1940s Art

An original circa 1940 acrylic painting by American modernist Hugh Edward Weller (1898–1982), “Chilis,” presenting a lively Southwestern subject through simplified forms, expressive ...

Chiura Obata Dahlias, 1940 Signed, dated and stamped lower right Watercolor on paper 15 x 9 5/8 inches Born in the Okayama prefecture of Japan, Chiura Obata was adopted by his uncle, an artist. As a child he was trained in ink painting, and at 14 he was apprenticed to the painter Murata Tanryo in Tokyo. He also studied with Kogyo Terasaki and Goho Hasimoto. In 1903, Obata moved to San Francisco and began working as an illustrator for The New World and The Japanese American, two of the city's Japanese newspapers. He also did work as a commercial designer. Obata helped establish the East West Art Society in San Francisco in 1921, which sought to promote cross-cultural understanding through art. This goal was reflected in his embrace of the Nihonga style, which fused traditional Japanese sumi-e ink painting with the conventions of western naturalism. He spent much of the 1920s painting landscapes throughout California, and among his favorite subjects were mountain landscapes. In 1927, he visited Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada, creating over a hundred paintings and sketches of the high country. Obata stayed in the USA until the death of his father in 1928. Between 1928 and 1932, he worked in Tokyo as a painter and transformed his California landscape watercolors...

Untitled (Surrealist Composiition) Lithograph with hand coloring, 1945 Signed and dated lower right (see photo) Numbered 10/12 lower left (see photo) fragment from 6X litho In 1945, ...

Signed oil on canvas riverscape circa 1940 by popular French impressionist painter Alexandre Louis Jacob. The piece depicts a springtime scene of an old mill on the bank of the Grand...

Mid Century Still Life Painting, Fruit and Wine Jug, Signed 1948 A classic still life in the style of Cezanne with fruit, wine jug, and antique tea towel situated on a galvanized me...

Dick Ruhl (American, 1926-1991) Original Gouache Painting of Goofy, one of three images created specifically for Disney Interview portfolio, Los Angeles 1943. (see reference in bio below). Image measuring 12 x 18 inches. Signed & dated 1943 lower right. Framed measurement: 19 x 25 inches. Dick Ruhl was the grandson of German immigrants who settled in Nebraska as farmers brought to the US by the federal government to raise food for a growing population after the Civil War. On his mother’s side, his family dates back to Nathan Hale. Her father was in the Union Army and given a small farm by the government near Guthrie, Oklahoma. Dick’s parents, John and Lucille, were married in Chandler in 1902, and his dad got a job with the Frisco Railroad. Since the main yard and a hub were in Sapulpa, they moved here, initially settling at Elm and Lee street, but later they bought five acres at 1300 Cleveland and built a simple home with a water well, outdoor toilet, and coal oil lamps. Dick is a Sapulpa native who left his hometown at 16 to become an animator during the “golden age” of Disney Studios. Photo courtesy of Sapulpa Historical Society. Dick finally came along in 1926 and was born in the Sapulpa City Hospital at Division and Cleveland Streets. According to Dick, his doctor, William Polk Longmire—a famous Sapulpan in his own right—named Dick after himself on his birth certificate, listing Dick’s name as “Polk Knox Ruhl.” It wasn’t until 1937 that it was discovered and changed to James Richard Ruhl. Dick was doing farm chores at 5 years old, mostly feeding the animals and milking the cow. Every evening, he delivered milk to his last customer, a cousin named “Nellie,” whom Dick says was a bootlegger. Dick recalls one evening as he put Nellie’s milk in her icebox, a handsome gentleman named Charlie took him up on his lap. “He was wearing a gun, which impressed me,” Dick said, adding that Charlie gave him a shiny half dollar as a gift. “Each evening I rushed to Nellie’s, hoping to meet Charlie again, until one evening, she told me he would never be back.” Nellie showed Dick the evening Sapulpa Herald announcing that Charles “Pretty Boy” Floyd had been killed. Dick started school at 5 years old and said his teacher “loved and whipped me through first grade.” It must have done some good because he was able to skip the 2nd grade. In 3rd grade, his teacher, Miss Giles, had her students draw a house. “I don’t know why, but I drew my house in perfect perspective,” Dick said. “She bragged about my talent and it was then I decided to become a great artist.” Dick turned a small chicken house at his parents’ farm into his first studio and gallery. “My clients were ducks, chickens, and an occasional pig,” he said. As the country fell into the Great Depression, Dick said “it didn’t mean anything to me. We raised our food and Dad eked out a small wage on the railroad. Mom made our clothes from feed sacks purchased at Lee Nevin’s Feed Store, and we had credit at Bodkin’s Grocery, House’s Grocery, and Katz Department Store.” It was in High School that Dick began to really pursue his creative talents again. “The WPA sponsored an art class at the library in the basement,” he said. “My algebra teacher let me attend the art class instead of algebra.” Dick said his art teacher was Henry Simpson—a retired Western artist from Ft. Worth— and another teacher named Mrs. Casteel, whom Dick said “gave me the greatest advice I have ever learned: ‘Don’t think you’re all that good! You’ll meet artists who are better than you, but don’t get discouraged, keep doing your thing.’” Disney comes calling Dick was working at the Criterion Theatre in Sapulpa when Disney released “Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs...

Signed oil on canvas urban landscape by sought after French post-impressionist painter Jacques Martin-Ferrieres. The piece depicts a very rare view of the Manhattan skyline - painted...

Ian Hugo, 'Early Marshes', from the portfolio 'Ten Engravings'. engraving, 1943, edition 50. Signed, dated, titled, and numbered '37/50' in pencil. A fine impression, with delicate overall plate tone, on cream wove paper, the full sheet with margins (2 5/8 to 7 inches), in excellent condition. With the blind stamp 'madeleine-claude jobrack EDITIONS', in the bottom right margin. Matted to museum standards, unframed. Image size 5 x 5 7/8 inches (127 x 149 mm); sheet size 15 x 11 inches (381 x 279 mm). Ian Hugo originally created "Ten Engravings" in 1945 and the portfolio included a foreword by his partner and collaborator, Anais Nin. In 1978, Hugo republished the portfolio with Madeleine-Claude Jobrack, an American master printmaker who studied under Stanley William Hayter at Atelier 17, Paris, and with Johnny Friedlaender. When Jobrack returned to the States she managed the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Studio in New York before opening her own printing studio, Madeleine-Claude Jobrak Editions. “The sign of the true artist is one who creates a complete universe, invents new plants, new animals, new figures to transfer to us a new vision of the universe in which dream and reality fuse. Ian Hugo's plants have eyes, the birds have the delicacy of dragonflies, their feathers have the shape of fans. Humor is apparent in every gesture. He uses a fine spider web to give a feeling of flight, speed, lightness. The body of a woman reveals the structure of a leaf, a plant. Wings are moving in a world unified by mythological themes. This is an animated world, humorous and levitating, elusive and decorative, which by its unique forms and shapes gives us the sensation of a rebirth, a liberation from the usual, the familiar, a visit to a new planet.” —Anais Nin, from the forward to the portfolio ‘Ten Engravings’ ABOUT THE ARTIST Ian Hugo was born Hugh Parker Guiler in Boston, Massachusetts, on February 15, 1898. His childhood was spent in Puerto Rico—a "tropical paradise," the memory of which stayed with him and surfaced in both his engravings and his films. He attended school in Scotland and graduated from Columbia University where he studied economics and literature. Hugo was working with the National City Bank when he met and married author Anais Nin in 1923. The couple moved to Paris the following year, where Nin's diary and Guiler's artistic aspirations flowered. Guiler feared his business associates would not understand his interests in art and music, let alone those of his wife, so he began a second, creative life as Ian Hugo. Ian and Anais moved to New York in 1939. The following year he took up engraving and etching, working at Stanley William Hayter’s experimental printmaking workshop Atelier 17, established at the New School for Social Research. Hugo began producing surreal images often used to illustrate Nin's books. For Nin, his unwavering love and financial support were indispensable—Hugo was the "fixed center, core... my home, my refuge" (Sept. 16, 1937, Nearer the Moon, The Unexpurgated Diary of Anais Nin, 1937-!939). Fictionalized portraits of Higo and Nin appear in Philip Kaufman's 1990 film drama of a literary love triangle, Henry & June. Inspired by comments that viewers saw motion in his engravings, Hugo took up filmmaking. He asked the avant-garde filmmaker Sasha Hammid for instruction but was told, "Use the camera yourself, make your own mistakes, make your own style." Hugo embarked on an exploration of the film medium as a vehicle to delve into his dreams, his unconscious, and his memories. Without a specific plan, He would collect resonant images, then reorder or superimpose them, seeking a sense of self-connection through the poetic juxtapositions he created. These intuitive explorations resembled the mystical evocations of his engravings, which he described in 1946 as "hieroglyphs of a language in which our unconscious is trying to convey important, urgent messages." In the underwater world of his film ‘Bells of Atlantis,’ the light originates from the world above the surface; it is otherworldly, out of place, yet essential. In ‘Jazz of Lights,’ the street lights of Times Square become in Nin's words, "an ephemeral flow of sensations." This flow that she also calls "phantasmagorical" had a crucial impact on Stan Brakhage, who said that without Jazz of Lights (1954), "there would have been no Anticipation of the Night" his autobiographical film which ushered in a new era of experimental modernist filmmaking. Hugo lived the last two decades of his life in a New York apartment high above street level. In the evenings, surrounded by an electrically illuminated man...

Signed lower right, 'Buk' for Eduard Buk Ulreich (American, 1889-1966), dedicated lower right, 'Made for Ruth M.' and painted circa 1945. Titled verso 'Birds in Flight', additionally...

A highly decorative framed color print after Vincent van Gogh, featuring his iconic still life with irises in a warm ochre vase against a vivid yellow ground. Published in Paris by E...

Compelling oil painting of Temptation of St. Anthony by Piero Tamo (Swiss, 1899-1966). Tamo was a poet and a painter who worked in the realist style and did studies of famous paintin...

Basketball Player Gouache on card stock, c. 1940 Signed by the artist in ink lower center A study for the fresco mural in the Social Security Buildin...

Symbolic and surreal landscape with figure eminating life force by Marguerite Louis Blasingame (American; 1906-1947), circa 1940-45. Marguerite and her husband Frank Blasingame...

Antique American modernist beach town oil painting. Oil on board. Framed. Measuring: 22 by 26 inches overall, and 20 by 24 painting alone. Excellent condition, ready to hang and e...

Original World War Two, U. S. Military poster: ME TRAVEL? … NOT THIS SUMMER, VACATION AT HOME. Artist Albert Dorne. This is the large format printing (26" x 37") of this poster...

Vintage Italian oil painting. Oil on board. Framed. Measuring: 14 by 16 inches overall, and 12 by 14 painting alone. Unsigned. Excellent condition, ready to hang and enjoy.

East River (Untitled), c. 1940s, oil on canvas signed lower right, 18 x 24 inches Isabella Markell was a painter, etcher, and sculptor, who is best known for her New York City scen...

6001 San Martino Hill ,Naples Italy, a 1940's oil on canvas applied on board,displayed in a gilt wood frame.Signed by Ferrara

Stunning oil on canvas depicting a pine forest, dating from the mid-20th century, of French origin. Signature illegible. The painting presents a landscape of tall pines in a clearin...

A stylish, vintage, 1940s fashion study featuring an elegant design for a woman's dress. Inscribed "Nettie Rosenstein at Marshall Field". Most likely a design study for a print adv...

Winter's Snowy Tatra Mountains with Pines and Stream by Laszlo Neogrady Beautiful post-war winter snowy scene with mountains and pine by Laszlo Neogrady (Hungarian, 1896-1962), circa...

Step into the serene charm of southern France with this captivating watercolor landscape artwork by François Pascal (France, 19th century–1948). Expertly painted on paper, this work ...

Robert Vale Faro, 'Cheerleader', wood engraving, 1945, edition 15. Signed, dated, titled, and numbered '104' (the artist's inventory number) and '8/15' in pencil. A fine, black impression, with full margins (1 1/2 inches), on heavy, cream wove paper, in excellent condition. Scarce. Matted to museum standards, unframed. ABOUT THE ARTIST Robert Vale Faro (1902-1988) was a well-known modernist architect and artist associated with the Chicago Bauhaus...

Rémy Duval, 'Street Corner, L'ile Saint Louis, Paris', photogravure, 1946. A fine, richly-inked impression in warm black ink, on cream wove B.F.K. Rives pap...

Signed oil on canvas board figures in cityscape circa 1940 by sought after French impressionist painter Edouard Cortes. The work depicts an autumnal scene of the the Arc de Triomphe,...

Original cover painting illustrating The Saturday Evening Post, May 8, 1948. "Bill, the Birdhouse Builder, lives and builds in Artist John Falter's home town, Atchison, Kansas, and ...

This Untitled Abstract Composition in Oil on Canvas signed Joe Stefanelli is a gem of Mid-Century American Abstraction. This painting brilliantly exemplifies the approach and movemen...

A stylish, vintage, 1940s woman's fashion study featuring an elegant graphic design for a portfolio cover featuring ladies resort clothes by Hattie Carnegie. Artwork size: 11 x 8...

Black and white photographs that reveal the various facets and aesthetic searches of the legendary Colombian photographer, recognized as the creator of memorable realistic, abstract ...

Sea Shells – Blue & Gold, c. 1940s, watercolor on paper, signed upper left, 15 x 19 ¼ inches (image); title and artist’s name and address inscribed verso, presented in a newer glazed...

Large Vintage American modernist interior scene dog portrait oil painting. Oil on canvas. Signed. Framed. Measuring: 49 by 40 inches overall, and 40 by 32 painting alone. Excellent...

A wonderful 1941 Urban Realist watercolor of Chicago's Old Town neighborhood that features an old car, titled "Wells & Eugenie" by Albert Rudin. Image size: 11 1/2" x 15 1/2". Fra...

This gorgeous porcelain sculpture from Hutschenreuther porcelain is of two galloping horses, sculpted in exquisite detail and signed by the sculptor, Max Hermann Fritz...

A striking, vintage early 1940s fashion study featuring an elegant young woman wearing a stylish hat, suit and clutch. Image size: 11 x 8 1/4 inches. Archivally matted to 16 x 1...

Medium: collotype (after the lithograph). Printed in 1947 and published by The Museum of Modern Art in an edition of 2000 for a scarce Paul Klee portfolio. Image size: 4 1/4 x 6 1/4 ...

6015 Impressionist gouache on board of a farmer plowing his field Set in a 19th century frame Image 10x11.5"

A large, vibrant 1940s American Modernist still life painting of a cast iron pot, squash and ladle by notable Chicago woman artist. Flora Schofield. Oil on canvas, dating circa 1947. Artwork size: 28 1/2 x 20 inches. Framed size: 34 x 26 inches. Signed "Schofield" lower left. A avid painter, print maker and sculptor, Flora Schofield (Schoenfield), was born in Lanark, Illinois in 1871. She studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and taught Saturday classes there until 1904. Schoenfield also studied with Charles Hawthorne, B.J.O Nordfeldt and William Zorach in Provincetown, Massachusetts. She studied with Albert Gleizes, Fernand Leger and Natalia Goncharova in Paris, France. In 1923, Schofield’s abstractions caused a split at the venerable Chicago Society of Artists. When her artwork was was accepted by the jury, the notable Impressionist painter Pauline Palmer and the notable Modernist painter Carl Hoeckner got into a row that ended-up splitting the group. The Impressionists then broke away into their own organization called the ”Association of Chicago Painters and Sculptors”. Paintings by Flora Schofield have been exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia; the Salon d’Automne and Salon de Independants, Paris; the Salons of America; the Society of Independent Artists, New York; the Wichita Museum of Art, Wichita; Gallery Carmine, Paris; the National Arts Club Galleries, New York; Marshall Fields Galleries...

Henri Matisse (After), French (1869-1954) Le Lanceur de couteaux (The Knife Thrower) Portfolio: Jazz Year: Of Original: 1947 Year Printed: 1983 Medium: Lithograph Size: 15.25 x 23.5...

Medium: collotype (after the lithograph). Printed in 1947 and published by The Museum of Modern Art in an edition of 2000 for a scarce Paul Klee portfolio. Image size: 5 1/4 x 4 inch...

Against The Tide - Oil On Linen Oil painting of the California coastline at sunset in the style of Edgar Alwin Payne (American, 1883-1947). Deep grey clouds pose in the top corners with hues of pink light shining through. Choppy waves crash against deep red and brown rocks, as the whites of the wave hurl upward. The ocean shows tones of green, blue and yellow as the sunlight shines from above. Condition: professionally restored, previous reline onto Masonite with edge and corner wear. New UV resisting, non yellowing varnish applied. Unsigned. Unframed. Oil on linen on masonite. Image: 16"H x 30"W Edgar Alwin Payne was an American painter known for his landscapes, seascapes and western paintings. He was born in Washburn, Missouri on March 1, 1882, and began painting at the age of 14. He began his career by designing and painting scenery for the stage, and murals for homes and theaters. Primarily a self taught artist, he did though study briefly at the Art Institute in Chicago. Recognized as one of California's leading landscape artists, Payne earned the respect of his peers and art critics for his Impressionistic landscapes painted in the plein-air style. Possessing a reverence for nature, he especially loved the mountains. Frequently he took pack horses in the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range to the upper lakes to sketch and paint, there he glorified the areas majestic peaks and cobalt blue lakes. Payne Lake was named in his memory. Drawn to Europe, Payne trekked to and painted the elevated heights of the Swiss Alps, the colorful fishing boats of Concarneau Harbor and Brittany, France and the picturesque sailing vessels of Chioggia, Venice, Italy. He spent time capturing on canvas Arizona's Canyon De Chelly and Navajo horsemen traversing the region's arid tablelands. He painted California...

Beautiful impressionistic landscape of Shongum Lake, New Jersey countryside in Spring with Stream and blossoms by Rudolph J. Eicher (1884 - 1958), Circa 1940s. Bright springtime fo...

Vivid mid-century floral still-life with anemones and statue by Marguerite Stuber Pearson (American, 1898-1978), circa 1940s. Signed lower right corner. Presented in rustic gilt-t...

UNION SQUARE Depression Era Oil Painting WPA Realism American Scene Realism NYC Jo Cain (1904 – 2003) "Union Square" 24 x 36 inches Oil on canvas, c.1940s S...

JOAQUIM TERRUELLA I MATILLA (Barcelona, Spain, 1891–1957). "Costa Brava Harbor with Fishing Boats by Joaquim Terruella, 1942." Oil on canvas. Signed and dated 1942 lower right. Artwo...

Mexican Modernist Oil Painting - Double Sided Abstract Figures and Buildings Dynamic abstract pieces by Ernesto Butterlin, aka Linares, (Mexican, German b. 1917 d. 1964.) The front ...

Perle Fine Untitled, circa 1945 Estate stamped and numbered "#632" on the reverse Gouache and pencil on Kraft paper 12 x 20 inches Provenance The artist Estate of the artist Thomas McCormick Gallery...

Gian Carozzi Still Life with Cuttlefish 1942 The textural elegance of Mid-century Italian Ligurian Realism This still life with cuttlefish by Gian Carozzi (1942), dating from his early years in La Spezia, depicts two cephalopods against a dark background rendered in earthy tones and fluid brushstrokes, evoking the Ligurian tradition of marine compositions. Oil on panel, in a realist style with an emphasis on texture and natural light, the work reflects his early interest in organic matter, prior to his move to Milan. In 1942, Gian Carozzi took part in the 17th edition of the Littoriali exhibition in Trieste and Vienna. Dilvo Lotti wrote in *Meridiano di Roma* that Carozzi’s work was one of the revelations of the exhibition. Also in 1942, he took part in the 1st National Art Exhibition celebrating agriculture, fruit, flowers and animals in Verona – Verona Prize. The work, signed and dated by the artist, was exhibited at the 1942 Littoriali, highlighting his involvement in the Fascist art...

Rémy Duval, 'Street Scene, L'ile Saint Louis, Paris', photogravure, 1946. A fine, richly-inked impression in warm black ink, on cream wove B.F.K. Rives pape...

Evening on the Pier, a stunning landscape by Marguerite Louis Blasingame and Frank Blasingame (American, 1906-1947), circa 1940-45. Marguerite and Frank were two of five artists in H...

Frederick Serger Genre: Post Impressionist Subject: Flowers, Poppies Medium: Oil Surface: Panel Hand signed lower left Frederick Serger (given name Frederick Bedrick Sinaberger) w...

Medium: lithograph with pochoir coloring (after the 1882 drawing in sanguine). Printed in 1948 on Johannot paper for the "Seize Aquarelles et Sanguines de Renoir" portfolio and publi...

HAROLD LUKENS DOOLTTLE (1883 - 1974) WESTERN GRANDEUR c. 1945 Aquatint, signed titled and dedicated. Image 9 ¾ x 13 5/8 inches. Large full sheet with deckle edges 15 ½ x 19 inches...

Signed lower right 'F.H. Cutting' for Francis Harvey Cutting (American, 1872-1964) and dated '1932-1948'. Born in Iowa in 1872, Francis Harvey Cutting ...

Medium: original woodcut. Printed in 1947 in an edition of 950 on Rives wove paper for "Pierre a feu / Les miroirs profonds" and published in Paris by Maeght. Image size: 8 1/4 x 6 1...

Philippe Marie Picard (1915-1997) French French Landscape oil on canvas signed Ph m Picard dated a tergo 16.4 -46 canvas size 12.99 x 22.04 inches (33 x 56 cm ) frame 23.03 x 31.49 inches (58.5 x 80 cm) Provenance: A Swedish private collection. The Artist: The year was 1915, and Philippe Marie was born in the small village of Neuvy-le-Roi in France. His parents were Albert Picard and Marie Lehoux; he had a total of six siblings. After studying at the Lycée Descartes in Tours, he entered the studio of the artist François Sicard...

Medium: lithograph (after the drawing). This impression in violet ink was printed in France in 1944 for the rare "Correspondances" portfolio, published by Teriade in a limited editio...

German Impressionist Painting of Rio de Janeiro's Guanabara Bay and Sugarloaf Mountain in style of Max Slevogt This vivid landscape painting offers a panoramic view of Rio de Janeir...

Wonderful watercolor landscape of Finland countryside in Winter during WWII by O. Mokolio (indistinct) (American, 19/20th Century), 1949. Signed and dated lower right corner. Conditi...

Francis Gilbert Trott (British, 20th Century) Newlyn Harbour, Cornwall Oil on canvas, signed lower right Circa 1940–1950 A charming and beautifully atmospheric harbour scene by the ...

Color cliché print after Pablo Picasso, titled “Composition”, edited by Editions du Chêne, Paris, France, 1943. This rare color cliché print presents a striking composition that ref...