Charles E. Chambers Art
American, 1883-1941
The work of American realist painter and illustrator Charles Edward Chambers is characterized by such an exceptional mastery of color and composition that, in his day, his refined figurative paintings may have fooled collectors into thinking he was a graduate of the Académie des Beaux-Arts.
Born in 1883 in Ottumwa, Iowa, Chambers studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Art Students League of New York under Canadian-American painter George Bridgman. Another of his teachers was illustrator Fanny Munsell (later his wife), who influenced his style and technique. Munsell secured illustration work for a range of magazines, including Cosmopolitan and Women’s Home Companion, before she died in 1920.
Chambers learned to modify his painting technique so that his work was primed for reproduction on a mass scale. He gained recognition as a classical figurative painter and illustrator during World War I when, in 1917, he illustrated a well-known poster for the U.S. Food Administration titled Food Will Win The War. He was also a regular contributor as an illustrator at the time to Harper’s Monthly and created covers for Redbook magazine.
Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, Chambers kept busy with editorial assignments and advertising campaigns. While it’s true that Art Nouveau posters were plastered everywhere along the streets of Paris during the early years of the Belle Époque, poster art continued to remain very relevant in the Art Deco years, too. While creating illustrations for authors such as Pearl Buck, W. Somerset Maugham, Faith Baldwin and Louis Bromfield, Chambers earned advertising commissions from the decades’ prominent companies and brands. These included painting portraits of famous musicians Sergei Rachmaninoff, Alfred Cortot and Ignacy Jan Paderewski for Steinway & Sons and designing billboard ads and posters for cigarette company Chesterfield and soap manufacturer Palmolive.
Today, Chambers’s works remain favorites among collectors of vintage 20th-century art.
Find original Charles Edward Chambers paintings and prints on 1stDibs.
to
7
1
Overall Width
to
Overall Height
to
8
2
2
2
5
3
8
7
5
3
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
7
7
6
6
1
8
9,989
2,754
1,378
1,375
3
8
Artist: Charles E. Chambers
Original "Food Will Win The War" vintage World War 1 poster
By Charles E. Chambers
Located in Spokane, WA
Original World War 1 vintage poster: Food Will Wn the War. Arhival linen backed. PRINTER: Rusling Wood Litho., New York Bright and in good condition. There is some marks down the left side of the poster, possible ink from when the poster was printed.
This poster calls on immigrants to do their part in the war effort. It depicts recent immigrants standing near a sailing ship with the Statue of Liberty and a rainbow stretched across the New York City skyline in the background. The text reads:
You came here seeking Freedom.
You must now help preserve it.
Wheat is needed by the allies.
Waste nothing.
The generosity and compassion of the American people and the great agricultural resources of the North American continent would be called upon... Twenty million Americans signed pledges of membership in the Food Administration...
Category
1910s American Realist Charles E. Chambers Art
Materials
Lithograph
Story illustration for “Appearance and Reality” by Somerset Maugham
By Charles E. Chambers
Located in Fort Washington, PA
Story illustration for “Appearance and Reality” by W. Somerset Maugham, published in Cosmopolitan, November 1934, pages 22-23.
Described as "A masterfully witty story of manners and...
Category
1930s Charles E. Chambers Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Family Escape
By Charles E. Chambers
Located in Fort Washington, PA
Date: 1917
Medium: Oil on Board
Dimensions: 32.00" x 21.00"
Signature: Signed Lower Right
Story illustration: Group of people gathered around seated old woman.
“Isn't it quite as i...
Category
1910s Charles E. Chambers Art
Materials
Oil, Board
“Wang the Tiger had his own port…” Story illustration for Sons by Pearl S. Buck
By Charles E. Chambers
Located in Fort Washington, PA
Date: 1932
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 24.00" x 33.00"
Signature: Signed Lower Left
Story illustration for “Sons” by Pearl S. Buck, published in Cosmopolitan, October 1932, pages 66-67.
"Sons" serves as the poignant sequel to Buck's story The Good Earth...
Category
1930s Charles E. Chambers Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
The Piano Lesson
By Charles E. Chambers
Located in Fort Washington, PA
Signature: Signed Lower Left
Category
20th Century Charles E. Chambers Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
She Answers The Question
By Charles E. Chambers
Located in Fort Washington, PA
Image of two men standing in front of woman seated at desk.
Charles Edward Chambers was born in Ottumwa, Iowa, studied at the Chicago Art Institute, and later the Art Students Lea...
Category
1920s Charles E. Chambers Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
"Ringmaster"
By Charles E. Chambers
Located in Fort Washington, PA
Story illustration, image of man on couch, woman in chair writing
Charles Edward Chambers was born in Ottumwa, Iowa, studied at the Chicago Art Institute, and later the Art Students League in New York with George Bridgman.
His illustrations were extremely skillful, marked by subtlety of value and color. He early learned to adapt his method of painting for the best possible reproduction, and to insure fidelity of printing, he often followed the assignments through to the hands of the engraver who made the plates.
Chambers divided his time almost equally between editorial and advertising assignments. Among his advertising commissions was an outstanding series of portraits of musicians for Steinway & Sons. His distinctive illustrations for billboards, notably for Chesterfield and Palmolive Soap...
Category
1920s Other Art Style Charles E. Chambers Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Couple with Chauffeur
By Charles E. Chambers
Located in Fort Washington, PA
Couple in a car with a Chauffeur
Signed lower left.
Charles Edward Chambers was born in Ottumwa, Iowa, studied at the Chicago Art Institute, and later the Art Students League in ...
Category
20th Century Other Art Style Charles E. Chambers Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Related Items
"Still Life of Fruit and Flowers, " Oil on Canvas
Located in Chicago, IL
This impressionist still life by French painter Léon Garraud depicts a table set with a plate of peaches and a vase of pink peonies and delicate white flowers. The warm palette of or...
Category
Early 20th Century Impressionist Charles E. Chambers Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
$3,280
H 23 in W 25 in D 3 in
Spring Collection: Pocket Bluebells, Baroque Still Life, Flower art, Realism
By Dani Humberstone
Located in Deddington, GB
Spring Collection: Pocket Bluebells is an original oil painting by Dani Humberstone as part of her Pocket Painting series featuring small scale realistic oil paintings, with a nod to...
Category
2010s Realist Charles E. Chambers Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
$218
H 5.91 in W 5.91 in D 1.19 in
Circle Teniers, Flemish Art, Peasants smoking and drinking in a Tavern Interior
By David Teniers the Younger
Located in Greven, DE
Circle or Follower of David Teniers, Peasant in a Tavern Inn, drinking and smoking. Oil on canvas, Framed: 39 x 47 cm. Typical Flemish Baroque Interior...
Category
17th Century Baroque Charles E. Chambers Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
$2,623
H 13.78 in W 10.63 in
Chess Players WPA Depression Era Mid-20th Century American Scene Realism Modern
By Mervin Jules
Located in New York, NY
Chess Players WPA Depression Era Mid-20th Century American Scene Realism Modern. Signed upper right and verso 8 x 10 inches oil on board.
BIO
The son of a men's haberdasher, Mervin ...
Category
1930s American Realist Charles E. Chambers Art
Materials
Oil, Board
$6,800
H 10 in W 12 in D 2 in
Still Lives Triptych - Oil on Canvas attr. to F. Guardi - Late 18th Century
By Francesco Guardi
Located in Roma, IT
This is a wonderful Guardi's Triptyc, composed by three oval oil painted panels attributed by some of most reputable scholars to the Venetian old master Francesco Guardi (1712-1793)....
Category
Late 18th Century Charles E. Chambers Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
$200,333
H 28.35 in W 23.63 in D 1.19 in
Les Jockey & La Propietaire - Post Impressionist Figurative Oil by E Grau Sala
By Emilio Grau Sala
Located in Marlow, Buckinghamshire
Signed, titled and dated figures in landscape oil on canvas by Spanish post impressionist painter Emilio Grau Sala. The work depicts a large group of jockeys and horse owners talking...
Category
1970s Post-Impressionist Charles E. Chambers Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
19th Century landscape genre oil painting of farmworkers with horses & a dog
By George Cole
Located in Nr Broadway, Worcestershire
George Cole
British, (1810-1883)
Rick Making, Lunchtime
Oil on canvas, signed & dated 1883
Image size: 23.5 inches x 35.5 inches
Size including frame: 30.5 inches x 42.5 inches
Prove...
Category
19th Century Victorian Charles E. Chambers Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
$23,045
H 30.5 in W 42.5 in D 3.25 in
'Plowing It Under' — WPA Era American Regionalism
By Thomas Hart Benton
Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
Thomas Hart Benton, 'Goin' Home', lithograph, 1937, edition 250, Fath 14. Signed in pencil. Signed in the stone, lower right. A fine, richly-inked impression, on off-white, wove pape...
Category
1930s American Realist Charles E. Chambers Art
Materials
Lithograph
Antique American School Post Impressionist Modern Portrait Framed Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American school modernist portrait painting. Housed in a period frame. Measuring 29 by 33 inches overall and 20 by 24 painting alone.
Category
1930s Modern Charles E. Chambers Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
$1,775
H 33 in W 29 in D 2 in
"The Slope Near the Bridge" Paul Sample, Mid-Century, American Snowy Landscape
By Paul Sample
Located in New York, NY
Paul Sample
The Slope Near the Bridge, 1950
Signed in pencil lower left
Lithograph on wove paper
Image 8 15/16 x 12 15/16 inches
Sheet 11 5/16 x 15 1/16 inches
From the edition of 25...
Category
1950s American Realist Charles E. Chambers Art
Materials
Paper, Lithograph
$900
H 16.25 in W 20.25 in
Antique Western Oil on Canvas Painting Native American "The Captive" 1901
By Frank Paul Sauerwein
Located in Portland, OR
A large American Western, Native American oil on canvas landscape, by Frank Paul Sauerwein (1871-1910), "The Captive", 1901.
This large oil on canvas depicts a Native American brave captively tied to a tree stump and being viewed by a rival tribe, who are evidently deciding his fate. Behind the collected tribe of elders, braves and children are a pair of conical tipi dwellings, to the background are grazing horses and another group of native people in a tree lined setting. The painting is indistinctly signed lower left, condition is good, the painting is housed in the original frame with a giltwood rabbet, the painting at sight is 40" x 26".
Provenance; From a lifelong collection of 19th & early 20th Century Western Art, Portland, Oregon.
Frank Sauerwein was a respected painter of western landscapes, Indian portraits, Indian genre scenes, and California missions. His promising career was cut short by his death of tuberculosis at age thirty-nine.
The son of European-trained artist, Charles D. Sauerwein, Frank took his first art lessons from his father before studying at the Philadelphia School of Industrial Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, the Art Institute of Chicago and, finally, the Philadephia Museum School of Art. In 1891 he moved to Denver in hope of improving his health.
In 1893, Sauerwein accompanied the artist Charles Craig on a trip to the Ute reservation in southwestern Colorado. This began Sauerwein's unyielding fascination with the Southwest and its Native inhabitants. After a trip to Europe, he returned to the American West, visiting Taos in 1899 and Santa Fe in 1900. That same year, Sauerwein visited the Navajo reservation, becoming good friends with trading post entrepreneur, Lorenzo Hubbell. He also spent time at Keam's Canyon on the Hopi reservation where he sketched local inhabitants.
Sauerwein moved to Los Angeles in 1901, and then to Pasadena in 1902, but he maintained his contacts in the Southwest with Summer trips to the Grand Canyon, New Mexico Indian Pueblos, Taos, Santa Fe and Albuquerque. He especially loved the Grand Canyon which is the subject of a large number of his paintings.
Rendered in a tight, academic style, Sauerwein's paintings clearly show the influence of German...
Category
Early 1900s Charles E. Chambers Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
$4,500
H 36 in W 50 in D 2.75 in
Third Class Carriage (Down South)
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Third Class Carriage (Down South), c. 1942 - 45, oil on canvas, 24 x 29 inches, labels verso read: "Painting by Mervin Honig [with address included]" and inscribed verso: "Title: Thi...
Category
1940s American Realist Charles E. Chambers Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Previously Available Items
Elderly Couple
By Charles E. Chambers
Located in Fort Washington, PA
Signature: Signed Lower Left
Framed: 36.00" x 41.00"
Category
20th Century Charles E. Chambers Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Couple Parting on Porch in Snow
By Charles E. Chambers
Located in Fort Washington, PA
Date: 1915
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 30.00" x 21.00"
Signature: Signed Lower Right
Couple parting on porch in snow.
“They had formed a little code of leave-taking”
Story illustration: “The Turmoil”, author: Booth Tarkington...
Category
1910s Charles E. Chambers Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Charles E. Chambers art for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a wide variety of authentic Charles E. Chambers art available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Charles E. Chambers in oil paint, paint, canvas and more. Not every interior allows for large Charles E. Chambers art, so small editions measuring 20 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Coby Whitmore, Henry Soulen, and Benton Clark. Charles E. Chambers art prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $1,100 and tops out at $29,000, while the average work can sell for $15,500.