Skip to main content

Anton Refregier Art

American, 1905-1979

Anton Refregier was a painter and muralist active in Works Progress Administration Federal Art Project commissions, and in teaching art. He was a Russian immigrant to the United States. He is known, among other works, for his mural The History of California located in the Rincon Center, in downtown San Francisco, California. It depicts the state's history across 27 panels that he painted from 1940–48. The style of this historic mural had many of Refregier's key characteristics. The palette was composed of yellows, browns, and grays, punctuated by red in certain areas to evoke emotion. Earthy tones and the lack of bright colors remind viewers of the struggles and hardships he is depicting. Refregier also uses white to represent virtue in those inspired by a cause. His style is very flat and one-dimensional. Refregier uses solid blocks of color to denote shadows, along with depth and shade. His painting style appears to be very rudimentary and simple, but complex because of the way he uses color to evoke emotion and powerful images to tell a story. Refregier died in 1979 while in Moscow. Refregier was working on a mural for a medical center in his home city. The same year, his Rincon Mural was placed under the protection of the National Register of Historic Places.

to
1
7
2
1
1
Overall Width
to
Overall Height
to
11
2
8
1
5
8
3
8
7
4
3
2
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
6
3
2
1
1
11
9,539
2,719
1,374
1,366
3
11
Artist: Anton Refregier
DISCOVERY OF GOLD - Very Large Serigraph - WPA Artist - California Murals
By Anton Refregier
Located in Santa Monica, CA
ANTON REFREGIER (1905 – 1979) DISCOVERY OF GOLD, 1949. Color serigraph. Signed and numbered in pencil, edition of 90. Image 23 ¼ x 21 ¾" Large sheet, 29 3/4 x 25 ¼”. Printed title...
Category

1940s American Modern Anton Refregier Art

Materials

Screen

original lithograph
By Anton Refregier
Located in Henderson, NV
Medium: original lithograph. This lithograph was printed for the inside back cover of the 1956 "Improvisations" portfolio, published by the Artists Equity Association of New York on ...
Category

1950s Anton Refregier Art

Materials

Lithograph

Peace
By Anton Refregier
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Peace Woodcut printed in orange red ink on japanese paper Signed and titled in pencil lower right (see photo) Titled lower left (see photo) Created along with an illustrated book project Song of Peace, 1950-1959. Condition: Excellent Image: 10 1/2 x 4 7/8" Sheet: 16 1/8 x 7"; Anton Refregier (March 20, 1905 – October 10, 1979) was a painter and muralist active in Works Progress Administration Federal Art Project commissions, and in teaching art. He was a Russian immigrant to the United States. Among his best-known works is his mural series The History of San Francisco, located in the Rincon Center in downtown San Francisco, California. It depicts the city's history across twenty seven panels that he painted from 1940 to 1948. Life and early career Refregier was born in Moscow and emigrated to the United States in 1920. After working various odd jobs in New York City, he earned a scholarship to the Rhode Island School of Design in 1921. After finishing school, Refregier moved back to New York in 1925. To earn a living, Refregier worked for interior decorators, creating replicas of François Boucher and Jean-Honoré Fragonard paintings...
Category

1950s American Modern Anton Refregier Art

Materials

Woodcut

“Girl in the Grass”
By Anton Refregier
Located in Southampton, NY
Original oil on canvas painting by Anton Refregier of a young girl resting in the grass. Signed upper right and dated 1962. Condition is very good. The painting is in its original oa...
Category

1960s American Modern Anton Refregier Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

WPA Mural Study Mid-Century Modern American Scene Social Realism Workers
By Anton Refregier
Located in New York, NY
WPA Mural Study Mid-Century Modern American Scene Social Realism Workers Anton Refregier (1905-1979) Mural Study, Untitled 7 ¾ x 22 inches (sight) Gouache, pencil, and charcoal on board, c. 1940s Unsigned Provenance: Estate of Seymour Fogel, noted verso Thomas McCormick Gallery...
Category

1940s American Modern Anton Refregier Art

Materials

Charcoal, Gouache, Board, Pencil

original lithograph
By Anton Refregier
Located in Henderson, NV
Medium: original lithograph. This lithograph was printed in 1956 for the "Improvisations" portfolio, published by the Artists Equity Association of New York on the occasion of the 19...
Category

1950s Anton Refregier Art

Materials

Lithograph

original lithograph
By Anton Refregier
Located in Henderson, NV
Medium: original lithograph. This lithograph is from the rare 1950 "Improvisations" portfolio, published by the Artists Equity Association of New York on the occasion of the 1950 Spr...
Category

1950s Anton Refregier Art

Materials

Lithograph

Picnic, Modern Figurative Oil Painting by Anton Refregier
By Anton Refregier
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Anton Refregier Title: Picnic Year: 1959 Medium: Oil on Masonite, signed and dated l.r. Size: 24 x 44 inches (61 x 112 cm) Frame: 31.5 x 51.5 inches
Category

1950s American Modern Anton Refregier Art

Materials

Oil

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

1950s Anton Refregier Art

Materials

Lithograph

original lithograph
By Anton Refregier
Located in Henderson, NV
Medium: original lithograph. This lithograph was printed in 1957 for the "Improvisations" portfolio, published by the Artists Equity Association of New York on the occasion of the 19...
Category

1950s Anton Refregier Art

Materials

Lithograph

original lithograph
By Anton Refregier
Located in Henderson, NV
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...
Category

1950s Anton Refregier Art

Materials

Lithograph

Related Items
Marc Chagall (1887-1985) "Daphnis Discovers Chloe"
By Marc Chagall
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Marc Chagall (1887-1985) "Daphnis Discovers Chloe" from ...
Category

1960s Abstract Expressionist Anton Refregier Art

Materials

Lithograph

"Winter" American Modernism WPA Regionalism Landscape Mid-Century Magic Realism
By Dale Nichols
Located in New York, NY
"Winter" American Modernism WPA Regionalism Landscape Mid-Century Magic Realism. 30 x 40 inches. Oil on canvas, c. 1960s, Signed lower right. As we list the painting now, the work is currently being cleaned, restored and a hand carved frame is being built. Additional photos will be uploaded as soon as possible. Our gallery, Helicline Fine Art, just launched our new digital exhibition: American Art: The WPA and Beyond. Three dozen paintings, works on paper and sculptures which are available here on 1stDibs. In person viewings can be arranged by appointment at our midtown Manhattan gallery. Provenance: "Winter" was originally purchased by Stanley Byer. Mr. Byer owned homes in Key West, New York City, and Washington, D.C. He purchased the painting from Dunning Auction in 1984 in Elgin, Illinois. Mr. Byer was related to Abraham Weiss from Florida. Saul Babbin, now deceased was a cousin of Mr. Weiss. I purchased the painting from Joy Babbin, Mr. Babbin's wife, now living in from New Mexico. Dale Nichols (1905 – 1995) Artist, printmaker, illustrator, watercolorist, designer, writer and lecturer, Nichols did paintings that reflected his rural background of Nebraska where he was born in David City, a small town. Although he did much sketching outdoors, most of his paintings were completed in his studio and often included "numerology, magic squares...
Category

1960s American Modern Anton Refregier Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

African American Woman artist Mailou Jones Cezannian Cote d'Azur cubist village
Located in Norwich, GB
If you are interested in African American Art and in Women in the Arts, I will certainly not need to introduce Lois Mailou Jones (1905-1988). Often associated with the Harlem Renaissance, her work can be found in the collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the Brooklyn Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Muscarelle Museum of Art, and The Phillips Collection. I am proud to present an original watercolour painting by the artist which dates from the late 1940s or early 1950s. Jones was born in Boston, Massachusetts to a father who became the first African-American to earn a law degree from Suffolk Law School. Jones's parents encouraged her to draw and paint using watercolors during her childhood. She held her first solo exhibition at the age of seventeen in Martha's Vineyard. He career began in the 1930s and she continued to produce art work until her death in 1998 at the age of 92. Her style shifted and evolved multiple times in response to influences in her life, especially her extensive travels. She felt that her greatest contribution to the art world was "proof of the talent of black artists". Her work echoes her pride in her African roots and American ancestry. In 1937, Jones received a fellowship to study in Paris at the Académie Julian, bringing her to France for the first time. The French were appreciative of her paintings and talent and Loïs Mailou Jones was thrilled at the country’s racial tolerance, so different from her reality in the United States. She summered in France annually from 1945 to 1953, sharing studio with her lifelong friend Celine Marie Tabary in Cabris, France. It was during one of these sojourns that the lovely work presented here was created. Our painting depicts the village of Tourettes sur Loup, just north of Nice, in the Provence Cote d'Azur region, about 14 miles from Cabris. Please note its similarities with her painting "Arreau, Hautes-Pyrénées" in the National Museum of Women in the Arts. Her portrayal of the picturesque village nestled in a valley evokes landscape paintings by Paul Cézanne, a stylistic influence she acknowledged. Over the course of the following 10 years, Jones exhibited at the Phillips Collection, Seattle Art Museum, National Academy of Design, the Barnett-Aden Gallery, Pennsylvania's Lincoln University, Howard University, galleries in New York, and the Corcoran Gallery of Art. In 1952, the book Loïs Mailou Jones: Peintures 1937–1951 was published, reproducing more than one hundred of her art pieces completed in France.At the Barnett-Aden Gallery, Jones exhibited with a group of prominent black artists, such as Jacob Lawrence and Alma Thomas. These artists and others were known as the "Little Paris...
Category

Mid-19th Century American Modern Anton Refregier Art

Materials

Watercolor, Gouache, Handmade Paper

Clinton Hill, (Nude #8), 1952, drawing, figure/abstraction
By Clinton Hill
Located in New York, NY
Clinton Hill (1922-2003), created quintessential mid-century images, but figures are unusual in his work. This is from a very early period. In 1951 Hill studied at the Academie de la...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Modern Anton Refregier Art

Materials

Gouache

Clinton Hill, (Nude #2), 1950, drawing, figure/abstraction
By Clinton Hill
Located in New York, NY
Clinton Hill (1922-2003), created quintessential mid-century images, but figures are unusual in his work. This is from a very early period. From 1949 to 1951 he attended the Brooklyn...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Modern Anton Refregier Art

Materials

Gouache

'North Bank of the Chicago River' — WPA Graphic Modernism
By Charles Turzak
Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
Charles Turzak, 'North Bank of the Chicago River', color woodcut, c. 1935, edition 50. Signed and titled in pencil. A fine, richly-inked impression, with...
Category

1930s American Modern Anton Refregier Art

Materials

Woodcut

Till the Clouds Roll By 1945 Frank Sinatra Mid Century Modern Hollywood Film WPA
By Richard Whorf
Located in New York, NY
Till the Clouds Roll By 1945 Frank Sinatra Mid Century Modern Hollywood Film WPA TILL THE COULDS ROLL BY (Film Set), oil on canvas, 20 x 24 inches signed “Richard Whorf” lower right and signed and dated on the verso “R. Whorf/ Dec. 21, 1945. Frame by Hendenryk. ABOUT THE PAINTING This painting is from the collection of Barbara and Frank Sinatra, dated December 21, 1945 (just nine days after Frank Sinatra’s 30th birthday), and depicts the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Culver City backlot during the filming of Till the Clouds Roll By, the direction of the film having been taking over by Richard Whorf in December 1945. It is not presently clear if Whorf gave the Sinatras this painting as a gift, as the presence of the Dalzell Hatfield Galleries label on the verso indicates the painting may have been sourced there. Frank and Nancy Sinatra acquired a number of works from Dalzell Hatfield Galleries during the 1940’s, or perhaps they framed it for the couple. Sinatra performed “Old Man River’ in the film. Sinatra and June Allyson are depicted in the center of the painting. PROVENANCE From the Estate of Mrs. Nancy Sinatra; Dalzell Hatfield Galleries, Ambassador Hotel, Los Angeles. An image of the Dalzell Hatfield label and the back of the original frame (which we replaced with a stunning Heydenrk frame) are attached. Nancy Sinatra was Fran's first wife. Nancy Rose Barbato was 17 years old when she met Frank Sinatra, an 18-year-old singer from Hoboken, on the Jersey Shore in the summer of 1934. They married in 1939 at Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Jersey City where Frank gave Nancy a recording of a song dedicated to her titled "Our Love" as a wedding present. The young newlyweds lived and worked in New Jersey, where Frank worked as an unknown singing waiter and master of ceremonies at the Rustic Cabin while Nancy worked as a secretary at the American Type Founders. His musical career took off after singing with big band leaders Harry James and Tommy Dorsey...
Category

1940s American Modern Anton Refregier Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

French Gouache Painting of Pueblo Bread Baking in Taos New Mexico
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Title: French Gouache Painting of Pueblo Bread Baking in Taos New Mexico by Emile GALLOIS (1882-1965, French) Signed: Yes Medium: Original gouache painting on thick unframed paper, S...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Modern Anton Refregier Art

Materials

Gouache

"Sock Hop" Mid-Century American Modernism WPA Female Artist 20th Century Realism
By Kyra Markham
Located in New York, NY
"Sock Hop" Mid-Century American Modernism WPA Female Artist 20th Century Realism. 30 x 24 inches. Oil on canvas. Signed on stretcher, c. 1940s. Frame is likely original to the painting. Realist painter-printmaker Kyra Markham...
Category

1940s American Modern Anton Refregier Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Clinton Hill, (Nude #1), 1951, drawing, figure/abstraction
By Clinton Hill
Located in New York, NY
Clinton Hill (1922-2003), created quintessential mid-century images, but figures are unusual in his work. This is from a very early period. In 1951 Hill studied at the Academie de la...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Modern Anton Refregier Art

Materials

Gouache

WWII Aircraft Factory Workers Industrial 20th Century American Scene WPA Modern
Located in New York, NY
WWII Aircraft Factory Workers Industrial 20th Century American Scene WPA Modern Frederick Buchholz (1901-1983) WW2 Aircraft Factory 18 x 24 inches Oil ...
Category

1940s American Modern Anton Refregier Art

Materials

Cotton Canvas, Oil

Harry Shokler, Island Harbor
By Harry Shokler
Located in New York, NY
Harry Shokler used serigraphy to great advantage in this landscape. It's colorful and detailed. It is signed in the image at the lower left. When printmakers began making serigraphs...
Category

1940s American Modern Anton Refregier Art

Materials

Screen

Previously Available Items
"Hop Scotch" Mid 20th Century Social Realism WPA Modern American Scene 1950s SF
By Anton Refregier
Located in New York, NY
"Hop Scotch" Mid 20th Century Social Realism WPA Modern American Scene 1950s SF, .30 1/4 x 22 1/4 inches. Signed and dated 1951 lower right. Provenance: ACA Gallery label verso. BIO Anton Refregier was born March 20, 1905 in Moscow, Russia. He immigrated to the United States in 1920. He received his artistic training from the Rhode Island School of Design*, Providence, Rhode Island, 1921-1925; studied abroad with the sculptor Nicolai Vassilief in Paris in 1920; and with Hans Hofmann in Munich, 1927. From 1934 to 1940, Refregier, living in New York City, worked on various WPA Federal Art Projects* as a teacher, supervising artist, and mural supervisor. His most famous work is arguably the mural project at San Francisco's Rincon Center, the costliest and one of the most controversial of all the WPA commissions. It is a multi-scene panorama* that sparked national debate because of its inclusion of controversial events in California history. Refregier found inspiration in tragic events, which is reflected in his Depression Era-WPA work...
Category

1950s American Realist Anton Refregier Art

Materials

Masonite, Oil

SAN FRANCISCO '34 WATERFRONT STRIKE
By Anton Refregier
Located in Portland, ME
Refregier, Anton (American, born Russia, 1905-1979). SAN FRANCISCO '34 WATERFRONT STRIKE. Screenprint in colors, 1949. Edition of 75. Signed in ink and numbered 47/75, with the Title...
Category

1940s Anton Refregier Art

Materials

Screen

WPA Mural Study American Scene Modernism San Francisco Post Office 20th Century
By Anton Refregier
Located in New York, NY
WPA Mural Study American Scene Modernism San Francisco Post Office 20th Century Mural Study for “The Waterfront,” San Francisco Rincon Station Post Of...
Category

1930s American Modern Anton Refregier Art

Materials

Paper, Pencil

“Flowers and Radishes”
By Anton Refregier
Located in Southampton, NY
Original oil pastel on archival paper drawing by Anton Refregier of flowers and radishes in a still life. Signed upper right. Circa 1965. Condition is good. Overall measurements fra...
Category

1960s American Modern Anton Refregier Art

Materials

Oil Pastel, Archival Paper

LUMBERJACKS Hanging Sculpture Painting Ceramic Mid-Century Woodstock Men Working
By Anton Refregier
Located in New York, NY
LUMBERJACKS Hanging Sculpture Painting Ceramic Mid-Century Woodstock Men Working Anton Refregier (1905-1979) "Lumberjacks," Ceramic embedded plaster on masonite. 26 x 9 inches. Sign...
Category

1950s American Modern Anton Refregier Art

Materials

Ceramic, Plaster, Wood, Masonite

Deaths of Castillo and Calvo Sotelo (Spanish Civil War)
By Anton Refregier
Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
Anton Refregier, 'Deaths of Castillo and Calvo Sotelo' (Spanish Civil War), lithograph, c. 1936, edition 20. Numbered '17/20' in pencil. Signed 'REF.' ...
Category

1930s American Modern Anton Refregier Art

Materials

Lithograph

"Coulee Dam Construction" WPA Precisionist Industrial Figurative American Scene
By Anton Refregier
Located in New York, NY
Anton Refregier painting "Coulee Dam Construction, " a WPA era industrial American Scene oil painting, The figurative work is signed on the upper right Born in Moscow, Refregier stu...
Category

1930s American Realist Anton Refregier Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Anton Refregier art for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Anton Refregier art available for sale on 1stDibs. If you’re browsing the collection of art to introduce a pop of color in a neutral corner of your living room or bedroom, you can find work that includes elements of orange and other colors. You can also browse by medium to find art by Anton Refregier in lithograph, oil paint, paint and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 20th century and is mostly associated with the modern style. Not every interior allows for large Anton Refregier art, so small editions measuring 7 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Ruth Gikow, George Biddle, and Jacques Hnizdovsky. Anton Refregier art prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $75 and tops out at $13,000, while the average work can sell for $75.

Recently Viewed

View All