Mark Schwartz Portrait Paintings

'Family Seated on a Bench at the Port', oil on board, by François Diana (circa 1970s). A painting with a very wholesome, homespun theme harks back to a more innocent time. A family i...

Simka Simkhovitch (Russian/American 1893 - 1949) This came with a small grouping from the artist's family, some were hand signed some were not. These were studies for larger paintings. Simka Simkhovitch (Симха Файбусович Симхович) (aka Simka Faibusovich Simkhovich) (Novozybkov, Russia May 21, 1885 O.S./June 2, 1885 N.S.—Greenwich, Connecticut February 25, 1949) was a Ukrainian-Russian Jewish artist and immigrant to the United States. He painted theater scenery in his early career and then had several showings in galleries in New York City. Winning Works Progress Administration (WPA) commissions in the 1930s, he completed murals for the post offices in Jackson, Mississippi and Beaufort, North Carolina. His works are in the permanent collections of the Dallas Museum of Art, the National Museum of American Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Born outside Kyiv (Petrograd Ukraine) into a Jewish family who owned a small department store. During a severe case of measles when he was seven, Simcha Simchovitch sketched the views outside his window and decided to become an artist, over his father's objections. Beginning in 1905, he studied at the Grekov Odessa Art School and upon completion of his studies in 1911 received a recommendation to be admitted to the Imperial Academy of Arts. Though he enrolled to begin classes in architecture, painting, and sculpture at the Imperial Academy, he was dropped from the school roster in December because of the quota on the number of Jewish students and drafted into the army. Simchovitch served as a private in the 175th Infantry Regiment Baturyn [ru] until his demobilization in 1912. Re-enrolling in the Imperial Academy, he audited classes. Simka Simkhovitch exhibited paintings and sculptures in 1918 as part of an exhibition of Jewish artists and in 1919 placed 1st in the competition "The Great Russian Revolution" with a painting called "Russian Revolution" which was hung in the State Museum of Revolution. In 1922, Simkha Simkhovitch exhibited at the International Book Fair in Florence (Italian: Fiera Internazionale del Libro di Firenze). In 1924, Simkhovitch came to the United States to make illustrations for Soviet textbooks and decided to immigrate instead. Initially he supported himself by doing commercial art and a few portrait commissions. In 1927, he was hired to paint a screen for a scene in the play "The Command to Love" by Fritz Gottwald and Rudolph Lothar which was playing at the Longacre Theatre on Broadway. Art dealers began clamoring for the screen and Simkhovitch began a career as a screen painter for the theater. Catching the attention of the screenwriter, Ernest Pascal, he worked as an illustrator for Pascal, who then introduced him to gallery owner, Marie Sterner. Simkhovitch's works appeared at the Marie Sterner Gallery beginning with a 1927 exhibit and were repeated the following year. Simkhovitch had an exhibit in 1929 at Sterner's on circus paintings. In 1931, he held a showing of works at the Helen Hackett Gallery, in New York City and later that same year he was one of the featured artists of a special exhibit in San Francisco at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park. The exhibit was coordinated by Marie Sterner and included four watercolors, including one titled "Nudes". He is of the generation of Russian Soviet artists such as Isaac Pailes, Serge Charchoune, Marc Chagall, Chana Orloff, Isaac Ilyich Levitan, and Ossip Zadkine. In 1936, Simkhovitch was selected to complete the mural for the WPA Post office project in Jackson, Mississippi. The mural was hung in the post office and courthouse in 1938 depicted a plantation theme. Painted on the wall behind the judge’s bench, “Pursuits of Life in Mississippi”, a depiction of black workers engaged in manual labor amid scenes of white professionals and socialites, was eventually covered over in later years during renovations due to its stereotypical African American imagery. The following year, his painting "Holiday" won praise at an exhibition in Lincoln, Nebraska. In 1940, Simkhovitch's second WPA post office project was completed when four murals, "The Cape Lookout Lighthouse and the Orville W. Mail Boat", "The Wreck of the Crissie Wright", "Sand Ponies" and "Canada Geese" were installed in Beaufort, North Carolina. The works were commissioned in 1938 and did not generate the controversy that the Jackson mural had. The main mural is "The Wreck of the Crissie Wright" and depicts a shipwreck which had occurred in Beaufort in 1866. "The Cape Lookout Lighthouse and the Orville W. Mail Boat" depicted the lighthouse built in 1859 and the mail boat that was running mail during the time which Simkhovitch was there. The boat ran mail for the area until 1957. "Sand Ponies" shows the wild horses common to the North Carolina barrier islands and "Canada Geese" showed the importance of hunting and fishing in the area. All four murals were restored in the 1990s by Elisabeth Speight, daughter of two other WPA muralists, Francis Speight...

Mystery European Artist Untitled, c. 20th Century Oil on canvas board 31 x 22 3/4 in. Framed: 36 1/4 x 28 x 1 1/2 in. Signed lower right

Basket Weaver with his Baskets for the Market 1950s figurative oil Expressive and detail portrait of a weaver and his baskets, heading to market by California impressionist nna Oley...

Mid-Century Modern portrait of a man by California artist Genevieve Rogers (American, 1904-1984). The abstracted background has texture created with d...

Realistic portrait of an old Jewish shtetl type pulpit rabbi by a Polish artist. Here the artist conveys a sense of quiet grandeur through the eyes of his subject and the way it's rendered. Part of a distinguished European lineage of Jewish genre...

Bay Area Figurative Movement Portrait of a Woman in Oil on Artist's Board 1950s Portrait of a woman man by Honora Berg (American, 1897-1985). The woman is looking directly at the viewer, with a neutral expression. She has dark hair and a slender nose, and is wearing a blue dress. A distinctive bay area figurative movement portrait by well known San Francisco artist Honora Berg. Signed "H. Berg" in on verso. Stamp from Miller Fine Art on verso Acquired with a collection of the artist's work. Initialed and numbered "HB 122 " on verso Unframed. Board size: 24.75"H x 19"W Honora Berg (American, 1897-1985) was an Abstract Expressionist and Bay Area Figurative School artist who studied at the San Francisco Art Institute with David Park, Elmer Bischoff and James Budd Dixon. Berg's friend Edith Truesdell — David Park's aunt — suggested a move to California in 1951 to study under Park. She exhibited at the 25th Annual Drawing, Print and Sculpture Exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 1961. Provenance, Estate of Honora Berg - David Carlson Gallery, Larry Miller...

William (Sunny) Weintraub, Israeli (Born 1926) Oil on masonite William Weintraub (He was also known as Shlomo Weintraub and nicknamed Sonny Weintraub) Genre: Impressionist Subject: Portrait Medium: Oil Surface: Canvas Dimensions: framed 24 X 32.5 canvas 19 X 27 In an ever-changing art world that embraces one movement after the next, the timeless art of portraiture can become lost. Portraiture is often associated with the royal paintings of centuries-old French kings, European nobility, and other wealthy individuals from art history's past. However, styles like Social Realism and Dutch genre painting spotlighted...

Beautiful portrait of older woman, possibly a Nonna (Grandmother) with Gardenia by Raul (or Raoul) Viviani (Italian, 1883 - 1965), circa 1950. Lovely tex...

Star Wars Storm Trooper Pop Art by British Urban Graffiti Artist, Chris Pegg. Entitled The Good The Bad & The Ugly. Art measures 42 x 24 inches Frame measures 50 x 32 inches Chri...

Joan Vives Maristany (XX) - Woman in mourning - Oil on panel Oil measures 25x13.5 cm. Frameless.

Older, realistic portrait of an older Jewish shtetl tailor by Polish artist. Here the artist conveys a sense of quiet grandeur through the eyes of his subject and the way it's rendered. Part of a distinguished European lineage of Jewish genre...