Colin Ruffell 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...

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...

Industrial Mid-20th Century WPA Modern Men Working American Scene Social Realism George Pearse Ennis (American, 1884-1936) "Forging a Gun Tube #1...

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...

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...

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...

A dynamic ca. 1958 Mid-Century Modern painting titled "Refreshment" by Woman Artist, Lucille Leighton. Oil on canvas, in original frame. Artwork size: 22" x 18". Framed size: 27 1...

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...

Lovely painting - Unframed

The painting is called "Lady in a Green Room." It features a luxurious interior with subdued lighting. The figure itself is painted in an abstract style. Everything about this painti...

A stylish, colorful Mid-Century Modern portrait of a seated young woman in a pink dress by famed Chicago Modern artist, Francis Chapin. A fashionably dressed, young model is seated ...

This evocative oil painting, titled Studio Muse, depicts a seated nude in a quiet moment of contemplation. The model is shown in profile, resting on a simple wooden stool against a n...