York, 1934; Houston Museum, 1941; and the San Antonio Museum, 1941. The artist’s work was included in exhibitions at the Art Students League, Art Institute of Chicago, Philadelphia Print Club, College Art Association (promotes excellence in scholarship and teaching), and the International Exhibition of Graphic Arts (shown at MOMA, 1955). Moskowitz’s lithographs of American Indian...

Original watercolor and gouache city snowscape attributed to the hand of Hans Peter Nelson. Signed lower left ”H. Nelson”. Condition is excellent. Circa 1940. Under glass. The art...

Eve Nethercott, American (1925 - 2015) - Flowers (P6.46), Year: 1948, Medium: Watercolor on Paper, Size: 22 x 15 in. (55.88 x 38.1 cm), Description: Complemented by the deep ...

EMILIO GRAU SALA Spanish, 1911 - 1975 RUE DE PARIS signed "Grau Sala" (lower right) oil on canvas 24 x 19-3/4 inches (61 x 50 cm.) framed: 29-3/8 x 25-1/4 inches (74.5 x 64 cm.) PRO...

Latvia-born William Sanderson became a contributor to the New Yorker and New Masses magazines during the 1930s. He was drafted into the Army during World Wa...

Work on cardboard Brown wooden frame 55 x 47.5 x 4.5 cm his bold, vibrant work of art captures the essence of a bouquet of flowers in a crystalline vase of soft hues. Expressive brus...

Lithograph on vélin paper. Paper size: 12.25 x 9.25 inches. Inscription: Signed in the plate and unnumbered, as issued. Notes: From the album, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Dessinateur,...

Original 'U. S. SAVINGS BONDS will help you get there! NOW Back Your future. Linen-backed, excellent condition. Archival linen backed with original government-issued fold ma...

Early Watercolor of West Palm Beach by Southern Woman Artist Grace Martin (Frame) Taylor. The work is in excellent condition and nicely framed under glass. Painting measures 11"h x ...

Juan Reus (1912-2003) Original Vintage Bullfighting Poster September 1955 107cm x 53cm Juan Reus was born in 1912 in Valencia, where he became a well-known...

An original 1942 oil on board painting by American female artist Catherine Koenig depicting the interior of the Buffalo Art Institute which was home to the legendary Charles Burchfie...

ARCHES OF THE SEA Size: 59 x 51 cm (including frame) Oil on board A mid-century modern painting that features a dreamlike coastal landscape, defined by its geometric abstractions an...

Henri Matisse Grande Masque 1948 Aquatint on Marais paper, signed in pencil and numbered 11/25, there were also 5 artist’s proofs. Signed, dedicated "à Nadia Sednaoui" and inscribed ...

6000 Antique birch trees landscape,oil on artist board displayed in a wood frame.Signed lower left by Mori.Image size 9.5 H x 7.5 W

Outstanding male portrait by 20th-century American artist, Vito Tomasello. Portrait of a young man, c.1950. Pencil on paper, sheet measures 14 x 17 inches. Excellent condition. S...

Charming mid century still life of fruit, vase and black cat by Monterey artist Joseph Tanous (American, b. 1925), c. 1940-50. Signed lower left corner. Presented in rustic painted w...

A vibrant painting depicting an avenue lined with poplar trees in fall colors, prominently featuring a very large, centrally placed yellow poplar. Possibly an American poplar. The artist, Agda Holst, has employed a diverse palette of colors to the poplars, creating a dynamic and colorful composition. This oil on panel is signed and dated by Holst in 1948. The work exemplifies her use of color and form, characteristics that defined her artistic practice throughout her career. Agda Holst was a Swedish modernist painter known for her precise study of form, stylized compositions, and ability to merge structured geometry with expressive color. Her works, often still lifes, portraits, and figure studies, reflect a balance between naturalistic representation and modernist influences such as Cubism and New Objectivity. Holst's artistic journey began in 1907 at the Académie Colarossi in Paris, where she studied under Christian Krohg. Seeking further refinement, she moved to Munich between 1910 and 1911, studying with Julius Exter, known for his teachings in portrait and genre painting. In 1911–1912, she returned to Paris to study under Kees van Dongen, whose bold use of color and strong contrasts left a lasting impression on her work. The early 1920s marked another period of study in Paris, this time under André Lhote, who instilled in her a structured approach to composition and geometric clarity. Holst’s first public exhibition took place in 1916, when she displayed paintings in a bookstore...

Faces is a linocut realized by Mino Maccari in the 1940s. 50 x 30 cm. Handisigned in the lower right part. Edition of 12 copies. Reference; Cat. Meloni , pag 367, n.1741. Good c...

John Steuart Curry "Sketching Wisconsin," 1946 oil on canvas 31.13 x 28 inches, canvas 39.75 x 36.75 x 2.5 inches, frame Signed and dated lower right Overall excellent condition Presented in a 24-karat gold leaf hand-carved wood frame John Steuart Curry (1897-1946) was an American regionalist painter active during the Great Depression and into World War II. He was born in Kansas on his family’s farm but went on to study art in Chicago, Paris and New York as young man. In Paris, he was exposed to the work of masters such as Peter Paul Rubens, Eugène Delacroix and Jacques-Louis David. As he matured, his work showed the influence of these masters, especially in his compositional decisions. Like the two other Midwestern regionalist artists that are most often grouped with him, Grant Wood (American, 1891-1942) and Thomas Hart Benton (American, 1889-1975), Curry was interested in representational works containing distinctly American subject matter. This was contrary to the popular art at the time, which was moving closer and closer to abstraction and individual expression. Sketching Wisconsin is an oil painting completed in 1946, the last year of John Steuart Curry’s life, during which time he was the artist-in-residence at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. The painting is significant in Curry’s body of work both as a very revealing self-portrait, and as a landscape that clearly and sensitively depicts the scenery of southern Wisconsin near Madison. It is also a portrait of the artist’s second wife, Kathleen Gould Curry, and is unique in that it contains a ‘picture within a picture,’ a compositional element that many early painting masters used to draw the eye of the viewer. This particular artwork adds a new twist to this theme: Curry’s wife is creating essentially the same painting the viewer is looking at when viewing Sketching Wisconsin. The triangular composition of the figures in the foreground immediately brings focus to a younger Curry, whose head penetrates the horizon line and whose gaze looks out towards the viewer. The eye then moves down to Mrs. Curry, who, seated on a folding stool and with her hand raised to paint the canvas on the easel before her, anchors the triangular composition. The shape is repeated in the legs of the stool and the easel. Behind the two figures, stripes of furrowed fields fall away gently down the hillside to a farmstead and small lake below. Beyond the lake, patches of field and forest rise and fall into the distance, and eventually give way to blue hills. Here, Curry has subverted the traditional artist’s self-portrait by portraying himself as a farmer first and an artist second. He rejects what he sees as an elitist art world of the East Coast and Europe. In this self-portrait he depicts himself without any pretense or the instruments of his profession and with a red tractor standing in the field behind him as if he was taking a break from the field work. Here, Curry’s wife symbolizes John Steuart Curry’s identity as an artist. Compared with a self-portrait of the artist completed a decade earlier, this work shows a marked departure from how the artist previously presented and viewed himself. In the earlier portrait, Curry depicted himself in the studio with brushes in hand, and with some of his more recognizable and successful canvases behind him. But in Sketching Wisconsin, Curry has taken himself out of the studio and into the field, indicating a shift in the artist’s self-conception. Sketching Wisconsin’s rural subject also expresses Curry’s populist ideals, that art could be relevant to anyone. This followed the broad educational objectives of UW’s artist-in-residence program. Curry was appointed to his position at the University of Wisconsin in 1937 and was the first person to hold any such position in the country, the purpose of which was to serve as an educational resource to the people of the state. He embraced his role at the University with zeal and not only opened the doors of his campus studio in the School of Agriculture to the community, but also spent a great deal of time traveling around the state of Wisconsin to visit rural artists who could benefit from his expertise. It was during his ten years in the program that Curry was able to put into practice his belief that art should be meaningful to the rural populace. However, during this time he also struggled with public criticism, as the dominant forces of the art market were moving away from representation. Perhaps it was Curry’s desire for public acceptance during the latter part of his career that caused him to portray himself as an Everyman in Sketching Wisconsin. Beyond its importance as a portrait of the artist, Sketching Wisconsin is also a detailed and sensitive landscape that shows us Curry’s deep personal connection to his environment. The landscape here can be compared to Wisconsin Landscape of 1938-39 (the Metropolitan Museum of Art), which presents a similar tableau of rolling hills with a patchwork of fields. Like Wisconsin Landscape, this is an incredibly detailed and expressive depiction of a place close to the artist’s heart. This expressive landscape is certainly the result of many hours spent sketching people, animals, weather conditions and topography of Wisconsin as Curry traveled around the state. The backdrop of undulating hills and the sweeping horizon, and the emotions evoked by it, are emphatically recognizable as the ‘driftless’ area of south-central Wisconsin. But while the Metropolitan’s Wisconsin Landscape conveys a sense of uncertainty or foreboding with its dramatic spring cloudscape and alternating bands of light and dark, Sketching Wisconsin has a warm and reflective mood. The colors of the foliage indicate that it is late summer and Curry seems to look out at the viewer approvingly, as if satisfied with the fertile ground surrounding him. The landscape in Sketching Wisconsin is also revealing of what became one of Curry’s passions while artist-in-residence at UW’s School of Agriculture – soil conservation. When Curry was a child in Kansas, he saw his father almost lose his farm and its soil to the erosion of The Dust Bowl. Therefore, he was very enthusiastic about ideas from UW’s School of Agriculture on soil conservation methods being used on Wisconsin farms. In Sketching Wisconsin, we see evidence of crop rotation methods in the terraced stripes of fields leading down the hillside away from the Curry’s and in how they alternate between cultivated and fallow fields. Overall, Sketching Wisconsin has a warm, reflective, and comfortably pastoral atmosphere, and the perceived shift in Curry’s self-image that is evident in the portrait is a positive one. After his rise to favor in the art world in the 1930’s, and then rejection from it due to the strong beliefs presented in his art, Curry is satisfied and proud to be farmer in this self-portrait. Curry suffered from high blood...

Rare 1940s Original Vintage Gelatin Silver Photograph by DOUGLAS JULEFF - also known as DOUG OF DETROIT - of bodybuilder and Mr. America contender MIKE DUBEL. Dubel competed in the 1...

This superb British 1940's abstract expressionist oil painting is by noted founder member of the Borough Group artist, Miles Peter Richmond. Painted in 1947 it has another unfinished...

Art Sz: 11"H x 8 3/8"W 1944 Provenance stamp on verso: The Estate of Paul Desmond Brown *Book sold separately*

Antique American regionalist modern landscape oil painting. Oil on canvas, circa 1940. Signed. Displayed in a period modern frame. Image, 30"L x 25"H.

Artist: George Grosz, German (1893 - 1959) Title: Aroused Year: 1940 Medium: Oil on Paper, signed l.r. Paper Size: 24 x 18 in. (60.96 x 45.72 cm) Frame Size: 36 x 30 inches Prove...

Black and white pinup portrait of star actress Marilyn Monroe in a black sequin gown. -- One-of-a-kind original vintage press print from the Celebrity Vault archives. Own a piece of history and kick-start your collection with our one-of-a-kind pieces of your favorite celebrities. -- "The Marilyn Monroe community was shocked and stunned at the untimely passing of truly one of the greatest Monroe sculptors of all time, Kim Goodwin...

An original silver gelatin black and white photograph by Associated Press Photo. The USS Roosevelt aircraft carriers on the Hudson River, New York, during Navy Day...