Skip to main content

Fletcher Martin Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

American, 1904-1979

Fletcher Martin was an American painter, illustrator, muralist and educator. He is best known for his images of military life during World War II and his sometimes brutal images of boxing and other sports. Martin was born in 1904 in Palisade, Colorado, one of seven children of newspaperman Clinton Martin and his wife Josephine. The family relocated to Idaho and later Washington. By the age of 12, he was working as a printer. He dropped out of high school and held odd jobs such as lumberjack and professional boxer. He served in the U.S. Navy, 1922–26. Martin's artistic skills were largely self-taught.

to
1
Overall Width
to
Overall Height
to
1
1
1
1
10
808
408
306
282
1
Artist: Fletcher Martin
Untitled (Joe Louis knocking out Max Schmeling in 1938 rematch)
By Fletcher Martin
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Untitled (Joe Louis knocking out Max Schmeling in 1938 rematch) Pen and ink with wash on heavy wove sketchbook paper, 1938 Signed lower right: Fletcher Martin Directly related to Martin's famous painting of 1942 entitled "Lullaby", which was also used in the lithograph of the same name. (see photo) The drawing depicts the third and final knockdown of Max Schmeling in their rematch of 1938. Condition: Mat staining at the edges of the sketchbook page edges Toning to verso from previous framing. Does not affect framed presentation "It was here that Louis first used sport to bridge America's cavernous racial divide. With Hitler on the march in Europe and using Schmeling's victory over Louis as proof of “Aryan supremacy,” anti-Nazi sentiment ran high in the States. Louis had long grown accustomed to the pressures of representing his race but here the burdens were broader and deeper. Now he was shouldering the hopes of an entire nation. A few weeks before the match Louis visited the White House and U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, whose tenure lasted even longer than Louis' would, told him, “Joe, we need muscles like yours to beat Germany.” Those muscles certainly beat Schmeling on fight night...
Category

1930s American Realist Fletcher Martin Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Ink

Related Items
"Self Portrait / Sketch on verso" Robert Henri, Ashcan Self-Portrait Work
By Robert Henri
Located in New York, NY
Robert Henri Self Portrait / Sketch on verso Estate stamped lower right Ink on paper, graphite on paper 12 1/2 x 8 inches Born Robert Henry Cozad in Cincinnati, Ohio, Robert Henri became one of the leading personalities in American art, known for his teaching skills, ethnic portraits, especially spirited children, and insistence that artists should adhere to social realism and give rein to their own artistic instincts. During his growing up years, he lived between Cincinnati and Cozad, Nebraska, founded by his father John Jackson Cozad, a gambler and real estate promoter. When Robert was about 10 years old, his family moved to Cozad in Dawson County. Tension existed between John Cozad and the established ranchers who resented development, and a rancher attacked Cozad, who in self defense shot the man to death. Fearing for his life, he, his wife and two sons sneaked out of town and re convened in Atlantic City where they disguised their identity by taking other names. The father was later cleared of the charge, but he changed his name to Richard H. Lee, and passed his two sons off as adopted children named Frank Southern and Robert Henri. Robert chose a variation of his middle name to rhyme with "buckeye" to symbolize his Ohio roots. From Atlantic City, as a young man, he attended boarding school in New York City. He, having shown early art talent, studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts as a student of Thomas Anschutz and Thomas Hovenden...
Category

Early 1900s American Realist Fletcher Martin Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Paper, Ink

Fillmore East 1968 Traffic, Blue Cheer, Iron Butterfly original artwork
By David Edward Byrd
Located in Southampton, NY
This is the original character study art for the very first Fillmore East concert Poster by David Edward Byrd in 1968, it is featured on page 74 of the new coffee table book "Poster Child, The Psychedelic Art and Technicolor Life of David Edward Byrd". The poster was for a concert at the Fillmore East featuring, Traffic, Blue Cheer and Buttery. An image of the finished poster is shown in this listing just for reference to the figures. David Edward Byrd created some of the most important and memorable Classic Theatre and Rock and Roll images from the 1960s and 70s. David created ALL of the Art for Bill Graham’s Fillmore East, including their Program covers and Rock posters, the art for Jimi Hendrix’s first Fillmore East appearance, The Rolling Stones 1969 World Tour art, The Who’s Performance of Tommy at the New York Metropolitan Opera House and The Fillmore, and The Grateful Dead Swell Dance Concert to name only a few. He also created the poster art for the original location of the 1969 Woodstock music festival . His memorable images were also used for classic Broadway shows like Godspell, Follies and Jesus Christ Superstar to mention only a few. A new coffee table book titled "Poster Child, The Psychedelic Art & Technicolor Life of David Edward Byrd" features his classic Rock and Roll art and Broadway art...
Category

1960s American Realist Fletcher Martin Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Ink, Watercolor, Vellum, Pencil

"Good Health Week" American Scene Modern Social Realism Mid 20th Century WPA Era
By Jo Cain
Located in New York, NY
"Good Health Week" American Scene Modern Social Realism Mid- 20th Century WPA Era Jo Cain (1904 – 2003) Good Health Week – b/w 10 ½ x 15 1/2 inches I...
Category

1930s American Realist Fletcher Martin Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Paper, Ink

Two Children and Dog
By Lynn Gertenbach
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork "Two Children with Dog" is an original ink drawing on vey thick Bristol paper by American artist Lynn Gertenbach, b.1940. It is hand signed a...
Category

Late 20th Century American Realist Fletcher Martin Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

India Ink

TOBACCO ROAD Mid 20th Century Realism 1940 Drawing from the Novel WPA Literary 2
By David Fredenthal
Located in New York, NY
TOBACCO ROAD Mid 20th Century Realism 1940 Drawing from the Novel WPA Literary 2 10 1/2 x 6 (sight), Signed David Fredenthal lower right. Framed by Lowy....
Category

1930s American Realist Fletcher Martin Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Paper, Ink, Watercolor

"Tobacco Road" Mid 20th Century Realism 1940 Drawing from the Novel WPA Literary
By David Fredenthal
Located in New York, NY
"Tobacco Road" Mid 20th Century Realism 1940 Drawing from the Novel WPA Literary 19 1/4 x 11 1/2 (sight), Signed David Fredenthal lower right. Framed by ...
Category

1930s American Realist Fletcher Martin Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Paper, Ink, Watercolor

Young Love: Walking to School, Four Seasons Calendar Illustration
By Norman Rockwell
Located in Fort Washington, PA
Illustrated for the 1949 Four Seasons Calendar, published by Brown and Bigelow. A young girl holds a freshly-picked bouquet of flowers as she strolls alongside a boy who carries he...
Category

1940s American Realist Fletcher Martin Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Paper, Ink, Watercolor

Ford T
By Lynn Gertenbach
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork "Ford T" is an original ink drawing and gouache on thick Bristol paper by American artist Lynn Gertenbach, b.1940. It is hand signed at the lower left corner by the arti...
Category

Late 20th Century American Realist Fletcher Martin Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

India Ink

Ford T
Ford T
H 17 in W 21 in D 0.01 in
Two Monkeys
By Lynn Gertenbach
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork "Two Monkeys) is an original ink drawing on thick Bristol paper by American artist Lynn Gertenbach, b.1940. It is hand signed at the lower rig...
Category

Late 20th Century American Realist Fletcher Martin Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

India Ink

Two Monkeys
Two Monkeys
H 17 in W 22.5 in D 0.01 in
Rare 1950s Original Syndicated Ink Drawing Cartoon Strip Susie Q Smith Comic Art
Located in Surfside, FL
SUSIE Q. SMITH Medium: Newspaper comics Distributed by: King Features Syndicate First Appeared: 1945 Creators: Linda and Jerry Walter 6.5 X 18 Like her contemporaries, Aggie Mack, Candy and Patsy Walker (before her conversion to a superhero), Susie Q. Smith was a female Archie-type — not exactly an imitator, because Archie, who had started only four years earlier, hadn't yet become popular enough to spawn imitators, but part of his genre. She attended high school, where her teachers often seemed unreasonable to her, interacted with the opposite gender in a typically adolescent way, and her parents didn't completely understand her. And she was cute and perky as only a teenage girl can be. Susie was the star of a comic strip distributed by King Features, the biggest of the comic strip syndicates, whose other offerings have ranged from Jackys Diary to Prince Valiant. King launched the strip in both daily and Sunday form in 1945. Daily, she was only in a panel at first, but it expanded into a full, multi-panel strip on February 7, 1953. In a very odd turn of events, in 1953 the Walters chose to leave King Features behind and hitch their wagon at the McNaught Syndicate. The creators were Harold "Jerry" Walter and his wife, Linda. Jerry was also responsible for Jellybean Jones, who has nothing to do with Jughead Jones's young sister, a modern-day addition to the Archie cast of characters. Together, they did The Lively Ones during the 1960s. Though each was capable of doing both major jobs in comic strip production, their usual working method was for Jerry to dream up the ideas and write the dialog, while Linda did the artwork. The Walters also collaborated on a series of Susie Q. Smith comic books for Dell Comics. Instead of reprinting newspaper strips, these ran new stories by the Walters. Between 1951 and '54, four issues were published as part of the Four Color Comics series, where many minor comic strips, including Dotty Dripple, Timmy and Rusty Riley had found a home. It had no other media spin-offs. Susie Q. Smith had a respectable run in the newspapers, but it ended in 1959. Jerry Walter (1915 - 2007) was an abstract expressionist artist whose output of energetic and colorful paintings were the products of the rich artistic milieu of post-war New York City. He was born Harold Frank Walter in Mount Pleasant, Iowa on November 25, 1915. After graduating from Colgate University in 1937, Walter moved to New York City, where he studied drawing and painting at the New School and the Art Students’ League. Before concentrating seriously on his art, he spent several years as a successful copywriter and idea man for the advertising agencies of J. Walter Thompson, McCann Ericson, and BBDO. During this time, he also worked as a syndicated cartoonist. Collaborating with his wife, Linda, his best-known series was Susie Q. Smith, which first appeared in 1945 and described as a “female Archie type.” Very popular, the cartoon was later the subject of a series of comic books published from 1951 to 1954. After serving in the United States Army for three years during World War II, Walter began to paint seriously. He ascribed his earliest artistic influence to Joan Miró, whose Dog Barking at the Moon (1926) he viewed when he was twelve, the year he published his first cartoon. Walter later wrote that jazz, “the first native expression of so-called modernism” was a strong influence on his work. During the later 1940s, Walters spent time at the Research Studio in Maitland, Florida. Founded in 1937 by artist and architect J. André Smith and supported by the philanthropist Mary Curtis Bok, the Research Studio was a lively colony that hosted prominent artists, including Milton Avery, Ralston Crawford, and Doris Lee. While at the Studio, Walter’s work was purchased by Frank Crowninshield. A founding trustee of the Museum of Modern Art and editor of Vanity Fair, Crowinshield was a noted collector; his collection included important works by Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, Henri Matisse, Edgar Degas, George Bellows, and Pierre Bonnard. Returning to New York after his time at the Studio, Walter became an active member of the New York school of the abstract expressionist movement, and in the summer of 1956, Walter exhibited 13 paintings and a selection of drawings at New York’s Chase Gallery. The adroit manipulation of both color and composition evident in his work shows the influence of Abstract Expressionism, particularly Willem de Kooning, Arshile Gorky, and Hans Hofmann. illustrator and female cartoonist Linda Walter was the talented female mind behind the beloved "Susie Q. Smith" comic strip. She played an instrumental role in shaping the cultural landscape through her vibrant illustrations. Known for the timeless charm of the "Susie Q. Smith" comic strip, Linda's artistry brought joy and laughter to countless readers during the 1950s and continues to resonate with fans across generations. She was part of the Woodstock artists community. from Women in Comics: Linda Walter was the artist of newspaper strip Susie Q. Smith, which was written by her husband, Jerry. It was syndicated by King Features Syndicate and ran from 1945 to 1959. The Walters also contributed original Susie Q. Smith stories to Dell's Four Color comic books from 1951 to 1954. From 1964-1965, they created a singled panel comic called The Lively Ones. Vintage Golden Age of Comics era. The Golden Age of Comic Books describes an era in the history of American comic books from 1938 to 1956. During this time, modern comic books were first published and rapidly increased in popularity. The superhero archetype was created. Between 1939 and 1941 Detective Comics (DC) and its sister company, All-American Publications, introduced popular superheroes such as Batman and Robin, Wonder Woman, the Flash, Green Lantern, Doctor Fate, the Atom, Hawkman, Green Arrow and Aquaman. Timely Comics, the 1940s predecessor of Marvel Comics, had million-selling titles featuring the Human Torch, the Sub-Mariner, and Captain America. Another notable series was The Spirit by Will Eisner. Dell Comics' non-superhero characters (particularly the licensed Walt Disney animated-character comics) outsold the superhero comics of the day. The publisher featured licensed movie and literary characters such as Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Roy Rogers and Tarzan. Additionally, MLJ's introduction of Archie Andrews in Pep Comics #22 (December 1941) gave rise to teen humor comics, with the Archie Comics...
Category

1950s American Realist Fletcher Martin Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Paper, Ink

Al Hirschfeld "Beat the Band" New York Times Broadway Theatre Illustration 1940s
By Albert Al Hirschfeld
Located in New York, NY
Al Hirschfeld (1903-2003) "Beat the Band" 22 x 26 1/2 inches ink on board published in The New York Times, October 11, 1942 The unframed work comes directly from the Al Hirschfeld F...
Category

1940s American Realist Fletcher Martin Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Ink, Board

Environmental Prognostication Coil Narrative "Homo Sapiens R.I.P."
Located in Miami, FL
"They paved paradise and put up a parking lot," Joni Mitchell said. - - Created in 1969, at the dawn of the American environmental movement, artist Richard Erdoes draws a sequential narrative in the form of a coil. From inception to destruction, it illustrates a list of things that humans are doing to destroy the world we live in. The work was commissioned for school-age humans and executed in a whimsically comic way. Yet the underlying narrative is sophisticated and foreshadows a world that could be on the brink of ecological disaster. Graphically and conceptually, this work exhibits an endless amount of creativity and Erdoes cartoony style is one to fall in love with. Signed lower right. Unframed 12.4 inches Width: 12.85 inches Height is the live area. Board is 16x22 inches. Richard Erdoes (Hungarian Erdős, German Erdös; July 7, 1912 – July 16, 2008) was an American artist, photographer, illustrator and author. Early life Erdoes was born in Frankfurt,to Maria Josefa Schrom on July 7, 1912. His father, Richárd Erdős Sr., was a Jewish Hungarian opera singer who had died a few weeks earlier in Budapest on June 9, 1912.After his birth, his mother lived with her sister, the Viennese actress Leopoldine ("Poldi") Sangora,He described himself as "equal parts Austrian, Hungarian and German, as well as equal parts Catholic, Protestant and Jew..."[4] Career He was a student at the Berlin Academy of Art in 1933, when Adolf Hitler came to power. He was involved in a small underground paper where he published anti-Hitler political cartoons which attracted the attention of the Nazi regime. He fled Germany with a price on his head. Back in Vienna, he continued his training at the Kunstgewerbeschule, now the University of Applied Arts, Vienna.[5] He also wrote and illustrated children's books and worked as a caricaturist for Tag and Stunde, anti-Nazi newspapers. After the Anschluss of Austria in 1938 he fled again, first to Paris, where he studied at the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere, and then London, England before journeying to the United States. He married his first wife, fellow artist Elsie Schulhof (d. xxxx) in London, shortly before their arrival in New York City. In New York City, Erdoes enjoyed a long career as a commercial artist, and was known for his highly detailed, whimsical drawings. He created illustrations for such magazines as Stage, Fortune, Pageant, Gourmet, Harper's Bazaar, Sports Illustrated, The New York Times, Time, National Geographic and Life Magazine, where he met his second wife, Jean Sternbergh (d. 1995) who was an art director there. The couple married in 1951 and had three children.[6] Erdoes also illustrated many children's books. An assignment for Life in 1967 took Erdoes to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation for the first time, and marked the beginning of the work for which he would be best known. Erdoes was fascinated by Native American culture, outraged at the conditions on the reservation and deeply moved by the Civil Rights Movement that was raging at the time. He wrote histories, collections of Native American stories...
Category

1960s American Realist Fletcher Martin Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Ink, Gouache, Illustration Board

Previously Available Items
"Sleigh Ride, Winter, " Fletcher Martin, Woodstock, Holiday Scene Illustration
By Fletcher Martin
Located in New York, NY
Fletcher Martin (1904 - 1979) Sleigh Ride, Woodstock, New York circa 1955 Watercolor on paper 14 x 11 inches Signed lower right Provenance: James Cox Galler...
Category

1950s American Realist Fletcher Martin Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Los Angeles Harbor from the Roof of the Federal Building-San Pedro, circa 1935
By Fletcher Martin
Located in Denver, CO
Provenence: Estate of the Artist Ink and graphite on paper. Housed in a custom frame with all archival materials. Outer dimensions are 23 x 39.75 x 1.5 inches; image measures 13...
Category

1930s American Realist Fletcher Martin Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Mixed Media

Fletcher Martin drawings and watercolor paintings for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Fletcher Martin drawings and watercolor paintings available for sale on 1stDibs. If you’re browsing the collection of drawings and watercolor 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 Fletcher Martin in ink, paint, paper and more. Not every interior allows for large Fletcher Martin drawings and watercolor paintings, so small editions measuring 10 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Adolf Dehn, Jo Cain, and Derek Buckner. Fletcher Martin drawings and watercolor paintings prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $4,000 and tops out at $4,500, while the average work can sell for $4,250.

Recently Viewed

View All