“A storyteller with a brush, a custodian of the past” is how illustrator Tom Lovell once described himself. Lovell is regarded as one of the 20th century’s leading Western artists, with his work including figurative paintings of important historical events, portraits of homespun American life and thought-provoking illustrations for publications such as Life, National Geographic and The Saturday Evening Post.
Born in 1909 in New York City, Lovell spent his childhood in Nutley, New Jersey, where he developed a keen interest in art and Native American culture. He often visited New York’s American Museum of Natural History, where he would sketch Native American clothing, weapons and artifacts.
Lovell studied art at Syracuse University, where he roomed with future well-known illustrator Harry Anderson. While there, he began his illustration career by selling his work to pulp magazines. Later, he illustrated for publications such as The American, Cosmopolitan and Women’s Home Companion.
During World War II, Lovell enlisted with the Marine Corps Reserve and created illustrations for the Marine Corps’s Leatherneck magazine and the Marine Corps Gazette. He also completed several large paintings chronicling historical military events; they are now displayed at the Marine Corps headquarters in Washington, DC.
After the war, Lovell continued illustrating for magazines like Collier’s, Redbook, Ladies’ Home Journal and McCall’s, which featured “Day of Yellow Flowers,” one of his better-known illustrations. He contributed a series of historical works, including his famous Civil War painting “Surrender at Appomattox,” to National Geographic.
Throughout the 1960s, he was increasingly fascinated with the American Southwest. In 1975, Lovell and his family moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he found inspiration for his landscapes that depict Native American and Old West culture.
Lovell received numerous accolades throughout his career. In 1974, the Society of Illustrators named him a Hall of Fame Laureate. In 1992, the National Academy of Western Art and National Cowboy Museum honored him with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Lovell is the only artist to have won the National Cowboy Museum’s invitational Prix de West exhibition twice.
Lovell died in 1997. His illustrations and paintings continue to be prized by Western art and Americana collectors.
On 1stDibs, discover a range of Tom Lovell’s paintings.
$35,000
Bridal White
By Tom Lovell
Located in Fort Washington, PA
Medium: Oil on Canvas Signature: Signed Lower Right and Titled on reverse Dimensions: 28.13" x 25.13" (71.45 cm x 63.83 cm) Literature: Temple Bailey, Bridal White, The American Mag...
Canvas, Oil
$125,000
“A Date for the Baby Sitter” Magazine story illustration for Good Housekeeping
By Tom Lovell
Located in Fort Washington, PA
Story illustration for “A Date for the Baby Sitter” by Eileen Herbert Jordan for Good Housekeeping, published December 1958, illustrated pages 58-59 The full caption reads: “Thus Peggy went forth—sailed might be the better word—escorted by part of the Navy.” The snowy scene features a woman and two sailors leaving the house at Christmas time. Exhibited: The Triumph of Winter, National Arts Club, New York, December 16, 2013- January 5, 2014 Date: 1958 Medium: Oil on Board Dimensions: 23.20" x 33.50" Signature: Signed Lower Left A Native American finding a Raggedy Ann doll...
Oil, Board
Below Deck Gouache Painting, Realist Style, Signed, 1950s, 15.2x32
By Tom Lovell
Located in Miami, FL
Charles Martignette Heritage Auctions, This is a Wonderfully rendered work with high level of detail and color saturation. Norman Rockwellesqu...
Gouache
Blondin Crossing Niagara
By Tom Lovell
Located in Fort Washington, PA
Medium: Oil on Masonite Signature: Signed Lower Left This piece was published as an illustration in True Magazine titled "Blondin Crossing Niagara" in 1953. Born Jean-François Grave...
Masonite, Oil
“I had the pleasure of knowing your dear departed husband, ” Cosmopolitan
By Tom Lovell
Located in Fort Washington, PA
Magazine story illustration for “Saratoga Trunk” by Edna Ferber for Hearst’s International Combined with Cosmopolitan, published July 1941, pages 42-43....
Canvas, Oil
$53,000
Attorney at Sea
By Tom Lovell
Located in Fort Washington, PA
Medium: Oil on Canvas Signature: Signed TOM/LOVELL (lower left); also titled Attorney/at Sea (on the reverse)
Canvas, Oil
Formal Affair
By Tom Lovell
Located in Fort Washington, PA
Date: July 1942 Medium: Oil on Canvas Dimensions: 36.00" x 26.00" Signature: Signed Lower Left Illustration for Cosmopolitan magazine. Tom Lovell’s illustrations range from adventur...
Canvas, Oil
“‘Richer’n horse manure!” Editorial illustration for True magazine’
By Tom Lovell
Located in Fort Washington, PA
Editorial illustration for “Lady Luck’s Favorite Boy” by Arnold Hoffman for True, published March 1951. The full published caption reads: “He held the quartz under my nose. ‘Richer...
Canvas, Oil
The Crime Scene, Original Magazine Story Illustration
By Tom Lovell
Located in Fort Washington, PA
Illustration for True magazine, presumably published February 1956. Nighttime scene of policemen and bloodhounds investigating a murder on a cobblestone street. Approximate Date: 1956 Medium: Oil on Board Signature: Signed Lower Right Size: 22.70" x 16.20" Tom Lovell Biography: A Native American finding a Raggedy Ann doll...
Board, Oil
Happy Endings
By Tom Lovell
Located in Fort Washington, PA
Medium: Oil on Linen Signature: Signed and Dated Story illustration for "Farewell Without Regret" by Sarah-Elizabeth Rodger for Good Housekeeping, published July 1940, page 58. The...
Linen, Oil
$3,475
H 35.5 in W 43.75 in D 3 in
Chinese Dim Sum Feast in the San Francisco Bay Area
Located in San Francisco, CA
Created in the mid 1970s by California artist Raymond Howell (1927–2002), “Chinese Dim Sum Feast,” depicts diners being served in a Chinese restaurant, ...
Masonite, Oil
$950
H 11 in W 8.5 in D 1 in
Shoemaker at Work - Portrait in Oil on Masonite
Located in Soquel, CA
Shoemaker at Work - Portrait in Oil on Masonite Lovely portrait of a cobbler at work by Max Schneider (German, 1903-1980). The shoemaker is holding a ha...
Masonite, Oil
$550
H 9 in W 12 in D 1.5 in
"Idaho Road" - Original Oil Landscape Painting on Paper and Cradled Board
By Samantha Buller
Located in Denver, CO
About the Artist: Samantha Buller currently lives in Sonoma County after painting and teaching in Kansas for the past two years. She received her BFA in Painting from the Academy of ...
Oil, Paper, Board
$3,950
H 20 in W 18 in D 2 in
"Georgia Moonshiner, c. 1935" by Athos Menaboni (1895-1990) American WPA Era Oil
Located in Yardley, PA
A fantastic WPA-era painting of a Georgia moonshiner by famed Italian-American artist Athos Menaboni (1895-1990). This work depicts an older man sporting a brown hat, brown jacket, ...
Masonite, Oil
$4,455Sale Price|70% Off
H 33.5 in W 26 in
Orientalist "Moorish Soldier Holding a Rifle" Manuel Garcia Hispaleto
Located in SANTA FE, NM
"Moorish Soldier Holding a Rifle" Manuel Garcia Hispaleto (Spanish, 1836-1898) Watercolor on paper Signed lower left "MGHispaleto" Original wood frame with gilded stucco 18 3/4 x 12 1/2 (33 1/2 x 26 frame) inches Manuel García Hispaleto, originally Manuel García y Martínez (22 November 1836, Seville -26 December 1898, Madrid) was a Spanish painter known for portraits and costumbrista (genre) scenes. His brother, Rafael García...
Watercolor, Handmade Paper
$3,000
H 25 in W 21 in D 3 in
Neon Lighting WPA Mid 20th Century Social Realism American Scene Modern Figures
By Maurice Becker
Located in New York, NY
Neon Lighting WPA Mid 20th Century Social Realism American Scene Modern Figures MAURICE BECKER (1889-1975) 'Neon Lighting 17 1/4 x 13 3/4 inches Oil on masonite Signed, dated 1936 and titled on verso BIO Maurice Becker, painter, political cartoonist and social reformer, was born in 1889 either in Gorky or Niznij Novgorod, in Russia. His family came to the United States in 1892, to New York City. After high school, Becker worked in a clothing factory. He studied with Ash Can School artist Robert Henri in 1908, and exhibited in the famous 1913 Armory Show in New York City when he was only twenty-four years of age. At the Armory show, Becker showed a drawing of a dog's head...
Masonite, Oil
$3,000Sale Price|20% Off
H 18 in W 15 in
1938 Cuban Illustration Gouache Painting Carteles Magazine Andres Garcia Benitez
Located in Buffalo, NY
An original illustration by Cuban artist Andres Garcia Benitez which was used for the cover of the iconic Carteles magazine in November of 1938. ...
Watercolor, Gouache, Illustration Board
$850
H 26 in W 22 in D 1.5 in
America Rising - Patriotic 9/11 Figurative Abstract
By Jocelyn Audette
Located in Soquel, CA
Vivid and evocative abstracted painting of 9/11 by artist Jocelyn Audette (American, b. 1952), circa 2001. Impasto adds texture and interest. Label on verso with artist's name. Pres...
Oil, Masonite
The Dissidents: Discourse on the Golden Mean
By Michael Tole
Located in New Orleans, LA
Michael Tole says of his work… This work draws a connection between the didactic moralizing tendencies of Neo Classicism (represented in the style of the painting) and Modernism (represented in the architectural setting). Though modern art eschews the naturalistic imagery used by Neo Classicists, both movements pursued a self-important, austere, self-consciously masculine aesthetic that they saw as synonymous with virtue. Set in the MoMA courtyard, a passel of men lounge about, regarding a golden statue which looks terribly out of place in this modernist vitrine. The uncomfortable architectural setting, prisonlike and cold, provides a foil for the odalisque-like young men sprawled on hard stone benches and paying homage to the central idol. In my current work, The Revisionist Histories, I am writing letters to art history, literature, and mythology in an attempt to reflect the social changes that have reshaped our society over the past century. As part of this agenda, I explore the evolution of gender norms, power dynamics, and representation within Western visual culture and what this implies for the negotiation between pleasure, justice, and our culturally specific discourse on beauty. The seed for The Revisionist Histories was sewn when I caught a glimpse of my preteen daughters watching music videos on their iPad as I chopped veggies for dinner. Out of the corner of my eye I caught glimpses of music videos featuring Beyonce, Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Katy Perry, and Doja Cat gyrating across the tiny screen. A better parent might have snatched the iPad away, but I was overcome with hallucinatory visions of this pop diva...
Oil, Canvas
$2,000
H 27.56 in W 19.69 in D 1.19 in
Georgian Contemporary Art by Gia Khutsishvili - From Rome's History
Located in Paris, IDF
Oil on cardboard Gia Khutsishvili was born in Tbilisi, Georgia, on July 18, 1966, into a family of artists. He graduated from the Tbilisi State Academy of Fine Arts in 1989. Since 1...
Oil, Cardboard
$1,400
H 15.75 in W 15.75 in D 0.79 in
Georgian Contemporary Art by Ilia Menabde - Still Life with Some Bread
Located in Paris, IDF
Oil on canvas Ilia Menabde is a Georgian painter born in 2003 who lives and works in Tbilisi, Georgia. His practice explores the relationship between memory, time, place, and contem...
Canvas, Oil
Red (Floral Still Life)
By Elizabeth Osborne
Located in Wilton Manors, FL
Elizabeth Osborne (American/Philadelphia, b. 1936) "Red." Watercolor on paper. 1991/1992. Signed and dated l.r.. Sight: 9" x 12". Frame: 18 1/4" x 21 1/2". Provenance: Purchased from Jane Haslem Gallery in 1994. From the collection of Nancy Elizabeth Stanley. 1936, born Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1959, BFA, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1954-58, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania SOLO EXHIBITIONS Berry Campbell, New York, Elizabeth Osborne: A Retrospective, 2022. Locks Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Reflections: Painting Memory, 2017. Locks Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Watercolors: Five Decades, 2017. The Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, Delaware, Elizabeth Osborne: The 1960s, 2016. Luther W. Brady Art Gallery, George Washington University, Washington, D.C., Color Bloc: Paintings by Elizabeth Osborne, 2015. The James A. Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, Pennsylvania, Veils of Color: Juxtapositions and Recent Work by Elizabeth Osborne, 2015. (Traveled to The Lancaster Museum of Art, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 2016.) Locks Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Luminous Gestures: New Works by Elizabeth Osborne, 2013. Locks Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Elizabeth Osborne: Watercolors, 2011. Locks Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, New Work, 2011. The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Elizabeth Osborne: The Color of Light, 2009. Locks Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Figurative ‘60s, 2007. Locks Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Floating Landscapes: 1971-1979, 2006. J. Cacciola Galleries, New York, Works on Paper, 2006. The Print Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Recent Prints, 2005. Locks Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2004. Locks Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Elizabeth Osborne: 30 Years, Works on Paper, 2002. Locks Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Vantage, 2000. Old Main Art Museum, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona, 1998. Locks Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1997. Locks Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1994. Jane Haslem Gallery, Washington, D.C., 1994. North Dakota Museum of Art, Grand Forks, North Dakota, 1993-94. Locks Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1992. Arronson Gallery, The University of Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Watercolors, 1991. University of the Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1990. Marian Locks Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1988. Fischbach Gallery, New York, 1988. Fischbach Gallery, New York, 1984. Fischbach Gallery, New York, 1982. Fischbach Gallery, New York, 1980. Marian Locks Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1978. Marian Locks Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1976. Gimpel & Weitzenhoffer, Ltd., New York, 1977. Gimpel & Weitzenhoffer, Ltd., New York, 1974. Marian Locks Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Landscapes, 1972. Makler Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1970. American Consulate, Sao Paulo, Brazil, 1969. Peale Galleries, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1967. Perakis Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1967. Perakis Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1963. GROUP EXHIBITIONS Avery Galleries, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, The Women of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts: Past to Present, 2024. Berry Campbell, New York, Perseverance, 2024. Locks Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, From Dusk Till Dawn, 2015. Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, “Something Clicked in Philly”: David Lynch and His Contemporaries, 2014. Locks Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, It’s Not the Numbers, 2014. Locks Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Works on Paper, 2013. Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, The Female Gaze: Women Artists Making Their World, 2013. Philip and Muriel Berman Museum of Art, Ursinus College, Collegeville, Pennsylvania, Four Visions/Four Painters: Murray Dessner...
Watercolor, Rag Paper
$689Sale Price|40% Off
H 7.29 in W 6.11 in
Realist European painter - 19th century figure painting - Portrait of gentleman
Located in Varmo, IT
European painter (19th century) - Portrait of a Gentleman. 13.5 x 10 cm (without frame) - 18.5 x 15.5 cm (with frame). Watercolour on paper, in original 19th-century gilded wood fr...
Watercolor, Paper
$2,500
H 24 in W 20 in D 0.13 in
Mid Century Figurative Nativity Scene w Hummel Figurines, Gloria in Excelsis Deo
By Helen Enoch Gleiforst
Located in Soquel, CA
Nativity scene on an architrave of a cathedral, done in the style of Hummel figurines by Helen Gleiforst (American, 1903-1997). Signed "Gleiforst" in t...
Masonite, Oil
$2,500
H 43.31 in W 39.38 in D 1.19 in
Georgian Contemporary Art by Ilia Balavadze - Swimming Pool
By Ilia Balavadze
Located in Paris, IDF
Oil on canvas, Ilia Balavadze is a Georgian artist born in 1968 who lives and works in Tbilisi, Georgia. From 1987 to 1993, he studied the painting at the Tbilisi State Academy of A...
Canvas, Oil
“Suddenly he was the lover she’d sent away so long ago.”
By Tom Lovell
Located in Fort Washington, PA
Magazine story illustration for “Wherever You Walk” by Mary Thayer Muller for Cosmopolitan, published February 1956, page 26. The romantic story is introduced by the magazine as fol...
Paint
Up the Staircase
By Tom Lovell
Located in Fort Washington, PA
Medium: Oil on Canvas Signature: Signed and Dated Lower Left Dimensions: Sight Size 30.50" x 34.75," Framed 36.00" x 39.50"
Canvas, Oil
Man and Woman Kissing in Swamp
By Tom Lovell
Located in Fort Washington, PA
Medium: Unknown Signature: Unsigned Contact for exact dimensions.
Paint
The Mutiny
By Tom Lovell
Located in Fort Washington, PA
Medium: Oil on Board Signature: Signed lower Left
Oil, Board
Artist Muse
By Tom Lovell
Located in Fort Washington, PA
Medium: Oil on Canvas Signature: Signed Lower Right
Canvas, Oil
Gondola In Venice, 1947
By Tom Lovell
Located in Fort Washington, PA
Medium: Oil on Masonite Signature: Signed Upper Left Original Use: Interior Illustration for The American Magazine Excellent Condition This luminous, expressive oil on masonite wa...
Masonite, Oil
Balloonists Struggle to Escape a Doomed Gondola
By Tom Lovell
Located in Fort Washington, PA
Medium: Oil on Board Signature: Signed Lower Left Provenance: Commissioned by the National Geographic Society. Exhibitions: Stockbridge, Massachusetts, The Norman Rockwell Museum,...
Oil, Board
"You're Not to Tell Anyone"
By Tom Lovell
Located in Fort Washington, PA
Medium: Oil on Canvas Dimensions: 32.00" x 35.00" Signature: Signed Lower Right Story illustration for “Mrs. Parkington” by Louis Bromfield for Cosmopolitan, published November 1942, pages 56 and 57. The full caption reads: “‘And you’re not to tell anyone where you’re going or that you’re going away together,’ Mrs. Parkington said as she told Janie and Ned her plan.” A Native American finding a Raggedy Ann doll...
Canvas, Oil
Saturday Evening Post Story Illustration
By Tom Lovell
Located in Fort Washington, PA
Date: 1942 Medium: Oil on Canvas Dimensions: 36.00" x 26.00" Signature: Signed Lower Left Story illustration for Saturday Evening Post magazine, 1942, page 47. A Native American finding a Raggedy Ann doll...
Canvas, Oil