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William Zorach Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

American, 1887-1966
Born in 1887, by 1930, he was one of America’s premier 20th century sculptors and was honored with multiple commissions and exhibitions including at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Dallas Museum of Fine Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and numerous others. He studied in New York City at the National Academy of Design and also in Paris under the mentoring of Jacques-Emile Blanche. It was in Paris in the first decade of the 20th century where Zorach’s path crossed with Marguerite, his soon to be wife. Both Marguerite and William were both represented in the landmark Armory Show of 1913. William continued to paint for the next two decades, but increasingly experimenting with sculpture. By the mid 20’s he was carving significant works in marble and stone. By the early 30’s, he abandoned painting entirely in favor of a new art form, sculpture. I t was in sculpture that Zorach found his true voice as an artist and achieved considerable success. “Sculpture, direct carving, was an expanding universe, a liberation and a natural form of expression to me.” Zorach stated. Museum Collections: Amon Carter Museum of American Art Arizona State University Art Museum Boca Raton Museum of Art Butler Institute of American Art Cleveland Artists Foundation Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center Cornish Colony Museum Dallas Museum of Art Delaware Art Museum Edwin a Ulrich Museum of Art Farnsworth Art Museum Flint Institute of Arts Frederick R Weisman Art Museum Georgia Museum of Art Herbert F Johnson Museum of Art Jack S Blanton Museum of Art LaSalle University Art Museum Los Angeles County Museum of Art Lowe Art Museum Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum Memorial Art Gallery Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC Middlebury College Museum of Art Minneapolis Institute of Arts Mobile Museum of Art Museum of Fine Art-Boston Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Portland Museum of Art Smithsonian Museum of Art The Brooklyn Museum of Art The Canton Museum of Art The Columbus Museum of Art-Ohio The Columbus Museum-Georgia The Cummer Museum Of Art & Gardens The Currier Museum of Art The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art The Newark Museum The Phillips Collection The Phillips Museum of Art The University of Michigan Museum of Art Whitney Museum of American Art Worcester Art Museum Yosemite Museum
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Artist: William Zorach
Watercolor Painting by William Zorach, Titled "Redwoods, Yosemite Valley", 1920
By William Zorach
Located in New York, NY
William Zorach, 1887-1966 Redwoods, Yosemite Valley, 1920 Watercolor and pencil 15 ¾ x 13 ⅜ inches Signed (at lower right): William Zorach WZorach-7 Provenance: Estate of William Zorach Exhibited: William Zorach, 1887-1996, Sculpture, Drawings and Watercolors, Zabriskie Gallery, New York; Feb. 10 – March 14, 1998. William Zorach was born in Lithuania in 1889, and immigrated to the United States with his family in 1893. Settling in Cleveland with his parents, he worked as a lithographer from 1902- 1908, making enough money to study painting with Henry G. Keller at the School of Art. In 1910, Zorach traveled to Paris to study in La Palette, where he was encouraged to develop his own unique style rather than adhere to traditional teachings. Zorach once said, “I began to be conscious of the various modern influences that were invading the art world…I was disturbed and confused, and yet I felt that I was a very young man entering a new age. The forces creating modern art seemed more alive to me than anything I had known or anything being done in America.” 1 Together with his wife Marguerite, William Zorach produced a number of Cubist- style paintings for the American Armory Show of 1913, and the Forum Exhibition in New York in 1916. Around 1917, Zorach followed the lead of cubist artist Pablo Picasso and began experimenting with wood and stone carvings. By 1922, he devoted himself entirely to sculpture, and like Picasso, became fascinated in “primitive art”—the ritual objects and sculpture pieces of Oceanic, Native American and African tribes. Zorach’s work developed in its use of block-like forms with progressive suppression of detail—drawing elements from sources as disparate as the contemporary cubist and modernist movements, and combining them with forms seen in early African sculpture. Though the forms of his sculpture were often abstract, Zorach primarily focused upon a traditional subject matter, producing such well-known sculptures as Young Girl, now in the Whitney Museum of American Art, and Mother and Child, in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Today, William Zorach is known as one of the earliest and most influential American artists dedicated to direct carving. Zorach also made an impression as a teacher and writer, facilitating a major change in the aesthetic philosophy and technique of sculpture in the United States. During the summers from 1913 to 1922, Zorach and his wife Marguerite painted...
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1920s William Zorach Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Watercolor, Pencil

Woodlands (Double-sided), Impressionist Watercolor on Paper by William Zorach
By William Zorach
Located in Long Island City, NY
William Zorach, Lithuanian (1887 - 1966) - Woodlands (Double-sided), Year: 1913, Medium: Watercolor on Paper, signed and dated in pencil, with Graphite Drawing on verso, Size: 8.5 ...
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1910s Impressionist William Zorach Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

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Watercolor

Quebec City, Fauve Landscape
By William Zorach
Located in Miami, FL
Wonderful Fauve Landscape with blocky areas of punchy bold reds and yellows. This was done the same year of the Armory Show in which both William Zor...
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Early 20th Century Expressionist William Zorach Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Watercolor

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Previously Available Items
PORTRAIT OF NATHANIEL KAZ
By William Zorach
Located in Portland, ME
Zorach, William (American 1887-1966). PORTRAIT OF NATHANIEL KAZ. Pencil on paper, 1956. Inscribed and signed by Zorach as follows: "Nat Kaz / William Zorach / Sept 19 1920 / Feb 19, ...
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1950s William Zorach Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Graphite

Girl with Clasped Hands
By William Zorach
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Girl with Clasped Hands Watercolor on paper, 1913 Signed and dated lower right (see photo) Provenance: Gift of the Artist Felix ...
Category

1910s American Modern William Zorach Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Watercolor

LANDSCAPE WITH CLOUDS
By William Zorach
Located in Portland, ME
Zorach, William (American, 1887-1966). LANDSCAPE WITH CLOUDS. Watercolor on paper, 1913. Signed and dated in pencil, lower right. 9 1/2 x 11 inches, the full sheet. Provenance, The a...
Category

1910s William Zorach Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Watercolor

"Study of a Hand, 1934"
By William Zorach
Located in Southampton, NY
This is a very nice drawing of a study of a hand; graphite on paper done by William Zorach in 1934. Pencil signed and dated lower right on the mat. In ...
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1930s American Modern William Zorach Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Graphite

Maine Harbor
By William Zorach
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Signed lower right: Zorach From the Estate of Felix Russman (1888-1962), a friend of Zorach and fellow artist. Bibliography: Henry Adams, Out of the Kok...
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William Zorach Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

William Zorach drawings and watercolor paintings for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic William Zorach drawings and watercolor paintings available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by William Zorach in paint, watercolor, pencil and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 20th century and is mostly associated with the modern style. Not every interior allows for large William Zorach drawings and watercolor paintings, so small editions measuring 8 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Virginia Dehn, Louisa Chase, and William Grauer. William Zorach drawings and watercolor paintings prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $1,875 and tops out at $45,000, while the average work can sell for $10,875.

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