Bill Brown Figurative Paintings

"Paper Making" WPA Industrial Mid-Century American Scene Social Realism Workers Douglas Crockwell (1904-1968) "Paper Making" 19 x 39 inches Oil on board, c. 1936 Signed verso Framed: 28 x 47 Provenance: Estate of the Artist BIO Spencer Douglass Crockwell was born into a comfortable middle class household on April 29, 1904 in Columbus, Ohio. His father, Charles Roland Crockwell, was a mining engineer; his mother, Cora, was the daughter of an Iowa attorney. He became a commercial artist and experimental filmmaker who spent a good part of his career creating illustrations and advertisements for the Saturday Evening Post. In 1907 the Crockwell family moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where he graduated from high school and then attended from Washington University. Initially he studied engineering, but soon switched to business. While still an undergraduate, Crockwell took courses at the St. Louis School of Fine Arts and quickly realized that he wanted to be an artist. After graduating from Washington University in 1926, Crockwell continued to study at the St. Louis School of Fine Arts until 1929. The following year he relocated to Chicago and continued his studies at the American Academy of Art. In 1930 and 1931 he studied in Europe on a Traveling Fellowship. In 1932 Douglass Crockwell moved to Glens Falls, New York, which was to be his home for the remainder of his life. The following year he married Margaret Braman. They had three children, a son Douglass and two daughters, Johanna and Margaret. During the depression he created murals and posters for the Works Progress Administration including Post Office murals in White River junction, Vermont; Endicott, New York; and Macon, Mississippi. In 1934 he painted Paper Workers, Finch Pruyn & Co. (the leading Glens Falls, New York company) for the WPA. In the 1930s Crockwell developed an interest in experimental animated films that occupied him for the rest of his life. In 1936 and 1937, he collaborated with David Smith, a sculptor, to create surrealist films. Because of his interest in experimental films, his output of paintings was limited to just twenty to forty illustrations a year during this time. Crockwell painted his first of many Saturday Evening Post cover in 1933. He also worked for Life, Look, and Esquire, and numerous national advertisers including Friskies dog food, Welch’s Grape Juice, Republic Steel...

An interior scene of industrial America where workers kept the production of steel going in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This detailed and atmospheric painting shows the hard work and ...

Mural Study for "History of Water" American Scene Modernism Social Realism WPA Thomas Hart Benton (American, 1889-1975) "Water Story" (Study for The History of Water) Tempera and o...

This intimate studio interior from 1930 belongs to the more psychologically engaging side of Carlo Hornung Jensen’s oeuvre. A seated woman has paused beside her easel and turned towa...

A Colorful, Intimate Modernist Portrait of a Young Woman Reading by Notable Chicago Artist, Francis Chapin (Am. 1899-1965). A wonderfully painted studio work dating from the 1930s. ...

French Café Musicians with Accordion and Wine – Spanish Figurative Oil Painting Artist: Albert Roca (Spanish, born 1945) Title: French Café Musicians with Accordion and Wine Medium:...

"Conductor" WPA American Scene. Social Realism. Mid 20th Century. Modern. Music. Mervin M Jules (1912-1994 "Conductor" 8 1/2 x 11 1/4 inches Casein on paper, c. 1940s Signed lower r...

ARIEH ALLWEIL (ARIE ALWEIL) 1901-1967 Galicia 1901-1967 Safed, Israel (Ukrainian/Polish/Israeli) Arieh Allweil, born 1901, Galicia. Immigrated to Palestine in 1920. Studies: 1921-25...

Introducing a captivating oil painting by Johan Christoffer Boklund (1817-1880). The artwork depicts a young boy practicing his painting skills. Seated beside him is a wooden horse t...

Guy Pene du Bois (1884-1958) "Two Figures in a Courtroom" 16 x 22 inches Oil on paper mounted to, c. 1945 Framed: 25 x 31 inches Provenance: James Graham & Sons Gallery Guy Pene du Bois' "Two Figures in Courtroom" is a WPA era American scene oil painting created in a realistic style. Modernism at its best The work is framed by Heydenryk. Pène du Bois descended from French immigrants who settled in Louisiana in 1738 and was raised in a Creole household. He was born in 1884 in Brooklyn, NY and first studied with William Merritt Chase at the New York School of Art and later continued his training with Robert Henri. Pène du Bois was greatly impressed with Henri's credo that "real life" was subject matter for art and throughout his life a realist philosophy informed his art as well as his parallel career, art criticism. In 1905, Pène du Bois made his first visit to Paris where he painted scenes of fashionable people in cafes rendered in the dark tonalities and impasto associated with the Ashcan School. By 1920, he had achieved his mature style, which was characterized by stylized, rounded, almost sculptural figures painted with invisible brushstrokes. The subjects of his paintings were often members of society whom he gently satirized. In 1924, Pène du Bois and his wife, Floy, left for France where they would remain until 1930. Returning to America showcases pictures the artist produced after this very productive period abroad. After five years of living in France, Pène du Bois was able to observe American life with fresh eyes. His work becomes more psychologically intense and less satirical. In Girl at Table a slender, blond is shown gazing at a small statue that she holds at arm's distance. The meaning is elusive, but a powerful sense of longing is evoked. Similarly, paintings such as Dramatic Moment and Jane are taut with unresolved dialogue. Both pictures depict mysterious interiors in which a lone woman anxiously awaits the denouement of a suspenseful scene. Other pictures, for example, Chess Tables, Washington Square and Bar, New Orleans, recall Pene du Bois's Ashcan origins in their depiction of urban entertainment. During this period, landscape becomes an important subject for Pène du Bois. Girl Sketching...

Augustin Nicolas Georges Grasmick, known as Grass-Mick (Augustin Grass-Mick, Paris, 1873 – Marseille, 1963) Interior, Studio Corner Circa 1906 Oil on cardboard 50 × 65 cm 62 x 77 c...

American life is captured in this Clyde Singer painting, Twosome (1991), where he depicts a couple meeting for coffee. An accomplished American Scene painter, Singer successfully cap...

This oil painting called The Old Stone Stairway by Ferdinand Fagerlin offers an intimate glimpse into a quiet interior space, where the stillness of...

Charming Street Musicians with Dog, Spanish Modern Figurative Oil Painting Artist: Albert Roca (Spanish, b. 1945) Title: Street Musicians with Dog Date: circa 1990 Medium: Oil on bo...

Mediterranean Figurative Painting of Vagabond and Daughter Spanish Modern Artist: Albert Roca Title: The Vagabond and His Daughter Medium: Oil on board Period: Circa 1990 Dimensions artwork: 70 × 50 cm (27.56 × 19.69 in) Dimensions with frame: 83 × 63 cm (32.68 × 24.80 in) Signature: Signed lower right Condition: Very good vintage condition. Minor wear consistent with age. Frame included. Style: Modern Figurative / Mediterranean Expressionism Origin: Spain DESCRIPTION A deeply human and emotionally resonant figurative composition by Spanish painter Albert Roca, depicting an elderly vagabond seated beside a sleeping young girl wrapped in a red shawl. The painting captures a rare balance between tenderness and hardship. The old man’s weary expression contrasts with the peaceful innocence of the child, creating a quietly cinematic scene filled with psychological depth. The small travel sack resting beside them transforms the image into a visual poem about exile, protection and survival. Executed with loose, expressive brushwork and a warm Mediterranean palette of dusty pinks, violets and earthy browns, the composition possesses the direct emotional clarity associated with mid-century European figurative painting. The simplified forms and softened contours give the work a timeless, almost neo-expressionist atmosphere. Albert Roca demonstrates a remarkable ability to humanize marginal characters without sentimentality. The result is a painting that feels intimate, melancholic and profoundly decorative at the same time. An exceptional piece for collectors of Spanish figurative art, modern European painting, emotional portraiture or Mediterranean interiors with soul and narrative presence. This type of emotionally charged figurative scene performs especially well in sophisticated interiors because it immediately creates conversation, atmosphere and psychological texture. It has the rare quality of feeling both humble and monumental. Like a forgotten frame from an arthouse film discovered in a trunk at a railway station somewhere between Barcelona and memory. ARTISTIC CONTEXT This work evokes elements of European social realism and Mediterranean figurative traditions, recalling certain emotional qualities found in the works of Bernard Buffet, early Picasso blue-period humanity, Catalan postwar figurative painters and French expressionist narrative scenes. The combination of simplified anatomy, expressive brushstroke and emotional storytelling gives the painting strong decorative power while maintaining genuine narrative depth. ARTIST BIO Albert Roca is a Spanish painter known for his landscapes and figurative compositions, particularly appreciated for his psychological approach to character depiction. His work has received awards in Spanish and European art competitions and has been exhibited extensively in Spain and France. His paintings are also regularly displayed aboard French CroisiEurope cruise ships, reflecting the broad decorative appeal of his Mediterranean-inspired visual language. Spanish figurative painting, Mediterranean painting, modern European art, emotional portrait, social realism, expressionist figurative art, old man painting...