Charles Wittmann Art

Born in Russia, the son of Friede (1878 – 1956) and Benjamin Hoffman (1878 – a. 1942). Benjamin was a dealer in mineral and seltzer water and the family resided on Snediker Avenue in Brooklyn, New York, just down the streetfrom the home where George Gershwin (1898 – 1937) was born. This area of Brooklyn, known as Brownsville, “witnessed the development of one of the largest communities of Eastern European Jewish immigrants during the last decade of the 19th century and the first two decades of the 20 th century.” Today, little remains of this once thriving Jewish section of Brooklyn, which today houses many commercial and repair businesses. Hoffman studied at the Art Students League of New York, the National Academy of Design and in the art program at Cooper Union. His work at the National Academy received praise, and in 1921 he was awarded the 2nd prize and an honorable mention from the John Armstrong Chaloner Paris Prize Foundation at the National Academy, which allowed the recipient to study in Paris, France for as long as five years. The following year he was awarded the 1 st prize in the competition (with The Reform Advocate running the headline “Young Jew Wins Art Prize”) as well as the Suydam Bronze Medal for his achievements in the Academy’s Men’s Night Class. In 1923 he was residing in Long Branch, New Jersey, when he was awarded 4th place in the Chaloner competition. Early on, Hoffman exhibited his work throughout the city, including in 1925 with the recently organized Society of Independent Artists. He also received several solo exhibitions during the first part of his career, including one at Ferargil Galleries in 1929. In the spring of 1930 a solo exhibition of his portraits, including paintings and drawings, was held at at Babcock Galleries, where a reviewer noted: “Portraiture is obviously Mr. Hoffman’s specialty… his best work is characterized by a sensitive appreciation of character set down in a vigorous decisive statement. Later that same year, in August, he participated in Babcock’s summer exhibition where reviewer Jerome Klein, writing for The Baltimore Sun, felt Hoffman’s and other artists work was already becoming old fashioned, remarking “…if an effort toward accomplishment is to be made, it must be in the language of today. It is for that reason that such contemporaries as Eugene Higgins and Nathan Hoffman, in this show, seem artists of a bygone era…” The onset of the Great Depression appears to have slowed his success, as was the case for many up-and-coming artists. By 1939 Hoffman had become a gallerist in addition to being a painter, operating the collective exhibition space “Sutton Gallery,” which was originally located at 358 East 57th Street. There Hoffman exhibited his own works as well as those created by other prominent New York artists including David Burliuk (1882 – 1967), Charles C. Curran (1861 – 1942), Louis Eilshemius (1864 – 1941), Ann Goldthwaite (1869 – 1944), Maurice Kish (1895 – 1987), Lawrence Lebduska (1894 – 1966), Bradford Perin and Ellis Wilson...

A very attractive antique oil on canvas landscape painting by the French Post Impressionist artist Max Bouvet (1854-1942), the painting circa 1890. The painting depicts a pastoral sc...

A beautiful 1960's English oil on canvas depicting a surrealist landscape with rainbow and gilt framed painting on a wall. A stunning and unusual painting presented in a bespoke gilt...

Severin Nilson (1846–1918) Sweden Children in a Flower Meadow signed lower right Severin Nilson oil on board laid on panel unframed 25 × 18 cm (9.8 × 7.1 in) framed 32.5 × 26.5 cm ...

Signed pointillist oil on panel figures in landscape by French neo-impressionist painter Yvonne Canu. This stunning piece depicts a couple resting under a parasol in a field of wildf...

Post Impressionist painting by J. Samuel LaMorna Birch (1869-1955) of French style stucco cottage, with blocks of color reflected in the still river waters. Masterful artist of water...

"Trois Pêcheurs" Louis Pastour (France, 1876-1948) Oil on board Signed l.l. 7 7/8 x 4 7/8 (8 1/8 x 11 1/8 frame) inches Louis Pastour was called the “The Painter of the Sun” (Le Pe...

A beautiful oil on canvas painting by the French artist Jean Salabet. This exceptional work captures the prime of his career, depicting vibrant flower vendors along the Arc de Triomp...

Mountain landscape in oil, spring, mountain, Switzerland, impressionist, horizontal "Margelkopf In April" (50 × 40 cm, oil on canvas) is a subtly emotional mountain landscape painte...

A perfectly Impressionistic work with beautifully loose, almost pointillist brushstrokes, focussing on the scintillating light and the remote hilltop atmosphere. Artist Frans Hog...

The painting we are offering for sale, executed by Swedish artist Erik Tryggelin on May 3, 1907, presents a striking and atmospheric view of Sankt Matteus Church in Stockholm. It sta...

Signed oil on canvas landscape circa 1930 by German post impressionist painter Max Clarenbach. The work depicts a winter scene, with snow laying thick on the ground. To the foregroun...