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Herndon Davis Art

1901-1962

Herndon Davis was an American artist, journalist, illustrator and painter who wasn’t recognized in his lifetime and not until recently. He was born in Wynnewood, Oklahoma of rancher parents. At fourteen, Davis moved himself to Kansas City, Missouri to take art lessons. He supported himself with unskilled labor jobs. From there, he went to Chicago and apprenticed as an engraver and commercial artist. In 1920, he joined the army and was stationed in Denver. Davis’ love for Colorado and Denver must have begun at that time. But first, he lived and worked in Washington, D.C., where he worked at the National War Collaege creating maps of China and Japan, and New York City, where he attended the National Academy of Design and Art Students League of New York while working at the New York Herald Tribune, Washington Times-Herald and Washington Daily News. In 1936, he moved to Denver, where he began to capture in paint and pencil notable people and landmarks of Denver and the west. Included in his subject matter were the notorious and the famous whether people or places. Davis is best known for his painting of the face of his wife on the barroom floor in Central City, Colorado. It was inspired by the poem The Face on the Barroom Floor and so it is titled. It wasn’t until after his death that friends were allowed to tell his beloved wife, Nita, was his model.

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Artist: Herndon Davis
Red Rocks, Southern Colorado, 20th-Century Landscape Painting of Rock Formations
By Herndon Davis
Located in Denver, CO
An exceptional original landscape painting by acclaimed Colorado artist Herndon Davis (1901–1962), showcasing the dramatic natural beauty of Red Rocks Park, located near Morrison, Co...
Category

20th Century American Modern Herndon Davis Art

Materials

Oil

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Six O'Clock
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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...
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Six O'Clock
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Autumn Color
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Striking regionalist painting by American/Hungarian artist Charles Harsanyi. Autumn Colors in Stephenstown NY. 15" x 20" Oil on board with bold brushwork housed in a 19.25 x 24.25 white washed period frame. Charles Harsanyi (American, 1905-1973) Charles E. Harsanyi was born in Tapolcza, Hungary in 1905. He studied at the Royal Academy in Budapest, Hungary with A. Bankhard from 1923 to 1928. Nineteen years later, in 1947, Harsanyi moved to the U. S., settling in Jackson Heights, New York. The painter and drawing specialist became a member of numerous prestigious art clubs including the Salmagundi Club, The Society of Independent Artists and the Allied Artists of America. Harsanyi served as an awards director and chairman of admissions for the Audubon Artists Association during the 1950s. Later in life after living in Stephentown, New York and Cape Coral, Florida, Harsanyi passed away in Fort Myers, Florida in 1973. STUDIED Royal Academy in Budapest, Hungary with A. Bankhard, 1923-28 MEMBER Salmagundi Club, 1941 Brooklyn Painters & Sculptors American Artists Congress Society of Independent Artists Audubon Artists Association, jury awards director, 1952; chairman admissions committee, 1953; nominating committee, 1955, 1956 Artists Fellow Allied Artists of America, life member; jury awards 1945; jury selection, 1954 AWARDS Long Island Art League, 1954 (prize) Cumberland Valley Artists, 1949, 1950, 1952 (prizes) EXHIBITIONS: Society of Independent Artists, 1929, 1930, 1936-40, 1943, 1944 National Academy of Design, 1933-55 Salons of America, 1934 Brooklyn Museum, 1934 Corcoran Gallery, 1935-51 (four times) Allied Artists of America, 1935-53 (bronze medals 1944, 1953) Doctor Saharunis Art Gallery, Naples, Florida, 1970s American Federation of Arts traveling exhibit Farnsworth Museum, 1950 Springfield Museum of Art, 1947-50 Denver Art Museum, 1937-39 Washington County Museum of Fine Art, 1937-46 (prizes 1938, 39, 41, 43, 54) (gold medal 1946) Butter Art Institute, 1953 World's Fair, New York, 1939 Baltimore Museum of Art, 1939 Art Institute of Chicago, 1941-44 Cincinnati Art Museum, 1941 Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1942, 1948, 1949 Salmagundi Club, 1946 (prize), 1951 (prize) Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts, 1942, 1943, 1945, 1953, 1955 (William Bradford...
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Herndon Davis art for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Herndon Davis art available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Herndon Davis in oil paint, 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 Herndon Davis art, so small editions measuring 18 inches across are available. Herndon Davis art prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $1,250 and tops out at $1,250, while the average work can sell for $1,250.

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