Skip to main content

Joseph Solman Figurative Paintings

American, 1909-1908
Brought to America from Russia as a child in 1912, Joseph Solman was a prodigious draftsman and knew, in his earliest teens, that he would be an artist. He went straight from high school to the National Academy of Design, though he says he learned more by sketching in the subway on the way back from school late at night: people “pose perfectly when they’re asleep.” In 1929, Solman saw the inaugural show at the Museum of Modern Art featuring Seurat, Gauguin, Van Gogh, and Cezanne. It changed his life – and his art. Joseph Solman was, with Mark Rothko, the unofficial co-leader of The Ten, a group of expressionist painters who exhibited as the “Whitney Dissenters” at the Mercury Galleries in New York in 1938. A champion of modernism, Solman was elected an editor of Art Front Magazine when its other editors, art historian Meyer Shapiro and critic Harold Rosenberg, were still partial to Social Realism In 1964, The Times, discussing his well-known subway gouaches (done while commuting to his some-time job as a racetrack pari-mutuel clerk), called him a “Pari-Mutuel Picasso.” In 1985, on the occasion of a 50-year retrospective, The Washington Post wrote: “It appears to have dawned, at last, on many collectors that this is art that has already stood the acid test of time.” We had the pleasure of the meeting the artist a few times at his home which was over the original Second Avenue Deli in the East Village.
to
1
3
4
Overall Width
to
Overall Height
to
8
1
3
4
3
1
7
1
6
5
4
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
6
5
2
2
2
20
518
315
273
228
7
8
Artist: Joseph Solman
"Figure Study" Joseph Solman, Blue and Sepia, Pastel Colors Seated Study
"Figure Study" Joseph Solman, Blue and Sepia, Pastel Colors Seated Study

"Figure Study" Joseph Solman, Blue and Sepia, Pastel Colors Seated Study

By Joseph Solman

Located in New York, NY

Joseph Solman Figure Study, circa 1959-60 Signed with initials lower left Gouache on Racing Form newspaper Sight 9 x 7 inches Provenance Private Collection, Montecito, California Pr...

Category

1950s Modern Joseph Solman Figurative Paintings

Materials

Paper, Gouache, Newsprint

Oil Painting Interior Scene Chair w Chinese Rug Joseph Solman American Art WPA
Oil Painting Interior Scene Chair w Chinese Rug Joseph Solman American Art WPA

Oil Painting Interior Scene Chair w Chinese Rug Joseph Solman American Art WPA

By Joseph Solman

Located in Surfside, FL

Joseph Solman (1909-2008), Chair with Chinese Rug, oil paint on masonite, initialed JS on recto, titled and signed "J.S." verso, Dimensions 14" x 10" Framed to 21 X 17 Provenance...

Category

20th Century Modern Joseph Solman Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Portrait of a Seated Woman
Portrait of a Seated Woman

Portrait of a Seated Woman

By Joseph Solman

Located in Wiscasett, ME

Oil on canvas, signed with initials center left. Measures 32" x 23.5" including the frame. Provenance: ACA Galleries, NYC Bradbury Art and Antiques, Wiscasset, Maine Brought to...

Category

Mid-20th Century American Modern Joseph Solman Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

American Abstract Color Monotype Painting Tar Cart #2 Joseph Solman WPA Artist
American Abstract Color Monotype Painting Tar Cart #2 Joseph Solman WPA Artist

American Abstract Color Monotype Painting Tar Cart #2 Joseph Solman WPA Artist

By Joseph Solman

Located in Surfside, FL

"Tar Cart #2" by Joseph Solman (American, 1909-2008) Hand signed recto Joseph Solman (January 25, 1909 – April 16, 2008) was a Jewish American painter, a founder of The Ten, a group...

Category

20th Century American Modern Joseph Solman Figurative Paintings

Materials

Monotype

Marian Begg, Expressionist Oil on Masonite Portrait Painting by Joseph Solman
Marian Begg, Expressionist Oil on Masonite Portrait Painting by Joseph Solman

Marian Begg, Expressionist Oil on Masonite Portrait Painting by Joseph Solman

By Joseph Solman

Located in Long Island City, NY

In the mid-1960s Joseph Solman (American, 1909 - 2008) was commissioned to create portraits of the Begg family. This is a portrait of Marian Begg, the mother in the mid-century nuclear family...

Category

1960s Expressionist Joseph Solman Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Masonite

John Begg Sr., Expressionist Portrait by Joseph Solman
John Begg Sr., Expressionist Portrait by Joseph Solman

John Begg Sr., Expressionist Portrait by Joseph Solman

By Joseph Solman

Located in Long Island City, NY

In the mid-1960s Joseph Solman (American, 1909 - 2008) was commissioned to create portraits of the Begg family. This is a portrait of John Begg Sr., the patriarch of the mid-century ...

Category

1960s Expressionist Joseph Solman Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

John Begg Jr., Expressionist Oil Painting on Masonite by Joseph Solman
John Begg Jr., Expressionist Oil Painting on Masonite by Joseph Solman

John Begg Jr., Expressionist Oil Painting on Masonite by Joseph Solman

By Joseph Solman

Located in Long Island City, NY

In the mid-1960s Joseph Solman (American, 1909 - 2008) was commissioned to create portraits of the Begg family. This is a portrait of John Begg Jr., the son of the mid-century nuclear family...

Category

1960s Expressionist Joseph Solman Figurative Paintings

Materials

Masonite, Oil

"Garage in Provincetown" Joseph Solman, Urban Landscape by Expressionist Artist
"Garage in Provincetown" Joseph Solman, Urban Landscape by Expressionist Artist

"Garage in Provincetown" Joseph Solman, Urban Landscape by Expressionist Artist

By Joseph Solman

Located in New York, NY

Joseph Solman Garage in Provincetown Signed with initials lower right Graphite on paper 8 7/8 x 11 7/8 inches Joseph Solman was born in 1909 in Vitebsk, in what is now Belarus, the...

Category

20th Century Abstract Expressionist Joseph Solman Figurative Paintings

Materials

Paper, Graphite

Related Items
Queen of Outer Space - Original Sci- Fi Surrealist Composition On Board
Queen of Outer Space - Original Sci- Fi Surrealist Composition On Board

Queen of Outer Space - Original Sci- Fi Surrealist Composition On Board

By Russell Tripp

Located in Soquel, CA

Queen of Outer Space - Original Sci- Fi Surrealist Composition On Board Dramatic sci-fi scene by Russell R. Tripp (American, 1942-2025). This sci-fi surrealist painting blends indus...

Category

1980s Surrealist Joseph Solman Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

"Paper Making" WPA Industrial Mid-Century American Scene Social Realism Workers
"Paper Making" WPA Industrial Mid-Century American Scene Social Realism Workers

"Paper Making" WPA Industrial Mid-Century American Scene Social Realism Workers

Located in New York, NY

"Paper Making" WPA Industrial Mid-Century American Scene Social Realism Workers Douglas Crockwell (1904-1968) "Paper Making" 19 x 39 inches Oil on board, c. 1936 Signed verso Framed: 28 x 47 Provenance: Estate of the Artist BIO Spencer Douglass Crockwell was born into a comfortable middle class household on April 29, 1904 in Columbus, Ohio. His father, Charles Roland Crockwell, was a mining engineer; his mother, Cora, was the daughter of an Iowa attorney. He became a commercial artist and experimental filmmaker who spent a good part of his career creating illustrations and advertisements for the Saturday Evening Post. In 1907 the Crockwell family moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where he graduated from high school and then attended from Washington University. Initially he studied engineering, but soon switched to business. While still an undergraduate, Crockwell took courses at the St. Louis School of Fine Arts and quickly realized that he wanted to be an artist. After graduating from Washington University in 1926, Crockwell continued to study at the St. Louis School of Fine Arts until 1929. The following year he relocated to Chicago and continued his studies at the American Academy of Art. In 1930 and 1931 he studied in Europe on a Traveling Fellowship. In 1932 Douglass Crockwell moved to Glens Falls, New York, which was to be his home for the remainder of his life. The following year he married Margaret Braman. They had three children, a son Douglass and two daughters, Johanna and Margaret. During the depression he created murals and posters for the Works Progress Administration including Post Office murals in White River junction, Vermont; Endicott, New York; and Macon, Mississippi. In 1934 he painted Paper Workers, Finch Pruyn & Co. (the leading Glens Falls, New York company) for the WPA. In the 1930s Crockwell developed an interest in experimental animated films that occupied him for the rest of his life. In 1936 and 1937, he collaborated with David Smith, a sculptor, to create surrealist films. Because of his interest in experimental films, his output of paintings was limited to just twenty to forty illustrations a year during this time. Crockwell painted his first of many Saturday Evening Post cover in 1933. He also worked for Life, Look, and Esquire, and numerous national advertisers including Friskies dog food, Welch’s Grape Juice, Republic Steel...

Category

1930s American Modern Joseph Solman Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Mural Study for "History of Water" American Scene Modernism Social Realism WPA
Mural Study for "History of Water" American Scene Modernism Social Realism WPA

Mural Study for "History of Water" American Scene Modernism Social Realism WPA

By Thomas Hart Benton

Located in New York, NY

Mural Study for "History of Water" American Scene Modernism Social Realism WPA Thomas Hart Benton (American, 1889-1975) "Water Story" (Study for The History of Water) Tempera and o...

Category

1930s American Modern Joseph Solman Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Egg Tempera, Board

Portrait of Franklin Atwood Park, VP of Singer Mfg. Co.
Portrait of Franklin Atwood Park, VP of Singer Mfg. Co.

Portrait of Franklin Atwood Park, VP of Singer Mfg. Co.

Located in Soquel, CA

Portrait of Franklin Atwood Park, VP of Singer Mfg. Co. Stately portrait of Franklin Atwood Park by Arthur Trevethin Nowell (British, 1862-1940). Park is sitting for a classical portrait, wearing a suit with a blue bowtie against a dark background. Of particular note are his glasses and moustache, both rendered with expert detail. Park was the VP and Chairman of the Board for Singer Manufacturing Company and Manager of the Singer Division in Scotland when the portrait was commissioned. We show a digital image of a photographic portrait of Franklin. Signed and dated "A T Nowell. 1922" Includes paper with biographical information on the sitter. Frame size: 37.5"H x 32.5"W Canvas size: 30"H x 25"W Arthur Nowell (British, 1862-1940) was born at Garndiffath, near Pontypool, and was the youngest of six children born to the Rev. John Nowell and his wife Mary...

Category

1920s American Modern Joseph Solman Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Stretcher Bars

Orit Fuchs: Vivid 60 - Giclee print on canvas female figure painting. 55/55"
Orit Fuchs: Vivid 60 - Giclee print on canvas female figure painting. 55/55"

Orit Fuchs: Vivid 60 - Giclee print on canvas female figure painting. 55/55"

By Orit Fuchs

Located in Tel Aviv, IL

Orit Fuchs lives and works in Tel Aviv‭, ‬a storyteller with a deep‭, ‬pure, and unquenchable appetite for artistic self-expression‭. ‬Her medium spans the gamut‭ - ‬sculptures‭, ‬pa...

Category

2010s Pop Art Joseph Solman Figurative Paintings

Materials

Giclée

Mid-Century Modern Man - Portrait in Oil on Canvas
Mid-Century Modern Man - Portrait in Oil on Canvas

Joan TidwellMid-Century Modern Man - Portrait in Oil on Canvas, 1960s

$2,000Sale Price|20% Off

H 22 in W 30 in D 0.75 in

Mid-Century Modern Man - Portrait in Oil on Canvas

Located in Soquel, CA

Subtle and moody portrait of a Pensive man by Joan Tidwell (American, 1930-2002). The sitter in the portrait is a middle-aged man looking slightly downwards, wearing a collared shirt. This piece is completed in a tan and green palette, creating a somber feeling. Of particular note are the confident, thick brushstrokes - each one is well-placed in the modernist style. Similar in some ways to Picasso's portraits. Signed "Joan Tidwell" on verso Unframed. Canvas size: 30"H x 22"W oan Gay Tidwell (American, 1930-2002) was born and raised in Hollywood, CA, where she had some success as a child actor. Later, she graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Washington with a Master's Degree in English Literature and Drama. Tidwell moved to the Bay...

Category

1960s American Modern Joseph Solman Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Market Day in Piazza Grande Locarno Switzerland
Market Day in Piazza Grande Locarno Switzerland

Market Day in Piazza Grande Locarno Switzerland, 1947-48

$639Sale Price|40% Off

H 13.39 in W 11.82 in

Market Day in Piazza Grande Locarno Switzerland

Located in London, GB

'Market Day in Piazza Grande, Locarno, Switzerland', oil on board, by unknown artist (1947-48). Locarno is an utterly charming Italian-speaking resort located on the northern shore o...

Category

1940s Expressionist Joseph Solman Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Saturday Evening Post Illustration. “ The Devil’s Stronghold” Original Magazine

Saturday Evening Post Illustration. “ The Devil’s Stronghold” Original Magazine

By Edwin Georgi

Located in Miami, FL

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...

Category

1960s American Modern Joseph Solman Figurative Paintings

Materials

India Ink, Gouache, Pencil

An Ideal Head of a Woman
An Ideal Head of a Woman

An Ideal Head of a Woman

By Alfred Henry Maurer

Located in New York, NY

In the tradition of Modigliani, Maurer's depictions of women are expressive and lively. America had very few modernists who painted in this manner but Maurer is famous for exactly t...

Category

1920s American Modern Joseph Solman Figurative Paintings

Materials

Gesso, Oil, Board

"Of Ships and Men" - Nautical Trompe l'Oeil Composition in Oil on Board
"Of Ships and Men" - Nautical Trompe l'Oeil Composition in Oil on Board

"Of Ships and Men" - Nautical Trompe l'Oeil Composition in Oil on Board

By Russell Tripp

Located in Soquel, CA

"Of Ships and Men" - Nautical Trompe l'Oeil Composition in Oil on Board Maritime still life by Russell Tripp (American, 1942-2025). This hyper-realistic painting captures a collecti...

Category

1990s American Impressionist Joseph Solman Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Be Bold
Be Bold

Adewuyi TheophilusBe Bold, 2023

$1,600Sale Price|20% Off

H 36 in W 24 in D 1 in

Be Bold

Located in Ibadan, Oyo

"Be Bold" is a striking piece that demands attention from the moment one sets eyes on it. The central figure, a woman with flowing blue hair, exudes an air of confidence and resilience. The blue hue not only serves as an aesthetic choice but also carries deeper significance, representing the freedom to break societal norms and embrace personal identity without fear. The composition is masterfully crafted, with bold brushstrokes and intricate details that draw the viewer into the artwork. The woman's piercing gaze locks with the observer, inviting them to explore their own journey of self-discovery and empowerment. Each stroke of Theophilus's brush seems to radiate energy and passion, capturing the spirit of the subject and infusing the artwork with a powerful presence. "Be Bold" serves as a powerful symbol of embracing individuality and embracing one's true self. The woman with blue hair stands as a representation of those who dare to be different, challenging societal expectations and norms. The vibrant blue color symbolizes freedom, confidence, and the courage to break free from conformity. In a world that often pressures individuals to fit into predefined molds, Theophilus's artwork is a reminder of the beauty and strength found in embracing one's unique qualities. "Be Bold" calls on viewers to celebrate their differences, encouraging them to step out of their comfort zones and express their true selves without hesitation or fear of judgment. The power of "Be Bold" lies in its ability to evoke a strong emotional response in those who experience it. The artwork serves as a catalyst for introspection, urging viewers to reflect on their own lives and choices. The confident and defiant gaze of the woman with blue hair prompts individuals to question their own limitations and seek the courage to break free from them. By inspiring viewers to be bold, Theophilus encourages self-empowerment and personal growth. Through his art, he instills a sense of pride and confidence, reminding us that our uniqueness is a strength to be celebrated, not hidden away. The artwork's impact extends beyond the confines of the gallery walls, inspiring individuals to embrace their authentic selves and pursue their passions with unwavering determination. "Be Bold" by Adewuyi Theophilus...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Expressionist Joseph Solman Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Previously Available Items
Barbara Begg, Expressionist Portrait by Joseph Solman
Barbara Begg, Expressionist Portrait by Joseph Solman

Barbara Begg, Expressionist Portrait by Joseph Solman

By Joseph Solman

Located in Long Island City, NY

In the mid-1960s Joseph Solman (American, 1909 - 2008) was commissioned to create portraits of the Begg family. This is a portrait of Barbara Begg, the young daughter in the mid-century nuclear family...

Category

1960s Expressionist Joseph Solman Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

Joseph Solman figurative paintings for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Joseph Solman figurative paintings available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Joseph Solman in oil paint, paint, masonite and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 1960s and is mostly associated with the Expressionist style. Not every interior allows for large Joseph Solman figurative paintings, so small editions measuring 19 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Mark Lavatelli, Hugó Scheiber, and Betsy Podlach. Joseph Solman figurative paintings prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $7,600 and tops out at $14,000, while the average work can sell for $9,000.