Colin Ruffell Art

"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...

The Artist's Apartment Mid-Century Fauvist Interior Scene Original Oil on Canvas Vibrant interior scene by Santa Cruz California artist Frances Rinaldo (American, b. 1943). A bright...

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...

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. ...

Get Change Here - American Modernism Scene WPA Mid-Century Realism NYC Cityscape Max Arthur Cohn (1903-1988) "Get Change Here" 20 x 25 inches Oil on canvas, c. 1930s Signed lower le...

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:...

Theresa Bernstein Circus, Madison Square Garden, 1936 Signed lower right Oil on canvas 28 x 36 inches Provenance The artist Private Collection (acquired from the above) Exhibited N...

An Exceptional, Vibrant Mid-Century Modern 1950s Chicago Night Club Scene of Dancing Showgirls. Titled "Dancers #2", the painting depicts a dynamic, sta...

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...

SHARED MOMENTS Size: 58.5 x 67 cm (including frame) Oil on canvas A beautifully atmospheric mid-century modernist oil painting depicting two figures in a quiet interior scene, execu...

Blacksmith (Untitled), 1936, oil on canvas, signed and dated lower right, 28 x 30 inches Erle Loran was an influential American painter, art historian, and educator, renowned for h...

Lovely painting - Unframed

Peter Greenham British, 1909-1992 Interior with a Seated Figure oil on canvas-board 20.5 x 32.5 cm 8 1/8 x 12 3/4 in Peter Greenham was a distinguished figurative painter of portrai...

"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...

Clyde Singer captures a moment between bar patrons at the historic McSorley's Old Ale House in New York City. The painting titled, Be Good or Be Gone, takes its name from a sign be...