Portrait Art

Dame Ethel Walker DBE ARA (1861-1951) Young Man in a Red Tie Oil on canvas 51 x 40.6 cm.; (within frame) 70 x 59.7 cm. Provenance: The Lefevre Gallery, London, stock number X890; Christie’s, London, Modern British Pictures, Watercolours, Drawings and Sculpture, 12 September 1996, lot 58; Bonhams, London, Modern British and Irish Art, 23 November 2022, lot 177; Private Collection, United Kingdom. This focussed composition is dominated by a handsome young man in profile, frowning with a concentrated glare. His slender cheeks meet a jaw brushed with a masculine grey, complimented by the blue of a flower or pocket square, and the shadow of a loose strand of oiled hair that rests across his forehead. The stylistic sophistication shows Walker at her best, ambitiously combining measured figuration with expressive abstraction, as delicious dashes of pigment appear still wet, and dissonant swipes energetically mark the surface of the canvas. With an elegance that borders on the effete, the sitter’s urbane style includes a spearpoint collar, framed by the wide lapels of his suit jacket. Most significantly, the young man’s dandyish fashion is augmented by the conspicuous titular red tie which he wears – an established expression of queerness in the 20th century. Painted by the lesbian artist Dame Ethel Walker, it is likely that the portrait is that of a gay man belonging to London’s queer artistic circles. Indeed, Walker’s male sitters (who constitute but a fraction of her output) are typically conceived as modish, and often wear striking colourful ties. Walker was one of the earliest lesbian artists to overtly explore her sexuality in her works, and an aesthetic fascination with the female form culminated with her glorious large-scale ‘decorations’, exemplified by Decoration: The Excursion of Nausicaa (Tate, N03885). Red neckties had been established in the 20th century as a coded (though appropriately colourful) expression of queerness, not dissimilar to the green carnation of the Wildean aesthetes. The gay writer and musician Mikhail Kuzmin was painted in 1909 in a stark red tie. Two decades later, the Anglo-French physician Havelock Ellis described the red necktie as an emblem amongst queer New Yorkers: ‘[…] there has been a fashion for a red tie to be adopted by inverts [homosexuals] as their badge’ (Ellis, p. 299). The motif permeated fiction, and in Thomas Mann’s 1912 novel Death In Venice, the protagonist Gustav von Aschenbach begins to wear a red necktie after he develops an infatuation with a beautiful young boy staying at his hotel. William Faulkner’s 1929 novel The Sound and the Fury includes an unnamed male character identified throughout by his distinctive red necktie, which is the subject of veiled insinuations against his masculinity. Walker must surely have been familiar with this symbolic importance when she executed the present portrait. Her few portraits of male sitters include colourful neckties almost exclusively, and include numerous examples of red neckties. Indeed, the artist herself preferred to wear a red tie, a declaration which so impressed itself on Virginia Woolf that she noted it in a diary entry after tea with Walker (Bell, p. 282). Walker, who painted Woolf’s sister Vanessa Bell, had once offered to paint Woolf in the nude, as Lilith. Around the same time, Augustus John painted the gay peer Evan Morgan, 2nd Viscount Tredegar, in a loose red necktie or neck scarf. The portrait passed through the Lefevre Gallery, which also represented Walker, and which inventoried the present work. While the sartorial choice may have been incidental, a colourful accessory chosen to enliven the portrait, its prominent inclusion would suggest a personal significance to Walker, the recognition of a shared experience between artist and subject. Dame Ethel Walker was hailed as a leading female artist of her generation, and as late as 2010 was one of only four women artists to have been honoured as a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. Walker was born in Edinburgh in 1861 to the botanist Arthur Abney Walker, a descendent of the Walker family of iron industrialists, whose estates included Clifton House (Rotherham) and Blythe Hall (Nottinghamshire). She attended school in London after the family moved to Wimbledon, and in 1880 met the fellow artist Clara Christian, with whom she would form an important personal and professional bond. The women’s relationship was later allegorised by the writer George Moore as that of Stella (Christian) and Florence (Walker) in his fictionalised three-volume memoir Hail and Farewell. Walker went on to Putney School of Art and Westminster School of Art, and studied under Frederick Brown, who became a lifelong mentor. Around 1893 Walker took further study at the Slade School of Art, partly under Walter Sickert, and returned in 1912, 1916, and 1921. Although Walker enjoyed painting floral still lifes and seascapes, her best work was portraiture. She worked from her studio at 38 Cheyne Walk for most of her career, and enjoyed a prominent role in London’s artistic milieu. Her sitters included the artists Lucien Pissarro, Orovida Camille Pissarro, Vanessa Bell, and Barbara Hepworth; she painted Nancy Astor, the Countess of Strathcona, the editor Joan Werner Laurie, and author Leo Walmsley. The actors Flora Robson and Elsa Lanchester sat for Walker, as did the young Christopher Robin Milne. Walker herself was photographed by the bisexual photographer and painter Humphrey Spender...

The underlying body of work is an exploration of texturizing distortion as a language of expression. The works explore an awaking of an Afrocentric consciousness connected to gender,...

Irving Ramsay Wiles, 1861-1948 A Fashionable Young Lady Oil on canvas 28 1/8 x 22 5/8 inches Signed lower right: Irving R Wiles Illustrator, teacher, and painter Irving Ramsey Wiles was adept at portraits, figural works, and landscapes characterized by the informal elegance of cosmopolitan American art at the turn of the twentieth century. Wiles received his earliest art instruction from his father, landscape painter and teacher Lemuel M. Wiles (1826–1905), and at the age of eighteen, in 1879, exhibited his first painting at New York’s prestigious National Academy of Design. After one year’s study at the Art Students League in New York, under the influential painter-teachers William Merritt Chase and J. Carroll Beckwith, Wiles went to Paris for further study. He enrolled in the Académie Julian, a popular school among American artists, and then worked in the studio of French academic painter Charles Auguste Émile Durand, known as Carolus-Duran (1837–1917). During his student years Wiles painted watercolor street scenes of Paris, and he also traveled in Italy and in the French countryside. Wiles returned to New York in 1884 and exhibited two of his sketches. These attracted the notice of the art editor of the popular Century Magazine, who asked the young artist to make illustrations for the journal. Wiles’s illustrations appeared in other publications as well, and he also supported himself by teaching at his studio and at his father’s summer art school in upstate New York. Wiles was elected a member of the progressive Society of American Artists and, after one of his works won a prize there, to the National Academy of Design as an associate member; full membership followed in 1897. By that date, Wiles was able to devote himself more fully to portraits and figural compositions in oils, paintings that mark the influence of his teacher Chase, who remained a lifelong friend. Like his mentor, Wiles also worked in watercolor and pastel and belonged to several organizations devoted to those media, which enjoyed revivals in late-nineteenth-century America. He exhibited his work widely and won numerous awards throughout his career. In the late 1890s, Wiles and his father moved their summer classes to Peconic, on the North Fork of New York’s Long Island...

Oil on layered paper Image size: 10 1/2 x 8 1/4 inches (26.5 x 21 cm) Contemporary swept frame This is an eighteenth century portrait of a...

19th century male portrait, painting Oil on canvas No visible signature, 25 x 30 unframed

French Character Portrait French school, Mid 20th Century Gouache paint on unframed paper stamped inscribed verso Image : 11.75 x 9.25 inches Overall Painting: 25.5 x 19.75 inches ...

This little jewel of a pastel of a young boy in his smart red jacket and silver trimmed waistcoat is by an artist working in the circle of Arthur Pond and ...

French Character Portrait French school, Mid 20th Century Gouache paint on unframed paper inscribed verso stamped on reverse Image: 25. 75 x 19.75 inches Superbly decorative 1960's...

Alkyd-oil on Masonite board, 102cm x 83cm, (124cm x 104cm framed). The painting comes directly from the artist. Michael Leonard is most probably most famous for his portrait of HM ...

Portrait of a Man Smoking a Pipe in Oil on Masonite Detailed portrait of a man with a pipe by Heinz Robert Schubert (German, 1912-2001 approx.). A man wearing a short-brimmed hat is...

This piece is an original photograph shot by George Hurrell in 1941 and printed at a later date. This image depicts Rita Hayworth, an American actress an...

Pulitzer On The Beach Patsy Pulitzer at Palm Beach, Florida, circa 1955. Slim Aarons silver gelatine fibre based print Printed Later Slim Aarons Estate Edition Produced utilisi...

Herman Richir Detail of the Young Horsewoman c. 1980s Fine color facsimile 28 x 22 inches, 32 x 26 (framed)

The Beatles were an English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. With a line-up comprising John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, they are regarded as the mo...

Impressionist School, second half of the 19th century Portrait of Two Young Girls Oil on panel, 28 x 22 cm Provenance: Private collection, Paris This delicate portrait, executed ...

"Ryan O'Neal" is a Pop art Polaroid, Polacolor portrait photograph by Andy Warhol in 1971. The artwork is 4 1/4 x 3 3/8 inches each and, with the frame, is 9 x 9 x 1 1/2 inches each...

Susan Ricker Knox American, 1874-1959 Lady in a Sun Hat Oil on canvas 28 by 36 in, w/ frame 36 by 44 in Signed upper left Susan was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Susan Knox ex...

Shipping Procedure Ships in a well-protected tube. This work is unique, not a print or other type of copy. Accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity. About Artist Adebayo Taiwo, ...

g. paul – lotus 1996 Signed, dated, and numbered, verso Gelatin silver print 20 x 16 inches, sheet 15 x 15 inches, image (Edition of 30) $3500.00 This work is offered by CLAMP in...

This black and white portrait features American film actress and a leading lady in Hollywood for over two decades, Claudette Colbert. Colbert is featured here in a dramatic nature sc...

Anthropomorphic figure created by accumulating representations of flowers, plants, insects, and other elements of kitsch iconography, with intense, bright, and fluorescent colors. Th...

China marker on smooth bristol paper. Jay Golding’s realistic portrait and figure drawings/paintings are inspired primarily by Indigenous culture and heritage but are not limited to...

Andy Warhol, Jed Johnson, Monique Van Vooren, Steve Rubell, Michael Goldstein, Susan Blond, Caroline Kennedy, Peter Beard, Grace Jones, Francesco Scavullo, Sean Byrnes, and Margrit Ramme at the premiere party for "Bobby Deerfield" at Tavern on the Green in New York City on September 18, 1977. Illustrated in The Andy Warhol Diaries...

Albert Pels (1910-1998) Painting of a group of figures, c. 20th century. 12 x 16 in. Framed dimensions: 19 1/2 x 23 1/4 in. Albert Pels was an art educator and painter of figures, genre scenes, urban and rural images, and illustration. He also did murals and worked in the mediums of oil, fresco, and watercolor. He was born on May 7, 1910, in Cincinnati, Ohio and died at the age of eighty-eight on January 25, 1998 in New York City. Albert Pels was the son of Samuel and Frieda Pels. He had two children, Joan Barbara and Richard J.A. with his first wife Gertrude Ethel Jaeckel. He later married Yolanda Zemfler, a painter of impressionist art. While in Ohio, Pels attended the Cincinnati Art Academy in 1931 where he won several scholarships. After moving to New York, he continued his education at the Art Students League, Beaux Arts and the American School. At the Art Students League, Pels studied under Thomas Hart Benton, Kenneth Hayes Miller, and Alexander Brook. Under the tutelage of these mentors, Pels evolved his technique and style. Pels was a member of the National Society of Mural Painters, the Salmagundi Club, and the Society of Independent Artists. He was on the board of directors of the Arts Students League in 1939, as well as, on the board the WPA Artists...

Born in Hollywood and raised in the urban sprawls of Los Angeles, Julio’s artistic aesthetic was shaped early on by the platinum light and expansive concrete horizons of southern Cal...

Jesus freaks outiside St. Peter, Rome is a black and white vintage photo, realized in 1970s. Good conditions and aged. It belongs to a historical and nostalgic album including hist...

Lithograph printed in colours Edition of 99 Signed, numbered and dated on the front Excellent. Minor soft handling creases and faint traces of surface soiling. This does not distract...

George Platt Lynes Photograph #4 of dancer Francisco Moncion 1949. George Platt Lynes rare original vintage 1949 gelatin silver photogra...

Las Curvas by James Sparshatt - Sensual photo of woman. Platinum Print A girl at one with the rhythm of her guitar in Holguín, Cuba. James Sparshatt’s photographs of music and dan...

Wild Things (Till Death do us Part) - 2005 20x20cm, Edition of 10, plus 2 Artist Proofs, Archival C-Print, based on the Polaroid. Certificate and Signature label. Artist Inventory...

Watercolor portrait of a young Mexican girl by Joseph Yeager (American, 20th Century). Signed "Joe Yeager" in the lower right corner. This piece is on hea...

Vladimir was born in the city of Khabarovsk, on December 19, 1957. When he was two years old, his mother abandoned his father, took her son and moved to Sverdlovsk (formerly, Yekater...

Portrait Of Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855), 19th Century European School - unfinished study Large 19th Century European School unfinished portrait of Danish Philosopher Søren Kierke...

Edward Moore Kennedy (February 22, 1932 – August 25, 2009) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States senator from Massachusetts for almost 47 years, from 19...

A charming oil portrait of professor Stuart from the Sexton of St Botolph’s Church, Cambridge, 1942. Unsigned. With provenance retained from the artist's family. On board.

A tobacco farmer from the Viñales valley in Cuba. In 1959 residents of Cuba were faced with a stark choice: stay on their island home and live as a “revolutionary” or leave. Some believed wholeheartedly in the new beginning, some were willing to be carried along and some abandoned everything they had and chose exile. The Buena Vista social club...

Study of man is an original artwork realized in the late 19th Century and attributed to the painter Marcello Dragonetti. Mixed colored oil paintig on canvas. Titled and signature ...

When Lawrence Schiller got the assignment from the French magazine Paris Match to photograph Marilyn Monroe on the 20th century Fox set of Something’s Got To Give, he thought nothing...

A really charming study of a blacksmith puffing on a clay pipe at the forge door. Thomas Charles Leeson Rowbotham Junr (1823-1875) Village Blacksmith Patterdale, Aug 1848 Signed, in...

Shipping Procedure Ships in a well-protected tube from Nigeria This work is unique, not a print or other type of copy. Accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity. About Artist Mes...

Listing is for UNFRAMED print. Inquire within for framing. Edition of 1. If the exhibition piece is sold or the customer orders a different print size, the photograph is produced upon purchase. Please allow two weeks for production. Shipping time depends on method of shipping. Price is subject to availability. The Robin Rice Gallery reserves the right to adjust this price depending on the current edition of the photograph. ABOUT: For the last two years Mark and Kristen have collaborated using one of the earliest photographic methods, collodion wet plate to create ambrotypes on glass and tintypes on aluminum. They use a 1860 style view camera to create one-of-a-kind images, which become windows into an intimate, romantic, and beautiful world of faces, still lives, nudes, and landscapes. In this demanding process, the collodion coated tin or glass plates are immersed in a silver nitrate solution, and then they must be exposed in the camera and developed while still wet. Serendipitous flaws and beautiful imperfections are an inevitable part of this imprecise hands-on process. This show includes a combination of 24 tintypes and ambrotypes, which are 8x10 and smaller in size. Their intimate sizes ask the viewers to look closer and spend more time with these photographs to fully appreciate their power. — A welcome antidote to today's nonstop, ¬instantaneous imagery. Paradoxically, this intersection of past and present gives these pieces an unmistakably contemporary feel. The two collaborators deliberately play up the ambiguity of time. The nudes (some recalling E.J. Bellocq's alluring portraits of New Orleans prostitutes in 1912) are suffused with freshness and sensuality, even eroticism at times, with nearly all of them coming off as refined rather than crass. Fredrick Scott Archer developed the collodion process in 1851. Artists such as Julia Margaret Cameron, Lewis Carroll, William Henry Jackson and Civil War photographer Mathew Brady used the process, due to its cost and versatility advantages. In addition Sink and Hatgi’s work can also be seen revived in contemporary artists work...

France circa 1820 Portrait of a gentleman Black chalk and pastel on paper 12 x 10 cm In its original mount, modern oak frame : 25 x 22.5 cm

Signed by Artist Lower Right The present work is a study for the cover illustration of Rockwell's American Petroleum Institute Quarterly: Centennial Issue

Jean Baptiste Camille COROT (after) After the Bath, 1873 Original Etching Engraved by Boilevin under the supervision of COROT Printed sig...

This stunning black and white studio portrait features Gloria Dehaven posed in a captivating glamour portrait. Gloria DaHaven was an American actress and singer who was a contract st...

"Carmine" (2023), by Brittany Williams, based in the Finger Lakes region of NY state Figurative portrait painting, pop portraiture, street art, stre...

Tina Garrett's (US based) "Magique Noir" is an original, handmade oil painting that depicts a model with a painted face. This is a secondary market work with one previous owner.

Scandinavian School, early twentieth century. Inscribed, verso, on stretcher bar, 'Anna Ancher' with indistinct inscription and painted circa 1910. A psychologically-penetrating portrait of a young woman shown in profile, wearing a gold earring and a polychrome silk headscarf...

Painting, 19th Century, Portrait of an African Boy, signed, oil on canvas. Dimensions with frame 65cm x 73cm

Underwater photograph of a ballerina in red tutu skirt dancing underwater in a pool. A very bright photograph with plenty of sun and positivity. Original digital print on aluminum p...

By drawing insight from these wonderful art pieces, we can gain a deeper understanding of the ways in which splendor shapes our perception, values, Posture, and experiences. This ar...

'Young Navajo at Baseball' is a black and white photographic print on Hahnemuhle paper in a limited edition of 10 by Michael Ormerod. Featured in the 2024 posthumous solo exhibitio...

Fahamu Pecou overlays social commentary and hip-hop culture onto the world of contemporary art with paintings and drawings that depict himself on fictionalized magazine covers and in...

This artwork "Couple in a Snowing Day" c.1960 is an oil painting on canvas by Spanish artist Josep (Jose) Buigas, b.1927. It is signed at the lower right corner by the artist. The si...

2018 marks the centenary anniversary of Ferdinand Hodler’s death. In that 100 years time, the art world’s esteem of this important artist has proved fickle. It has shifted from extol...

Holidaymakers on the Tuscan coast at the Hotel Il Pellicano, Porto Ercole, August 1969 Gorgeous print measuring 30 x 20" inches / ca 76.2 x 50.8 cm’s paper size. Estate Stamped C...

Napoleon is an Etching realized by P.Bellange in 1837 by Pierre-François Tardieu. Good conditions. The artwork is realized in a well-balanced composition. the artwork and belongs t...

A finely painted watercolour portrait of a 19th century gentleman wearing a tailored black suit with white cravat. Presented in a gilt frame with bead course. Unsigned. On paper.

Edition 25 Also available in 101 x 127 cm / 40 x 50 inch, Edition 10 Black and white portrait of musician and actor Ned Brower. From personality portraits and advertising campaign...