Mario Toppi Figurative Paintings

"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...

Mid 20th Century sgraffito work on plaster by Jean Pierre de Cayeux. The work is signed and dated on the skirt of the card player, bottom right, and on the stretcher of the chair, bo...

"Worth The Wait" is painting with many shades of blue and teal. Featured are herons and songs birds, and a hummingbird. There are also blue plants and flowers. The background is a th...

Martha's Vineyard, c. 1951, oil on heavy board, signed upper left, 24 x 30 inches, signed, titled and dated verso, presented in a period frame Maurice Becker was a Russian-born Amer...

Bungalow (fauvist painting of New York scene) 1940's. image is 10X 11.5 inches. Hand signed lower right Watercolor painting on paper board Country Scene Samuel Grunvald was a Hunga...

A striking 1930s Modern portrayal of El Greco's Renaissance masterpiece, "Mater Dolorosa" by Notable California Woman Artist, Leonine E. Wallace. Artwork size: 13 x 10 inches. O...

“First Blooming” is a bright and vivid painting with blue herons and colorful, chipper songbirds placed among patterned mushrooms, orange flowers, pink blooms and green leaves. Fram...

Charles Bertie Hall (Anglo-American, 20th/21st Century) Regatta with Golden Sails Oil on board, unsigned, from the artist’s studio Presented in a new hand-made English contemporary f...

"Close to Shore" features four blue and teal boats stacked atop one another. This layered mixed media composition filled with symbolic boats, ladders, and fragments of memory suspend...

Building the 6th Avenue Subway NYC WPA American Scene Industrial Men Working Cecil Bell (1906-1970) Building the 6th Avenue Subway 22x 30 inches Egg Temera on board Signed and dated...

Central Park NYC Mid-20th Century American Scene Modernism WPA Realism Cityscape Adolph Dehn (1985-1968) "Central Park: People, Rocks & Hills" Casin on board 22 x 30 inches Signed ...

"6th Avenue El" American Scene Social Realism Mid-20th Century New York City Ernest Fiene (1894-1965) "6th Avenue El" 12 1/4 x 14 1/4 Oil on canvas board, c. 1940s Signed lower righ...