John Holmgren Figurative Paintings

The work is mostly black and white to indicate that this is a night scene. On closer inspection, you will see areas of magenta and ivory throughout The publisher's label on verso ide...

Felipe Orlando (Cuban-Mexican, 1911-2001). Coronel Retirado y su Amante Esposa, ca. 1970. Ink and gouache on paper with heavily built up layers of textured ground. Measures 13 1/4 x 18 3/8 inches. Signed lower left. Original label affixed on verso. Excellent condition. Unframed. An anthropologist as well as a painter and engraver, Orlando, whose full name was Felipe Orlando Garcia Murciano, studied at the University of Havana and at the painting workshop of Jorge Arche and Víctor Manuel. He was a founding member of the Asociación de Pintores y Escultores de Cuba (APEC) and a professor at the Universidad de las Américas and the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, both in Mexico City. His style is influenced by the Afro-Cuban movement and pre-columbian art...

Fabulous illustration depicts a costume for Mae West in Broadway production of Diamond Lil, 1951.. Gouache on illustration board, image measures 10.5 x 16.5 inches; 15 x 22 inches ...

For those who appreciate good academic painting and drawing, study Pearl Frush. She gets it right. In the present work, Frush paints a perfect face. Not just anatomically, but also i...

When a husband catches his wife with another man, it's no joke, except if it's a Gilbert Bundy mid-century cartoon for Esquire Magazine. Caption: "You'd better introduce us – I disl...

Sex and violence take center stage in this mid-1960s men's magazine interior story illustration. This action-packed narrative of a G.I. close-up gun battle incorporates five peak m...

“Graduation Day” is emblematic of mid-century American Illustration. But the real story of this storytelling work is that it embodies the lost art of portrait painting and graphic design. Alex Ross borrows on the classical tradition and flaunts his skills as a narrative painter. In “Graduation Day”, he paints a complex composition involving at least thirteen portraits. The subjects are beautifully rendered and lit. They are set against a dark grey background and jump off the surface at the viewer. The composition is complexly designed. The future graduate in the red jacket engaging with a girl photographer is a compositional device that leads the viewer's eye to the main subject - a father congratulating his son on graduating from medical school. Creating art that relies on facial expressions and body gestures is a talent absent in contemporary art. Why? It’s very hard to do and takes years and training and practice to get it right. Despite Alex Ross's folksy subject matter, this work is a high example of naturalism and representation by an important member of the Golden Age of American Illustration. Signed lower right Born in the town of Dunfermline, Scotland, Alexander Sharpe Ross (1908-1990) moved with his family to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1911. After attending Carnegie Tech (now Carnegie Mellon University), Ross moved to New York and joined the Charles E. Cooper Studio, where he worked among such notable illustrators as Ward Brackett, Stevan Dohanos, J. Frederick Smith...

At some point, the fine art/museum world will recognize how truly brilliant a trailblazing artist like Coby Whitmore is. His exploration of bold colors, flattened, simplified space, ...

Raymond Johnson (1915-1997). Cover Illustration for Lady Chatterley's Daughter by Patricia Robins, 1962. Gouache on illustration board, image measures 15 x 18 inches. Beautiful an...

Vibrant Gouache and watercolor painting by israeli master JOSSI STERN. on paper mounted to board. Hungary, b. 1923, d. 1992 Jossi (Yossi) Stern, son of David and Katerina, was born...

Jed Jackson received his MFA from Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, 1980 and his BFA from Memphis College of Art in Tennessee, 1977 and was awarded a residency at the Skowhegan Schoo...

Heads Up, Edmund Dulac depicts a strong and confident woman in art in the 1930s. The work shows Queen Thomysis witnessing a beheading. This complex figurative work was an original de...