John Opper Figurative Paintings

American, 1908-1994

John Opper described the 1930s as a "great gestation period" for his art. "I thought the Thirties was a very vital time for American art. . . . With the WPA, you got together whether it was the [Artists'] Union or the [American Artists'] Congress or whether it was a bar. . . and you talked about art, and you heard about important artists, and you began to live art." But Opper also remembered the thirties as a period of breakdown in the vitality of American art; "we became aware that a great deal was missing." Academically trained like many of his contemporaries, Opper came to New York in 1934, two years after his graduation from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. As a youth, he had taken Saturday art classes at the Cleveland Museum of Art and later studied at the Cleveland School of Art and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. When he arrived in New York he was a well-trained painter, adept at rendering still lifes and particularly landscapes depicting the American scene. A reviewer of his 1937 exhibition at the Artists' Gallery in New York, for example, wrote about Opper's "colloquial flavor … spontaneity and an imaginative use of color which conveys just the feeling" that the subjects—East River tugboats, old garages, and scenes around Manhattan— suggested. By 1937 Opper had become familiar with modernism, though he was not yet converted to the cause. Indeed, his 1937 show was made up of the still popular regionalist paintings. Earlier, in 1935 and 1936, he studied with Hans Hofmann and began to think in terms of forces and tensions within the picture plane. He met Wilfrid Zogbaum, Giorgio Cavallon, Byron Browne, Rosalind Bengelsdorf, and George McNeil, with whom he shared a studio. He paid frequent visits to Gallatin's Gallery of Living Art. He joined the WPA easel project in 1936 and began to paint in "a kind of transformed cubist style." When war came, Opper worked for three years with a marine architectural firm making drawings for the pipe systems of PT boats. After the war, he taught at the University of Wyoming and the University of Alabama, and between 1952 and 1957, he was on the faculty at the University of North Carolina. In 1957, he began teaching at New York University, where he remained until his retirement in 1974.

Artist: John Opper

John OpperNinth Avenue El (New York City), Mid 20th Century Cityscape Oil painting, c. 1935

$12,000

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...

Category

1930s American Modern John Opper Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

Albert Heckman"Woodstock Landscape" Albert Heckman, American Modernist Bright Landscape, circa 1940s

$4,000

H 12 in W 16 in

"Woodstock Landscape" Albert Heckman, American Modernist Bright Landscape

By Albert Heckman

Located in New York, NY

Albert Heckman Woodstock Landscape Oil on board 12 x 16 inches Albert Heckman was born in Meadville, Western Pennsylvania, 1893. He went to New York City to try his hand at the art...

Category

1940s American Modern John Opper Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Dorothy Eisner“Washington Square Park, 1938” NYC Social Realism Female American Artist Oil, 1938

$13,500

H 40.5 in W 50.5 in D 3 in

“Washington Square Park, 1938” NYC Social Realism Female American Artist Oil

By Dorothy Eisner

Located in Yardley, PA

An exceptional, large, early work by American artist Dorothy Eisner (1906-1984). This painting was recently exhibited at Gracie Mansion in 2019 as part of “She Persists” - a show de...

Category

1930s American Modern John Opper Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Albert Heckman"Woodstock Landscape" Albert Heckman, American Modernist, Atmospheric Valley, circa 1940s

$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 ...

Category

1940s American Modern John Opper Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Albert Heckman"Woodstock Landscape" Albert Heckman, Modernist, Bright Landscape, circa 1940s

$3,000

H 8.5 in W 10.5 in

"Woodstock Landscape" Albert Heckman, Modernist, Bright Landscape

By Albert Heckman

Located in New York, NY

Albert Heckman Woodstock Landscape Oil on board 8 1/2 x 10 1/2 inches Albert Heckman was born in Meadville, Western Pennsylvania, 1893. He went to New York City to try his hand at ...

Category

1940s American Modern John Opper Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

William SchwartzSummer Resort in Michigan -Modernist Mid-Century Saugatuck Oil Painting, 1946

$78,000

H 51 in W 33 in D 2 in

Summer Resort in Michigan -Modernist Mid-Century Saugatuck Oil Painting

By William Schwartz

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 ...

Category

1940s American Modern John Opper Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Roger Medearis"Skating Party" WPA Regionalism American Scene Mid 20th Century Modern Realism, 1949

$175,000

H 28.5 in W 32.5 in D 2 in

"Skating Party" WPA Regionalism American Scene Mid 20th Century Modern Realism

By Roger Medearis

Located in New York, NY

"Skating Party" WPA Regionalism American Scene Mid 20th Century Modern Realism Roger Medearis (1920 – 2001) "Skating Party" 20 x 24 inches Tempera on board, 1949 Signed Medearis and...

Category

1980s American Modern John Opper Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Robert GilbertA Laborer Resting, 1930

$8,500

H 36 in W 30 in D 2 in

A Laborer Resting

By Robert Gilbert

Located in Los Angeles, CA

A Laborer Resting, 1930, oil on canvas, signed and dated lower center, 36 x 30 inches, inscribed verso “July – 1930 / Title – A Laborer Resting / Artist – Robert Gilbert / Price - $2...

Category

1930s American Modern John Opper Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Norman BarrNeighbors, 1939

$3,250

H 22 in W 26 in D 1 in

Neighbors

By Norman Barr

Located in Los Angeles, CA

Neighbors, 1939, oil on canvas, signed and dated lower right, 22 x 26 inches Norman Barr was an American Scene painter and muralist known for his poignant depictions of working-clas...

Category

1930s American Modern John Opper Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Francis ChapinA Serene 1940s, Modern Western Landscape Painting with Horses by Francis Chapin, circa 1940

$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...

Category

1940s American Modern John Opper Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Ernest Fiene"Tugboat in New York Harbor" Ernest Fiene, Modernist, WPA, Cloudy Horizon

$9,500

H 32 in W 42.5 in

"Tugboat in New York Harbor" Ernest Fiene, Modernist, WPA, Cloudy Horizon

By Ernest Fiene

Located in New York, NY

Ernest Fiene Tugboat in New York Harbor Signed lower right Oil on canvas 24 1/2 x 34 1/2 inches Ernest Fiene was born in Elberfeld, Germany in 1894. As a teenager, Fiene immigrated...

Category

1930s American Modern John Opper Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Albert Heckman"Woodstock Landscape" Albert Heckman, WPA, American Modernist, New York, circa 1940s

$4,000

H 12 in W 16 in

"Woodstock Landscape" Albert Heckman, WPA, American Modernist, New York

By Albert Heckman

Located in New York, NY

Albert Heckman Woodstock Landscape Oil on board 12 x 16 inches Albert Heckman was born in Meadville, Western Pennsylvania, 1893. He went to New York City to try his hand at the art...

Category

1940s American Modern John Opper Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Pal FriedNight In the City

$4,000

H 36.25 in W 30.25 in

Night In the City

By Pal Fried

Located in Sheffield, MA

Pal Fried Hungarian-American, 1893-1976 Night In the City Oil on canvas 30 X 24 in. w/ frame 36 ¼ X 30 ¼ in. Signed "Fried Pal" lower right Pal was born in Budapest and studied at ...

Category

Mid-20th Century American Modern John Opper Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

John Opper figurative paintings for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic John Opper figurative paintings available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by John Opper in oil paint, paint and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 1930s and is mostly associated with the modern style. Not every interior allows for large John Opper figurative paintings, so small editions measuring 24 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Clarence Holbrook Carter, Byron Browne, and Simka Simkhovitch. John Opper figurative paintings prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $12,000 and tops out at $12,000, while the average work can sell for $12,000.