Dale Nichols Paintings
American, 1904-1995
Artist, printmaker, illustrator, watercolorist, designer, writer and lecturer, Dale Nichols did paintings that reflected his rural background of Nebraska where he was born in David City, a small town. Although he did much sketching outdoors, most of his paintings were completed in his studio and often included "numerology, magic squares and psychic symbols." (Zellman 912) His painting The End of the Hunt (undated) won the Hearst Award at a 1930s exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago.
In the 1960s, he traveled to Guatemala where he was much impressed by the lushness of the landscape and the Spanish and Mayan's culture. These interests were also reflected in his artwork.
As a commercial artist, Nichols was an advocate of upgrading the quality of art in illustration and advertising. In 1935, his book elaborating his theories of art, A Philosphy of Esthetics, was published, and in 1957, he completed his book Figure Drawing, published by Watson-Guptill.
Nichols, succeeding Iowa artist Grant Wood, was art editor of the Encyclopedia Britannica from 1942 to 1948, and in 1930-40, served as Carnegie visiting professor to the University of Illinois. As an early champion of good art in advertising and illustration, he created artwork for direct-mail industrial advertising in the 1930s and 40s.
Nichols studied at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, the Art Institute of Chicago with Carl Werntz, and with Joseph Binder in Vienna. During his career, he had eighteen solo exhibitions and exhibited in more than eighty regional and national exhibitions.to
1
1
Overall Width
to
Overall Height
to
2
1
2
2
2
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
2
2
2
2
4
781
714
704
691
2
2
Artist: Dale Nichols
"Winter" American Modernism WPA Regionalism Landscape Mid-Century Magic Realism
By Dale Nichols
Located in New York, NY
"Winter" American Modernism WPA Regionalism Landscape Mid-Century Magic Realism. 30 x 40 inches. Oil on canvas, c. 1960s, Signed lower right.
As we list the painting now, the work is currently being cleaned, restored and a hand carved frame is being built. Additional photos will be uploaded as soon as possible.
Our gallery, Helicline Fine Art, just launched our new digital exhibition: American Art: The WPA and Beyond. Three dozen paintings, works on paper and sculptures which are available here on 1stDibs. In person viewings can be arranged by appointment at our midtown Manhattan gallery.
Provenance:
"Winter" was originally purchased by Stanley Byer. Mr. Byer owned homes in Key West, New York City, and Washington, D.C. He purchased the painting from Dunning Auction in 1984 in Elgin, Illinois. Mr. Byer was related to Abraham Weiss from Florida. Saul Babbin, now deceased was a cousin of Mr. Weiss. I purchased the painting from Joy Babbin, Mr. Babbin's wife, now living in from New Mexico.
Dale Nichols (1905 – 1995) Artist, printmaker, illustrator, watercolorist, designer, writer and lecturer, Nichols did paintings that reflected his rural background of Nebraska where he was born in David City, a small town. Although he did much sketching outdoors, most of his paintings were completed in his studio and often included "numerology, magic squares...
Category
1960s American Modern Dale Nichols Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Stars
By Dale Nichols
Located in New York, NY
Signed and dated lower right: DALE NICHOLS 1953; on stretcher bar: “STARS” by Dale Nichols
Category
Mid-20th Century American Modern Dale Nichols Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
$38,500
Related Items
"Cubist Landscape" Albert Heckman, American Modernism, Woodstock, Earth Tones
By Albert Heckman
Located in New York, NY
Albert Heckman
Cubist Landscape
Oil on canvas
16 x 20 inches
Albert Heckman was born in Meadville, Western Pennsylvania, 1893. He went to New York City to try his hand at the art w...
Category
1940s American Modern Dale Nichols Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Coney Island, Fourth of July
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Coney Island, Fourth of July, c. 1940s, oil on canvas applied to Masonite, signed upper right, 26 x 21 1/2 inches, presented in its original frame
During the 1930s and 40s, Coney I...
Category
1940s American Modern Dale Nichols Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil, Board
Woman and Child in the Woods - Midcentury Abstracted Landscape in Oil on Canvas
Located in Soquel, CA
Woman and Child in the Woods - Midcentury Abstracted Landscape in Oil on Canvas
Dramatic abstracted painting of a woman holding a child in the woods by Maley (20th Century). This pi...
Category
1970s American Modern Dale Nichols Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil, Stretcher Bars
$2,500
H 26.5 in W 21 in D 1 in
Farm in the Valley - Plein Air California Landscape
Located in Soquel, CA
Farm in the Valley - Plein Air California Landscape
Beautiful mid century landscape of a California farm by Baumgardner (American, 20th Century). The viewer stands on a dirt road, w...
Category
20th Century American Modern Dale Nichols Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Original Oil Painting Big Sur, Monterey California Landscape
By Virginia Shackles
Located in Soquel, CA
A beautiful American Impressionist oil seascape of the rugged Big Sur coast, Carmel California by Virginia Shackles (American, 1921-2020). The composition is pleasing with an interes...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Modern Dale Nichols Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
$1,550
H 24 in W 30 in D 1 in
Summer Resort in Michigan -Modernist Mid-Century Saugatuck Oil Painting
Located in Marco Island, FL
Summer Resort in Michigan is an exceptional work painted by the Chicago Modernist, William Schwartz. He studied at the Art Institute of Chicago shortly ...
Category
1940s American Modern Dale Nichols Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
$68,000
H 51 in W 33 in D 2 in
"Spring" Milton Derr, Lyrical Modernist Landscape, Bright Green and Blue Hues
Located in New York, NY
Milton Derr
Spring, 1982
Signed lower right; titled and dated verso
Oil on canvas
26 x 28 inches
Provenance
Acquired by descent from the artist to the present owner
Milton Derr wa...
Category
1980s American Modern Dale Nichols Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
$4,000 Sale Price
20% Off
H 26 in W 28 in
Neighbors
By Norman Barr
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Neighbors, 1939, oil on canvas, signed and dated lower right, 22 x 26 inches
Norman Barr was an American Scene painter and muralist known for his poignant depictions of working-clas...
Category
1930s American Modern Dale Nichols Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Missouri American Modernist famous in Europe - abstracted mid century Venice
Located in Norwich, GB
Meet the genuinely exciting modernist William Einstein, who is probably better known in Europe, where numerous publications on his work have been written, than in his native US!
Eins...
Category
1950s American Modern Dale Nichols Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
$1,300
H 24.41 in W 15.75 in
John Edward Thompson “Early Spring (Thompson’s Studio)” 1933 Colorado Modernist
By John Edward Thompson
Located in Denver, CO
Early Spring (Thompson’s Studio) is an original 1933 oil on canvas painting by celebrated Colorado modernist John Edward Thompson (1882–1945). This striking Impressionist work offers...
Category
1930s American Modern Dale Nichols Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
$2,850
H 26.25 in W 21 in D 2 in
Vineyard Estate Winery Landscape with Grape Vines in Oil on Canvas-Wrapped Board
By Jeane Kluga
Located in Soquel, CA
Vineyard Estate Winery Landscape with Grape Vines in Oil on Canvas-Wrapped Board
Beautiful landscape of a vineyard estate in California wine country with grape vines in the foregrou...
Category
1980s American Modern Dale Nichols Paintings
Materials
Masonite, Cotton Canvas, Oil
$1,650
H 16 in W 20 in D 0.25 in
Six O'Clock
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Six O-Clock, c. 1942, oil on canvas, 30 x 20 inches, signed and titled several times verso of frame and stretcher (perhaps by another hand), marked “Rehn” several times on frame (for the Frank K. M. Rehn Galleries in New York City, who represented Craig at the time); Exhibited: 1) 18th Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary American Oil Paintings from March 21 to May 2, 1943 at The Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. #87, original price $450 (per catalog) (exhibition label verso), 2) Craig’s one-man show at the Frank K. M. Rehn Galleries, New York City, from October 26 to November 14, 1942, #10 (original price listed as $350); and 3) Exhibition of thirty paintings sponsored by the Harrisburg Art Association at the State Museum of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg in March, 1944 (concerning this exhibit, Penelope Redd of The Evening News (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania) wrote: “Other paintings that have overtones of superrealism inherent in the subjects include Tom Craig’s California nocturne, ‘Six O’Clock,’ two figures moving through the twilight . . . .” March 6, 1944, p. 13); another label verso from The Museum of Art of Toledo (Ohio): original frame: Provenance includes George Stern Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
About the Painting
Long before Chris Burden’s iconic installation outside of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Urban Light, another artist, Tom Craig, made Southern California streetlights the subject of one of his early 1940s paintings. Consisting of dozens of recycled streetlights from the 1920s and 1930s forming a classical colonnade at the museum’s entrance, Burden’s Urban Light has become a symbol of Los Angeles. For Burden, the streetlights represent what constitutes an advanced society, something “safe after dark and beautiful to behold.” It seems that Craig is playing on the same theme in Six O-Clock. Although we see two hunched figures trudging along the sidewalk at the end of a long day, the real stars of this painting are the streetlights which brighten the twilight and silhouette another iconic symbol of Los Angeles, the palm trees in the distance. Mountains in the background and the distant view of a suburban neighborhood join the streetlights and palm trees as classic subject matter for a California Scene painting, but Craig gives us a twist by depicting the scene not as a sun-drenched natural expanse. Rather, Craig uses thin layers of oil paint, mimicking the watercolor technique for which he is most famous, to show us the twinkling beauty of manmade light and the safety it affords. Although Southern California is a land of natural wonders, the interventions of humanity are already everywhere in Los Angeles and as one critic noted, the resulting painting has an air of “superrealism.”
About the Artist
Thomas Theodore Craig was a well-known fixture in the Southern California art scene. He was born in Upland California. Craig graduated with a degree in botany from Pomona College and studied painting at Pamona and the Chouinard Art School with Stanton MacDonald-Wright and Barse Miller among others. He became close friends with fellow artist Milford Zornes...
Category
1940s American Modern Dale Nichols Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Previously Available Items
RFD#1
By Dale Nichols
Located in Los Angeles, CA
RFD #1, 1937, oil on canvas, signed and dated lower right, titled verso, 24 x 30 inches
Iowa had Grant Wood. Missouri had Thomas Hart Benton. Kansas had John Steuart Curry. And, Neb...
Category
1930s American Modern Dale Nichols Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Dale Nichols (1904-1995, American) Regionalist Watercolor Landscape With Barn
By Dale Nichols
Located in San Francisco, CA
Dale Nichols (1904-1995, American) Regionalist Watercolor Landscape With Barn
Watercolor on paper
1934
Artwork dimensions: 14.75" x 18"
Frame: 20" x 23.5"
Biography
Dale William N...
Category
1930s Naturalistic Dale Nichols Paintings
Materials
Watercolor
H 23.5 in W 20 in D 1.5 in
Antique American Large Size Dale Nichols Tikal Mayan Tribal Abstract Painting
By Dale Nichols
Located in Buffalo, NY
Up for sale here is a great Dale Nichols modernist painting. Very rare and wonederful! Oil and ink on fabric. Image size, 34H x 54L. Signed lower right: DALE NICHOLS 1971 verso:...
Category
1970s Modern Dale Nichols Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil, Ink
The Harbor
By Dale Nichols
Located in New York, NY
Category
Dale Nichols Paintings
Materials
Oil, Canvas
Dale Nichols paintings for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a wide variety of authentic Dale Nichols paintings available for sale on 1stDibs. If you’re browsing the collection of paintings to introduce a pop of color in a neutral corner of your living room or bedroom, you can find work that includes elements of blue and other colors. You can also browse by medium to find art by Dale Nichols in oil paint, paint, canvas and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 20th century and is mostly associated with the modern style. Not every interior allows for large Dale Nichols paintings, so small editions measuring 15 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Everett Shinn, William Harnden, and Alfred Wands. Dale Nichols paintings prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $38,500 and tops out at $105,000, while the average work can sell for $95,000.




