Tom Haugomat Art

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...

Small artwork offers an intimate form of personal expression. In this work on paper, careful attention to detail captures a chic, timeless sensibility. Expressive paint and pencil co...

"Behind my canvases, collages, and drawings lies a singular proposition: places are not inert; they are repositories for all that passes through them. My work is an inquiry into the ...

A colorful, 1950s industrial harbor scene painting of a dockyard truck in a working Martha's Vineyard boatyard by notable Chicago artist, Francis Chapin. Completed near the artist's...

This 19" x 26.25" framed work on paper by artist Pat Griffin depicts a dense and busy cityscape tucked into the nearby green brush and mountains. The dark but diluted greens are like...

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Splash Of White - This original artwork on watercolour paper captures a loose, expressive arrangement of delicate white flowers in a glass vase. Layering of acrylic and oil pastel wi...

Joel D. Sager (b. 1980) is a contemporary American painter of landscapes, still-life and portraiture. Often drawing on such standard subject matter with economy and singularity— a so...

This original artwork on paper features the classic black pencil skirt, a quintessential fashion staple. Using paint and pencil, deliberate emphasis is placed on simplified line and ...

A masterful example of John Whorf at the height of his powers, this large and luminous watercolor depicts three fishermen on a calm, silver-blue lake or bay, their figures rendered w...

Romantic, tonalist style landscape drawing by Sue Bryan charcoal and acrylic on book pages on wood 8 x 10 inches Hangs flush to the wall, with nail notch on back Signed verso Clean, ...

Melissa Chalhoub, a 2014 graduate of Saint Joseph University in Beirut, seamlessly navigates the realms of cinema and visual art. With a background in directing and sound design for ...