1940s Art

Man Ray, American (1890 - 1976) - Untitled from Le Surrealisme en 1947, Year: 1947, Medium: Lithograph, signed in the plate, Edition: 950, Size: 9 x 7.75 in. (22.86 x 19.69 cm), Pri...

Hermosa Beach Coastline - Watercolor On Paper Watercolor painting depicting the Hermosa Beach coastline by California artist F.J. Whitlock (American, B- 1923 ). Vibrant hues of blue...

Bold print of "Death Takes the Children" by Kathe Kollwitz (German, 1867-1945). This piece is one of the Lithographic reproductions of the original lithographs, plate 9 from a series...

Oil painting on Masonite realized by the Artist in 1948. Includes a coeval wooden frame. Artist paints the Hotel where he used to live in Paris during those years. Note, title, date ...

A beautiful 1940s painting of a seated female nude in a summer landscape by renowned Chicago artist, Francis Chapin (Am. 1899-1965). Painted at the Oxbow School in Saugatuck, Michig...

5118 Antique Scandinavian oil painting of a beautiful young pigtsiled beauty Framed Image size 11.5x19" Signed C.Keskulla 1941

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...

Artist: Pablo Picasso, Spanish (1881 - 1973) Title: Colombe sur lit de paille, (Dove on a Straw Bed) [Ramie 79 variant] Year: 1949 Medium: White earthenware clay, white enamel brushe...

Yves BRAYER Rape of the Sabine Women Original etching Printed signature in the plate On Arches vellum 30 x 25 cm (c. 12 x 10 inch) Printed in Haase...

The 1945 original poster by Bouchenaf for Vol à Voile Sport Sans Rival created for the Fédération Nationale des Sports Aériens is a testament to the post-war fascination with aviatio...

Impressive early American modernist cityscape oil painting. Framed. Oil on canvas. Image size, 30H by 26L.

Medium: collotype (after the Miro lithograph). Printed in 1947 in an edition of 1500 by Meriden Gravure and published by Curt Valentin for "The Prints of Joan Miro" portfolio. Size: ...

Lithograph on vélin a la forme des papeteries d'Arches paper. Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Good condition. Notes: From the volume, Repli, Gravures de Henri Matisse, 1947. Publ...

A delightful 1940 painting of two women lounging in the Vermont wilderness by artist Harold Haydon. Haydon had a summer compound in Calais, Vermont, where he often painted. Images ...

Matiz managed to create intimate portraits, in which Frida seemed happy to surrender to her lens. The result was dynamic portraits of Khalo, a wonderful example of both the photograp...

In 1940, Charles de Gaulle's iconic "Appel du 18 Juin 1940" poster emerged as a symbol of unwavering resolve and hope during one of the darkest chapters in French history. This post...

Composition is an original drawing in china ink and watercolor on cardboard realized by Bertrand Mogniat-Duclos in 1940. This Artwork is depicted through strong and confident stroke...

Hendrik (Henry) J Glintenkamp (1887 - 1946) Mexican Mountains, 1940 Oil on canvas 32 x 26 inches Signed lower left; signed and dated on the reverse T...

Landscape, 1940, oil on canvas, 24 x 20 inches, signed, dated and titled verso: “Marcel Cailliet ’40 – S.C.” and “Marcel Cailliet Landscape”; likely exhibited at the annual juried st...

This listing is for the one Silkscreen serigraph piece listed here. Mexico City, 1945. First edition. plate signed, limited edition of 1000, these serigraph plates depict various types of traditional and folk art indigenous clothing...

Black and white photograph of a nude Marilyn Monroe taken by Tom Kelly in 1949. The work was distributed as calender art and one was featured in an issue of Playboy magazine in 1953. The photograph is not framed. Artist Biography: Kelley was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He learned photography as an apprentice in a New York photo studio, and then worked for the Associated Press and Town & Country magazine. After coming to California in 1935, Kelley established a photography studio in Hollywood and produced promotional photographs of motion picture stars. David O. Selznick and Samuel Goldwyn retained Kelley to take promotional photos of their stars and starlets for magazine covers and advertising. Later, Kelley's business shifted to commercial and advertising photography. Some of Kelley's most famous photo subjects have included Gary Cooper, Greta Garbo, James Cagney, Clark Gable, Winston Churchill, Bob Hope, Marlene Dietrich, Joan Crawford, Jack Benny, David Bowie, John F. Kennedy, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Yma Sumac and, of course, Marilyn Monroe, with and without clothes. Tom Kelley had a way of making his subjects feel comfortable behind the camera. He would bring his wife with him to his shoots to create a more soothing and relaxed atmosphere. Kelley served on the panel of judges at the Miss Universe...

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 ...

Robert Blackburn, Untitled (Reclining Nude), brush and ink, c. 1948, unsigned. A fine, spontaneous work, on cream wove paper. Slight toning to the sheet edges; otherwise in excellent condition. Matted to museum standards, unframed. Image size 18 3/4 x 23 1/2 inches (476 x 597 mm). Provenance: Adrienne E. Wheeler Collection, acquired from the artist. ABOUT THE ARTIST Robert Blackburn (1920 - 2003) participated in the rich mix of art programs and creative groups available in Harlem as he grew up, including Charles Alston's Harlem Arts Workshop, the Harlem YMCA, and later the Harlem Artist's Guild. In 1937 he joined the WPA at the Harlem Community Art Center, the largest New York center for instruction in the arts. There he was exposed to Harlem's most prominent artists, Aaron Douglas, William Henry Johnson...

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...

Industrial Railroad WPA Mid 20th Century American Scene Rural Modern Realism Large oil on canvas genre painting depicting laborers working on a railroad, with rural landscape in the...

Medium: Engraving on vélin du Marais paper Year: 1948 Paper Size: 9.125 x 12.25 inches; image size: 4.5 x 9 inches Inscription: Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued Notes: From the vol...

Title: Virgin Mary and Child Jesus Artist: Francisco Ribera Gómez (1907-1990) Technique: Oil on canvas Dimensions: 31.9 x 25.6 inches (unframed) Date of creation: 1942 Style: Classical Academicism with Renaissance influences Description of the Artwork The painting depicts the Virgin Mary holding the Child Jesus in a tender and intimate moment. Warm colors, primarily reds, greens, and soft flesh tones, enhance the devotional nature of the scene. The use of golden halos, symbolizing sanctity, along with serene and realistic expressions, directly connects with the Renaissance pictorial tradition. The style belongs to classical academicism, characterized by a balanced composition, meticulous drawing, and a masterful use of chiaroscuro to give volume and depth to the figures. The detailed rendering of the flesh tones and draperies amplifies the spirituality and solemnity of the piece, evoking the works of great masters such as Raphael and Murillo. Artist's Biography Francisco Ribera Gómez (1907-1990) was a prominent 20th-century Spanish painter known for his depictions of religious scenes, female portraits, and costumbrist works. Trained at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, Ribera Gómez received numerous accolades and was regarded as one of the great exponents of Spanish academicism. His work combines a rigorous technical foundation with luminous sensitivity and an idealized sense of beauty. Influences and Comparisons Francisco Ribera Gómez's work can be compared to other academic and religious artists who share a similar aesthetic: Bartolomé Esteban Murillo: In the emotional and approachable treatment of religious themes. William-Adolphe Bouguereau: For the idealization of human figures and technical mastery. Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio): For harmonious composition and the depiction of the Virgin Mary. Within the Spanish tradition, his style recalls Eduardo Rosales...

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 ...

Seated Nude Woman American Figurative School 1940s Mid-century American impressionist painting of a woman by American artist Frederick "Fred" Yost (American/Swiss, 1888-1968). He studied: at Mt. Union Col., Alliance, OH; American Students League, New York, and with Homer Boss, John Sloan, Robert Henri, R. Lahey. The painting gleans much form his studies with John Sloan and Robert Henri in the French post-impressionist style. Image 24"H x 18"W Frame, 30"H x 24"W x 1.5"D Signed "Yost" lower right Painter, lithographer, teacher, lecturer About Fred's life: by Hal Fry of the Herald “Fred Does Whatever He Likes” was a title given to a biography written about Fred Yost by Hal Fry of the Herald. The following is taken directly from this column: “Fred Yost’s living style is like his painting style. He has fun with it. Fred John Yost was born in Switzerland, he’ sure, on November 6, 1889, he thinks. His father John brought the family to his country when Fred was about a year old—first to New York and later to Canton, Sebring and finally Alliance, where Yost Sr. loaded freight for a railroad. Fred like drawing and painting so far back he can’t remember how or when it started—it was always that way. But through the public schools in Alliance he didn’t think of this as a career possibility. He wanted to be a newspaperman. He worked his way through Mt. Union College, finishing, he thinks, about 1912. Then he beat it for New York and after kicking around for a time got a job as a proofreader for the Wall Street Journal. He combined this and art school until World War I took him into the Army. In infantry, field artillery and ordnance duties he served with the 27th New York Division through St. Mihiel and the Argonne and the rest—in the process getting his hearing clobbered by blasts from his outfit’s own guns. Coming out a Sergeant in 1919, he went back to the Wall Street Journal briefly—then caught on as a staff artist for the (New York) Herald. For several years, when he felt like it, Yost would take a bus to the Mexican border and switch to a Mexican bus to carry him way down south, then make it any way he could to the places he wanted to see. On these trips he virtually becomes a peon, disappearing totally from those who know him—living with, like and clearly thoroughly liked by the people among whom he moves.” Yost was a graduate of the Art Students League and past president of the Ohio Watercolor Society. Fred Yost, a man who eminently loved the Mexican landscape, Exhibited: S. Indp. A., 1928, 1930-33; MMA, 1945; AIC; Butler AI, 1947-1951; Ohio WC Soc.; PAFA, 1948-1950; Akron AI, 1947-1951, 1958; Fla. Southern Col., 1952; Ohio Univ., 1950; Columbus Gal. FA, 1947-50; AWCS, 1958; Salons of Am.; 3 solo: Canton AI; Akron AI, Springfield Mus. A. Contributor to Ford Times, 1958-59. Awards: prizes, Massilon Museum, 1944; Ohio Watercolor Society, 1944, 1948; Indianapolis, Ind., 1944; Tri-State Pr. M., 1945, 1946; Butler AI, 1946; Youngstown Pub. Schools, 1946 (prize); Ohio Univ., 1950; Ethel Printz award, 1950; Fla. Southern Col., 1952; Akron AI, 1952, 1956-1958; Canton AI, 1961, 1963; medal, Phila. Pa., 1950 Member: Ohio Watercolor Society (president) Work: Massillon Mus.; Youngstown Pub. Sch. Coll.; Butler AI; Akron AI; Kennedy & Co., NY; Beaver Col., Beaver Falls, Pa.; Block Gal., Indianapolis; Prospect Park, NY; murals, Sioux City Steak House; Sioux City A. Center; City Hall, Sioux City; Akron AI; Evangelical Church, Akron; Rockefeller Center; Radio City, NY; Brooklyn Zoological Park. Affiliated with NYC Park Dept. Mural Projects. Comments: Came to U. S. in 1889. Position: teacher, Butler AI; Akron AI; instr., Akron AI, Akron, Ohio; cur. Historical House of Refuge...

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...

Lithograph on vélin de Lana a la forme paper. Inscription: signed in pencil and unnumbered, as issued. Good condition. Notes: From the folio, Jules Romains, de l'academie Française, ...

Original "Beware Spreading Vital Information Will Undermine Our War Effort. Do your Part In Silence" vintage World War 2 poster. Ori...

Carlota Rosales Martínez de Pedrosa was born in Madrid in 1872 and was the second daughter of the painter Eduardo Rosales, after the birth the Rosales...

This capture features Billie Holiday at Downbeat, New York, N.Y., circa June 1946 Billie Holiday was an American jazz singer with a career spanning nearly thirty years. Nicknamed "L...

Medium: original color woodcut. Printed in 1948 and published in New York by Wittenborn and Schultz. Size: 10 x 7 1/4 inches (253 x 186 mm). Not signed.

Medium: pochoir. Published in Paris in 1945 by Teriade for Verve (Volume IV, No. 13). This was the title page composed by Matisse for the special "De la Couleur" issue, now rare. Pri...

Ethel Rosetta Davis was born in Hardin County, Tennessee in 1897. She studied art in Birmingham, Alabama. Davis married and located to Tuscumbia a...

Antique American school abstract expressionist painting. Oil on board. Signed. In excellent original condition. Nicely framed in a period wood molding. Excellent condition, read...

Very nicely painted American school modernist painting. Oil on canvas. Signed. Nicely framed. Image size, 16L x 20H.

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...

Deer Dance, painting by Tonita Pena, Santa Fe, Cochiti, Pueblo, male, female Tonita Peña (born 1893 in San Ildefonso, died 1949 in Kewa Pueblo, New Mexico) was born as Quah Ah (meaning white coral beads) but also used the name Tonita Vigil Peña and María Antonia Tonita Peña. Peña was a renowned Pueblo artist, specializing in pen and ink on paper embellished with watercolor. She was a well-known and influential Native American artist and art teacher of the early 1920s and 1930s. Tonita Peña was born on May 10, 1893, at San Ildefonso Pueblo, to Ascensión Vigil Peña and Natividad Peña of San Ildefonso Pueblo, New Mexico. When she was 12, her mother and younger sister died, as a result of complications due to the flu. Her father was unable to care for her and she was taken to Cochití Pueblo and was brought up by her aunt Martina Vigil Montoya, a prominent Cochití Pueblo potter. Peña attended St. Catherine Indian School in Santa Fe. Edgar Lee Hewett, an anthropologist involved in supervising the nearby Frijoles Canyon excavations (now Bandelier National Monument) was instrumental in developing the careers of several San Ildefonso “self-taught” artists including Tonita Peña. Hewett purchased Peña's paintings for the Museum of New Mexico and supplied her with quality paint and paper. Peña began gaining more notoriety by the end of the 1910s selling an increasing amount of her work to collectors and the La Fonda Hotel. Much of this early work was done of Pueblo cultural subject matter, in a style inspired by historic Native American works, however, her use of an artist's easel and Western painting mediums gained her acceptance among her European-American contemporaries in the art world. At the age of 25, she exhibited her work at museums and galleries in the Santa Fe and Albuquerque area. In the early 1920s, Tonita did not know how much her painting sold for at the Museum of New Mexico, so she wrote letters to the administrators because a local farmer was worried that she got paid too little. In the 1930s Peña was an instructor at the Santa Fe Indian School and at the Albuquerque Indian School and the only woman painter of the San Ildefonso Self-Taught Group, which included such noted artists as Alfonso Roybal, Julian Martinez, Abel Sánchez (Oqwa Pi), Crecencio Martinez, and Encarnación Peña. As children, these artists attended San Ildefonso day school which was part of the institution of the Dawes Act of 1887, designed to indoctrinate and assimilate Native American children into mainstream American society. In 1931, Tonita Peña exhibited at the Exposition of Indian Tribal Arts which was presented at the Grand Central Art Galleries in New York City. Works from this exhibition were shown at the 1932 Venice Biennial. That year is the only time Native American artists have shown in the official United States pavilion at that biennial, and Tonita Peña's paintings were part of that exhibition.[1 Her painting Basket Dance, that had shown in the Venice Biennial was acquired by the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York for $225. This was the highest price paid up to this time for a Pueblo painting...

Linocut on vélin pur fil Johannot a la forme paper. Inscription: signed in pencil and unnumbered, as issued, from the edition of 50. Good condition. Notes: From the folio, Le Poème p...

Very finely painted early French impressionist street scene. Oil on canvas. Signed illegibly. Framed and ready to hang!

The Jewish Welfare Board. Original World 1 vintage poster, excellent condition; archival linen backed and ready to frame. Printer: Alco-Gravure, Inc., N. Y. Civilians: When we...

Leonard Nowak, 'Grand Canyon', conté crayon and India ink, c. 1940s. Signed in ink, lower left. Original cartoon drawing, on textured, off-white wove dra...

Mystery American Artist Untitled (Landscape), c. mid 20th century Oil on canvas 19 x 23 in. Framed: 23 1/2 x 27 3/4 x 1 1/2 in. Initialed lower right: FV

Henry Gasser (1909 - 1981) This is a beautiful work by New Jersey artist Henry Gasser titled: “Homeward.” It is Oil on Paner created in the 1940's. Signed “H. Gasser” lower right....

Beautiful Czech ski poster by Ladislav Horak for Velke Karlovice, Raj Lyzaru. Velké Karlovice is a municipality and village in the Vsetín district of the Zlín region in the Czech Rep...

Surrealist Nocturnal Hawaiian Figurative Landscape w. Blue Skirted Woman & Moon by Marguerite Louis Blasingame Striking mid century modern Hawaiian noct...

SALE ONE WEEK ONLY This painting of four different species of fish that can be found in South Korea is from the mid-20th century Korean artist Kim Kyung. Seafood from both the seas that surround the peninsula and from its rivers are an integral part of the livelihood and cuisine of Koreans. Kim Kyung (in Hanja, 金耕, in Hangul 김경) was born in South Korea, his real name, under the current Revised Romanization was Kim Gyeong-Eun (in Hanja 金萬斗, in Hangul 김경은). His name follows the East Asian convention of family name first, though some Western galleries choose to reorder his name with the Western convention as Kyung Kim. He was born in Hadong, Gyeongnam during the Imperial Japanese occupation, as the eldest son of a poor farm family, and at the age of 18 he entered the art department of Japan University. In 1943, he returned to his hometown to escape being drafted into the Japanese army...

Interested in “ordinary people" French photographer Willy Ronis was a postwar (WWII) photographer who roamed the streets whether In France or Italy, photographing people in love, at ...

Juan Reus (1912-2003) Original Vintage Bullfighting Poster March 1944 107cm x 53cm Juan Reus was born in 1912 in Valencia, where he became a well-known pain...

Le Foglie – A.L.S. is a Autograph Letter Signed by Filippo de Pisis to Gaetano Chiurazzi. Milan, June 3rd 1947. One page, double-side. On letterhead paper “Ne nous embarbouillons pas dans les métaphores” (Balzac). In Italian. Very good condition, with minor aging signs. Original envelope included, with lacquer wax. An affectionate greeting letter written with a rapid calligraphy written by the artist had just return to Italy with the first symptoms of an illness will lead to his death. The artist demands to his friend and Italian gallerist, Gaetano Chiurazzi (Naples,1899- Rome,1967), best-known as "Tanino", to lead him his oil on canval “Le Foglie”, exhibited at his popular gallery, “Le Vetrine di Chiurazzi”, in Via del Babbuino, Rome. De Pisis is today best-known for his cityscapes, metaphysically-inspired maritime scenes, and still lifes, especially those depicting flowers. His work has a particularly airy quality, and is laden with a sort of pathetic pleasure. This letter demonstrates how de Pisis spent his life: between Rome, Paris and Venice, living a very extravagant lifestyle; he had a pet parrot named Coco, and in Venice he was one of a handful of residents at the time who used a gondola. He had two personal gondoliers on 24-hour duty, who wore black-and-gold livery. Filippo de Pisis (born Luigi Filippo Tibertelli, Ferrara 1896 – Brugherio 1956) When he was 20 years old, the young painter from Ferrara had a meeting that changed his life. During his military service, he met the "Dioscuri", the brothers De Chirico and then Carrà. He was sure impressed by their way of seeing painting and, at the beginning, shared the metaphysical style. After a short stay in Rome and Paris, at the beginning of the 1920's, he started to rework his style, made of suggestions and original subjects, where the pictorial line is fragmented and, therefore, defined by Eugenio Montale as "fly-paw painting". The friendship with Julius Evola...

Abstract Gouache on Paper by Minnesota/Chicago artist Richard Koppe (1916-1073). Simply titled “Woman,” the work is an excellent composition by the artist created 1941. The painting ...

Circa 1945 in Los Angeles, California: Before she was the famous Marilyn Monroe, was known as Norma Jeane Dougherty, seen here siting on a sports car in Hollywood. Marilyn Monroe wa...

'Bouquet de Fleurs' Impressionist Still Life of Flowers, Signed Oil Painting By artist, Degerna, Mid 20th Century Signed and dated '1949' by the artist on the lower right hand corner...

Signed lower right, 'Wm. P. Krehm' for William Krehm (American, 1901-1968) and painted circa 1940. A period oil painting showing a mountainous, desert landscape at dusk, most likely a view of a Santa Ana River tributary in Southern California's Inland Empire...

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...

Benton Spruance, 'Havoc in Heaven', lithograph, 1948, edition 30-35, Fine and Looney 270. Signed, titled, and numbered 'Ed 35' in pencil. Initialed in the stone, lower right. Printed...

NYC Watercolor Drawing American Modern 20th Century Modernism Mid-Century WPA. David Fredenthal (1914-1958) "View of New York from New Jersey,"7 x 10 inches. Watercolor on Paper, c. 1948. Signed lower right. David Fredenthal (1914 - 1958) was one ot America's most respected watercolor artists. He was famous for his bold, intensely vigorous and complex paintings and drawings that expressed his deep feeling for excitement with life and living. He was a draftsman with seemingly a special gift for catching anything, physically and emotionally on the spot, and he never went anywhere without three or four loaded pens and a sketchbook in his pocket. As part of the WPA project he executed a number of murals including the Sports Pavilion on the Heinz Building of the New York World's Fair 1939. Some of his fresco and mural techniques were inspired by his friendship with Diego Rivera who had admired and encouraged him in the early 1930's. After he won a traveling scholarship to Europe from The Museum of Modern Art at age 19, he was the recipient of two Guggenheim grants in Painting. He had his first solo exhibition at the Downtown Gallery in New York in 1937 at age 23, and many others after that including the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1947. Because of Fredenthal's prodigious drawing gifts, he was chosen by Erskine Caldwell to illustrate his novel "Tobacco Road...