Léon Bakst Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

"Pensando & recordando a Luis Caballero" by Celso Castro-Daza From the Duchándome Series Watercolor, pastel, and ink on archival paper Sheet size: 19.5 ...

Lionel S. Reiss (1894 - 1988) Lobstermen in Gloucester, Massachusetts, circa 1943 Watercolor on paper Sight 17 1/2 x 23 inches Signed lower left Provenance: Private Collection, Las Vegas, Nevada In describing his own style, Lionel Reiss wrote, “By nature, inclination, and training, I have long since recognized the fact that...I belong to the category of those who can only gladly affirm the reality of the world I live in.” Reiss’s subject matter was wide-ranging, including gritty New York scenes, landscapes of bucolic Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and seascapes around Gloucester, Massachusetts. However, it was as a painter of Jewish life—both in Israel and in Europe before World War II—that Reiss excelled. I.B. Singer, the Nobel Prize winner for Literature, noted that Reiss was “essentially an artist of the nineteenth century, and because of this he had the power and the courage to tell visually the story of a people.” Although Reiss was born in Jaroslaw, Poland, his family immigrated to the United States in 1898 when he was four years old. Reiss's family settled on New York City’s Lower East Side and he lived in the city for most of his life. Reiss attended the Art Students League and then worked as a commercial artist for newspapers and publishers. As art director for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, he supposedly created the studio’s famous lion logo. After World War I, Reiss became fascinated with Jewish life in the ‘Old World.’ In 1921 he left his advertising work and spent the next ten years traveling in Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. Like noted Jewish photographers Alter Kacyzne and Roman Vishniac, Reiss depicted Jewish life in Poland prior to World War II. He later wrote, “My trip encompassed three main objectives: to make ethnic studies of Jewish types wherever I traveled; to paint and draw Jewish life, as I saw it and felt it, in all aspects; and to round out my work in Israel.” In Europe, Reiss recorded quotidian scenes in a variety of media and different settings such as Paris, Amsterdam, the Venice ghetto, the Jewish cemetery in Prague, and an array of shops, synagogues, streets, and marketplaces in the Jewish quarters of Warsaw, Lodz, Krakow, Lublin, Vilna, Ternopil, and Kovno. He paid great attention to details of dress, hair, and facial features, and his work became noted for its descriptive quality. A selection of Reiss’s portraits appeared in 1938 in his book My Models Were Jews. In this book, published on the eve of the Holocaust, Reiss argued that there was “no such thing as a ‘Jewish race’.” Instead, he claimed that the Jewish people were a cultural group with a great deal of diversity within and between Jewish communities around the world. Franz Boas...

Late 20th Century watercolour on paper of a naked female figure before an open window. Signed bottom right but as yet not deciphered. Presented in carved, white painted wood frame. ...

Graceful gouache fashion sketch of a dress suit and simple winter coat, circa 1950. Original artwork on paper displayed on a white mat with a gold border. Archival plastic sleeve ...

Anne Diggory (b. 1951) Out of the Sun (Under the Racetrack Grandstand), 1978 Watercolor on paper 7 x 10 inches Signed and dated lower left Provenance: Ac...

French late 20th century watercolour and gouache study for the series 'Alexander and His Army' by Stephane Lovighi-Bourgogne. Presented in plain wood frame. A strong and forceful de...

Anne Diggory (b. 1951) Five at the Rail, Saratoga Springs Racecourse, New York, circa 1978 Watercolor on paper 4 3/4 x 6 inches Initialed lower right: Dig...

May Mott Smith (1879 - 1952) A Martinique Native in French Guiana, circa 1925 Watercolor on paper 24 x 20 inches Signed lower right; titled on the reverse “Martinique Native” is an ...

Vintage mid-1970's landscape watercolor of small figures on the famous Santa Cruz Boardwalk Railroad Bridge by Laura Manss Matarazzo (American, b...

Jewel-toned abstract figurative watercolor painting by Texas artist Ron Hoover. This painting depicts a figure of a man wearing a suit against a split background. Signed and titled b...

In the recent years Maris Abilevs has been exploring the beauty of female shapes by using mixed media and various drawing techniques raging from expressive sketching to neat lines.

In the recent years Maris Abilevs has been exploring the beauty of female shapes by using mixed media and various drawing techniques raging from expressive sketching to neat lines.