William Sharp was born on June 13, 1900, in Lemberg, Austria, where he attended college and the Academy for Arts and Industry. He later studied in Kraków, Poland, Berlin and Munich. Sharp began his career as a designer of stained-glass windows and as a painter of murals. He served in the German army during World War I. After the war, he became a newspaper artist in Berlin and a well-known etcher. Sharp drew political cartoons that were bitterly critical of the growing Nazi movement. As the influence of National Socialism intensified, he began to contribute drawings, under a pseudonym, to publications that were hostile to Hitler. After Hitler assumed power, Sharp was confronted with these drawings and told that he would be sent to a concentration camp. However, in 1934, he escaped to the United States. His first newspaper assignment in America was making courtroom sketches for The New York Mirror at the trial of Bruno R. Hauptmann for the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby. As a staff artist at Esquire, where he continued to produce political cartoons, Sharp also illustrated stories by Ernest Hemingway and Thomas Mann. He was a longtime contributor to The New York Times magazine and also worked for LIFE magazine, Collier's magazine, Coronet and The New York Post. Sharp also did book illustrations for several leading publishers, with Dickens’s, The Old Curiosity Shop for Heritage Press being his first assignment. He illustrated several books for limited editions, including The Diary of Samuel Pepys in 10 volumes. Sharp published several portfolios of etchings and lithographs about the legal and medical professions. Sharp's precisionist work is represented in many museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Queens Museum, the Library of Congress, the Carnegie Institute and the New York Public Library. William Sharp died in New York City on April 1, 1961.
"On the Dock" WPA Era Painting by William Sharp
By William Sharp
Located in Wiscasset, ME
Oil on canvas, estate sigend on the reverse, presented in a simple frame measuring 21.375" x 24.375" overall. William Sharp was born on June 13, 1900, in Lemberg, Austria, where h...
Canvas, Paint
Selection of Three WPA Era Paintings
Located in Atlanta, GA
Group of Three WPA Era Paintings, American, circa 1930s-1950s. From left to right, they are: 1) Brick mason oil painting, American, circa 1930s. It ...
Canvas, Wood
"Labor", Handsome WPA-Era Painting with Nudes by Muralist Lichtenauer
Located in Philadelphia, PA
Because Joseph Mortimer Lichtenauer is best known for his public murals, it's not surprising that this easel painting -- with its frieze-like array of nude and Classically dressed fi...
Paint
$5,500
H 19 in W 34 in D 1 in
"The Return of Thomas Pickering, " Important WPA-Period Oil Painting by Beck
Located in Philadelphia, PA
Full of atmosphere, rich color and drama, this fully realized oil on canvas study by Dunbar Beck was executed in preparation for his lobby painting at the US Post Office...
Paint
$7,125Sale Price|25% Off
H 41.5 in W 35 in D 2 in
"Acrobat and Circus Horse, " WPA-Era Painting, Semi-Nude Male Figure, Dark Pink
By William Schulhoff 1
Located in Philadelphia, PA
In an era when the circus provided an affordable and exotic form of entertainment for the Everyman, this vivid painting, glowing with the colors of red clay, slate and dusty pink, ca...
Paint
"The Return of Timothy Pickering, " WPA Mural Study Painting, 1939
Located in Philadelphia, PA
Full of atmosphere, rich color and drama, this mural study by Dunbar Beck was executed in preparation for his lobby painting at the US Post Office in Danvers, Massachusetts. Until it...
Gouache
Vintage Painting of a Tropical Boat Dock
Located in Palm Beach, FL
Transporting oil painting on canvas of a tropical bayscape, possibly the Florida Keys, with boats, pelicans and figures executed in a bold modern style. Signed in the lower right S. ...
Wood, Paint
Large Oil On Canvas Painting By William Lester Stevens
Located in Essex, MA
Large seascape with cove and ship. Either Gloucester Mass or coastal Maine. Well rendered and showing a rocky cove with trees ,ocean etc. Lester Stevens 1888-1969 is a well noted Am...
Canvas, Wood
$10,000Sale Price|20% Off
H 17.5 in W 33 in D 2 in
"Pueblos", Classic WPA-Era Mural Study with Native Americans for Los Angeles, CA
Located in Philadelphia, PA
This classic example of WPA-period mural painting, executed by Verona Burkhardt for the Immigration and Naturalization Center in Los Angeles, depicts five Pueblo Indians in the foreground and a magnificent landscape of canyons and Pueblo dwellings in the background. This served as a study for one of five large canvases she delivered to California in 1941 or 1942, but the building was cordoned off due to America's entrance into World War II. Burkhardt (or Burkhard) was the daughter of two important artists and was introduced to painting and crafts at an early age. In her prime, she won seven U.S. Government mural commissions in national competitions for buildings in Wyoming, Montana, North Carolina, and Washington, D.C. She settled in Grand Junction...
Paint
$25,000
H 36 in W 48 in D 2 in
1936 WPA Era American Scene Modernist Painting "A Connecticut Day" Howard Ahrens
Located in Swedesboro, NJ
1936 WPA Era AMERICAN SCENE MODERNIST PAINTING A Connecticut Day HOWARD AHRENS Truly a museum quality artwork. Absolutely beautiful American modernist painting depicting a group of...
Canvas, Paint
$9,500
H 23.5 in W 27.5 in D 1 in
"Vision of Angels, " Important Night-Time Scene, WPA Era, African American Artist
Located in Philadelphia, PA
Although not signed, this brilliant scene of a nude black male figure, marvelling at a vision of angels in the heaven from his position on the ground...
Paint
$2,360Sale Price|20% Off
H 10.75 in W 14.5 in D 2 in
"Lying on the Sand, " WPA-Era Atmospheric Beach Scene with Male & Female Bathers
Located in Philadelphia, PA
In an era when Reginald Marsh, Paul Cadmus and many other painters loved to capture the joy and energy of crowded beach scenes in America, John Winters created this lovely genre scene of a male bather in his one-piece swim suit reposing on the sand (probably the Lincoln Park beach in Chicago...
Paint
"500 LB Lady, " Colorful and Charming WPA-Era Carnival Scene by Lincoln
Located in Philadelphia, PA
Full of energy and vivid color, this atmospheric and charming scene of a small-town carnival, complete with a barker, boys with balloons, a blue tent in the foreground and a sign announcing the "500 LB Lady," was painted by E. Wilder Lincoln in the 1930s or 40s. Painters and sculptors were fascinated with circuses and carnivals...
Sold
H 29 in W 20 in D 2 in
Large Abstract Modernist Cubist Jazz Painting, Oil on Canvas by William Sharp
By William Sharp
Located in Buffalo, NY
Wonderful oil on canvas depicting New Orleans Jazz Band hand executed by William Sharp 1900-1961. Amazing use of color, space, texture, William Sharp ...
Canvas, Paint
Modernist Cubist Abstract Oil on Canvas Painting by William Sharp
By William Sharp
Located in Buffalo, NY
Wonderful oil on canvas depicting workers, hand executed by William Sharp 1900-1961. Amazing use of color, space, texture, William Sharp was born on J...
Canvas, Paint
Four Botanical Prints by John Fisk Allen and William Sharp
By William Sharp
Located in Greenwich, CT
Four of six chromolithographs executed for "Victoria Regia; or the Great Water Lily of America." With a brief account of its discovery and introduction into cultivation: with illustrations by William Sharp...
Paper
William Sharp Lithograph of United States Supreme Court
By William Sharp
Located in Hanover, MA
An original framed and matted lithograph by William Sharp of the Supreme Court of the United States circa 1960. Signed. William Sharp, 1900 - 1961 ...
Paper