1950s Art

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) - Dans L'Atelier de Picasso Lithograph from 1957. The edition 211/275. With Arches watermark. Dimensions of work: 65 x 44 cm Publisher: Fernand Mourlot...

Marc Chagall - Original Lithograph The Red Rider From the unsigned, unnumbered lithograph printed in the literary review XXe Siecle 1957 See Mourlot 191 Dimensions: 32 x 24 cm Publisher: G. di San Lazzaro. Marc Chagall (born in 1887) Marc Chagall was born in Belarus in 1887 and developed an early interest in art. After studying painting, in 1907 he left Russia for Paris, where he lived in an artist colony on the city’s outskirts. Fusing his own personal, dreamlike imagery with hints of the fauvism and cubism popular in France at the time, Chagall created his most lasting work—including I and the Village (1911)—some of which would be featured in the Salon des Indépendants exhibitions. After returning to Vitebsk for a visit in 1914, the outbreak of WWI trapped Chagall in Russia. He returned to France in 1923 but was forced to flee the country and Nazi persecution during WWII. Finding asylum in the U.S., Chagall became involved in set and costume design before returning to France in 1948. In his later years, he experimented with new art forms and was commissioned to produce numerous large-scale works. Chagall died in St.-Paul-de-Vence in 1985. The Village Marc Chagall was born in a small Hassidic community on the outskirts of Vitebsk, Belarus, on July 7, 1887. His father was a fishmonger, and his mother ran a small sundries shop in the village. As a child, Chagall attended the Jewish elementary school, where he studied Hebrew and the Bible, before later attending the Russian public school. He began to learn the fundamentals of drawing during this time, but perhaps more importantly, he absorbed the world around him, storing away the imagery and themes that would feature largely in most of his later work. At age 19 Chagall enrolled at a private, all-Jewish art school and began his formal education in painting, studying briefly with portrait artist Yehuda Pen. However, he left the school after several months, moving to St. Petersburg in 1907 to study at the Imperial Society for the Protection of Fine Arts. The following year, he enrolled at the Svanseva School, studying with set designer Léon Bakst, whose work had been featured in Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. This early experience would prove important to Chagall’s later career as well. Despite this formal instruction, and the widespread popularity of realism in Russia at the time, Chagall was already establishing his own personal style, which featured a more dreamlike unreality and the people, places and imagery that were close to his heart. Some examples from this period are his Window Vitebsk (1908) and My Fianceé with Black Gloves (1909), which pictured Bella Rosenfeld, to whom he had recently become engaged. The Beehive Despite his romance with Bella, in 1911 an allowance from Russian parliament member and art patron Maxim Binaver enabled Chagall to move to Paris, France. After settling briefly in the Montparnasse neighborhood, Chagall moved further afield to an artist colony known as La Ruche (“The Beehive”), where he began to work side by side with abstract painters such as Amedeo Modigliani and Fernand Léger as well as the avant-garde poet Guillaume Apollinaire. At their urging, and under the influence of the wildly popular fauvism and cubism, Chagall lightened his palette and pushed his style ever further from reality. I and the Village (1911) and Homage to Apollinaire (1912) are among his early Parisian works, widely considered to be his most successful and representative period. Though his work stood stylistically apart from his cubist contemporaries, from 1912 to 1914 Chagall exhibited several paintings at the annual Salon des Indépendants exhibition, where works by the likes of Juan Gris, Marcel Duchamp and Robert Delaunay were causing a stir in the Paris art world. Chagall’s popularity began to spread beyond La Ruche, and in May 1914 he traveled to Berlin to help organize his first solo exhibition, at Der Sturm Gallery. Chagall remained in the city until the highly acclaimed show opened that June. He then returned to Vitebsk, unaware of the fateful events to come. War, Peace and Revolution In August 1914 the outbreak of World War I precluded Chagall’s plans to return to Paris. The conflict did little to stem the flow of his creative output, however, instead merely giving him direct access to the childhood scenes so essential to his work, as seen in paintings such as Jew in Green (1914) and Over Vitebsk (1914). His paintings from this period also occasionally featured images of the war’s impact on the region, as with Wounded Soldier (1914) and Marching (1915). But despite the hardships of life during wartime, this would also prove to be a joyful period for Chagall. In July 1915 he married Bella, and she gave birth to a daughter, Ida, the following year. Their appearance in works such as Birthday (1915), Bella and Ida by the Window (1917) and several of his “Lovers” paintings give a glimpse of the island of domestic bliss that was Chagall’s amidst the chaos. To avoid military service and stay with his new family, Chagall took a position as a clerk in the Ministry of War Economy in St. Petersburg. While there he began work on his autobiography and also immersed himself in the local art scene, befriending novelist Boris Pasternak, among others. He also exhibited his work in the city and soon gained considerable recognition. That notoriety would prove important in the aftermath of the 1917 Russian Revolution when he was appointed as the Commissar of Fine Arts in Vitebsk. In his new post, Chagall undertook various projects in the region, including the 1919 founding of the Academy of the Arts. Despite these endeavors, differences among his colleagues eventually disillusioned Chagall. In 1920 he relinquished his position and moved his family to Moscow, the post-revolution capital of Russia. In Moscow, Chagall was soon commissioned to create sets and costumes for various productions at the Moscow State Yiddish Theater, where he would paint a series of murals titled Introduction to the Jewish Theater as well. In 1921, Chagall also found work as a teacher at a school for war orphans. By 1922, however, Chagall found that his art had fallen out of favor, and seeking new horizons he left Russia for good. Flight After a brief stay in Berlin, where he unsuccessfully sought to recover the work exhibited at Der Sturm before the war, Chagall moved his family to Paris in September 1923. Shortly after their arrival, he was commissioned by art dealer and publisher Ambroise Vollard to produce a series of etchings for a new edition of Nikolai Gogol's 1842 novel Dead Souls. Two years later Chagall began work on an illustrated edition of Jean de la Fontaine’s Fables, and in 1930 he created etchings for an illustrated edition of the Old Testament, for which he traveled to Palestine to conduct research. Chagall’s work during this period brought him new success as an artist and enabled him to travel throughout Europe in the 1930s. He also published his autobiography, My Life (1931), and in 1933 received a retrospective at the Kunsthalle in Basel, Switzerland. But at the same time that Chagall’s popularity was spreading, so, too, was the threat of Fascism and Nazism. Singled out during the cultural "cleansing" undertaken by the Nazis in Germany, Chagall’s work was ordered removed from museums throughout the country. Several pieces were subsequently burned, and others were featured in a 1937 exhibition of “degenerate art” held in Munich. Chagall’s angst regarding these troubling events and the persecution of Jews in general can be seen in his 1938 painting White Crucifixion. With the eruption of World War II, Chagall and his family moved to the Loire region before moving farther south to Marseilles following the invasion of France. They found a more certain refuge when, in 1941, Chagall’s name was added by the director of the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York City to a list of artists and intellectuals deemed most at risk from the Nazis’ anti-Jewish campaign. Chagall and his family would be among the more than 2,000 who received visas and escaped this way. Haunted Harbors Arriving in New York City in June 1941, Chagall discovered that he was already a well-known artist there and, despite a language barrier, soon became a part of the exiled European artist community. The following year he was commissioned by choreographer Léonide Massine to design sets and costumes for the ballet Aleko, based on Alexander Pushkin’s “The Gypsies” and set to the music of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. But even as he settled into the safety of his temporary home, Chagall’s thoughts were frequently consumed by the fate befalling the Jews of Europe and the destruction of Russia, as paintings such as The Yellow Crucifixion...

Medium: Lithograph on grand vélin Renage filigrané à la marque de l'éditeur paper. Year: 1951 Paper Size: 12.5 x 9.5 inches; image size: 6.69 x 9.05 inches Inscription: Unsigned and ...

"Marilyn Getting Ready To Go Out" by Ed Feingersh Actress Marilyn Monroe gets ready to go see the play "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof" playfully applying her make up and Chanel No. 5 Perfum...

This hexagonal tile, created by Pablo Picasso in 1956, is made of chamotted red earthenware clay and has decoration in engobes in black and white. It is from the edition of 350, num...

"Golconde" is a thought-provoking work that embodies Magritte's signature style of surrealism and his exploration of the subconscious and the irrational. It continues to captivate vi...

Medium: original lithograph. This lithograph was printed in 1954 for the "Improvisations" portfolio, published by the Artists Equity Association of New York on the occasion of the 19...

Joan Miro Femme dans la nuit (Woman in the Night), Plate IX From: Constellations, 1959 Lithograph in colours with pochoir From the edition of 350 Sheet size 43.1 x 35.5 cm Printed b...

Lithograph on vélin d'Arches à la forme savoir paper. Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Good condition. Notes: From the volume, Dans l'Atelier de Picasso, 1957. Published by Fernan...

Danish mid century modern silverplated candelabrum sculpture. circa 1957 signed E. Dragsted Denmark. Dragsted goldsmiths, established in 1854, was purveyor to the danish royal family...

Original poster, Marine Nationale. Engagements, devancements d'appel. Service des engagements de la Marine: 3, avenue Octave Greard, Paris VII “Bureau d'engagement, LYON, Caserne de la Part-Dieu". Archival linen backed in Grade A condition, ready to frame. Images shown are...

Medium: lithograph (after the original lithograph poster for a bullfight in Vallauris). During the late 1940's and throughout the 1950's, Picasso created a series of posters at the a...

Lithograph on vélin d'Arches paper. Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Good Condition; never framed or matted. Notes: From the folio, Les Signes du zodiaque, 1959. Published by Édit...

Vogue Dive 1944 A Vogue fashion shoot featuring a model jumping on a diving board wearing a bright 1940's yellow floral bikini, Florida USA 1944 by Toni Frissell 40 x 30" inches...

Medium: original lithograph. This lithograph is from the rare 1952 "Improvisations" portfolio, published by the Artists Equity Association of New York on the occasion of the 1952 Spr...

~ Globe Photos Exclusive Offering for Sotheby's and 1stDibs ~ Offered exclusively to our Sotheby's and 1stDibs customers, Globe Photos is proud to announce a new hand-curated collec...

Make it yours! A fabulous painting titled "47th & Woodlawn Ave in Chicago, ILL" by EC Nieman and dated 1950. It depicts a Walgreen's Drug Store, a horse pulling a milk truck, a new...

Medium: lithograph (after the poster). Printed in Paris in 1950 by Mourlot Freres, this lithograph faithfully reproduces the original Toulouse-Lautrec poster in a smaller-size format...

Henri Matisse (1869-1954) - Femme Bleue Lithograph from 1958. Dimensions of work: 35.5 x 26 cm. Publisher: Tériade, Paris. First, original edition. The work is in Excellent cond...

This 1959 original travel poster, photographed by Yan, offers a captivating glimpse into the rich cultural heritage of the French Basque Country. Set inside the Musée Basque in Bayon...

Nice Pool 1955 American writer C.Z. Guest (Mrs F.C. Winston Guest, 1920 – 2003) and her son Alexander Michael Douglas Dudley Guest in front of their Grecian temple pool on the ocean...

"Late Sun" - Carmel by the Sea California Original Oil French Impressionism Thick impasto and textured oil on linen circa 1962 by California artist Harry B. Lachman (American, 1886 - 1975). Besides being an American Impressionist, Harry was a honored French Impressionism artist as well. Lovely scene of Carmel by the Sea California of cottages and trees on a quiet lane. Some minor bowing of the canvas due to age and the heavy paints he used. Signed "Lachman" lower right Exhibited Dalzell Hatfield Galley, Beverly Hills 1959-1962 (partial Label on verso) Image, 18.25"H x 21.75"W Frame, 20.75"H x 24.5"W x 1"D A onetime magazine illustrator, Harry Lachman, born in LaSalle, Indiana June 29, 1886, became one of the leading European Post-Impressionist painters in the teens and twenties. By his late twenties, Lachman had established himself as an artist both in America and Europe. He exhibited in America at the National Academy of Design, New York, as well as the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Early on in his career Lachman traveled to Europe to paint and eventually lived at various times in France, Italy, Spain and Switzerland. In Europe, the painter's works were accepted at the annual Parisian Salons. Lachman worked as a set designer with the equally artistically-inclined film maker Rex Ingram...

Selected from the Derujinsky: Around The World Portfolio, Temple of Dawn Bangkok, for Harper's Bazaar Artist: Gleb Derujinsky Title: Grand Palace Thaila...

Lithograph and stencil on vélin d'Arches paper. Inscription: Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Good condition. Notes: From the album, Mon ami Léger par André Maurois de l'Académie ...

Signed lower right, 'Keiko Minami' (Japanese, 1911-2004) and inscribed, lower left, with number and limitation, '26/50'. Japanese painter and printmaker, Keiko Minami became well kn...

Lithograph, 1958 Handsigned by the artist in pencil Edition : 125 + 10 EA Publisher : L'Oeuvre Gravée (Zurich) Printer : Mourlot (Paris) Catalog : Prudhomme 27 51.00 cm. x 67.00 cm....

Pablo Picasso At the Sea, Beach Scene : Bathers, 1956 Original ceramic of Pablo Picasso, white faience earth, black covered bath and enamel Annotated on the Back : Empreinte origina...

~ Globe Photos Exclusive Offering for Sotheby's and 1stDibs ~ Offered exclusively to our Sotheby's and 1stDibs customers, Globe Photos is proud to announce a new hand-curated collec...

Lithograph and stencil on vélin Rives BFK paper. Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Good Condition; never framed or matted. Notes: From the folio, Yvette Guilbert vue par Toulouse-Lautrec, 1950. Published by Librairie Au Pont des Arts, Paris; rendered by Daniel Jacomet; and, printed by Ateliers Daniel Jacomet et Cie, Paris, Monday, October 30, 1950. Excerpted from the folio (translated from French), This album, including all the prints dedicated by Toulouse-Lautrec to Yvette Guilbert, was printed for the Librairie Au Pont des Arts, by D. Jacomet. The color state of the Colombine plate in Pierrot and the twenty-seven plates of the French and English series were executed according to the original lithographs (before the letter for the French suite) from the Toulouse-Lautrec workshop and kept in the Cabinet des Stampes of the National Library. The collection includes three plates in color and twenty-eight plates in black. All copies also include a lithograph: Colombine à Pierrot, taken, after special authorization from the Musée d'Albi, on the original stone of Toulouse-Lautrec, by Lucien Détruit. It was taken from this album: A non-trade and nominative example; L examples on a large vélin of Rives including: III proofs of the lithography Colombine à Pierrot printed...

Medium: original etching. This classic Villon etching was published in Paris in 1955 by Manuel Bruker in an edition of 200. Plate size 11 x 8 1/2 inches (275 x 218 mm). A nice impres...

Original 1950s SAS Scandinavian Airline System travel by air vintage poster. Linen backed in B+ condition. This poster was restored to the top and bottom left corners. Ready t...

An impression of "Le Poisson Bleu" (The Blue Fish) from the Jacques Lassaigne book "Marc Chagall" with 15 unsigned lithographs. This is one lithograph of...

Vendredi - Plate 10 from the 12 plate Portfolio, 1959 Published by Denise Rene, Paris Lithograph in colors on heavy paper 20 x 26 inches Signed, dated and numbered in ink, edition 20...

Wilfredo Lam Lithograph in colors Hand signed, numbered 52/100 1953 Referenced and number 5304 in "Wilfredo Lam: Catalogue Raisonne. Sheet measures 17.5 x...

Raoul DUFY Sunset on the Vineyards, 1953 Original Lithograph with stencil watercolor With printed signature in the plate On Arches vellum 28 x 38 cm (c. 11 x 15 inch) Excellent con...

The Forest is a drawing realized by an anonymous french artist in the 1950s. Watercolor on paper. Good condition.  Poetic and beautiful drawing with harmonious colors.

A very attractive French Impressionist Modernist oil painting, a Paris cityscape landscape, by Pierre Moberg (1911-2002), the painting signed & dated 1958. This very attractive paint...

3898 Impressionist oil on canvas set in a hand carved gilt wood frame

Stanley William Hayter, 'Feu sous L'eau (Fire Under Water)', color engraving, soft-ground etching and scorper with yellow silkscreen, 1955, edition 50 plus 10 artist proofs, Black & Moorhead 221. Signed, titled 'Fire Under Water', dated and annotated 'Essai' in pencil. Dedicated in the artist’s hand 'for Adja & Dove WH Bill 17–5–55' in the top margin. A superb, richly inked impression with fresh colors, on heavy, cream wove paper; wide margins (2 1/2 to 3 7/8 inches), in excellent condition. One of 10 artist’s proofs. Image size 10 3/16 x 7 inches; sheet size 18 1/8 x 12 1/4 inches. Matted to museum standards, unframed. ABOUT THIS WORK In 1950 Hayter returned to Paris and reopened Atelier 17. Works such as 'Fire Under Water' reveal newfound influences, such as that of the Ardèche area of southern France, where he acquired a house in 1951 and frequently visited. Hayter took great interest in the flowing Escoutay River, an experience that parallels the artist and co-director of Atelier 17 Krishna Reddy’s interest in depicting water. While some forms in this print evoke the natural world, the palette of contrasting tones of purple, yellow, black, and white reflects Hayter’s belief in using color intuitively to express emotions and evoke feelings. The sharp white relief lines from the paper and the textural effects realized through soft-ground etching operate in tandem with the sweeping curves and bold colors to give the composition a sense of vitality and dynamism. —edited from the Metropolitan Museum of Art Published by 'La Jeune Gravure Contemporaine', Paris. Impressions of this work are in the following collections: British Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Gallery of Art. ABOUT THE ARTIST Stanley William Hayter (1901-1988) was a British painter and printmaker associated in the 1930s with Surrealism and from 1940 onward with Abstract Expressionism. Regarded as one of the most significant printmakers of the 20th century, Hayter founded the legendary Atelier 17 studio in Paris, now known as Atelier Contrepoint. Among the artists he is credited with influencing are Pablo Picasso, Alberto Giacometti, Joan Miró, Alexander Calder, and Marc Chagall. The hallmark of the workshop was its egalitarian structure, breaking sharply with the traditional French engraving studios by insisting on a cooperative approach to labor and technical discoveries. In 1929 Hayter was introduced to Surrealism by Yves Tanguy and André Masson, who, with other Surrealists, worked with Hayter at Atelier 17. The often violent imagery of Hayter’s Surrealist period was stimulated in part by his passionate response to the Spanish Civil War and the rise of Fascism. He organized portfolios of graphic works to raise funds for the Spanish cause, including Solidarité (Paris, 1938), a portfolio of seven prints, one of them by Picasso. Hayter frequently exhibited with the Surrealists during the 1930s but left the movement when Paul Eluard was expelled. Eluard’s poem Facile Proie (1939) was written in response to a set of Hayter’s engravings. Other writers with whom Hayter collaborated included Samuel Beckett and Georges Hugnet. Hayter joined the exile of the Parisian avant-garde in 1939, moving with his second wife, the American sculptor Helen Phillips...

Famed Disney artist Mary Blair was also an illustrator for assignments outside Disney. The present work appears to be for a Gelolo Mchugh children's book called Baby's House. There i...

Alexandre de Spengler (1893–1973) was a Swiss painter and engraver active in Geneva and Paris. He is known for his land and seascapes, as well as...

Antique impressionist painting. Watercolor and gouache on paper, circa 1950. Housed in a vintage frame. Image size, 11L x 9H.

Lithograph on vélin du Marais paper. Inscription: Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Good condition. Notes: From the volume, The Intimate Sketchbooks of G. Braque, Verve: Revue Arti...

Black and white action shot and iconic image of Marilyn Monroe on the set of "The Seven Year Itch" Marilyn Monroe was an American actress model and singer. Famous for playing comed...

Medium: Lithograph on grand vélin Renage filigrané paper. Year: 1952 Paper Size: 9.5 x 12.5 inches; image size: 7.87 x 10.63 inches Inscription: Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued No...

Medium: Lithograph on grand vélin Renage filigrané paper. Year: 1952 Paper Size: 9.5 x 12.5 inches; image size: 9.05 x 10.24 inches Inscription: Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued No...

Medium: Lithograph on grand vélin Renage filigrané paper. Year: 1952 Paper Size: 9.5 x 12.5 inches; image size: 8.27 x 9.45 inches Inscription: Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued Not...

Andy Warhol (1928-1987) is arguably the most important American artist of the 20th century. He not only defined Pop Art but had an unrivaled influence on artists and image-making. ...

"Marilyn In Grand Central Station" by Ed Feingersh NEW YORK - MARCH 24: Actress Marilyn Monroe takes the subway in Grand Central Station on March 24, 1955 in New York City, New York...

'Portrait of a Young Man in a Red Tie', gouache and ink on art paper, French School (1956). Step into the world of mid-20th century European art with a striking portrait that capture...

Medium: original lithograph. This lithograph was printed in 1955 for the "Improvisations" portfolio, and published by the Artists Equity Association of New York in an edition of 2000...

Jesus Ortiz Tajonar (1919-1990) Mexican Boy with Papier-Mâché Animal Warrior Mask c.1950s Fantastic mid century modern oil painting by listed Mexican artist Jesus Ortiz Tajonar. W...

Bruce of L. A. - Set of 2 Vintage 1950s gelatin silver photographs by celebrated 20th Century photographer Bruce Bellas also known as Bruce of Los Angeles, of young physique model Bert Elliott in 1951. These are original photographs from the "posing strap" era when nude photography was illegal. 'Bruce Los Angeles...

Lithograph and stencil on vélin Rives BFK paper. Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Good Condition; never framed or matted. Notes: From the folio, Yvette Guilbert vue par Toulouse-...

BRUCE OF L.A. - classic 1950s gelatin silver photograph of physique model JAMES PAPPA by celebrated 20th Century photographer BRUCE BELLAS also known as Bruce of Los Angeles. This is an original photograph from the beefcake "posing strap" era when nude photography was illegal. 'Bruce Los Angeles...

Westin Excelsior 1957 by Slim Aarons Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition The Westin Excelsior Hotel on the Lido in Venice, 1957. unframed c type pri...

Lithograph on vélin du Marais paper. Inscription: Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Good condition with centerfold, as issued. Notes: From the volume, Verve: Revue Artistique et Li...

This painting is part of our current exhibition - America Coast to Coast: Artists of the 1940s Untitled (Elevated Platform), 1950, oil on canvas, signed and dated lower right, 30 x...