Mid-20th Century Art
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24,711
Period: Mid-20th Century
Peru : Quiet Square - Original oil on canvas painting - Signed
Located in Paris, IDF
Louis Toffoli (1907-1999)
Peru : Quiet Square
Original oil painting
Signed bottom right
On canvas 65 x 92 cm (c. 26 x 36 inch)
Presented in a golden wood frame 84 x 110 cm (c. 33 x ...
Category
Modern Mid-20th Century Art
Materials
Oil
„Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs“ Lobby Card of Walt Disney’s Movie, USA 1937.
Located in Cologne, DE
Original American Lobby Card of Walt Disney’s Movie „Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs“, USA 1937.
Still the fairest of them all.
Keywords: Animation, Family, Fantasy, Fairy tale, Pri...
Category
Modern Mid-20th Century Art
Materials
Color
Le Théâtre du Vaudeville (à Paris, France) /// French Post-Impressionism Street
Located in Saint Augustine, FL
Artist: Édouard Léon Cortès (French, 1882-1969)
Title: "Le Théâtre du Vaudeville (à Paris, France)"
Series: Théâtre du Vaudeville
*Signed by Cortès lower left
Circa: 1950
Medium: Ori...
Category
Post-Impressionist Mid-20th Century Art
Materials
Canvas, Paint, Oil
"BLUEBONNET HILL" TEXAS HILL COUNTRY FRAMED 15.75 X 17.75
Located in San Antonio, TX
Pedro Lazcano
(1909-1970)
San Antonio Artist
Image Size: 8 x 10
Frame Size: 15.75 x 17.75
Medium: Oil
"Bluebonnet Hills"
Pedro Lazcano (1909-1970)
I was always curious about Pedro La...
Category
Impressionist Mid-20th Century Art
Materials
Oil
"Ramo y Figura"
Located in Southampton, NY
Oil on canvas painting of “Bouquet and Figure” by the well known Spanish artist, Ramon Pichot. Signed lower right. Titled and signed verso. In excellent condition. Original gold l...
Category
Post-Impressionist Mid-20th Century Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
$5,400 Sale Price
25% Off
Winter Moonlight - Signed Landscape Oil Painting by Max Clarenbach
Located in Marlow, Buckinghamshire
Signed oil on canvas landscape circa 1930 by German post impressionist painter Max Clarenbach. The work depicts a winter scene, with snow laying thick on the ground. To the foregroun...
Category
Post-Impressionist Mid-20th Century Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Historic Leo Castelli Gallery print, hand signed & dated by Frank Stella, Framed
By Frank Stella
Located in New York, NY
Frank Stella at Leo Castelli (Hand Signed and Dated), 1969
Offset Lithograph Invitation
Boldly signed and dated 2014 in black marker; Stella signed this f...
Category
Abstract Geometric Mid-20th Century Art
Materials
Lithograph, Offset
Spanish landscape oil on board painting
Located in Barcelona, Barcelona
Josep Ventosa Domenech (1897-1982) - Navarcles - Oil on panel
Oil measurements 16x22 cm.
Frame measurements 31x37 cm.
Category
Impressionist Mid-20th Century Art
Materials
Oil, Board
$477 Sale Price
50% Off
A Los Toros Avec Picasso (Set of Four in Black Frames)
Located in Washington, DC
Artist: Pablo Picasso
Title: La Pique (I), Le Picador (II), Jeu de la Cape (III), Les Banderilles (IV)
Portfolio: A Los Toros Avec Picasso
Medium: Set of four transfer lithographs
Ye...
Category
Mid-20th Century Art
Materials
Lithograph
Vintage American Modernist Abstract Expressionist Framed Landscape Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American modernist abstract landscape oil painting. Oil on canvas. Framed. No signature found.
Category
Abstract Mid-20th Century Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
$1,196 Sale Price
20% Off
Champs de fleurs - Post Impressionist Landscape Oil by Jacques Martin-Ferrieres
Located in Marlow, Buckinghamshire
A simply beautiful oil on canvas circa 1950 by French post-impressionist painter Jacques Martin-Ferrieres. The work is of a field filled with bright flowers in all shades of red, lil...
Category
Post-Impressionist Mid-20th Century Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Elegant Lady in French Interior, 1960's French Post Impressionist Oil Painting
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Elegant Lady in Interior next to a Bowl of Fruit
by Josine Vignon (French 1922-2022)
signed and stamped verso
oil painting on canvas, unframed
canvas: 2...
Category
Post-Impressionist Mid-20th Century Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
“High Society”
Located in Southampton, NY
Original oil on canvas painting of a lavish interior dinner party scene by Venancio Zolla. Signed lower right. Condition is excellent. Bibliography printed label on frame verso. O...
Category
Post-Impressionist Mid-20th Century Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
$2,300 Sale Price
20% Off
Portrait - Tempera on Board by Virgilio Guidi - Mid-20th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Portrait is an original artwork realized by Virgilio Guidi in the half of 20th century.
Tempera on board
Good conditions.
Includes frame.
Hand-signed on the lower right.
Virgili...
Category
Modern Mid-20th Century Art
Materials
Tempera, Board
'The Steps' — WPA Era Graphic Modernism
Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
Fritz Eichenberg, 'The Steps', wood engraving, 1933, edition 200. Signed, titled, and annotated 'Ed. 200' in pencil. Initialed in the block, lower right. A superb, richly-inked impr...
Category
American Modern Mid-20th Century Art
Materials
Woodcut
Mid-Century Modern Oil Painting Abstract Red Green Female artist Museum Label
Located in Buffalo, NY
Anita Johnson
Untitled (Seated Nude with Red Frames), c. 1970s
Oil on canvas
Framed dimensions: 37 in. H × 31 in. W
Original artist-selected floater frame
Exhibited at the Memorial ...
Category
Abstract Geometric Mid-20th Century Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
"Crossed Arms" Mid Century Abstract Expressionist NYC Female Artist
Located in Arp, TX
Sylvia Rutkoff (1919-2011)
Sr5-1
c.1960s
“Crossed Arms”
Acrylic on Masonite
36x42 period frame
Unsigned
Collection acquired from family estate
Category
Abstract Expressionist Mid-20th Century Art
Materials
Masonite, Oil
JEAN FERRERO FRENCH PHYSIQUE PHOTOGRAPHER 1960s Vintage Set & Original Booklets
Located in Glenford, NY
COLD WINTER SPECIAL...$1,120....A rare set of 11 vintage original gelatin silver photographs by the French photographer JEAN FERRERO and two original "Riviera Boy’s" Catalogue Booklets. Photographs are Stamped and Numbered with the Copyright, Artist and Model's Names. Catalogue 1 and Catalogue 3 are circa 1962 and 1963. Booklets are complete, #1 is 42 pages and and #3 is 20 pages of images of Ferrero’s popular models and order forms and instructions in French. Booklet models including Rod Ferrero - Mister Europe 1961, Francois Rossi - Mr. France 1958 and Umbrerto Devetak - Mr. Italy 1961. For legal reasons photos in the catalogues have posing straps drawn on however, actual photographs in this series are full nudes.
The collection features Ferrero’s photographs from the early 1960s with some of his favorite and best known physique models including Bud Lanter, Daniel Cartier, Jean Daniel, Kid Pomer and Romeo. Ferrero’s had a natural style that was distinctively unique among male nude photography...
Category
Post-Modern Mid-20th Century Art
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Antique American Modernist Framed Fauvist Forest Landscape Abstract Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Impressive early American modernist abstracted forest landscape oil painting. Framed. Oil on canvas. Image size, 24H by 36L.
Category
Modern Mid-20th Century Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
$620 Sale Price
20% Off
Vintage American Modernist Abstract Expressionist Framed Cubist Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American modernist abstract oil painting by Ervin B. Nussbaum (1914 - 1996). Oil on canvas. Framed. Signed. Dated 1950.
Artist Bio:
Ervin B. Nussbaum was born in Co...
Category
Abstract Mid-20th Century Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Sun Beams Into Grand Central Station (1930) - Silver Gelatin Fibre Print
Located in London, GB
Sun Beams Into Grand Central Station (1930) - Silver Gelatin Fibre Print
(Photo by Hal Morey/Getty Images)
Beams of sunlight streaming through the windows ...
Category
Modern Mid-20th Century Art
Materials
Black and White, Silver Gelatin
Lavender Fields Below The Mossy Valley Cliffs French Post Impressionist Painting
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Lavender Fields
by Max Toutain (1935-2006)
oil painting on canvas, unframed
canvas : 18 x 22 inches
Provenance: all the paintings we have by this artist have come from the artists es...
Category
Post-Impressionist Mid-20th Century Art
Materials
Oil
1940's French Impressionist Oil Portrait of Young Blonde Haired Lady
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Portrait of a Blonde Lady
by Louise Alix (French, 1888-1980) *see notes below
provenance stamp to the back
oil painting on board, unframed
measures: 18 high by 15 inches wide
condit...
Category
Impressionist Mid-20th Century Art
Materials
Oil
$583 Sale Price
30% Off
DOUGLAS JULEFF Vintage 1950s Photograph of "Beefcake" model AL WALCH #2 Framed
Located in Glenford, NY
Cold Winter Special....$825...Framed.
Rare early 1950s Original Vintage Gelatin Silver Photograph by DOUGLAS JULEFF - also known as DOUG OF DETROIT - of model AL WALCH. Photograph is...
Category
Post-War Mid-20th Century Art
Materials
Silver Gelatin
1953 original exhibition poster by Raoul Dufy at Musée National d'Art Moderne
By Raoul Dufy
Located in PARIS, FR
The 1953 original exhibition poster by Raoul Dufy for the Musée National d'Art Moderne is a vibrant and captivating piece that captures the essence of Dufy's iconic style and celebra...
Category
Mid-20th Century Art
Materials
Paper, Lithograph
1964 original soviet poster for the space conquest - USSR - CCCP
Located in PARIS, FR
In the annals of propaganda art, the 1964 Soviet poster for the space conquest stands as an iconic representation of the nation's indomitable spirit and unrelenting pursuit of space exploration. This original poster, created during the height of the Space Race, remains a powerful testament to the Soviet Union's commitment to conquering the cosmos.
Soviet propaganda art...
Category
Mid-20th Century Art
Materials
Lithograph, Paper, Linen
'The Bather' — American Modernism
Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
Rockwell Kent, 'The Bather', wood engraving, 1931, edition 120, Burne Jones 63. Signed in pencil. A brilliant, black impression, on cream, wove Japan paper; the full sheet with margins (2 1/2 to 3 1/4 inches); slight skinning at the top sheet edge, verso, otherwise in excellent condition. Archivally matted to museum standards, unframed.
Image size 5 3/8 x 7 7/8 inches (137 x 200 mm); sheet size 11 1/8 x 14 1/2 inches (283 x 368 mm).
Impressions of this work are held in the following public collections: Burne Jones Collection (Illinois), Chazen Museum of Art, Chegodaev Collection (Moscow), Kent Collection (New York), National Gallery of Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art; SUNY Plattsburg Art Museum, Princeton University Library, Pushkin Museum (Moscow), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Spector Collection (New York), University of Illinois.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Rockwell Kent (1882-1971), though best known as a painter, graphic artist, and illustrator, pursued many careers throughout his life, including architect, carpenter, explorer, writer, dairy farmer, and political activist. Born in Tarrytown, New York, Kent was interested in art from a young age. These ambitions were encouraged by his aunt Jo Holgate, an accomplished ceramicist. Jo came to live with the family after Kent’s father passed away in 1887 and took him to Europe as a teenager, undoubtedly kindling his interest in exploring the world.
Kent attended the Horace Mann School in New York City, where he excelled at mechanical drawing. His family’s financial circumstances prevented him from pursuing a career in the fine arts; however, after graduating from Horace Mann in 1900, Kent decided to study architecture at Columbia University.
Before matriculating at Columbia, Kent spent the first of three consecutive summers studying painting at William Merritt Chase’s art school in Shinnecock Hills, Long Island. There he found a community of mentors and fellow students who encouraged him to pursue his interest in art. At the end of Kent’s third summer at Shinnecock, Chase offered him a full scholarship to the New York School of Art, where he was a teacher. Kent began taking night classes at the art school in addition to his architecture studies but soon left Columbia to study painting full-time. In addition to Chase, Kent took classes with Robert Henri and Kenneth Hayes Miller, where his classmates included the artists George Bellows and Edward Hopper.
Kent spent the summer of 1903 assisting the eccentric painter Abbott Handerson Thayer at his studio in Dublin, New Hampshire—a position he secured through the recommendation of his Aunt Jo. Thayer’s naturalist lifestyle and almost mystical appreciation for natural phenomena greatly influenced Kent; he returned to Dublin for many years to visit Thayer and his family. Thayer gave the young artist time to pursue his work, and that summer Kent painted several views of the New Hampshire landscape, including Mount Monadnock...
Category
American Modern Mid-20th Century Art
Materials
Woodcut
Antique American School Modernist Signed Abstract Expressionist Framed Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Impressive early American school modernist abstract oil painting. Framed. Oil on canvas board. Signed.
Category
Abstract Mid-20th Century Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
$780 Sale Price
20% Off
Untitled (Abstract Still Life with Flowers and Fruit)
By Ian Hornak
Located in Fairfield, CT
Artist: Ian Hornak (1944-2002)
Title: Untitled (Abstract Still Life with Flowers and Fruit)
Year: 1963
Medium: Watercolor on heavy archival paper
Size: 11.5 x 15 inches
Condition: Go...
Category
Impressionist Mid-20th Century Art
Materials
Watercolor
$2,600 Sale Price
20% Off
'Lounging In Verbier' ( Slim Aarons Estate Stamped Edition)
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
'Lounging In Verbier'
Holidaymakers in sun loungers on the slopes at Verbier, Switzerland, February 1964.
Gorgeous print measuring an extra large 60 x 40" inches / ca 152 x 101 cm...
Category
Modern Mid-20th Century Art
Materials
Archival Pigment
"La Tour Eiffel verte" original lithograph
By Marc Chagall
Located in Henderson, NV
Medium: original lithograph. Catalogue reference: Mourlot 201. Printed in 1957 at the Mourlot atelier and published in Paris by Maeght. This charming composition is one of the origin...
Category
Mid-20th Century Art
Materials
Lithograph
Les Oliviers by Charles Lapicque, 1964
Located in New York, NY
Artist: Charles Lapicque
Medium: Original Lithograph, 1964
Dimensions: 15.5 x 21 in
Arches Paper - Perfect Condition A
This beautiful original lithograph depicting a Greek lands...
Category
Mid-20th Century Art
Materials
Lithograph
1966 Vintage Lithograph Poster Antonio Frasconi Terry Dintenfass Gallery NYC
Located in Surfside, FL
Antonio Frasconi (28 April 1919 in Montevideo, Uruguay – 8 January 2013 in Norwalk, CT, USA) was an Uruguayan - American visual artist, best known for his woodcuts. He was raised in ...
Category
American Modern Mid-20th Century Art
Materials
Lithograph
Reclining nude - British Art Deco 30s female portrait oil painting female artist
By Dora Crockett
Located in London, GB
A stunning exhibited 1934 nude female portrait by Dora Crocket (Countess Lewenhaupt). The portrait depicts a nude woman reclining in a sensual pose against a background of red and bl...
Category
Art Deco Mid-20th Century Art
Materials
Oil
$17,934 Sale Price
20% Off
Violets - Etching by Luigi Bartolini - 1936
Located in Roma, IT
Violets is a modern artwork realzied by Luigi Bartolini in 1936
Black and white etching.
Hand signed, titled and numbered on the lower margin.
Includes frame
Edition of 13/50
Go...
Category
Modern Mid-20th Century Art
Materials
Etching
$492 Sale Price
25% Off
original lithograph
Located in Henderson, NV
Medium: original lithograph. This lithograph is from the rare 1951 "Improvisations" portfolio, published by the Artists Equity Association of New York on the occasion of the 1951 Spr...
Category
Mid-20th Century Art
Materials
Lithograph
Les Ames Mortes by N. Gogol - Complete Suite by Marc Chagall - 1948
By Marc Chagall
Located in Roma, IT
Les Ames mortes (by N. Gogol) is a very rare suite of etchings realized by Marc Chagall (1887-1985).
Complete set of 96 etchings hors-texte and 11 etched vignettes en-texte for the ...
Category
Surrealist Mid-20th Century Art
Materials
Etching
Pekingese Family of Dogs - Oil on Canvas by F.V. Rossi - 1939
By Filiberto Vitaliano Rossi
Located in Roma, IT
Pekingese Family of Dogs is an original artwork realized in 1939 by Filiberto Vitaliano Rossi.
Original oil on canvas.
Hand-signed and dated on the lower right corner.
Good conditions, except for some micro-holes on the canvas, very thin.
Beautiful artwork representing several Pekingese dogs...
Category
Mid-20th Century Art
Materials
Oil
'Summer Horse Fair', After Utagawa Hiroshige 歌川廣重, Ukiyo-e Woodblock, Tokaido
Located in Santa Cruz, CA
An ink on paper, Nishiki-e and Yoko-e woodblock landscape showing the summer horse fair, which Chiryu was well known for. Every summer, horse traders would bring near 500 horses to m...
Category
Mid-20th Century Art
Materials
Sumi Ink, Washi Paper
1935 English oil of a terrier dog portrait, Bonzo
Located in Woodbury, CT
W.Redworth, English portrait of a terrier dog, circa 1935
Wonderful oil on canvas portrait.
A very English animal portrait and a very well painted painting, framed in an amazing a...
Category
Victorian Mid-20th Century Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
La Redoute French Vintage Set of 6 Roses Flower Prints - Ideal Interiors Set
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
La Redoute
set of six French vintage color prints of roses
size: each print is 16 x 12.5 inches, unframed.
Condition report:
each print is in sound condi...
Category
Impressionist Mid-20th Century Art
Materials
Color
Inferno, Canto XXI (Field 189-200; M/L. 1039-1138), La Divina Commedia
Located in Auburn Hills, MI
Woodcut in colors on vélin pur chiffon de Rives paper. Paper size: 13 x 10.375 inches. Inscription: Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Catalogue raisonné reference: Michler & Löpsin...
Category
Surrealist Mid-20th Century Art
Materials
Woodcut
Mini-Caryatid - Sculpture by M. Berrocal - 1960s
Located in Roma, IT
Nickel Plated 24 Element Puzzle Sculpture, 1968-1969, realized by Miguel Berrocal.
Signature and number engraved. Edition of 9500 pieces.
Ref. Catalogo General/Obras Recientes,197...
Category
Contemporary Mid-20th Century Art
Materials
Bronze
“In the Dressing Room”
Located in Southampton, NY
Beautifully executed oil pastel on archival paper by the renowned American artist Louis Kronberg. Signed lower left with the artist’s trademark Star of David symbol after his signat...
Category
Post-Impressionist Mid-20th Century Art
Materials
Oil Pastel, Archival Paper
$3,800 Sale Price
20% Off
"Bluebonnet Time Hill Country Frame Size: 35 x 41 Bluebonnets, Poppies, Oak Tree
Located in San Antonio, TX
Porfirio Salinas
(1910-1973)
San Antonio Artist
Image Size: 27 x 33
Frame Size: 35 x 41
Medium: Oil On Canvas
Late 1940s-Early 1950s
"Bluebonnet Time" Texas Hill Country Landscape
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. While
a few of his early works have a soft, tonalist quality, with subtle
gradations of sunset colors, most were painted in a style that fits
well within the currents of the late American Impressionist style, with
solid drawing and a warm, chromatic palette. Like Robert Wood's works
of the 1930s, the paintings Salinas produced as a young man were
usually well composed and detailed views of the spring wildflowers in
full bloom in the Texas countryside. In contrast to Wood's work,
however, early Salinas compositions were usually pure landscapes
without the pioneer farms or dilapidated fences that Wood often used to
add visual interest to his wildflower scenes, and he also painted
scenes of San Antonio itself as his mentor Jose Arpa had done. To
residents of the Hill Country, Salinas was especially adept at
accurately capturing the palette of the region and its unique
atmosphere.
In 1939 Salinas began working with Dewey Bradford
(1896-1985), one of the great characters of Texas art. Bradford was a
second-generation dealer whose family operated the Bradford Paint
Company in Austin, where they sold art supplies, framed artwork,
restored paintings and exhibited paintings by Texas artists. Salinas
was struggling when he met Bradford, but the older man took the young
artist under his wing and began to sell his work reliably, even though
the prices that people would pay for a painting were still low due to
the lingering effects of the Great Depression. Bradford was a born
salesman with a gift for storytelling, and truth be told, a bit of
embroidery. The relationship between Bradford and Salinas was often
rocky, but it was to last the rest of the artist's life and give him a
modest sense of loyalty and security, things which are all too rare in
the art world. While Bradford could be critical of his work, Salinas
knew that he had a dealer who encouraged him, believed in him and was
not shy about singing his praises to anyone who entered Bradford's
store on Guadalupe Street.
During the early years of World
War II Salinas met a pretty Mexican woman from Guadalajara named Maria
Bonillas, who was working as a secretary for the Mexican National
Railways office in San Antonio. While he was walking downtown with a
painting of a bullfighter under his arm, he started a conversation with
the young woman, and things progressed rapidly. The couple were married
on February 15, 1942 and settled into life in bi-lingual San Antonio
and they eventually purchased a tidy stone home on Buena Vista street
that had a detached studio in back. By the time the United States
entered World War II, Salinas was starting to make a decent living
selling his art and beginning to garner recognition across Texas.
However, in 1943, like millions of other young men, he was drafted into
the service of his country. Fortunately, as an older Army draftee with
special talents, after his training he was assigned to Fort Sam
Houston, right in San Antonio, allowing him to remain at home while
still completing his obligation to "Uncle Sam." Because of his artistic
abilities, Salinas was asked to do paintings for the Army as well as a
mural for the Officer's Club, which has been re-discovered in recent
years. In his spare time he kept working on landscapes and when the war
ended in 1945, he was not faced with the same rocky transition from
military to civilian life as many veterans. That same year, Salinas
became a father as he and Maria celebrated the birth of his only child,
Christina Maria Salinas.
Like most landscape artists of the
era, Salinas was an avid Plein-air painter, and he took his easel and
paint box with him on trips throughout Texas and into Mexico. He and
his wife traveled deep into her native country, where the artist
painted the majestic volcanic peaks of Iztaccihuatl (known as the
"Sleeping Woman" because of its unique shape) and Popocatepetl (called
the "smoking mountain" because the volcano is still active), south of
Mexico City. Salinas also painted studies of rustic villages and their
residents. While his most popular paintings were always the scenes of
the Texas Bluebonnets and other wildflowers that bloom all over the
Hill Country in the spring, he also painted scenes of the twisted Texas
oak trees of central Texas, the more arid landscapes of the Texas
panhandle and West Texas, and the historic Texas missions; he even sold
rapidly executed scenes of bullfights and cockfights for
Mexican-American collectors.
By the late 1940s, the American
economy was finally growing again and wealthier Texans began to collect
Salinas paintings, purchasing them from galleries in San Antonio and
Dallas and at Dewey Bradford's County Store Gallery in Austin. Salinas
also sold work to the Atlanta dealer Dr. Carlton Palmer, who
represented Robert W. Wood for many years. In 1948 Palmer sold two
large Salinas paintings to the Citizen National Bank in Abilene, Texas.
Because Austin was the state capitol, Bradford counted many of the
state's elite among his patrons, and due to his interest in history and
literature, he played a large role in the cultural history of central
Texas. Bradford introduced a number of the major Texas political
figures to Salinas' work, including Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908-1973),
who was then in the House of Representatives and on his way to winning
a controversial election that vaulted him in the United States Senate.
Johnson became an enthusiastic collector, as did his political mentor,
the legendary House Speaker Sam Rayburn (1882-1961). Johnson decorated
his Washington offices with Salinas paintings and he brought a number
of them home to his vast LBJ Ranch, near Johnson City, Texas. In spite
of his important patrons, Salinas went through a fallow and difficult
period in the late 1950s. He had a volatile temperament, which made
relationships difficult, and it took great patience for his wife to
help him manage his career.
As Salinas entered middle age his
work began to sell steadily, but except for tourists who purchased his
paintings in San Antonio, he was known primarily only to Texas art
collectors. All that changed in 1961 with the election of John F.
Kennedy (1917-1963) to the Presidency of the United States and his
running mate Lyndon Johnson to the Vice Presidency. Johnson was an
expansive, larger-than-life character and his status as a long, tall
Texan in a cowboy hat was a large part of his imposing political image.
During his storied career in the House of Representatives and the
United States Senate, Johnson and Lady Bird Johnson (1912-2007) spent
their time in Washington in a modest house on the edge of Rock Creek
Park, but this home would not do for a Vice President. So, in 1961, the
Johnsons purchased a French chateau-styled home in the Spring Valley
section of the Capitol. Obtained from the famed socialite and
ambassador Perle Mesta (1889-1975), the house came with a fine
collection of French furniture and tapestries, and the designer
Genevieve Hendricks was hired to meld the French look with objects from
the Johnsons' overseas travels and paintings of the flora and fauna of
their native Texas. Featured prominently in the foyer were the
paintings of Porfirio Salinas. Because of the Johnsons' patronage, his
work was mentioned in Time Magazine and other national publications.
Lady Bird Johnson loved her landscapes of the Texas Hill Country and
told reporters that, "I want to see them when ever I open the door, to
remind me where I come from."
After President Kennedy's death
thrust Lyndon Johnson into the Presidency, he brought his Salinas
paintings into the historic halls of the White House, further enhaning
the Texas painter's national reputation. At the time of the President
Kennedy's assassination, Salinas had completed a scene of a horse
drinking titled "Rocky Creek" that was to have been presented to
Kennedy during his ill-fated visit to Dallas. Instead, in an effort to
memorialize the fallen President, Salinas painted a symbolic work of a
lone horse depicted against foreboding clouds. During his tenure in the
White House, President Johnson presented a Salinas landscape as a state
gift to the President of Mexico, Gustavo Diaz Ordaz (1911-1979). During
the 1960s, Salinas paintings sold briskly and, thanks to Presidential
patronage, for escalating prices. In an interview with a writer from
the New York Times, President Johnson enthused about the work of "his
favorite artist" and said that, "his work reminds me of the country
around the ranch." Salinas was invited to the LBJ Ranch frequently
during the Johnson administration and his paintings were hung
throughout the ranch, in the President's offices and even in the
private quarters of the White House. The connection to President
Johnson was a great boon to sales of Salinas paintings, and in 1964,
when the demand was at its height, Texas Governor John Connelly
(1917-1993) was told that all Salinas'work was sold and that he would
have to wait for a painting.
In 1960, a half century after his
birth, Salinas was honored by his home town of Bastrop, a celebration
that touched the modest artist. In 1962 Salinas was given a solo
exhibition at the Witte Museum in San Antonio that featured more than
twenty of his works. By the early 1960s, sales of reproductions of the
artist's landscapes by the New York Graphic Society and other
publishers grew rapidly, enlarging his audience throughout the United
States. In 1967, Dewey Bradford helped to organize the production of a
book of Texas stories titled "Bluebonnets and Cactus" (Austin:
Pemberton Press: 1967), which was profusely illustrated with paintings
by Salinas. His works were still popular when Salinas died after a
brief illness in April of 1973, just a few months after former
President Johnson's passing. He was memorialized in the City of Austin
by Porfirio Salinas Day, which honored him for having "done much to
bring the culture of Mexico and Texas together with his paintings."
Bastrop, Texas, the city of the artist's birth, has been holding a
Salinas Art Exhibition annually since 1981.
He painted hundreds of scenes of the wildflowers,
including the various varieties of Blue Lupin, the state flower, as
well as other flowering flora. These show the influence of his artistic
mentors Robert W. Wood and Jose Arpa Y Perea. Salinas also painted a
number of scenes of Prickly Pear Cactus that show the influence of the
English painter Dawson Dawson-Watson (1864-1939), who painted many such
works during his tenure in Texas. He painted the more arid Texas
landscape infrequently and these works are very rare today and sought
after by collectors from the Texas Panhandle and West Texas. Salinas
also painted many river landscapes along the Guadalupe, Rio Frio, the
San Antonio and the Rio Grande. On trips to his wife's homeland of
Mexico, he painted a number of scenes of the volcanic peaks as well as
scenes of peasant villages and villagers. Figurative paintings are rare
among Salinas' works and these scenes of bullfights, fandangos and cock
fights are probably the least sought after of his paintings. There are
also a small number of modest marines, painted on trips to the Texas
and California coast. Salinas paintings are highly prized by collectors
of early Texas art, with the paintings of wildflowers in greatest
demand.
Works by Porfirio Salinas can be found in a number of
public collections, including the Panhandle Plains Historical Museum in
Canyon, Texas; the Texas State Capitol; the Texas Governor's Mansion;
the Lyndon Baines Johnson Ranch; the Sam Rayburn Library and Museum in
Bonham, Texas; Amarillo High School; the Witte Museum in San Antonio;
the historic Joan and Price Daniel House in San Antonio; the Stark
Museum in Orange, Texas; the R.W. Norton Art Gallery in Shreveport,
Louisiana; the Sangre de Cristo Arts Center in Pueblo, Colorado; Texas
A & M University and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.
Salinas has been featured in a number of reference works as well as
anthologies devoted to American Western Art...
Category
Impressionist Mid-20th Century Art
Materials
Oil
In 1968, a striking political poster for the Basque Country - Avec Enbata
Located in PARIS, FR
In 1968, a striking political poster emerged as a powerful symbol of solidarity and identity for the Basque Country. This original poster, featuring the message "avec Enbata pour le ...
Category
Mid-20th Century Art
Materials
Paper, Lithograph, Linen
Original Christmas Card, plate signed, collection of Herb Nass, Warhol attorney
By Andy Warhol
Located in New York, NY
Andy Warhol
Original vintage Christmas Card, ca. 1957
Offset lithograph card
Plate signed on the front (see close up image)
Unnumbered
Frame included
Offset lithograph card, ca. 1957...
Category
Pop Art Mid-20th Century Art
Materials
Lithograph, Offset
F Brown Mid-century painting of colorful figure
Located in San Francisco, CA
F Brown Mid-century painting of colorful figure
'69
Oil on canvas
8 x 10 unframed, 9.25 x 11.25 framed
Category
Mid-20th Century Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Rooster, Lithograph by Bernard Buffet
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Bernard Buffet, French (1928 - 1999)
Title: Rooster
Year: 1953
Medium: Lithograph mounted on Board, signed in the plate
Image Size: 15 x 10 in. (50.8 x 36.83 cm)
Frame: 22 x ...
Category
Modern Mid-20th Century Art
Materials
Lithograph
Vintage Romantic Landscape Oil Painting on Panel, Signed G. Holman, Framed
Located in Palm Coast, FL
This original vintage oil painting on panel presents a peaceful romantic landscape in the tradition of 19th-century pastoral scenes. A lone tree stands bare against a glowing amber s...
Category
Impressionist Mid-20th Century Art
Materials
Oil
Roy Lichtenstein - As I Opened Fire (Triptych) - 1966 Offset Lithograph 25"x 62"
Located in Brooklyn, NY
This is a reproduction of Roy Lichtenstein's iconic triptych "As I Opened Fire" (1964), part of the Stedelijk Museum collection in Amsterdam. The original work, created with acrylic ...
Category
Pop Art Mid-20th Century Art
Materials
Offset
Yokohama
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled "Yokohama" 1955, is an oil on canvas by noted Japanese artist Shigehiko Ishikawa, 1909-1994. It is signed at the lower left corner by the artist. The canvas size ...
Category
Impressionist Mid-20th Century Art
Materials
Oil
Vintage Signed American Modernist Framed Landscape Architectural Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American modernist signed landscape oil painting. Oil on canvas. Signed. Framed.
Category
Modern Mid-20th Century Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
$556 Sale Price
20% Off
Mid-Century Modern Figurative Street Scene Oil Painting - Love Under the Trees
Located in Bristol, GB
LOVE UNDER THE TREES
Size: 36.5 x 27.5 cm (including frame)
Oil on canvas
A small but vibrant modernist oil composition, painted onto canvas.
The painting depicts a cosy outdoor sc...
Category
Modern Mid-20th Century Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Affiche no.87 - 1964 - Eduardo Chillida - Lithograph - Contemporary
Located in Roma, IT
Affiche n°87 is a beautiful lithograph realized by Eduardo Chillida in 1964.
Hand-signed and numbered by the artist on the lower left in pencil. Edition 11/25.Editions Maeght, Pari...
Category
Contemporary Mid-20th Century Art
Materials
Lithograph
$2,594 Sale Price
25% Off
"Lincoln in Dalivision" UNFRAMED Vintage Print A/P
Located in Chesterfield, MI
Print published by Jean-Paul Loup. Unframed, but we have framing options available.
Measures: 31.50 x 24.50
Category
Mid-20th Century Art
Materials
Lithograph
A Serene, ca. 1940s, Western Landscape Painting with Horses by Francis Chapin
Located in Chicago, IL
A serene, ca. 1940s, Western landscape painting with horses by artist Francis Chapin. In a brown, wooden frame. Image size: 22" x 28". Framed size: 25" x 31". Provenance: Estate of the artist.
Francis Chapin, affectionately called the “Dean of Chicago Painters” by his colleagues, was one of the city’s most popular and celebrated painters in his day. Born at the dawn of the 20th Century in Bristolville, Ohio, Chapin graduated from Washington & Jefferson College near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania before enrolling at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1922. He would set down deep roots at the Art Institute of Chicago, exhibiting there over 31 times between 1926 and 1951. In 1927 Chapin won the prestigious Bryan Lathrop Fellowship from the Art Institute – a prize that funded the artist’s yearlong study trip to Europe. Upon his return to the United States, Chapin decided to remain in Chicago, noting the freedom Chicago artists have in developing independently of the pressure to conform to pre-existing molds (as was experienced by artists in New York, for example). Chapin became a popular instructor at the Art Institute, teaching there from 1929 to 1947 and at the Art Institute’s summer art school in Saugatuck, Michigan (now called Oxbow) between 1934 – 1938 (he was the director of the school from 1941-1945). Chapin’s contemporaries among Chicago’s artists included such luminaries as Ivan Le Lorraine Albright...
Category
American Modern Mid-20th Century Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Vintage American School Abstract Expressionist Large Neutral Tone Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American modernist abstract oil painting. Oil on canvas. Framed.
Category
Abstract Mid-20th Century Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
$1,871 Sale Price
25% Off
Highway Derelict
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Highway Derelict, May, 1939, oil on canvas board, signed upper right, 18 x 20 inches, exhibited 1) Society of Independent Artists, American Society of Fine Arts (Art Students League), New York, NY, April 19 – May 12, 1940, no. 535 (noted verso, listed in catalog, and see Kantner, Dorothy, Palette Palaver, Pittsburgh Sun Telegraph, April 19, 1940 – “Helen F. Price and Ethel M. Dean, the former of Johnstown, the latter of this city, are two members of the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh who are represented in the Independent Artist’s Exhibition which opens today in New York. Miss Price is represented by . . . ‘Highway Derelict’ . . . .”), 2) Solo Exhibition of Log Cabin Paintings...
Category
American Modern Mid-20th Century Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil, Board
"Creeping Charlie" Botanical Watercolor
Located in Soquel, CA
Beautiful hand painted and silkscreen print of a "Creeping Charlie" house plant by Babette Joslyn Bauman Eddleston (American, 1922-1990). Titled and signed on bottom "Creeping Charlie; Babette Eddleston...
Category
American Impressionist Mid-20th Century Art
Materials
Paper, Ink, Watercolor