Albert Al Hirschfeld Mixed Media

"Dragon," by Quang Ho, is a secondary market work with one previous owner. It is signed and dated (1988) on the lower left. The painting comes with it's original frame (measures 50 x...

Lionel S. Reiss (1894 - 1988) Lobstermen in Gloucester, Massachusetts, circa 1943 Watercolor on paper Sight 17 1/2 x 23 inches Signed lower left Provenance: Private Collection, Las Vegas, Nevada In describing his own style, Lionel Reiss wrote, “By nature, inclination, and training, I have long since recognized the fact that...I belong to the category of those who can only gladly affirm the reality of the world I live in.” Reiss’s subject matter was wide-ranging, including gritty New York scenes, landscapes of bucolic Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and seascapes around Gloucester, Massachusetts. However, it was as a painter of Jewish life—both in Israel and in Europe before World War II—that Reiss excelled. I.B. Singer, the Nobel Prize winner for Literature, noted that Reiss was “essentially an artist of the nineteenth century, and because of this he had the power and the courage to tell visually the story of a people.” Although Reiss was born in Jaroslaw, Poland, his family immigrated to the United States in 1898 when he was four years old. Reiss's family settled on New York City’s Lower East Side and he lived in the city for most of his life. Reiss attended the Art Students League and then worked as a commercial artist for newspapers and publishers. As art director for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, he supposedly created the studio’s famous lion logo. After World War I, Reiss became fascinated with Jewish life in the ‘Old World.’ In 1921 he left his advertising work and spent the next ten years traveling in Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. Like noted Jewish photographers Alter Kacyzne and Roman Vishniac, Reiss depicted Jewish life in Poland prior to World War II. He later wrote, “My trip encompassed three main objectives: to make ethnic studies of Jewish types wherever I traveled; to paint and draw Jewish life, as I saw it and felt it, in all aspects; and to round out my work in Israel.” In Europe, Reiss recorded quotidian scenes in a variety of media and different settings such as Paris, Amsterdam, the Venice ghetto, the Jewish cemetery in Prague, and an array of shops, synagogues, streets, and marketplaces in the Jewish quarters of Warsaw, Lodz, Krakow, Lublin, Vilna, Ternopil, and Kovno. He paid great attention to details of dress, hair, and facial features, and his work became noted for its descriptive quality. A selection of Reiss’s portraits appeared in 1938 in his book My Models Were Jews. In this book, published on the eve of the Holocaust, Reiss argued that there was “no such thing as a ‘Jewish race’.” Instead, he claimed that the Jewish people were a cultural group with a great deal of diversity within and between Jewish communities around the world. Franz Boas...

Untitled (Joe Louis knocking out Max Schmeling in 1938 rematch) Pen and ink with wash on heavy wove sketchbook paper, 1938 Signed lower right: Fletcher Martin Directly related to Martin's famous painting of 1942 entitled "Lullaby", which was also used in the lithograph of the same name. (see photo) The drawing depicts the third and final knockdown of Max Schmeling in their rematch of 1938. Condition: Mat staining at the edges of the sketchbook page edges Toning to verso from previous framing. Does not affect framed presentation "It was here that Louis first used sport to bridge America's cavernous racial divide. With Hitler on the march in Europe and using Schmeling's victory over Louis as proof of “Aryan supremacy,” anti-Nazi sentiment ran high in the States. Louis had long grown accustomed to the pressures of representing his race but here the burdens were broader and deeper. Now he was shouldering the hopes of an entire nation. A few weeks before the match Louis visited the White House and U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, whose tenure lasted even longer than Louis' would, told him, “Joe, we need muscles like yours to beat Germany.” Those muscles certainly beat Schmeling on fight night...

Emerging in the late twentieth century with his celebrated “Men in the Cities” series, Robert Longo quickly established himself as a draftsman of rare discipline, transforming media ...

Illustrated for the 1949 Four Seasons Calendar, published by Brown and Bigelow. A young girl holds a freshly-picked bouquet of flowers as she strolls alongside a boy who carries he...

I am Human Watercolor, ink on paper 49"x42" framed Keith Carrington Keith Carrington’s experiences have led him to express his talents through the fluid a...

Gorgeous 1930s figure drawing of a seated female nude by student of Lee Fritz Randolph (American, 1880-1956), 1937. Signed "Randolph," "C.S.F.A." for California School of Fine Art and dated "6/28/37" upper right. "C.S.F.A" and "6/28/37" lower right. Unframed. Image size, 25"H x 10"L. We believe a student of Lee Randolph...

A serene Hudson River scene by a student of Louis Comfort Tiffany. Anna May Walling was born in 1881, a native of Goshen, New York. She was a graduate of the Blair Academy, and Prat...

Funny is profound in this slightly cynical 1970 New Yorker cartoon by legendary cartoonist Chon Day. What's the World Coming To?, ( published caption ) New Yorker cartoon, August 8,...

American Impressionist

The first Black Illustrator, E. Simms Campbell, paints a complex comic narrative featuring an opulent harem with 14 wives/concubines. The artist caters to a man's fantasy by placing the male subject in the middle of a 360-degree ring of well-endowed beauties. Almost all of the women are chomping at the bit to see if she will be the lucky winner. Each portrait is painstakingly rendered to flaunt its well-endowed feminine charms. In the center of it all is the male protagonist, vicariously representing the viewer. He is depicted playing spin-the-bottle to see who will be his next lover of the moment. Visually, it's a delight to look at. Technically, it's masterfully designed, with curving shapes, bathed in soft light, and a mouthwatering purple color scheme. It may be one of Campbell's most ambitious efforts because it successfully conceives and executes a large scene populated with 16 people. As with all vintage cartoons...

Watercolor on Paper Page Size: 14 x 17 in. Frame Size: 22.5 x 26.5 in. Signed, bottom right: "K. Fearing '40" This watercolor painting from 1940 ...