William Lester Stevens Art

This oil on canvas by James Cobb features a stand of river birch trees at the height of fall color with sunlit yellow leaves against the white bark of the b...

Born in Russia, the son of Friede (1878 – 1956) and Benjamin Hoffman (1878 – a. 1942). Benjamin was a dealer in mineral and seltzer water and the family resided on Snediker Avenue in Brooklyn, New York, just down the streetfrom the home where George Gershwin (1898 – 1937) was born. This area of Brooklyn, known as Brownsville, “witnessed the development of one of the largest communities of Eastern European Jewish immigrants during the last decade of the 19th century and the first two decades of the 20 th century.” Today, little remains of this once thriving Jewish section of Brooklyn, which today houses many commercial and repair businesses. Hoffman studied at the Art Students League of New York, the National Academy of Design and in the art program at Cooper Union. His work at the National Academy received praise, and in 1921 he was awarded the 2nd prize and an honorable mention from the John Armstrong Chaloner Paris Prize Foundation at the National Academy, which allowed the recipient to study in Paris, France for as long as five years. The following year he was awarded the 1 st prize in the competition (with The Reform Advocate running the headline “Young Jew Wins Art Prize”) as well as the Suydam Bronze Medal for his achievements in the Academy’s Men’s Night Class. In 1923 he was residing in Long Branch, New Jersey, when he was awarded 4th place in the Chaloner competition. Early on, Hoffman exhibited his work throughout the city, including in 1925 with the recently organized Society of Independent Artists. He also received several solo exhibitions during the first part of his career, including one at Ferargil Galleries in 1929. In the spring of 1930 a solo exhibition of his portraits, including paintings and drawings, was held at at Babcock Galleries, where a reviewer noted: “Portraiture is obviously Mr. Hoffman’s specialty… his best work is characterized by a sensitive appreciation of character set down in a vigorous decisive statement. Later that same year, in August, he participated in Babcock’s summer exhibition where reviewer Jerome Klein, writing for The Baltimore Sun, felt Hoffman’s and other artists work was already becoming old fashioned, remarking “…if an effort toward accomplishment is to be made, it must be in the language of today. It is for that reason that such contemporaries as Eugene Higgins and Nathan Hoffman, in this show, seem artists of a bygone era…” The onset of the Great Depression appears to have slowed his success, as was the case for many up-and-coming artists. By 1939 Hoffman had become a gallerist in addition to being a painter, operating the collective exhibition space “Sutton Gallery,” which was originally located at 358 East 57th Street. There Hoffman exhibited his own works as well as those created by other prominent New York artists including David Burliuk (1882 – 1967), Charles C. Curran (1861 – 1942), Louis Eilshemius (1864 – 1941), Ann Goldthwaite (1869 – 1944), Maurice Kish (1895 – 1987), Lawrence Lebduska (1894 – 1966), Bradford Perin and Ellis Wilson...

Warm air seems to move through this scene as the eye wanders along a gentle swale dotted with granite boulders, low stone walls and scrubby autumn color. A ribbon of meadow pulls us ...

“Impressionist Landscape, c. 1915-1920” by Francis Stillwell Dixon (American, 1879-1967). One of Dixon’s finest canvases, depicting a tranquil forest scene bathed in soft, dappled l...

Pair of Views of Villa Medici Vascello are an old master artwork realized by Artist of 17th Century. Mixed colored oil painting on canvas. The View of Villa Medici Vascello toward...

'Sicilian Farmhouse', oil on canvas, by Yves Brayer (circa 1950s). A dedicated lover of Mediterranean countries and their varied landscapes, this charming and diminutive work by the ...

Mediterranean Painting of Lake Como in Italy by 20th Century American Artist, J W Wagner Art measures 28 x 20 inches Frame measures 33 x 25 inches Professionally cleaned and re-framed in a high quality shabby chic off-white moulding Early 20th Century Vintage Original Painting...

Original oil on artist board painting by the Russian/American artist Ben Benn. Signed lower right and signed titled and dated in pencil verso. 1929. Overall in custom contemporary ...

Dennis Sheehan Sunset on the Marsh, Summer, circa 2025 Signed lower left Oil on canvas 20 x 30 inches Dennis Sheehan was born in Boston in 1950. His work is based upon the Barbizon...

Exhibited, well painted,fall impressionist scene of Mt Greylock, Massachusetts painted by Holger Wenzel Jensen. Exhibition label attached verso. Exhibited, Chicago Galleries Associ...

Rocky Inlet, Monhegan, Maine Oil on canvas mounted on phenolic resin, c. 1940 Unsigned Signed with the estate stamp on the reverse (see photo) Condition: Excellent, recently cleaned ...

Dimensions with frame: 38,5 x 51,5 x 4 cm. Signed "L. Erzinger 1931" in the lower left corner. A beautifully expressive modernist landscape depicting a tranquil European village nes...