Clarence Underwood Art

Adolf Dehn (1895-1968) was an American painter, printmaker and draftsman. A native of Waterville, Minnesota, he attended the Minneapolis School of Art where he met colleague Wanda Ga...

Only Ballantine Ale Brews "Brewer's Gold," ad illustration appeared in the major magazines of the day. A magic moment is caught at a peak point of drama. It's the instant of friends having fun. A cold beer from the fridge is offered and it's is acknowledged with a head nod. The woman in the foreground covers her giggling face reacting to a funny comment. The decisive moment is preserved. Sounds like a critique of an art photograph? No, it's an illustrator. This ingenious Infiniti "S" composition simultaneously represents the best of photography and painting. Cartier-Bresson could have captured the precise moment. While Nicolas Poussin could have rendered the complex figural composition. Add to it , a painting technique and color scheme with the quick drama of a post-impressionist. We have a great work of art by an overlooked American illustrator/artist/painter, Mike Ludlow...

The work is mostly black and white to indicate that this is a night scene. On closer inspection, you will see areas of magenta and ivory throughout The publisher's label on verso ide...

Mary Lightfoot was born in Ravenna, Texas. She studied at the College of Industrial Arts in Denton and the North Texas State Teachers College prior to receiving a master of arts degree from Columbia University. Her entire teaching career was with the Dallas Public School system; she summered in Europe...

Original Painting. Colliers Magazine Cover Published 1933 Wedding Illustration Antonio Petruccelli (1907 - 1994) The Wedding Colliers published, June 17, 1933 17 1/4 X 11 1/2 inches (sight) Framed 23 1/4 X 17 1/2 inches Gouache on board Signed lower right BIOGRAPHY: Antonio Petruccelli (1907-1994) began his career as a textile designer. He became a freelance illustrator in 1932 after winning several House Beautiful cover illustration contests. In addition to 24 Fortune magazine covers, four New Yorker covers, several for House Beautiful, Collier’s, and other magazines he did numerous illustrations for Life magazine from the 1930s – 60s. ‘Tony was Mr. Versatility for Fortune. He could do anything, from charts and diagrams to maps, illustrations, covers, and caricatures,’ said Francis Brennan, the former art director for Fortune. Over the course of his career, Antonio won several important design awards, designing a U.S. Postage Stamp Commemorating the Steel Industry and designing the Bicentennial Medal...

A moody evening in New York City. The buildings capture the quiet that New York sometimes achieves. Signed and dated in pencil.

A man raises his hand to his chin, his neck tilted and face turned to look at a dilapidated farmhouse, barely held together by planks of wood and exposed to the elements. Behind him ...

Gouache and watercolour on corrugated cardboard after the famous self portrait by Vincent van Gogh with his fur hat, bandaged ear and pipe. This painting is by Jean Ducel who has pla...

Adolf Arthur Dehn Haitian Scene A, ca. 1951 Watercolor gouache on board Signed on the front Frame included: held in vintage modern frame Measurements: Framed: 11 inches vertical by 13 inches horizontal by .75 Painting 4.5 inches by 6 inches Watercolor gouache, hand signed; framed with AAA Gallery label verso Signed on the front bearing the original label on the verso of Dehn's longtime gallery, the prestigious Associated American Artists Gallery, New York City. Provenance Associated American Artists Frame included: held in vintage frame with original label as provenance Dehn, an influential artist and teacher (and author of the definitive textbook of his era on watercolor painting) joined Associated American Artists gallery in 1941. Although this painting is undated, it is likely circa early 1950s, as in 1951 Dehn won a Guggenheim Fellowship, which enabled him to travel to Haiti -- the subject of this work. It was part of a series inspired by Dehn's visit to Haiti. Dehn, an influential artist and teacher (and author of the definitive textbook of his era on watercolor painting) joined Associated American Artists gallery in 1941. Although this painting is undated, it is likely circa early 1950s, as in 1951 Dehn won a Guggenheim Fellowship, which enabled him to travel to Haiti. ADLOF DEHN Adolf Dehn, American Watercolorist and Printmaker, 1895-1968 Adolf Dehn was an artist who achieved extraordinary artistic heights, but in a very particular artistic sphere - not so much in oil painting as in watercolor and lithography. Long recognized as a master by serious print collectors, he is gradually gaining recognition as a notable and influential figure in the overall history of American art. In the 19th century, with the invention of the rotary press, which made possible enormous print runs, and the development of the popular, mass-market magazines, newspaper and magazine illustration developed into an artistic realm of its own, often surprisingly divorced from the world of museums and art exhibitions, and today remains surprisingly overlooked by most art historians. Dehn in many regards was an outgrowth of this world, although in an unusual way, since as a young man he produced most of his illustrative work not for popular magazines, such as The Saturday Evening Post, but rather for radical journals, such as The Masses or The Liberator, or artistic "little magazines" such as The Dial. This background established the foundation of his outlook, and led later to his unique and distinctive contribution to American graphic art. If there’s a distinctive quality to his work, it was his skill in introducing unusual tonal and textural effects into his work, particularly in printmaking but also in watercolor. Jackson Pollock seems to have been one of many notable artists who were influenced by his techniques. Early Years, 1895 - 1922 For an artist largely remembered for scenes of Vienna and Paris, Adolf Dehn’s background was a surprising one. Born in Waterville, Minnesota, on November 22, 1895, Dehn was the descendent of farmers who had emigrated from Germany and homesteaded in the region, initially in a one-room log cabin with a dirt floor. Adolf’s father, Arthur Clark Dehn, was a hunter and trapper who took pride that he had no boss but himself, and who had little use for art. Indeed, during Adolf’s boyhood the walls of his bedroom and the space under his bed were filled with the pelts of mink, muskrats and skunks that his father had killed, skinned and stretched on drying boards. It was Adolf’s mother, Emilie Haas Dehn, a faithful member of the German Lutheran Evangelical Church, who encouraged his interest in art, which became apparent early in childhood. Both parents were ardent socialists, and supporters of Eugene Debs...

In this sentimental work from 1939, Benton expresses his admiration for the rural lifestyle of the Midwest. He highlights the connection between man and the land by depicting two fig...

A bucolic late 19th century image of upper Manhattan. New York: 1898. Lithograph on tissue-thin Japon paper with a deckle edge, 14 1/8 x 10 inches (357 x 252 mm), the full sheet. Tit...

John Muench was a master at drawing on a lithographic stone. He was a New Englander and this is a classic subject both for him and for the area. The...