1940s Art

ARP, Jean, poems by Georges HUGNET. Paris; Robert-J. Godet 193. Collection "Pour mes amis" With 35 illustrations integrated with the text (2 full-page), by J. Arp. Small 8vo, [...

Medium: Collotype and lithograph on vélin gloss finish paper (to resemble the finish of ceramic), archivally hinged on vélin paper Year: 1948 Paper Size: 11.25 x 15 inches Catalogue ...

This artwork is shipped from Italy. Under existing legislation, any artwork in Italy created over 70 years ago by an artist who has died requires a licence for export regardless of t...

Original oil painting on artist canvas board by the California artist, Fern F. Cunningham. Signed lower right. Titled in pencil on stretcher verso. Condition is very good. Recently professionally cleaned. Circa 1940. The painting is housed in its original period frame. Overall framed measurements are 14.5 by 17.5 inches. Provenance: A Sarasota Florida collector. Fern Cunningham Stone (1889-1975) She was born in Defiance, Ohio on August 4, 1889. A painter, she specialized in impressionist still life works, landscapes, and seascapes of California. Born Fern F. Smith, she married Napoleon Arthur...

Ex Libris Pokomskiego is an original Contemporary Artwork realized in the half of the 20th Century. Original B/W woodcut print on ivory-colored paper. Sigled in pencil on the low...

Signed lower right, in graphite, 'Frances Pratt' (American, 1913-2003) and dated 1947. Born in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, Frances Pratt moved to New York City where she studied at the New York School of Applied Design for Woman (1930-33), and, subsequently, at the Arts Students League (1933-35). She then met her first husband, Christopher Ritter, with whom she opened Laurel Gallery in Greenwich Village and printed the Laurel Folios. Frances Pratt taught drawing and painting at the Ballard School from 1942 into the early 1950's. She also taught mixed media and watercolor techniques at the Parsons...

Soviet poster from 1947, which depicts the greatness of the Soviet Navy fleet. The Soviet Navy (Russian: Военно-морской флот СССР, Voyenno-morskoy flot SSSR, literally "Naval Military Forces of the USSR") represents the war navy...

To see our other original vintage travel posters, many of which are from Switzerland, scroll down to "More from this Seller" and below it click on "See all from this Seller" - or send us a message if you cannot find the poster you want. Donald Brun...

Windmill. Middle of 1940s, oil on cardboard, 54x65 cm Harijs Veldre (Bullis till 1947) (1927.8.III – 1999.6.V) Harijs Veldre learned in Riga school of applied arts (1942 – 43), in s...

"Men in Barracks" WPA Mid 20th Century American Scene Realism Gay Modernism WWII. 18 x 24 inches Watercolor on paper. c. 1940s. Signed lower right. BIO ...

Lionel S. Reiss (1894 - 1988) New York City Skyline View from the East River Watercolor on paper 13 x 19 inches Signed lower left In describing his own style, Lionel Reiss wrote, “By nature, inclination, and training, I have long since recognized the fact that...I belong to the category of those who can only gladly affirm the reality of the world I live in.” Reiss’s subject matter was wide-ranging, including gritty New York scenes, landscapes of bucolic Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and seascapes around Gloucester, Massachusetts. However, it was as a painter of Jewish life—both in Israel and in Europe before World War II—that Reiss excelled. I.B. Singer, the Nobel Prize winner for Literature, noted that Reiss was “essentially an artist of the nineteenth century, and because of this he had the power and the courage to tell visually the story of a people.” Although Reiss was born in Jaroslaw, Poland, his family immigrated to the United States in 1898 when he was four years old. Reiss's family settled on New York City’s Lower East Side and he lived in the city for most of his life. Reiss attended the Art Students League and then worked as a commercial artist for newspapers and publishers. As art director for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, he supposedly created the studio’s famous lion logo. After World War I, Reiss became fascinated with Jewish life in the ‘Old World.’ In 1921 he left his advertising work and spent the next ten years traveling in Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. Like noted Jewish photographers Alter Kacyzne and Roman Vishniac, Reiss depicted Jewish life in Poland prior to World War II. He later wrote, “My trip encompassed three main objectives: to make ethnic studies of Jewish types wherever I traveled; to paint and draw Jewish life, as I saw it and felt it, in all aspects; and to round out my work in Israel.” In Europe, Reiss recorded quotidian scenes in a variety of media and different settings such as Paris, Amsterdam, the Venice ghetto, the Jewish cemetery in Prague, and an array of shops, synagogues, streets, and marketplaces in the Jewish quarters of Warsaw, Lodz, Krakow, Lublin, Vilna, Ternopil, and Kovno. He paid great attention to details of dress, hair, and facial features, and his work became noted for its descriptive quality. A selection of Reiss’s portraits appeared in 1938 in his book My Models Were Jews. In this book, published on the eve of the Holocaust, Reiss argued that there was “no such thing as a ‘Jewish race’.” Instead, he claimed that the Jewish people were a cultural group with a great deal of diversity within and between Jewish communities around the world. Franz Boas...

"White Calf" is an original lithograph print by Thomas Hart benton. It features the image of a man milking a cow while her calf lays down in front. Benton's breathtaking way of rende...

A very beautiful poster which intervenes in a particular political context. Indeed, on December 10, 1944, representatives of the Provisional Government of the French Republic...

FRANCISCO BORES Spanish, 1898 - 1972 LA TABLE GRISE signed and dated "Borès 48" (lower right) oil on canvas, laid on wood panel 25-5/8 x 32 inches (65 x 81 cm.) framed: 32-1/3 x 40 i...

Hand colored original artist proof etching by the well known Russian/American artist Nahum Tschacbasov. Marked “AP” lower left for artist proof in pencil. Signed by the artist lower...

The Golden Gate Lithograph on wove paper watermarked GC, 1940 Signed in pencil by the artist (see photo) Publisher: Associated American Artists Edition: 189, unnumbered The image depicts The Golden Gate Bridge which connects San Francisco and Marin County, California References And Exhibitions: Illustrated: Adams, The Sensuous Life of Adolf Dehn, Fig. 13.17, page 324 Reference: L & O 325 AAA Index 391 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...

Reginald Marsh "Brooklyn Bridge" NYC Modernism WPA Mid-Century Watercolor Modern Reginald Marsh (American, 1898-1954) Brooklyn Bridge, 1940, Signed and dated Reginald Marsh May 1940 (lr), Watercolor over traces of pencil on paper , 15 x 22 inches sight. Reginald Marsh was born in Paris, France in 1898, the child of artist parents. He was born over a small cafe on Paris' Left Bank. He was brought to the United States in 1900 and was drawing before he was three. He studied art at Yale University and the Art Students League, during which time he worked primarily as an illustrator for New York newspapers and magazines. After studying in Paris in 1925 and 1926, he turned seriously to painting. In 1929 he was introduced to the egg-tempera medium, which he used extensively the rest of his life. Marsh's gusto for painting the bottom crust of society contrasted curiously with his background. His parents, both well-known artists, were steeped in academic traditions. He attended Lawrenceville Academy and Yale; perhaps this elite background made it possible to paint the earthy people he did with a journalist's objectivity. An admirer of Rubens and Delacroix, he disliked modernist art; indeed, his lifelong preoccupation was with people - enjoying themselves at beaches, at amusement parks, or on crowded city streets. Marsh was a second-generation Ash Can School painter and printmaker, best known as an urban regionalist. He spent his days sketching in small notebooks...

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

Mid century portrait of two children, a young boy and girl in traditional dress, set in a rustic interior by M. Ray Stancliff (American, b. 1925). Si...

A mid-century, stone lithograph titled 'Greta and Grace' by Nura Woodson Ulreich (American, 1899-1950), created in 1943 and with certification of ...

Moon by day is a modern artwork realized by Filippo De Pisis. Black and white lithograph and a text by the same Filippo De Pisis. Good conditions except for some folds, foxings and...

This vintage silver gelatin print is signed in pencil on the mount beneath the image. Printed in 1950 in an edition of 100 numbered copies and 5 presentation copies; this print is fr...

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...

Original Vintage Gelatin Silver Photograph by CARL VAN VECHEN of ballerina ALICIA MARKOVA autographed and inscribed to fellow Ballet Russes de Monte Carlo star dancer GEORGE (YURI) Z...

Summer during the hay harvest Middle of the 1940s, oil on cardboard, 40,5x53 cm Harijs Veldre (Bullis till 1947) (1927.8.III – 1999.6.V) Harijs Veldre learned in Riga school of app...

Beuys' Exhibition is an original b/w photograph representing the indoor of the Marino Gallery (in Mignanelli Square, Rome) where Joseph Beuys' exhibition was held in the Eighty's. Th...

Le Croates en Allemagne is an original drawing in ink and watercolor realized by Herbert Knotel in 1930/40s. Good condition except for being aged. The artwork is depicted through strong lines in well-balanced conditions. Herbert Knotel was a german artist, son and pupil of the famous uniformologist and military historian Richard Knotel. He served as officer under Marshal Hindenburg in the Prussian Army...

Vintage American modern abstract oil painting. Oil on canvas, circa 1960. Unsigned. Image size, 48L x 36H. Unframed.

Norman Rockwell is an American artist and illustrator who is best known for his Saturday Evening Post cover illustrations. This original vintage poster was created from an oil painti...

Marcel Gromaire (1892-1971) - The Painter. 1943, paper, lithograph, 56x46 cm

Still life with ceramic vase Middle of the 1940s, oil on cardboard, 60x51 cm Harijs Veldre (Bullis till 1947) (1927.8.III – 1999.6.V) Harijs Veldre learned in Riga school of applie...

This sensitively rendered though powerful ink on paper was created in 1946 shortly after Loew returned from active duty where he served at the US Naval airbase on Tinian Island, the ...

L.A.S. (Lettre Autographe Signée) Autograph Letter Signed by A. Masson to N. Jacometti. Paris, 22nd November 1949. One page. 27 x 20.9 cm. In 8°. In French. Perfect condition, with u...

Ira Moskowitz, Polish/American (1912 - 2001) - Interior Navajo Trading Post, Year: 1946, Medium: Lithograph, Signed in Pencil, Size: 12 in. x 15 in. (30.48 cm x 38.1 cm), Frame Size: 18 x 21 inches, Description: This greyscale depiction of the interior space of a Navajo trading post features an Old Western...

Pal Monostori-Moller: 1894-1978. Well listed Hungarian artist with auction results over $27,000. This gem might be from his paintings of an amusement park in England. It is oil on ca...

Le Croates en Allemagne is an original drawing in ink and watercolor realized by Herbert Knotel in 1930/40s. Good condition except for being aged. The artwork is depicted through s...

MODERNIST ABSTRACT Mid-Century New Hope Non-Objective oil American Modern WPA Louis Stone (1902-1984) "Abstract," 16 X 12 inches. Oil on canvas, signed lower right. An abstract pai...

To see our other original vintage public information posters, scroll down to "More from this Seller" and below it click on "See all from this Seller" - or send us a message if you ca...

An ink drawing Judaic painting by modern artist Ben-Zion Weinman. It depicts a portrait of an old Jewish man. Coming over from Europe on a ship crossing. The work is signed "Ben-Zion". Born in 1897, Ben-Zion Weinman celebrated his European Jewish heritage in his visual works as a sculptor, painter, and printmaker. Influenced by Spinoza, Knut Hamsun, and Wladyslaw Reymont, as well as Hebrew literature, Ben-Zion wrote poetry and essays that, like his visual work, attempt to reveal the deep “connection between man and the divine, and between man and earth.” An emigrant from the Ukraine, he came to the US in 1920. He wrote fairy tales and poems in Hebrew under the name Benzion Weinman, but when he began painting he dropped his last name and hyphenated his first, saying an artist needed only one name. In 1920 he settled in America, where he found little interest in his writing. He began teaching Hebrew to support himself and then in the early 1930s returned to painting. He used his art to comment on the rise of fascism in Europe, events he felt could not be adequately explored with words. Largely self-taught, Ben-Zion visited the museums of New York City to learn his new trade. His first painting on a large scale, Friday Evening (1933, Jewish Museum, New York), depicts a Sabbath dinner table as recalled from his family home. Ben-Zion supported himself by working odd jobs until the establishment of the Works Progress Administration's Federal Art Project. Under the auspices of the wpa, Ben-Zion thrived and galleries began to show his work. In 1936, after his first one-man show at the Artists' Gallery in New York Ben-Zion was a founding member of “The Ten: An Independent Group” The Ten” a 1930’s...

Les Croates is an original drawing in ink and watercolor realized by Herbert Knotel in 1930/40s. Good condition except for being aged. The artwork is depicted through strong lines ...

Oil on academy board by the Russian/American artist Nahum Tschacbasov. Signed and dated lower left, 1945. Condition: Excellent. Presently not framed. Biography : Russian-America...

Oscar Dominguez, Spanish (1906 - 1957) - Rollercoaster, Year: circa 1945, Medium: Etching on Japon, signed in pencil, Image Size: 7 x 5 inches, Size: 16 x 10.75 in. (40.64 x 27.31 ...

Very finely painted abstract landscape by Nancy Weyl. Oil on canvas. Framed.

Bette Davis iconic portrait by famed Hollywood art photographer George Hurrell from 1940. It is stamped on the verso with authentic Hurrell identification. This is a original mint ...

Mid-century portrait of a young girl by a window by acclaimed California artist Ben Messick (American, 1891-1981). Signed "Ben Messick" in plate, and in pencil in the lower right corner, by the estate. Presented in an off-white mat. Unframed. Paper size: 12"H x 12"W The following is submitted by Jim Lafferty whose sources include the autobiography of the artist: William Washington Messick married Sarah A. Bristow January 2,1889 and from this marriage a son, Benjamin Newton Messick was born on January 9, 1891 on a farm near Strafford, Missouri. His art talent was apparent from the time he was a child and later recognized by his commanding officer in World War I. He completed his training in Los Angeles at Chouinard in the late-1920s and is well-known for his Regionalist scenes and Modernist paintings. He was an instructor at Chouinard through the 1950s & influenced a generation of LA Modernists. Little is recorded in his autobiography about Messick's life from his teen years and service during the War. He enrolled at Chouinard Institute in the Fall of 1925, and was given a three-year scholarship by Mrs. Chouinard. In 1925 he won a cash award at the Los Angeles County Fair for a group of pen and charcoal drawings done in the parks and streets of Los Angeles. These works give the appearance of being spontaneous and fluid. In 1930 Messick left Chouinard as a full-time student and rented an apartment on West Eighth Street to use as a studio and living quarters. He had his own ideas on what he was trying to accomplish in art. "If you should ask what is the message of my drawings, I should say that they may explain themselves or may be just a technical exercise." By the mid 1940s, Messick's position in the art world had been well established as a teacher, painter, printmaker, writer and critic. Over his life time he had over 400 shows and exhibitions. Starting in 1939 he produced a number of stone lithographs that appear to the untrained eye as original drawings. To Messick the image was the most important aspect of his lithographs, and his signature in the plate was sufficient. Hand signing each lithograph did not seem necessary to him. He exhibited prints widely including the Albany Print Club and the Metropolitian Museum. To further substantiate the authenticity of Messick's prints the Eclectic Gallery under the authority of the Messick family posthumously pencil signed each estate-acquired stone lithograph. Messick had a childhood fascination with the circus and started drawing and painting the circus in 1935. His circus work, especially his clown studies, and his lithographs became his trademark work for in the 1940s and 1950s. A critic for ART REVIEW described his Big Top work this way: "His circus canvases...

The Carousel is an original Modern Artwork realized in 1949 by the Italian artist Renzo Vespignani (Rome, 1924 - Rome, 2001). Original black ink and pen on ivory paper. Hand-sign...

"Barbisio (Dog & Hat)" is an offset color lithograph poster by Giovanni Mingozzi, this example coming from the original printing of the poster. It features a white dog surrounded by ...

Image dimensions: 28 x 18 cm. The Fire is an original artwork realized by Gu Yuan in 1947. Original xylograph on watermarked paper. Signed and dated in pencil on the lower right. ...

The original 1949 travel poster by Henry De Waroquier for Bourgogne, sponsored by SNCF (French National Railway Company), invites viewers to embark on a captivating journey through the picturesque landscapes of Burgundy, France. Waroquier's artistic masterpiece captures the essence of Burgundy's timeless charm and rich cultural heritage. Through vibrant colors and exquisite detail, the poster portrays the region's rolling vineyards, historic chateaux, and quaint villages nestled amidst lush countryside. As a promotional piece for SNCF, the poster highlights the convenience and comfort of travel by rail...

To see our other original vintage warbird aeroplane posters, photographs and paintings, scroll down to "More from this Seller" and below it click on "See all from this Seller". Russian Aircraft...

Matisse’s Jazz is one of his most renowned and beloved seris. Pochoir in colors on Arches paper with the center fold (as issued) from the Edition of 250, published by Tériade, Pari...

Adolph Studly, Swiss born American photographer. His work is kept in the Photographic Archive at The Museum of Modern Art Archives, New York. He was known for his gallery photograp...

"Twilight of History" is an original oil on board painting by Frederick Shane (1906-1992), created in 1947. This captivating piece depicts a powerful scene reflecting the "twilight" ...

Oscar Dominguez, Spanish (1906 - 1957) - Sombre est Noir, Year: 1945, Medium: Etching, Image Size: 9.25 x 6.75 inches, Size: 12.75 x 9.25 in. (32.39 x 23.5 cm), Description: From t...

Into the Woods is an original modern artwork realized by the French artist Gabrielle Kayser in 1948. Original watercolored and china ink on paper. Hand-signed and dated by the ar...

Gorgeous still life of red Poinsettia flowers by California artist Claudia Dobbins (American, 1889-1969). Signed "C. Dobbins" lower left. Signed "Claudia Dobbins" on stretcher bars a...

Swimwear 1946 Fashion shoot featuring a model in swimwear, 1946. by Toni Frissell 48 x 72" inches / 121 x 182 cm paper size Archival pigment print unframed (framing available ...

A important American Impressionist painting by Isabella Howland (1895-1974), "Ocho Rios", Jamaica, 1940. Howland was active in both Boston & New York, this impressionistic painting d...