Jenne and Ethel Magafan were identical twins, born in Chicago to a Greek immigrant father and a Polish mother. Due to health concerns about their father, the family moved to Colorado, living first in Colorado Springs and then in Denver. He was a proud supporter of their artistic ambitions but died suddenly in 1932, a heavy blow to both of them. They attended East High School in Denver, where they found a mentor in their art teacher Helen Perry. She had studied at the Art Institute of Chicago but had later abandoned a career as an artist, making her all the more determined to help the Magafan twins succeed artistically. While still in high school, the twins impressed artist Frank Mechau and Helen Perry paid for their lessons with him. He subsequently invited them to apprentice with him at his Redstone studio. In 1936, Jenne won the Carter Memorial Art Scholarship and shared it with her sister so that they both could attend the Broadmoor Art Academy in Colorado Springs. Once they ran out of money, Mechau, now teaching there, hired them as assistants. Through their involvement at the Academy, the twins entered into careers as muralists, working at first with Mechau and then with Peppino Mangravite. In 1939, Jenne was awarded her first commission for a mural at the Albion, Nebraska Post Office. Eventually, she won a total of seven commissions. For the work, she traveled across the country in a station wagon. Her daughter has said of her mother's experience that, “They saved up gas coupons as fuel was rationed and drove cross country on retreads or refurbished old tires”. Their federally sponsored murals could stir up exciting responses from local citizens. Jenne's favorite mural was Cowboy Dance at the Anson, Texas post office, but the local newspaper took offense to a whiskey jug painted in the lower corner, citing that, “Throughout the history of Anson there has never been an open saloon”. Meeting the artists Doris Lee and Arnold Blanch in Los Angeles, the twins learned of the art colony in Woodstock, New York and in 1945 they went to visit. That same year, their work was exhibited at the Los Angeles Museum of Art and the National Academy of Design. Marrying her longtime love, Edward Chavez, Jenne moved to Woodstock along with her sister where, for the first time, the sisters didn't live together. Ethel didn't look favorably upon her brother-in-law's dominating personality and this forced their styles to develop more independently. When Chavez won a Fulbright scholarship, the couple traveled to Italy. During this time, Jenne went to visit her sister in Greece, where Ethel was fulfilling her Fulbright. In 1952, the Magafans and their husbands returned to the States and less than a week after their return Jenne died in Albany Hospital of a cerebral hemorrhage.
Jenne Magafan WPA Colorado Church Leadville 1938 Watercolor & Ink Painting
By Jenne Magafan
Located in Denver, CO
This rare 1938 watercolor and ink painting by Jenne Magafan captures the historic architecture and atmosphere of Leadville, Colorado, through a refined blend of line and color. Depic...
Archival Ink, Watercolor
$7,595
H 28 in W 22 in D 0.25 in
Summer Afternoon Stroll Watercolor Lower Eastside - Urban Modernist 1936 Signed
By Bernard Von Eichman
Located in Soquel, CA
Summer Afternoon Stroll Watercolor Lower Eastside - Urban Modernist 1936 Signed Stunning New York City urban modernist watercolor titled "Summer Afternoon Stroll" by Society of Six...
Archival Paper, Watercolor
$5,500
H 29.75 in W 35.75 in D 2 in
“Central Park in Winter, 1949” Manhattan New York City Snow Day Sleds Children
Located in Yardley, PA
With a studied hand, Sloan captures the human theater of a snow-covered Central Park filled with bundled-up New Yorkers, sledding, walking, chatting, and caring for children. The exp...
Tempera, Oil, Masonite
$950
H 19.25 in W 15.25 in D 1.5 in
A Quiet, Sunlit 1940s Vintage Mexican City Scene, Archway, San Miguel de Allende
By Francis Chapin
Located in Chicago, IL
A quiet, sunlit, vintage 1940s Mexican city street scene (Archway) by famed Chicago Modern artist Francis Chapin (Am. 1899-1965). Depicting a picturesque view of a colorful plaza ar...
Masonite, Oil
$3,000
H 10 in W 8 in
"Woodstock Landscape" Albert Heckman, American Modernist, Atmospheric Valley
By Albert Heckman
Located in New York, NY
Albert Heckman Woodstock Landscape Oil on board 10 x 8 inches Albert Heckman was born in Meadville, Western Pennsylvania, 1893. He went to New York City to try his hand at the art ...
Oil, Board
$12,000
H 30.125 in W 24 in
Ninth Avenue El (New York City), Mid 20th Century Cityscape Oil painting
By John Opper
Located in Beachwood, OH
John Opper (American, 1908-1994) Ninth Avenue El (New York City), c. 1935 Oil on canvas Signed lower left and verso 30.125 x 24 inches The Ninth Avenue El was the first elevated rai...
Oil
$2,500
H 22 in W 24 in
A Rare 1930s Modern, American Scene, Midwestern Summer Country Landscape
Located in Chicago, IL
A rare and special 1936 Modern American Scene country landscape painting with figures by important Chicago artist (William) Davenport Griffen. Oil on canvas, signed and dated "Griffen ‘36", lower right. Image size: 18 x 20 inches. Framed size: 22 x 24 inches. (William) Davenport Griffen was born in 1894 in Millbrook, NY. He graduated from Iowa State College in Ames, IA in 1918 with a B.S. in Civil Engineering; however, Griffen’s true love was painting. In 1919, he enrolled in the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts and subsequently studied at the Art Institute of Chicago from 1923-1928. In 1926, he was awarded the American Travel Scholarship and began painting in Provincetown, MA. In 1928, he was awarded the John Quincy Adams Scholarship and spent six months painting in Paris, France. Griffen also painted in the U.S. Virgin Islands for 11 months between 1930-1931. Griffen had one-man exhibitions of his Virgin Islands paintings...
Oil, Canvas
$6,250
H 27.5 in W 31.5 in
House in Hudson, Ohio, Late 19th Century Painting by Cleveland School Artist
By Ora Coltman
Located in Beachwood, OH
Ora Coltman (American, 1858-1940) House in Hudson, OH Oil on canvas Signed lower left 22 x 26 inches 27.5 x 31.5 inches, framed 21 Aurora Street is locally known as the Isham-Beebe ...
Oil
$850
H 13 in W 13 in D 1 in
A Quiet, Sunlit 1930s Vintage Fauvist Summer City Park Scene with Fountain
By Francis Chapin
Located in Chicago, IL
A quiet, sunlit, vintage 1930s American Scene city park scene with a fountain by famed Chicago Modern artist Francis Chapin (Am. 1899-1965). Depicting a picturesque landscape comple...
Masonite, Oil
$2,800
H 25 in W 31 in D 1.5 in
A Serene 1940s, Modern Western Landscape Painting with Horses by Francis Chapin
By Francis Chapin
Located in Chicago, IL
A serene, 1940s Modern Western landscape painting with horses by famed Chicago artist, Francis Chapin. Accompanied with a handsome walnut brown stained wooden frame. Canvas size: 22 x 28 inches. Framed size: 25 x 31 inches. Estate stamped on reverse. Provenance: Estate of the artist. Francis Chapin, affectionately called the “Dean of Chicago Painters” by his colleagues, was one of the city’s most popular and celebrated painters in his day. Born at the dawn of the 20th Century in Bristolville, Ohio, Chapin graduated from Washington and Jefferson College near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania before enrolling at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1922. He would set down deep roots at the Art Institute of Chicago, exhibiting there over 31 times between 1926 and 1951. In 1927 Chapin won the prestigious Bryan Lathrop Fellowship from the Art Institute – a prize that funded the artist’s yearlong study trip to Europe. Upon his return to the United States, Chapin decided to remain in Chicago, noting the freedom Chicago artists have in developing independently of the pressure to conform to pre-existing molds (as was experienced by artists in New York, for example). Chapin became a popular instructor at the Art Institute, teaching there from 1929 to 1947 and at the Art Institute’s summer art school in Saugatuck, Michigan (now called Oxbow) between 1934 – 1938 (he was the director of the school from 1941-1945). Chapin’s contemporaries among Chicago’s artists included such luminaries as Ivan Le Lorraine Albright...
Canvas, Oil
$78,000
H 51 in W 33 in D 2 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 ...
Oil, Canvas
$950
H 12.75 in W 15 in D 1 in
Charming 1950s Painting "Oak Bluffs, Mass." Martha's Vineyard by Francis Chapin
By Francis Chapin
Located in Chicago, IL
A charming vintage 1950s painting of Martha's Vineyard, "Oak Bluffs, Mass." by notable Chicago artist Francis Chapin. A bustling view of the picturesque lighthouse and Soldiers Mem...
Masonite, Oil
Coastal Scene, 20th Century Seascape, Cleveland School Artist
By George Adomeit
Located in Beachwood, OH
George Gustav Adomeit (American, 1879-1967) Coastal Scene Oil on canvas Signed lower left 19 x 23 inches 21.5 x 25.5 inches, framed A major painter of American scene subjects, Georg...
Oil
Untitled (Wash Day)
By Jenne Magafan
Located in Denver, CO
Woman hanging laundry. Watercolor and ink on paper. Housed in a custom frame; outer dimensions are 17 x 12.75 x 1.25 inches; image measures 11.5 x 7.5 inches. About the artist: Jenne Magafan and her family settled in Colorado Springs in 1919, where she and her twin sister, Ethel, began painting western landscapes. Jenne received the Carter Memorial Art Scholarship which she shared with her sister, and they attended the Broadmoor Academy (later named the Colorado Springs Fine Art Center). There, they worked under Peppino Mangravite, Frank Mechau...
Mixed Media