Hal Frater Paintings
American, 1909-2008
Hal Frater: A Portrait of an Artist's Life
Hal Frater (1909-2008) was a prolific painter whose life and work spanned nearly a century, reflecting the dynamic changes in American art and society. Born in New York City, Frater's artistic journey began in the heart of a burgeoning art scene that would shape his creative path.
Frater's artistic style evolved over the years, reflecting the diverse influences and trends of the 20th century. Although specific details about his education and training are not widely documented, it is evident that his work was deeply rooted in the traditions of American painting, while also embracing the innovative spirit of his time.
Throughout his career, Frater exhibited remarkable versatility in his choice of subjects and mediums. His portfolio includes a wide range of paintings, from landscapes and portraits to abstract compositions. This versatility not only showcases his technical skill but also his ability to capture the essence of his subjects with sensitivity and depth.
Frater's contributions to the art world were recognized in his lifetime, with his works being showcased in various exhibitions. His legacy continues to be celebrated posthumously, as his art remains a testament to his talent and vision.
As we reflect on Hal Frater's life and work, we are reminded of the enduring power of art to capture the human experience and inspire future generations. His paintings serve as a window into the past, offering us a glimpse of the world through his eyes and inviting us to explore the depths of our creativity.to
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Artist: Hal Frater
'The Artist as a Young Man' by Hal Frater - Ashcan School Figurative Painting
By Hal Frater
Located in Carmel, CA
Hal Frater's "The Artist as a Young Man" is a striking oil on canvas that captures the essence of the artist himself, rendered in a raw, emotive style. The palette is earthy, with natural browns and creams contrasted against subdued blues and hints of muted red, evoking a sense of both the mundane and the profound. Frater's use of color and form reflect a contemplative mood, a moment of introspection. The artist's gaze is direct and unflinching, suggesting resilience and a deep inner life. This mid-20th-century piece, evocative of American Realism, offers a personal narrative, exploring themes of identity and self-perception. Frater’s technique—visible brushstrokes and a textured application of paint—adds a tangible depth to the work, inviting the viewer to consider the artist's inner world and the time in which he lived.
About the Artist:
Hal Frater was not just an artist, but a storyteller who left us on February 3, 2008, on the cusp of his 99th birthday. His fifty-year tenure as a commercial artist was a testament to his adaptability and appeal. Yet it was in his private studio where Frater’s true passion lay — painting not for clients, but for his own soul's expression. His work, always striving to capture the nuances of the human spirit, reflected his sharp observational skills.
His artistry was honed not in formal schools, but alongside his peers in spontaneous gatherings, painting from life, sharing techniques and critiques that fueled their collective growth. Influenced by the likes of Jack Levine, Raphael Soyer, John Sloan, Thomas Hart Benton, Reginald Marsh, and Phillip Reisman...
Category
1950s Ashcan School Hal Frater Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
"Path To The Lake" Oil on Canvas Landscape 20" X 16" by Hal Frater
By Hal Frater
Located in Carmel, CA
Hal Frater passed away on February 3, 2008, just a month from celebrating his 99th birthday.
Hal Frater had a long and prolific career. He became a sought after commercial artist for over fifty years and was an early member of the well-know Society of Illustrators in New York City. All the while he would return to his studio and paint for himself rather than his clients. Yet he always retained his illustration roots in wanting to tell a story on canvas with his keen eye of observation on the human condition.
Often he would join fellow artists in informal sessions and paint from a model - no formal art school training but a mutually beneficial learning experience. His contemporaries that influenced him were Jack Levine, Raphael Soyer, John Sloan, Thomas Hart Benton, Reginald Marsh and Phillip Reisman...
Category
20th Century Modern Hal Frater Paintings
Materials
Gesso, Canvas, Oil
'Woman On Chair’ Original Drawing, Figurative Nude Art By Hal Frater
By Hal Frater
Located in Carmel, CA
11x14 (with frame 19x23)
Hal Frater passed away on February 3, 2008, just a month from celebrating his 99th birthday.
Hal Frater had a long and prolific career. He became a sought after commercial artist for over fifty years . All the while he would return to his studio and paint for himself rather than his clients. Yet he always retained his illustration roots in wanting to tell a story on canvas with his keen eye of observation on the human condition.
Often he would join fellow artists in informal sessions and paint from a model - no formal art school training but a mutually beneficial learning experience. His contemporaries that influenced him were Jack Levine, Raphael Soyer, John Sloan, Thomas Hart Benton, Reginald Marsh and Phillip Reisman...
Category
20th Century Modern Hal Frater Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
'Pink Sky' by Hal Frater - Mountain Range at Dusk - Oil Painting on Canvas
By Hal Frater
Located in Carmel, CA
Hal Frater's "Pink Sky" is a moody landscape that masterfully captures the play of light at dusk. Dominated by a majestic mountain under a vast, dusky sky, the painting is steeped in warm shades of pink and red that wash across the canvas, lending a dreamlike atmosphere to the scene. The dark silhouette of the mountain anchors the composition, while the reflections on the water's surface add a dynamic contrast to the softness of the sky. Frater's brushwork is loose and expressive, allowing the colors to blend and creating a sense of movement within the stillness of the landscape. This work evokes a quiet reflection and the serene beauty of nature, emphasizing the grandeur of the natural world as it succumbs to the tranquil blanket of night.
About the Artist:
Hal Frater was not just an artist, but a storyteller who left us on February 3, 2008, on the cusp of his 99th birthday. His fifty-year tenure as a commercial artist was a testament to his adaptability and appeal. Yet it was in his private studio where Frater’s true passion lay — painting not for clients, but for his own soul's expression. His work, always striving to capture the nuances of the human spirit, reflected his sharp observational skills.
His artistry was honed not in formal schools, but alongside his peers in spontaneous gatherings, painting from life, sharing techniques and critiques that fueled their collective growth. Influenced by the likes of Jack Levine, Raphael Soyer, John Sloan, Thomas Hart Benton, Reginald Marsh, and Phillip Reisman...
Category
1970s Ashcan School Hal Frater Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
'Painters with a model' Original Drawing By Hal Frater
By Hal Frater
Located in Carmel, CA
Hal Frater passed away on February 3, 2008, just a month from celebrating his 99th birthday.
Hal Frater had a long and prolific career. He became a sought after commercial artist for over fifty years . All the while he would return to his studio and paint for himself rather than his clients. Yet he always retained his illustration roots in wanting to tell a story on canvas with his keen eye of observation on the human condition.
Often he would join fellow artists in informal sessions and paint from a model - no formal art school training but a mutually beneficial learning experience. His contemporaries that influenced him were Jack Levine, Raphael Soyer, John Sloan, Thomas Hart Benton, Reginald Marsh and Phillip Reisman...
Category
20th Century Modern Hal Frater Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
‘Woman With Black Hair' Figurative Art Nude Oil On Canvas By Hal Frater
By Hal Frater
Located in Carmel, CA
Portrait Of a Woman Painting - - oil on canvas -- Woman with a Black Hair'
Hal Frater passed away on February 3, 2008, just a month from celebrating his 99th birthday.
Hal Frater had a long and prolific career. He became a sought after commercial artist for over fifty years . All the while he would return to his studio and paint for himself rather than his clients. Yet he always retained his illustration roots in wanting to tell a story on canvas with his keen eye of observation on the human condition.
Often he would join fellow artists in informal sessions and paint from a model - no formal art school training but a mutually beneficial learning experience. His contemporaries that influenced him were Jack Levine, Raphael Soyer, John Sloan, Thomas Hart Benton, Reginald Marsh and Phillip Reisman...
Category
20th Century Modern Hal Frater Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
‘Mattise Model' Expressionism Portrait of Woman By Frater
By Hal Frater
Located in Carmel, CA
Portrait Of a Women Painting - - oil on canvas
Hal Frater passed away on February 3, 2008, just a month from celebrating his 99th birthday.
Hal Frater had a long and prolific career. He became a sought after commercial artist for over fifty years . All the while he would return to his studio and paint for himself rather than his clients. Yet he always retained his illustration roots in wanting to tell a story on canvas with his keen eye of observation on the human condition.
Often he would join fellow artists in informal sessions and paint from a model - no formal art school training but a mutually beneficial learning experience. His contemporaries that influenced him were Jack Levine, Raphael Soyer, John Sloan, Thomas Hart Benton, Reginald Marsh and Phillip Reisman...
Category
20th Century Modern Hal Frater Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
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Amy Londoner (April 12, 1875 – 1951) was an American painter who exhibited at the 1913 Armory Show. One of the first students of the Henri School of Art in 1909. Prior to the Armory Show of 1913, Amy Londoner and her classmates studied with "Ashcan" painter Robert Henri at the Henri School of Art in New York, N.Y. One notable oil painting, 'The Vase', was painted by both Henri and Londoner.
Londoner was born in Lexington, Missouri on April 12, 1875. Her parents were Moses and Rebecca Londoner, who moved to Leadville, Colorado, by 1880. In 1899, Amy took responsibility for her father who had come to Los Angeles from Leadville and had mental issues. By 1900, Amy was living with her parents and sister, Blanche, in the vicinity of Leadville, Denver, Colorado. While little was written about her early life, Denver City directories indicated that nineteenth-century members of the family were merchants, with family ties to New York, N.Y. The family had a male servant. Londoner traveled with her mother to England in 1907 then shortly later, both returned to New York in 1909. Londoner was 34 years old at the time, and, according to standards of the day, should have married and raised a family long before. Instead, she enrolled as one of the first students at the Henri School of Art in 1909.
At the Henri School, Londoner established friendships with Carl Sprinchorn (1887-1971), a young Swedish immigrant, and Edith Reynolds (1883-1964), daughter of wealthy industrialist family from Wilkes-Barre, PA. Londoner's correspondence, which often included references to Blanche, listed the sisters' primary address as the Hotel Endicott at 81st Street and Columbus Avenue, NYC. Other correspondence also reached Londoner in the city via Mrs. Theodore Bernstein at 252 West 74th Street; 102 West 73rd Street; and the Independent School of Art at 1947 Broadway. In 1911, Londoner vacationed at the Hotel Trexler in Atlantic City, NJ. As indicated by an undated photograph, Londoner also spent time with Edith Reynolds and Robert Henri at 'The Pines', the Reynolds family estate in Bear Creek, PA.
Through her connections with the Henri School, Londoner entered progressive social and professional circles. Henri's admonition, phrased in the vocabulary of his historical time period, that one must become a "man" first and an artist second, attracted both male and female students to classes where development of unique personal styles, tailored to convey individual insights and experiences, was prized above the mastery of standardized, technical skill. Far from being dilettantes, women students at the Henri School were daring individuals willing to challenge tradition. As noted by former student Helen Appleton Read, "it was a mark of defiance,to join the radical Henri group."
As Henri offered educational alternatives for women artists, he initiated exhibition opportunities for them as well. Troubled by the exclusion of work by younger artists from annual exhibitions at the National Academy of Design, Henri was instrumental in organizing the no-jury, no-prize Exhibition of Independent Artists in 1910. About half of the 103 artists included in the exhibition were or had been Henri students, while twenty of the twenty-six women exhibiting had studied with Henri. Among the exhibition's 631 pieces, nine were by Amy Londoner, including the notorious 'Lady with a Headache'. Similarly, fourteen of Henri's women students exhibited in the groundbreaking Armory Show of 1913, forming about eight percent of the American exhibitors and one-third of American women exhibitors. Of the nine documented works submitted by Londoner, five were rejected, while four pastels of Atlantic City beach scenes, including 'The Beach Umbrellas' now in the Remington Collection, were displayed.
Following Henri's example, Londoner served as an art instructor for younger students at the Modern School, whose only requirement was to genuinely draw what they pleased. The work of dancer Isadora Duncan, another artist devoted to the ideals of a liberal education, was also lauded by the Modern School. Henri, who long admired Duncan and invited members of her troupe to model for his classes, wrote an appreciation of her for the Modern School journal in 1915. She was also the subject of Londoner's pastel Isadora Duncan and the Children: Praise Ye the Lord with Dance. In 1914, Londoner traveled to France to spend summer abroad, living at 99 rue Notre Dames des Champs, Paris, France. As the tenets of European modernism spread throughout the United States, Londoner showed regularly at venues which a new generation of artists considered increasingly passe, including the annual Society of Independent Artists' exhibitions between 1918 and 1934, and the Salons of America exhibition in 1922. Londoner also exhibited at the Morton Gallery, Opportunity Gallery, Leonard Clayton Gallery and Brownell-Lambertson Galleries in NYC. Her painting of a 'Blond Girl' was one of two works included in the College Art Associations Traveling Exhibition of 1929, which toured colleges across the country to broad acclaim.
Londoner later in life suffered from illnesses then suffered a stroke which resulted in medical bills significantly mounting over the years that her old friends from the Henri School, including Carl Sprinchorn, Florence Dreyfous, Florence Barley, and Josephine Nivison Hopper, scrambled to raise funds and find suitable long-term care facilities for Londoner. Londoner later joined Reynolds in Bear Creek, PA. Always known for her keen wit, Londoner retained her humor and concern for her works even during her illness, noting that "if anything happens to the Endicott, I guess they will just throw them out." Sprinchorn and Reynolds, however, did not allow this to happen. In 1960, Londoner's paintings 'Amsterdam Avenue at 74th Street' and 'The Builders' were loaned by Reynolds to a show commemorating the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Exhibition of Independent Artists in 1910, presented at the Delaware Art Center, Wilmington, DE. In the late 80's, Francis William Remington, 'Bill Remington', of Bear Creek Village PA, along with his neighbor and artist Frances Anstett Brennan, both had profound admiration for Amy Londoner's art work and accomplishments as a woman who played a significant role in the Ashcan movement. Remington acquired a significant number of Londoner's artwork along with Frances Anstett Brenan that later was part of an exhibition of Londoner's artwork in April 15 of 2007, at the Hope Horn...
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Hal Frater paintings for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a wide variety of authentic Hal Frater paintings available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Hal Frater in canvas, fabric, oil paint 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 Hal Frater paintings, so small editions measuring 20 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Oris Robertson, Pearl Took, and Wasim Kapoor. Hal Frater paintings prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $800 and tops out at $9,750, while the average work can sell for $2,625.