Skip to main content

Henry Martin Gasser Paintings

American, 1909-1981
Henry Martin Gasser was an American painter in every sense. From his working-class industrial town, he sought out the greatest artists in the area in order to study from them and found inspiration in his backyard. Through persistence and a spirit of originality, Gasser turned humble scenes of urban American life in the mid-twentieth century into extraordinary works of art that were widely praised by the art world. After achieving fame for his paintings, he extended his reach further by educating future artists and writing instructional books on his innovative techniques. Gasser was born in Newark, New Jersey, where he lived for most of his life. He studied painting at the Newark School of Fine and Industrial Arts as well as the Grand Central School of Art and the Art Students League in New York City. The well-known artist John R. Grabach (1886–1981), a fellow New Jersey native, privately tutored Gasser, and the two artists developed a close relationship. Despite its highly individualistic style, Gasser’s work still fits neatly into the tradition established by his American predecessors. In addition to exhibiting influence from Grabach, Gasser’s realist depictions of everyday life continued the legacy of the Ashcan painters. The majority of Gasser’s work portrays his native New Jersey. By the time he reached artistic maturity in the mid-twentieth century, Newark had become a major industrial center. Such cities, although the life force of American industry and ingenuity, were not known for their scenic qualities. Nonetheless, Gasser found beauty in his surroundings. His artworks typically feature urban scenes, such as residential streets lined with houses and blue-collar suburban communities. Along with painting in New Jersey and New York, he embarked on excursions with Grabach to New England to capture coastal views and winter scenery. During World War II, Gasser was stationed in South Carolina as a sergeant in a Visual Aid Unit of the army, where he painted the vibrant Southern culture surrounding him. Although adept at painting with oils, he found his stride in watercolors. Paralleling his ability to transform unassuming subjects into captivating pictures, Gasser elevated watercolor—a medium that was more common at the time for preliminary sketches or commercial use—to a fine art. During his life, Gasser exhibited his paintings widely to remarkable critical acclaim. He was honored with numerous solo exhibitions in New York and New Jersey and was included in group exhibitions at the country’s finest museums and galleries. Gasser won more than one hundred exhibition prizes nationally, including the prestigious Hallgarten Prize awarded by the National Academy of Design. Gasser was actively engaged in the art community, belonging to over twenty organizations, including the Allied Artists of America, the Art Students League, the National Arts Club, and the Salmagundi Club. He served as vice president of both the National Academy of Design and the American Watercolor Society, and designed the latter’s certificate of membership.
to
1
1
1
Overall Width
to
Overall Height
to
3
3
3
2
2
2
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
3
2
1
1
1
8
793
753
753
663
1
3
Artist: Henry Martin Gasser
Sunlit Bay
Sunlit Bay

Sunlit Bay

By Henry Martin Gasser

Located in New York, NY

On verso: H GASSER

Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Henry Martin Gasser Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

On the Seashore
On the Seashore

On the Seashore

By Henry Martin Gasser

Located in New York, NY

Signed lower right: H. GASSER

Category

20th Century American Modern Henry Martin Gasser Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Related Items
A Charming 1940s Modern Watercolor of a City in Mexico w/ Cathedral and Rooftops
A Charming 1940s Modern Watercolor of a City in Mexico w/ Cathedral and Rooftops

A Charming 1940s Modern Watercolor of a City in Mexico w/ Cathedral and Rooftops

By Rudolph Pen

Located in Chicago, IL

A Charming 1940s Watercolor of a City in Mexico with Cathedral and Rooftops by Noted Chicago Artist, Rudolph T. Pen. A well executed early work by Pen, completed during the artist's...

Category

1940s American Modern Henry Martin Gasser Paintings

Materials

Paper, Watercolor, Gouache

Vintage Signed American Modernist New England Framed Coastal Landscape Painting
Vintage Signed American Modernist New England Framed Coastal Landscape Painting

Vintage Signed American Modernist New England Framed Coastal Landscape Painting

Located in Buffalo, NY

Vintage American modernist abstract oil painting. Oil on board. Framed. Signed. Measuring: 19 by 23 inches overall, and 17 by 21 painting alone.. In excellent original condition. H...

Category

1950s Modern Henry Martin Gasser Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Docks & Boats by Cottages, New York City Art Dealer, Grace Borgenicht Gallery
Docks & Boats by Cottages, New York City Art Dealer, Grace Borgenicht Gallery

Docks & Boats by Cottages, New York City Art Dealer, Grace Borgenicht Gallery

Located in Grand Rapids, MI

Grace Borgenicht Brandt (American, 1915-2001) Signed: G. Borgenicht " Docks & Boats by Cottages " circa 1950-1955 Oil on canvas 20" x 24" Housed in a Vintage 4" Ornamented Frame...

Category

Mid-20th Century American Modern Henry Martin Gasser Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

NYC Cityscape American Scene WPA Modern Realism Mid 20th Century Architectural
NYC Cityscape American Scene WPA Modern Realism Mid 20th Century Architectural

NYC Cityscape American Scene WPA Modern Realism Mid 20th Century Architectural

By Ernest Fiene

Located in New York, NY

NYC Cityscape American Scene WPA Modern Realism Mid 20th Century Architectural Ernest Fiene (1894-1965) Cityscape 36 x 30 inches Oil on canvas Signed and dated 1930. lower right Provenance Estate of the artist. ACA Galleries, New York Exhibited New York, Frank Rehn Gallery, Changing Old New York, 1931. New York, ACA Galleries, Ernest Fiene: Art of the City, 1925-1955, May 2-23, 1981, n.p., no. 5. BIO Ernest Fiene was born in Elberfeld, Germany in 1894. As a teenager, Fiene immigrated to the United States in 1912. He studied art at the National Academy of Design in New York City from 1914 to 1918, taking day classes with Thomas Maynard and evening classes with Leon Kroll. Fiene continued his studies at the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design in New York from 1916 to 1918, adding classes in printmaking at the Art Students League in 1923. Fiene began his career as an artist in 1919 with his first exhibition of watercolors at the MacDowell Club arranged by his mentor Robert Henri. In 1923 the Whitney Studio Club mounted a large exhibition of his works. The following year he had an exhibition at the New Gallery in New York, which completely sold out all fifty-two works, including paintings, watercolors, drawings, and etchings. With the proceeds of sales from the New Gallery exhibition, Ernest Fiene and his younger brother Paul, a sculptor, built studios in Woodstock, New York in 1925. In the early Twenties Ernest Fiene painted mostly landscapes of Woodstock and both the Ramapo and Hudson River Valleys. The first monograph from the Younger Artists Series was published on Fiene in 1922. Published in Woodstock, the series went on to include Alexander Brook, Peggy Bacon, and Yasuo Kuniyoshi. The book reproduced 1 illustration in color and another 27 reproductions in black and white. Around 1925 Fiene became fascinated with the intensity, excitement, and opportunities for color harmonies New York City offered as a subject. His paintings shifted to urban and industrial themes with architecture, industry, and transportation becoming his subjects. By 1926 Fiene had attracted the dealer Frank K.M. Rehn, who gave him a one-man exhibition that year, which travelled to the Boston Arts Club. C.W. Kraushaar Galleries gave Fiene a one-man exhibition of urban, landscape, portrait, and still life paintings in 1927. Julianna Force, the director of the Whitney Studio Club and first director of the Whitney Museum of American Art, included two of Fiene’s paintings in a fall exhibition in 1928. The Whitney Studio Club showed Fiene’s paintings in a two-man exhibition with Glenn O. Coleman that year and acquired three of Fiene’s paintings. Also in 1928 Fiene became affiliated with Edith Halpert’s Downtown Gallery where he had an exhibition of 20 lithographs in the spring. Fiene sold his house in Woodstock in 1928 to spend more of his time in New York City. With so many successful exhibitions, Fiene returned to Paris in 1928-29 where he rented Jules Pascin's studio and studied at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière. In France, Fiene painted both landscape and urban subjects developed from ideas influenced by Cubist geometry and the use of flat areas of broad color. Upon returning to New York in 1930, Fiene used this new approach to continue to paint New York skyscraper and waterfront subjects, as well as to begin a series of paintings on changing old New York based on the excavations for Radio City Music Hall and the construction of the Empire State Building. Frank K.M. Rehn Galleries exhibited this series, titled “Changing Old New York,” in 1931. Fiene also has solo exhibitions at Rehn Galleries in 1930 and 1932. Fiene’s oil paintings are exhibited at the Chicago Arts Club in 1930 as well. Fiene was included in the Museum of Modern Art’s exhibition Painting and Sculpture by Living Americans in December of 1931. Visiting New York, Henri Matisse saw the exhibition and called Fiene’s Razing Buildings, West 49th Street the finest painting he had seen in New York. Fiene had two mural studies from his Mechanical Progress series exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art’s exhibition Murals by American Painters and Photographers in 1932. Fiene sent View from my Window which depicts Fiene working on a lithograph stone while looking out his window to the newly completed Empire State Building to the Carnegie International in 1931. In 1932 Fiene participated in the first Biennial of American Painting at the Whitney Museum and his prints were included in exhibitions at the Downtown Gallery and the Wehye Gallery. In the same year, Fiene was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship to further study mural painting in Florence, Italy. On his return from Italy in 1933 Fiene re-engaged himself in New York City life and won several public and private mural projects. Fiene resumed his active exhibition schedule, participating in two group exhibitions at the Whitney Museum and a one-man exhibition of recent paintings at the Downtown Gallery in January 1934. In 1933 he purchased a farm in Southbury, Connecticut, which added Connecticut scenes to his landscape subjects. This was also the year Fiene began to spend summers on Monhegan Island, Maine, where he painted seascapes, harbor scenes, and still lifes. Fiene’s landscape paintings attracted numerous commissions as part of the American Scene movement. Through the fall and winter of 1935-36, Fiene took an extended sketching trip through the urban, industrial, and farming areas of Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Most of the twenty-four Pennsylvania urban and rural paintings...

Category

1930s American Modern Henry Martin Gasser Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Till the Clouds Roll By 1945 Frank Sinatra Mid Century Modern Hollywood Film WPA
Till the Clouds Roll By 1945 Frank Sinatra Mid Century Modern Hollywood Film WPA

Till the Clouds Roll By 1945 Frank Sinatra Mid Century Modern Hollywood Film WPA

By Richard Whorf

Located in New York, NY

Till the Clouds Roll By 1945 Frank Sinatra Mid Century Modern Hollywood Film WPA TILL THE COULDS ROLL BY (Film Set), oil on canvas, 20 x 24 inches signed “Richard Whorf” lower right and signed and dated on the verso “R. Whorf/ Dec. 21, 1945. Frame by Hendenryk. ABOUT THE PAINTING This painting is from the collection of Barbara and Frank Sinatra, dated December 21, 1945 (just nine days after Frank Sinatra’s 30th birthday), and depicts the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Culver City backlot during the filming of Till the Clouds Roll By, the direction of the film having been taking over by Richard Whorf in December 1945. It is not presently clear if Whorf gave the Sinatras this painting as a gift, as the presence of the Dalzell Hatfield Galleries label on the verso indicates the painting may have been sourced there. Frank and Nancy Sinatra acquired a number of works from Dalzell Hatfield Galleries during the 1940’s, or perhaps they framed it for the couple. Sinatra performed “Old Man River’ in the film. Sinatra and June Allyson are depicted in the center of the painting. PROVENANCE From the Estate of Mrs. Nancy Sinatra; Dalzell Hatfield Galleries, Ambassador Hotel, Los Angeles. An image of the Dalzell Hatfield label and the back of the original frame (which we replaced with a stunning Heydenrk frame) are attached. Nancy Sinatra was Fran's first wife. Nancy Rose Barbato was 17 years old when she met Frank Sinatra, an 18-year-old singer from Hoboken, on the Jersey Shore in the summer of 1934. They married in 1939 at Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Jersey City where Frank gave Nancy a recording of a song dedicated to her titled "Our Love" as a wedding present. The young newlyweds lived and worked in New Jersey, where Frank worked as an unknown singing waiter and master of ceremonies at the Rustic Cabin while Nancy worked as a secretary at the American Type Founders. His musical career took off after singing with big band leaders Harry James and Tommy Dorsey...

Category

1940s American Modern Henry Martin Gasser Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Vibrant Post War Bay Area Landscape - Original Watercolor Painting
Vibrant Post War Bay Area Landscape - Original Watercolor Painting

Vibrant Post War Bay Area Landscape - Original Watercolor Painting

By Omer Ferdi Sahingil

Located in Soquel, CA

Vibrant Post War Bay Area Landscape - Original Watercolor Painting Lively landscape of hills with trees and houses by Turkish-American artist Ömer Şahingil (Turkish/American, 1915-1...

Category

1940s American Modern Henry Martin Gasser Paintings

Materials

Paper, Watercolor, Mulberry Paper

Martha's Vineyard

Maurice BeckerMartha's Vineyard, 1951

$4,000

H 24 in W 30 in D 6 in

Martha's Vineyard

By Maurice Becker

Located in Los Angeles, CA

Martha's Vineyard, c. 1951, oil on heavy board, signed upper left, 24 x 30 inches, signed, titled and dated verso, presented in a period frame Maurice Becker was a Russian-born Amer...

Category

Mid-20th Century American Modern Henry Martin Gasser Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Modernist Cityscape
Modernist Cityscape

Modernist Cityscape

By Esther Rollick

Located in Buffalo, NY

An original modernist oil painting by American female artist Esther Rollick.

Category

1940s American Modern Henry Martin Gasser Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Post War Berkeley Hills Original Watercolor Painting of Victorian House, Signed
Post War Berkeley Hills Original Watercolor Painting of Victorian House, Signed

Post War Berkeley Hills Original Watercolor Painting of Victorian House, Signed

By Omer Ferdi Sahingil

Located in Soquel, CA

Post War Berkeley Hills Victorian House Original Watercolor Painting, Signed Original 1947 watercolor painting of Berkeley home in the featuring an iconic Queen Anne Victorian house...

Category

1940s American Modern Henry Martin Gasser Paintings

Materials

Watercolor, Paper

Henry Gasser American Scene Realism Regionalism Mid-20th Century Modern WPA 40s
Henry Gasser American Scene Realism Regionalism Mid-20th Century Modern WPA 40s

Henry Gasser American Scene Realism Regionalism Mid-20th Century Modern WPA 40s

Located in New York, NY

Henry Gasser American Scene Realism Regionalism Mid-20th Century Modern WPA 1940s Henry Martin Gasser (1909-1981) "Hilltop Houses" Watercolor on paper, c. 1940s Sight size 10 1/2 x...

Category

1940s American Modern Henry Martin Gasser Paintings

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

WPA Era, Industrial Scene Steel Mill by Chicago Modern Artist, Harold Haydon
WPA Era, Industrial Scene Steel Mill by Chicago Modern Artist, Harold Haydon

WPA Era, Industrial Scene Steel Mill by Chicago Modern Artist, Harold Haydon

By Harold Haydon

Located in Chicago, IL

A dynamic 1930s, WPA era industrial scene watercolor of a steel mill and factory workers by notable Chicago Modern artist, Harold Haydon. A wonderful example of early Twentieth Cent...

Category

1930s American Modern Henry Martin Gasser Paintings

Materials

Watercolor, Paper

Delightful 1950s Cubist Harbor Scene by Woman Artist Rita Duis (Astley-Bell)
Delightful 1950s Cubist Harbor Scene by Woman Artist Rita Duis (Astley-Bell)

Delightful 1950s Cubist Harbor Scene by Woman Artist Rita Duis (Astley-Bell)

Located in Chicago, IL

A Mid-Century Modern, 1950s Cubist watercolor of a brightly-colored dock scene by Chicago and New York artist Rita Duis (Astley-Bell). Signed "Duis", lower left. Artwork size: 8 1/...

Category

1950s American Modern Henry Martin Gasser Paintings

Materials

Watercolor, Paper

Previously Available Items
New Orleans Street Scene
New Orleans Street Scene

New Orleans Street Scene

By Henry Martin Gasser

Located in New York, NY

Henry Martin Gasser depicts a man walking down a New Orleans sidewalk past the facades of two buildings, while a woman cleans a porch above and an...

Category

1950s Henry Martin Gasser Paintings

Materials

Watercolor, Archival Paper, Pencil

"End of the Tracks, Johnstown, Pennsylvania, " Henry Gasser, American Scene
"End of the Tracks, Johnstown, Pennsylvania, " Henry Gasser, American Scene

"End of the Tracks, Johnstown, Pennsylvania, " Henry Gasser, American Scene

By Henry Martin Gasser

Located in New York, NY

Henry Martin Gasser (1909 - 1981) End of the Tracks, Johnstown, Pennsylvania Watercolor and gouache on paper Sight 10 1/4 x 14 3/8 inches Signed lowe...

Category

1940s American Realist Henry Martin Gasser Paintings

Materials

Paper, Watercolor, Gouache

The Stone Steps, Italy
The Stone Steps, Italy

Henry Martin GasserThe Stone Steps, Italy, 1950

Sold

H 29.5 in W 21.5 in D 0.5 in

The Stone Steps, Italy

By Henry Martin Gasser

Located in Wiscasett, ME

Henry Martin Gasser, 1909-1981 Watercolor and gouache on paper/board signed and inscribed Italy, with title on the back, measures: 29.5" x 21.5" painting and 38" x 29.75" including f...

Category

1950s Post-War Henry Martin Gasser Paintings

Materials

Watercolor, Gouache

Snowy Winter Cityscape, Antique Car Parking Painting, Newark, New Jersey, WPA
Snowy Winter Cityscape, Antique Car Parking Painting, Newark, New Jersey, WPA

Snowy Winter Cityscape, Antique Car Parking Painting, Newark, New Jersey, WPA

By Henry Martin Gasser

Located in New York, NY

Henry Martin Gasser (1909 - 1981) Snow Parking Gouache on paper 7 3/4 x 10 1/8 inches Signed lower left: H. Gasser Provenance: Private Collection, Newburgh, New York Riverdale Galle...

Category

1940s American Realist Henry Martin Gasser Paintings

Materials

Paper, Casein, Gouache

Vintage Impressionist Painting of Flower Sellers in Rome by Henry Gasser
Vintage Impressionist Painting of Flower Sellers in Rome by Henry Gasser

Vintage Impressionist Painting of Flower Sellers in Rome by Henry Gasser

By Henry Martin Gasser

Located in Buffalo, NY

Antique impressionist view of Rome by Henry Gasser (1909 - 1981). Watercolor on paper, circa 1940. Signed. Displayed in a period wood frame. Image, 10"L x 8"H, overall 17"L x 15"H.

Category

1940s Impressionist Henry Martin Gasser Paintings

Materials

Watercolor, Gouache

Snowy Winter Cityscape, Antique Car Parking Painting, Newark, New Jersey, WPA
Snowy Winter Cityscape, Antique Car Parking Painting, Newark, New Jersey, WPA

Snowy Winter Cityscape, Antique Car Parking Painting, Newark, New Jersey, WPA

By Henry Martin Gasser

Located in New York, NY

Henry Martin Gasser (1909 - 1981) Snow Parking Gouache on paper 7 3/4 x 10 1/8 inches Signed lower left: H. Gasser Provenance: Private Collection, Newburgh, New York Riverdale Galle...

Category

1940s American Realist Henry Martin Gasser Paintings

Materials

Paper, Gouache, Casein

Surf Motif II by Henry Gasser
Surf Motif II by Henry Gasser

Surf Motif II by Henry Gasser

By Henry Martin Gasser

Located in Buffalo, NY

Impressionist seascape "Surf Motif II" by Henry Martin Gasser (1909 - 1981). Oil on board, circa 1940. Signed lower right, "H. Gasser". Displayed in a period and possibly the ori...

Category

1940s Impressionist Henry Martin Gasser Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

House on the Hill

House on the Hill

By Henry Martin Gasser

Located in New York, NY

Signed upper left: H. GASSER

Category

20th Century American Modern Henry Martin Gasser Paintings

Materials

Paper, Watercolor, Gouache

Harbor in Bermuda

Harbor in Bermuda

By Henry Martin Gasser

Located in New York, NY

Signed lower right: H. GASSER; on verso: H. GASSER

Category

20th Century American Modern Henry Martin Gasser Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Panel

Henry Martin Gasser paintings for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Henry Martin Gasser paintings available for sale on 1stDibs. Not every interior allows for large Henry Martin Gasser paintings, so small editions measuring 12 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Eric Sloane, Herbert Kornfeld, and Paton Miller.