1950s Art

A colorful signed lithograph by French Modern artist Jean Cocteau. This print features a stylized dancing lion with the title “Lions Club” in the upper left corner and a signature an...

Antique American modernist abstract expressionist oil painting. No signature found.

Medium: original lithograph. This lithograph was printed in 1952 for the "Improvisations" portfolio, published by the Artists Equity Association of New York on the occasion of the 19...

The 1956 lithography by Jean-Gabriel Domergue Ernestine est à peindre, part of the renowned La Parisienne portfolio, stands as an elegant representation of post-war French art and a ...

'Provençal Landscape', oil on canvas, by Anna Costa (circa 1950s). This is an exceptional landscape painted by the artist in vibrant colours in an Impressio...

This mid-1950s portrait photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features American swimmer and actress Esther Williams (1921 - 2013) lounging on a trampoline. This ...

Robert Gilberg (1911-1970) "Still Life in White" c.1950s Gouache on newspaper from Sacramento Bee 1957 22.75"x15.25" unframed Unsigned Born in Oakland, CA on April 25, 1911. Gilberg...

Artist: Jean Cocteau Medium: Original Lithograph, 1956 - 1975 Dimensions: 26 x 20.75 in, 66 x 52.7 cm  Arches Paper - Perfect Condition A+ This rare original lithograph by Jean C...

Framed 19 x 17.75 in No. 194 in the Catalogue Raisonne of Chagall's lithographs This lithograph was created by Chagall especially for this edition of the book "Chagall" by Jacques ...

Incredible early American modernist still life oil painting. Housed in a great antique giltwood frame. Oil on board.

Image dimensions: 34.5 x 2 x 21.5 cm. African Butterfly Woman is an original collage realized in France in the middle of the XX Century. Original ...

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...

Pablo Picasso, After, Spanish (1881 - 1973) - Faune a la Diaule. Portfolio: Femme et Faunes, Year: 1956, Medium: Pochoir, signed in the plate, Edition: 200, Size: 19.5 x 16 in. (49.5...

Medium: lithograph. This lithograph (after the Vlaminck painting) was printed in Paris in 1958 by the Mourlot atelier, and published by Andre Sauret in an edition of 2000. The image ...

This exquisite lithograph after Henri Matisse (1869–1954), titled Ballerine (Ballerina), originates from the 1952 folio Derriere le Miroir, No. 46–47, published by Maeght Editeur, Pa...

Leonard Freed's photographic career is punctuated by epic documentary photo essays with many works from New York City. Wall Street is one of the photographer's iconic 1950s images. ...

Palm Beach Idyll A couple sunbathe by the sea at Palm Beach Florida 1955 USA Gorgeous print measuring 30 x 30" inches / ca 76 x 76 cm’s paper size. Estate Stamped Collection Edi...

Very impressive mid 20th century cubist abstract. Oil on canvas. Framed.

Vintage American modernist landscape oil painting. Oil on canvasboard. Framed. Measuring: 13 by 16 inches overall, and 10 by 13.5 painting alone. In excellent original condition. Ha...

Between the years of 1946 and 1956, Pablo Picasso pulled concepts from his earlier creations, a series of drawings and watercolor, in order to form Faune a La Diaule, 1956. Pablo Pic...

This exquisite lithograph and pochoir after Marc Chagall (1887–1985), titled Les amants de la Tour Eiffel (The Lovers of the Eiffel Tower), from the folio Couleur amour, 13 Aquarelle...

This late 1950s aerial landscape photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features a group of people snorkelling off a small boat in Malta. This is an estate stampe...

This exquisite lithograph by Ellsworth Kelly (1923–2015), titled Noir et blanc (Black and White), originates from the historic 1958 folio Derriere le Miroir, No. 110. Published by Ma...

Charming and well painted rural New England modernist landcape by Vern Henry Smith (1927 - 2007. Oil on canvas. Framed. Signed.

This artwork is a mesmerizing landscape that captures the serene transition of seasons with precision. Dominated by golden autumnal trees, the scene is articulated with rich shades o...

Medium: original lithograph. Printed in Paris in 1957 at the Mourlot Freres atelier. Size: 8 3/4 x 6 inches (225 x 150 mm). Jean Cocteau executed this original lithograph to depict a...

Porfirio Salinas (1910-1973) San Antonio Artist Image Size: 30 x 40 Frame Size: 39 x 49 Medium: Oil on Canvas Dated 1957 "Bluebonnet Creek" Texas Hill Country Biography Porfirio Salinas (1910-1973) Porfirio Salinas was a self-taught artist who painted landscapes of Central Texas with an emphasis on the vast bluebonnet fields that grow there in the springtime. Born in 1910 in Bastrop, Texas, he attended public schools in San Antonio. He also observed works in progress by the director of the San Antonio Art School, Jose Arpa, as well as landscape painter, Robert Wood. Wood is said to have paid Salinas five dollars a picture to paint bluebonnets because "he hated to paint bluebonnets". Salinas served in the military from 1943 to 1945. Although he was assigned to Fort Sam Houston, he was allowed to live at home. At the fort, Colonel Telesphor Gottchalk assigned him to paint murals for the officer's lounge and various other projects, and Salinas continued to be able to paint during his entire conscripted period. Even before he achieved notoriety among galleries, dealers, and museums, Salinas was widely followed and appreciated by many Texans, including former President Lyndon B. Johnson, who may be considered responsible for launching Salinas popularity beyond the boundaries of Texas. In 1973, Texas capital, Austin, honored Salinas for having "done much to bring the culture of Mexico and Texas closer together with his paintings". Salinas died in April 1973 in San Antonio, Texas. From the years of the Great Depression through President Lyndon Johnson's Great Society of the 1960s, Texan Porfirio Salinas (1910-1973) remained one of the Lone Star State's most popular artists. Today, his works remain popular with Texas collectors and those who love landscapes of the beautiful "Hill Country" that lies in the center of the state. One of the first Mexican American painters to become widely recognized for his art, Salinas was a favorite of President Lyndon Johnson and his wife, Lady Bird Johnson, as well as of Sam Rayburn, the longest-serving Speaker of the House of Representatives, and Texas Governor John Connelly. In fact, President Johnson was so enamored with his Salinas paintings that the artist will forever be associated with America's first Texas-born President. Works by Porfirio Salinas are in a number of museum collections, grace the halls of the Texas State Capitol and the Governor's Mansion in Austin, and are included in virtually every major private collection of Early Texas Art. Porfirio Salinas was born on November 6, 1910, near the small town of Bastrop, Texas, about thirty miles from Austin. His father, Porfirio G. Salinas (1881-1967), and his mother, Clara G. Chavez, struggled to make a hardscrabble living as tenant farmers, but eventually were forced to give up farming. The family moved to San Antonio, where Salinas' father was able to get a job working as a laborer for the railroad, but the scenic area around Bastrop, with its pine trees and the wide expanse of the Rio Grande River, would forever remain a touchstone for the artist. For the rest of his life, Salinas and his brothers went back frequently to visit their grandmother in her little farmhouse. When in Bastrop, Porfirio painted on the banks of the Rio Grande or in the groves of pine trees. The Salinas family was close-knit and Porfirio was the middle child of five children, so he had an older brother and sister as well as a younger brother and sister. His mother was a native of Mexico, so throughout his childhood the family made the long drive to Mexico to visit Clara Salinas' family. As a child growing up in the bi-lingual section of San Antonio, Salinas drew and painted incessantly and by the time he was ten, he was already producing work that was mature enough to sell to his schoolteachers. Many years later in an article in the New York Times he was described as a "boy whose textbooks were seldom opened and whose sketchbook was never closed." Instead of studying, the young artist spent his spare time watching artists paint in and around San Antonio. As an aspiring painter, Salinas was fortunate to grow up in the historic city, which had the most active art scene in Texas. It was his exposure to older, professional painters that encouraged the precocious young painter to leave school early in order to help his family and pursue a career as a professional artist, despite his father's inability to see art as a career with any future for his son. When Salinas was about fifteen he came to know the artist Robert W. Wood (1889-1979). He met Wood while he was employed in an art supply store and he soon began to work as an assistant to the English-born painter, who had moved from Portland to San Antonio in 1924. Although the diminutive Englishman was already an established professional artist, he did not have a great deal of formal art training and so he was then studying with the academically trained Spanish painter Jose Arpa (1858-1952) in order to augment his knowledge and give his work a more polished look. Salinas was an eager young man, and while working in Wood's downtown San Antonio studio he learned to stretch canvases, frame paintings and to sketch in larger compositions from small plein-air studies for the English artist. He began to accompany Wood and Arpa to the hills outside San Antonio, where they painted small Plein-air studies of fields of blue lupin - the state flower, the famous "Bluebonnets" of Texas - in the springtime and scenes of the gnarled Red Oaks as they changed color in the fall. He was soon assisting Wood in the tedious work of painting the tiny blue flowers that collectors wanted to see in the landscapes they purchased of central Texas. According to a 1972 newspaper story, "Legend has it that one day in the 1920s artist Robert Wood decided he could not bear to paint another bluebonnet in one of his landscapes. He hired young Porfirio Salinas to paint them in for him at five dollars a painting." Whether this story is accurate or apocryphal isn't clear, but the ambitious and independent young Salinas wasn't destined to be anyone's assistant for very long. The formative event of Porfirio Salinas' teenage years was the Texas Wildflower Competitive Exhibitions, a Roaring-Twenties dream of the eccentric oilman Edgar B. Davis (1873-1951). These competitive shows of paintings of wildflowers and Texas life were mounted in San Antonio from 1927 to 1929. Held at the newly opened Witte Museum each spring, the exhibition featured large cash prizes donated by the philanthropic Davis, which were an inducement for artists to travel from all over the United States to paint in the Hill Country of Texas. The "Davis Competitions," as they were known, helped to cement San Antonio's reputation as an art center, a legacy that remains with the "River City" today. The shows generated a great deal of excitement in the area, helping to make celebrities of the some of the artists who had already settled there and encouraging others to make San Antonio their home. Over the three years that the wildflower competitions were held, more than 300 paintings were exhibited, and many thousands of viewers saw the paintings at the Witte Museum and on tours throughout the state and in New York. Each year Davis would generously purchase the winning paintings and then donate them to the San Antonio Art League. Young Porfirio Salinas would have been able to not only watch his two mentors - Robert W. Wood and Jose Arpa - paint the works that they entered in the Davis Competitions, he would have been able to see Arpa take several of the major prizes, receiving the judge's accolades for "Verbena," "Cactus Flower" and "Picking Cotton," works that are still on view at the San Antonio Art League Museum today. Unfortunately, Davis eventually put his donations to work in other charitable endeavors, bringing to an end the wildflower events, but only after they inspired Salinas and other young painters and had helped to make wildflower paintings the most sought-after subject for traditionalist Texas collectors. In 1930, when he was only twenty, Salinas hung out a shingle and began to paint professionally, augmenting the sales of his easel paintings with what little business he could garner by painting signs for local concerns. It was a struggle for the young artist to make a living, as the effects of the Great Depression were settling in. His early works are very similar to those of Robert Wood's, both in subject matter and treatment. Salinas did small paintings of Bluebonnets for the tourists who visited San Antonio to see the famous Alamo as well as paintings of the Texas missions...

Medium: lithograph. This lithograph (after the Vlaminck painting) was printed in Paris in 1958 by the Mourlot atelier and published in an edition of 2000. The image size is 6 1/2 x 8...

This exquisite lithograph and pochoir after Marc Chagall (1887–1985), titled Le Poisson Volant (The Flying Fish), from the folio Couleur amour, 13 Aquarelles, Gouaches, Lavis (Color ...

"Joni" - Portrait of a Girl in a Yellow Dress in Oil on Canvas Skillful portrait of a young girl by Morris Zirlin (American, 1913-1990). A young girl with wide brown eyes poses for ...

Medium: original lithograph. This lithograph is from the rare 1953 "Improvisations" portfolio, published by the Artists Equity Association of New York on the occasion of the 1953 Spr...

Medium: original lithograph. Printed by Mourlot and published in Paris by Teriade for Verve in 1956 for a special edition devoted exclusively to Chagall's original Bible art. Size: 1...

Vintage American impressionist landscape oil painting. Oil on board. Framed. Signed. Measuring: 17 by 20 inches overall, and 12 by 16 painting alone. Handsomely framed in wide moder...

Color lithograph on cream wove paper, 1956. Edition of 200. Printed by Mourlout, Paris.

A beautiful mid 20th century Swedish oil on canvas self portrait of an artist wearing a beret. Very decorative work in the cubist style which is signed lower left and presented in a ...

This work will be exhibited at Art on Paper NYC, September 4–7, 2025. – Marc Chagall (1887-1985) - Quai aux Fleurs Lithograph from 1954. Dimensions of sheet: 38 x 28 cm Dimensio...

Saint Germain-des-Prés under the snow. Oil on canvas, 60x92 cm Constantin Kluge was a Russian-born French painter best known for his naturalistic scenes of Paris and French countrys...

Antique American signed abstract expressionist oil painting. Oil on canvas. Signed. Framed.

Antique American modernist abstract oil painting. Oil on canvas. Signed.

Medium: original etching. This Villon etching was published in Paris in 1956 by Manuel Bruker in an edition of 150-- this impression is from the deluxe edition of 15 on japon impéria...

Jean-Gabriel DOMERGUE At the Moulin Rouge : French Cancan, 1956 Original lithograph (Mourlot workshop) Printed signature in the plate On Japan paper 40 x 31 cm (c. 16 x 12") INFORM...

Ed Feingersh photographed Marilyn Monroe for Redbook magazine in March 1955 for a story which would follow Monroe through her daily routine, the photography to be candid and shot without flash in available light. The photographs he made of her during the week March 24–30, 1955 as she prepares for two appearances; opening night of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at the Morosco Theatre and being fitted with a burlesque corset for her ride on a pink elephant at a charity event at Madison Square Garden. (from Wikipedia) This is a unique silver gelatine print, made in 1988 from the original negative.

Medium: original lithograph. Printed in 1956 for the second volume (1956-57) of the very rare Documenti d'Arte d'Oggi, published in Milan by Groupe Espace. Size: 12 1/2 x 8 1/2 inche...

This exquisite lithograph and pochoir by Joan Miro (1893–1983), titled Femme et oiseau dans la nuit (Woman and Bird in the Night), from the album XXe Siecle, Nouvelle serie No. 8, or...

Leonard Lieb (American, 1912-1977) Abstract in Green and Black, c. 1950 Oil on masonite Signed lower center 48 x 24 inches Leonard Lieb was a Pittsburgh painter of genre scenes who ...

Indian Dancer - Vintage Illustration in Ink and Watercolor A stoic, dark-haired woman in elaborate dress is sitting cross-legged in this illustration by Irene Pattinson (American, 1909-1999). Pattinson uses fine ink line detail and a vibrant pink watercolor for a splash of color. Signed at the bottom, "Irene Pattinson." Provenance: The Artist, Estate of Irene Pattinson: David Carlson; Estate of Larry Miller Fine Art, Robert Azensky Fine Art. Presented in a new white mat with foam core backing. Mat size: 16"H x 12"W Paper size: 11.75"H x 8.5"W Image size: 7.5"H x 6.5"W Irene Pattinson (American, 1909-1999) studied at the California School of Fine Art (now The San Francisco Art Institute), San Francisco State College and The Marion Hartwell School of Design. She was President of the San Francisco Woman Artists Association 1955-56. Provenance: The Artist, Estate of Irene Pattinson: David Carlson; Estate of Larry Miller Fine Art, Robert Azensky Fine Art. Solo Exhibitions: Lucien Labaudt Gallery 1955; San Francisco Museum of Art, 1961 (39 works). Selected Group Exhibitions: San Francisco Art Association Annual 1948, 54, 55; San Francisco Woman Artists, 1957-1960; Oakland Art Museum Annual, 1951, 58; California Palace of the Legion of Honor, 1960; Richmond Art Center, 1955, 56, 57, 58; San Francisco Art Institute 1959, 60. The Art Bank of the San Francisco Art Association, 1958, 59, 60, 62, 63; Winter Invitational, California Palace of The Legion of Honor, San Francisco, 1960; Fourth Winter Invitational, California Palace of The Legion of Honor, San Francisco, 1963. Awards: First Place, San Francisco Woman Artists Assoc., 1957, 1959; San Francisco Art Festival 1957;Literature: San Francisco Art Institute - A catalog of the Art Ban 1962/63; San Francisco and the Second Wave: The Blair Collection Exhibitions: 1963 The Art Bank of the San Francisco Art Association, San Francisco, CA 1963 California Palace of The Legion of Honor: Forth Winter Invitational, San Francisco, CA 1962 The Art Bank of the San Francisco Art Association, San Francisco, CA 1961 San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco, CA 1960 California...

Lucien Potronat (1905–1981) “Le Trayas, Côte d’Azur”, circa 1950 Oil on canvas Signed lower right Original French frame This radiant oil painting by French artist Lucien Potronat ...

Happy Marilyn (1956) - Silver Gelatin Fibre Print (Photo by Evening Standard/Getty Images) American film star Marilyn Monroe (1926 - 1962) outside her home at Englefield Green. A...

Medium: lithograph (after the pencil drawing). Printed in Paris in 1952 by Mourlot Freres in an edition of 1500. The total sheet (including margins) measures 12 3/8 x 9 5/8 inches (3...

Artist: William Harnden, American (1920 - 1983) Title: Conductor with Orchestra Medium: Oil on Masonite, signed Image Size: 15.5 x 19 inches Frame Size: 18 x 21 inches

Medium: original lithograph. This lithograph was printed in 1950 for the "Improvisations" portfolio, published by the Artists Equity Association of New York on the occasion of the 19...

5119 Antique Scandinavian winter landscape oi painting by Isabelle Framed Image size 12x16"

Impressive early American impressionist view of New York City oil painting by Johann Berthelsen (1883 - 1972). Framed. Oil on canvas. Signed. Image size, 12H by 16L.

Very finely painted modernist landscape by Robert Noel Blair (1912 - 2002). Watercolor and gouache on paper. Signed Image size, 23 by 31 inches. In excellent original condition. ...

High schoolers picnic on the beach at Bonita Springs, Florida, 1955. Slim Aarons Spring Break Black and White Photography Slim Aarons Estate Edition Nu...

Hand signed and dated on the front An exceptionally early gouache from 1957, executed on the verso of a Wells Street Gallery invitation card - one of the first cooperative galleries ...

This exquisite lithograph after Henri Matisse (1869–1954), titled Madame M.P. (Mrs. M.P.), from the album Portraits par Henri Matisse (Portraits by Henri Matisse), originates from th...

The Orchestra, 1950, oil on canvas, signed and dated lower left, 21 1/2 x 25 3/4 inches, labeled verso “Brown University, Trustee, The Walter Feldman Trust for Artwork” titled verso,...

SADAO WATANABE (Japanese 1913-1996) JONAH, 1959 Color stencil, signed, numbered and dated in white ink. Sheet, 25 5/8 x 22 5/8 inches. Edition: 44/50. Good color and generally good ...

A fine spring scene in historic Williamsburg, Virginia with the Governor’s Palace in the background by American artist Guy Carleton Wiggins (1883-1962). Wiggins was born in Brooklyn,...