John McCormick Figurative Paintings

"Old Shoemaker" Ashcan 20th Century Modernism 1924 California WPA Realism Worker. Signed “Otis Oldfield” lower left. 14 x 12 inches. Exhibited: Galerie des Beaux Arts, San Francisco, CA, 1925 Provenance: Estate of the Artist Born in Sacramento, CA on July 3, 1890, Otis Oldfield left high school at age 16 to work in a local print shop. In 1909 he arrived in San Francisco and enrolled at the Best Art School. After working for two years as a bellhop at the Argonaut Hotel and as a hat check boy at the Cliff House, he had saved enough money for further studies in Paris. In 1911 he sailed for France and enrolled at Académie Julian. Caught up in the activities of wartime Paris, he was an apprentice for a book...

"Snowy City Scene" American Scene Social Realism WPA Era Mid-20th Century Modern Syd J. Browne (1907-1991) "Snowy City Scene" 22 x 30 inches Oil on canvas. c. 1930s Signed lower lef...

NYC EL American Scene Social Realism Mid 20th Century Modern WPA Era Figurative Cecil Bell (1906 – 1970) Street Life Under the EL 22 x 30 inches Oil on canvas, c. 1930s Signed upper...

A walk through any major museum will reveal paintings that depict or legitimate only certain kinds of experience. Despite the good intentions of critical theorists questioning the va...

A walk through any major museum will reveal paintings that depict or legitimate only certain kinds of experience. Despite the good intentions of critical theorists questioning the va...

Under the Viaduct American Scene Social Realism WPA Era Mid-20th Century Modern Syd J. Browne (1907-1991) Under the Viaduct 22 x 30 inches Oil on canvas. c. 1930s Signed lower left ...

Albert Pels (1910-1998) Painting of a group of figures, c. 20th century. 12 x 16 in. Framed dimensions: 19 1/2 x 23 1/4 in. Albert Pels was an art educator and painter of figures, genre scenes, urban and rural images, and illustration. He also did murals and worked in the mediums of oil, fresco, and watercolor. He was born on May 7, 1910, in Cincinnati, Ohio and died at the age of eighty-eight on January 25, 1998 in New York City. Albert Pels was the son of Samuel and Frieda Pels. He had two children, Joan Barbara and Richard J.A. with his first wife Gertrude Ethel Jaeckel. He later married Yolanda Zemfler, a painter of impressionist art. While in Ohio, Pels attended the Cincinnati Art Academy in 1931 where he won several scholarships. After moving to New York, he continued his education at the Art Students League, Beaux Arts and the American School. At the Art Students League, Pels studied under Thomas Hart Benton, Kenneth Hayes Miller, and Alexander Brook. Under the tutelage of these mentors, Pels evolved his technique and style. Pels was a member of the National Society of Mural Painters, the Salmagundi Club, and the Society of Independent Artists. He was on the board of directors of the Arts Students League in 1939, as well as, on the board the WPA Artists...

An ordinary scene of a woman walking down a sidewalk in the rain is elevated to a little gem of a painting. American life is captured in this Clyde Singer painting, Puddle Jumper (...

Bruce Adams is best known as a conceptually based figurative painter who references various (often historical) painting styles. In exploring the act of painting, Adams peels back the...

William John Hennessy was born in Ireland. He came to America in 1849 with his mother and brother a year after his father had fled their homeland after taking part in the unsuccessful Young Ireland Party uprising. The Hennessys settled in New York, and when young William came of age, he decided upon a career as an artist. At the age of fifteen, he enrolled at the National Academy of Design, where he learned to draw from the antique, and the following year he was granted admission to the Academy’s life-drawing class. Hennessy first exhibited at the National Academy in 1857, starting a continuous run of appearances in their annuals that lasted until 1870, when he expatriated himself to Europe. During his time in America, Hennessy was principally known as a genre painter and prolific illustrator for such publications as Harper’s Weekly and a number of books, including illustrated works of William Cullen Bryant...

Bruce Adams is best known as a conceptually based figurative painter who references various (often historical) painting styles. In exploring the act of painting, Adams peels back the...

The classic hard luck, independent kid, maybe 8 or 10 years old here, selling the day’s papers out on the grubby streets of early 1900s New York City. He’s paused in a quiet spot, ap...