Reginald Marsh Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

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...

Boulevard. 1961, paper, watercolor, 37x52 cm Laimdonis Grasmanis (1916-1970) 1933 – 1937 – Art school of Applied art in Liepaja 1937 – 1942 – Art Academy of Latvia Artist took pa...

The Old Town, Nice France Tony Minartz (French 1873 - 1994) watercolor on artist paper, unframed painting : 17 x 12.75 inches Provenance: private collection in the South of France Co...

Vintage 1930s watercolor and ink painting of Estes Park, Colorado, by American artist James Russell Sherman (1906-1989). This captivating work features a detailed view of storefronts...

Artist Biography Zhang Chunyang was born in 1975 in Changchun, Jilin. She earned her B.F.A at Jilin University of Arts in 1999, and studied at Central Acadamy of Fine Arts, Beijing ...

At the Pool - Mid Century Illustration in Watercolor and India Ink on Paper Lovely watercolor of a sunny day at a public pool by an unknown artist (20th Century). People are swimmin...

A charming and stylized depiction of a day at the Central Park Zoo. with World War Two uniformed visitors front and center. Sea lions put on a show in front o...

A Stunning Mid-Century Modern Ink Drawing of a Seated Female Nude by Noted Chicago Artist, Rudolph T. Pen. Completed in the 1960s, this compelling studio ink drawing is executed in ...

The Hunting Party Attributed to Dirk Maes (1659-1717) Dutch. Figures in a Classical Landscape, Watercolour and wash on paper, Mounted, unframed image 6.75" x 9.75" (17.1 x 24.7cm)...

This appears to be dated 1927. It came in with a piece dated 1929. A very early, rare work. Framed 22.5 x 18. Image 14.5 x 9 A great New York city street scene with an El train (elev...

Despite its explicit content, this intimate scene conveys a sense of tenderness and romantic love characteristic of Chinese erotic art. Known as “spring palace paintings,” these ink and watercolor illustrations imagined the sensual delights of courtly life. Taken from an album of erotic paintings, this framed leaf departs from a tradition of depicting lovers in risqué outdoor settings by picturing an amorous coupling in a distinctly Qing-dynasty interior. The uniquely detailed surroundings shed light on the prevailing aesthetic tastes in decor and furniture of 19th-century China. Note the carved wooden headrest, blue and white censer...

John Ayres Head in Hand May 1, 1937 Charcoal on Paper 25"x19", unframed $1250 Signed and dated in charcoal top right *Custom framing available for additional charge. Please expect fr...