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
to
3
Overall Width
to
Overall Height
to
3
1
1
1
1
2
1
3
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
3
3
1
8
808
408
306
282
1
1
3
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...
Category
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 ...
Category
1910s Impressionist William Zorach Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
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...
Category
Early 20th Century Expressionist William Zorach Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Watercolor
Related Items
1950's French Modernist/ Cubist Painting signed - Tall French Buildings
By Bernard Labbe
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Tall French Landscape
by Bernard Labbe (French mid 20th century)
signed original watercolour/ gouache painting on paper , unframed
size: 18.5 x 12.5 inches
condition: very good and r...
Category
Mid-20th Century Modern William Zorach Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Ink, Gouache, Watercolor
French Fauvist Gouache of Sailing Boats in Port Under a Setting Sun.
Located in Cotignac, FR
Watercolour and gouache on paper of sailing boats at a quay side. The painting is signed bottom right but as yet undeciphered and dated 1945. Presented in a patinated wood custom fra...
Category
Mid-20th Century Expressionist William Zorach Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Watercolor, Gouache
H 20.48 in W 22.84 in D 0.6 in
French Seated Figure Sketch Drawing of a Pensive Seated Nude in Profile
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Collection of Nude drawings
book of watercolour nude paintings on artist paper
painting: 12 x 9.5 inches
provenance: private collection, England
condition: very good and sound condition
Category
20th Century Impressionist William Zorach Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Watercolor
H 12 in W 9.5 in D 1 in
Notre Dame de Paris II
By Lucien Génin
Located in London, GB
'Notre Dame de Paris II', gouache on paper, by Lucien Génin (circa 1930s). One of two paintings of Notre Dame by this artist held by our gallery, it is also an absolutely charming and now, historic depiction from the 1930s, of the most famous cathedral in France. This version uses more exaggerated brushstrokes with strong colours attesting to its expressionist roots. Notre Dame is one of the most widely recognised symbols of the city of Paris and the French nation. As the cathedral of the Archdiocese of Paris, Notre-Dame contains the cathedra of the Archbishop of Paris. Approximately 12 million people visit Notre-Dame annually, making it the most visited monument in the city. While undergoing renovation and restoration, the roof of Notre-Dame caught fire on the evening of 15 April 2019. Burning for around 15 hours, the cathedral sustained serious damage. The government of France hopes the reconstruction can be completed by Spring 2024, in time for the opening of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. Unlike the actual cathedral, this artwork is in good condition, is newly framed and glazed and signed by the artist in the lower right hand corner. Upon request a video may be provided.
About the Artist: After the devastation of the First World War, Lucien Génin (1894 - 1953) left his provincial home in the autumn of 1919 to find his fortune among the lively Parisians in the heart of Montmartre. Génin befriended the painters Frank Will, Gen Paul, Émile Boyer, Marcel Leprin...
Category
1930s Expressionist William Zorach Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Gouache
1920's French Charcoal Sketch of Seated Nude Lady The Artists Model
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
"The Artists Model"
French School, circa 1920's
charcoal drawing on paper, unframed
paper: 24.5 x 17.5 inches
Condition report:
The painting is in good and sound condition
Category
Early 20th Century Impressionist William Zorach Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Charcoal
"Flat Lands" Original Landscape Mixed Media on Paper by Tom Perkinson, Framed
By Tom Perkinson
Located in Encino, CA
"Flat Lands" is an original mixed media on paper by Tom Perkinson. His use of saturated violets, vivid yellows, and resplendent oranges pushes color to almost-otherworldly realms. Th...
Category
1970s Realist William Zorach Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Pastel, Color Pencil, Watercolor, Mixed Media, Ink
H 26.625 in W 38.375 in D 2.5 in
"Zoltan" - 1990 Male Nude Study
By Arnold A. Grossman
Located in Soquel, CA
"Zoltan" - 1990 Male Nude Study
Watercolor painting depicting a nude male figure. The brunette male figure is posing, seated on a purple cloth, his left hand gripping a table net to him, while he leans on his right elbow, his face looking straight ahead. The background is made up of hues of green.
Signed "AG" lower left.
Signed, titled and dated on verso.
"Arnold Grossman, 'Zoltan' November 1990"
Presented in a white mat.
Image with mat: 19"H x 22"W
Image: 10.5"H x 14.5"W
Sheet: 12"H x 16"W
Arnold A...
Category
1990s American Impressionist William Zorach Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Watercolor
Original-Drawing Time Series-Gladiolus-PleinAir-Brit Awarded Artist-Ink on paper
Located in London, GB
The Summer Bloom Series is an ongoing project that Shizico Yi returns to each summer, painting en plein air in her garden. She began gardening in 2015 to create a healing space for h...
Category
2010s Abstract Expressionist William Zorach Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Charcoal, Ink, Graphite, Gouache
H 15.04 in W 10.99 in D 0.04 in
"Train Station, " Max Kuehne, Industrial City Scene, American Impressionism
By Max Kuehne
Located in New York, NY
Max Kuehne (1880 - 1968)
Train Station, circa 1910
Watercolor on paper
8 1/4 x 10 1/4 inches
Signed lower right
Provenance:
Private Collection, Illinois
Max Kuehne was born in Halle, Germany on November 7, 1880. During his adolescence the family immigrated to America and settled in Flushing, New York. As a young man, Max was active in rowing events, bicycle racing, swimming and sailing. After experimenting with various occupations, Kuehne decided to study art, which led him to William Merritt Chase's famous school in New York; he was trained by Chase himself, then by Kenneth Hayes Miller. Chase was at the peak of his career, and his portraits were especially in demand. Kuehne would have profited from Chase's invaluable lessons in technique, as well as his inspirational personality. Miller, only four years older than Kuehne, was another of the many artists to benefit from Chase's teachings. Even though Miller still would have been under the spell of Chase upon Kuehne's arrival, he was already experimenting with an aestheticism that went beyond Chase's realism and virtuosity of the brush. Later Miller developed a style dependent upon volumetric figures that recall Italian Renaissance prototypes.
Kuehne moved from Miller to Robert Henri in 1909. Rockwell Kent, who also studied under Chase, Miller, and Henri, expressed what he felt were their respective contributions: "As Chase had taught us to use our eyes, and Henri to enlist our hearts, Miller called on us to use our heads." (Rockwell Kent, It's Me O Lord: The Autobiography of Rockwell Kent. New York: Dodd, Mead and Co., 1955, p. 83). Henri prompted Kuehne to search out the unvarnished realities of urban living; a notable portion of Henri's stylistic formula was incorporated into his work.
Having received such a thorough foundation in art, Kuehne spent a year in Europe's major art museums to study techniques of the old masters. His son Richard named Ernest Lawson as one of Max Kuehne's European traveling companions. In 1911 Kuehne moved to New York where he maintained a studio and painted everyday scenes around him, using the rather Manet-like, dark palette of Henri.
A trip to Gloucester during the following summer engendered a brighter palette. In the words of Gallatin (1924, p. 60), during that summer Kuehne "executed some of his most successful pictures, paintings full of sunlight . . . revealing the fact that he was becoming a colorist of considerable distinction." Kuehne was away in England the year of the Armory Show (1913), where he worked on powerful, painterly seascapes on the rocky shores of Cornwall. Possibly inspired by Henri - who had discovered Madrid in 1900 then took classes there in 1906, 1908 and 1912 - Kuehne visited Spain in 1914; in all, he would spend three years there, maintaining a studio in Granada. He developed his own impressionism and a greater simplicity while in Spain, under the influence of the brilliant Mediterranean light. George Bellows convinced Kuehne to spend the summer of 1919 in Rockport, Maine (near Camden). The influence of Bellows was more than casual; he would have intensified Kuehne's commitment to paint life "in the raw" around him.
After another brief trip to Spain in 1920, Kuehne went to the other Rockport (Cape Ann, Massachusetts) where he was accepted as a member of the vigorous art colony, spearheaded by Aldro T. Hibbard. Rockport's picturesque ambiance fulfilled the needs of an artist-sailor: as a writer in the Gloucester Daily Times explained, "Max Kuehne came to Rockport to paint, but he stayed to sail." The 1920s was a boom decade for Cape Ann, as it was for the rest of the nation. Kuehne's studio in Rockport was formerly occupied by Jonas Lie.
Kuehne spent the summer of 1923 in Paris, where in July, André Breton started a brawl as the curtain went up on a play by his rival Tristan Tzara; the event signified the demise of the Dada movement. Kuehne could not relate to this avant-garde art but was apparently influenced by more traditional painters — the Fauves, Nabis, and painters such as Bonnard. Gallatin perceived a looser handling and more brilliant color in the pictures Kuehne brought back to the States in the fall. In 1926, Kuehne won the First Honorable Mention at the Carnegie Institute, and he re-exhibited there, for example, in 1937 (Before the Wind). Besides painting, Kuehne did sculpture, decorative screens, and furniture work with carved and gilded molding. In addition, he designed and carved his own frames, and John Taylor Adams encouraged Kuehne to execute etchings. Through his talents in all these media he was able to survive the Depression, and during the 1940s and 1950s these activities almost eclipsed his easel painting. In later years, Kuehne's landscapes and still-lifes show the influence of Cézanne and Bonnard, and his style changed radically.
Max Kuehne died in 1968. He exhibited his work at the National Academy of Design, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh, the Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, and in various New York City galleries. Kuehne's works are in the following public collections: the Detroit Institute of Arts (Marine Headland), the Whitney Museum (Diamond Hill...
Category
1910s American Impressionist William Zorach Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Watercolor
Angelo
By Arnold A. Grossman
Located in San Francisco, CA
Artist: Arnold Grossman (American, 1923-2016)
Title: Angelo
Year: c.1980
Medium: Watercolor
Paper: Watercolor paper
Size image: 22.5 x 15.5 inches...
Category
Late 20th Century American Impressionist William Zorach Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Watercolor
"Reflections in the Pond" Large Mixed Media on Board by Tom Perkinson, Framed
By Tom Perkinson
Located in Encino, CA
"Reflections in the Pond" is an original mixed media on board by Tom Perkinson. His use of saturated violets, vivid yellows, and resplendent oranges pushes color to almost-otherworld...
Category
1970s Realist William Zorach Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Pastel, Ink, Mixed Media, Watercolor, Color Pencil
H 31.875 in W 43.5 in D 2.875 in
"Gondolas at the Dock, Venice, Italy" Louis Wolchonok, Boats in the Harbor Scene
By Louis Wolchonok
Located in New York, NY
Louis Wolchonok (1898 - 1973)
Gondolas at the Dock, Venice, Italy, 1928
Watercolor on paper
Sight 18 x 23 1/2 inches
Signed and dated lower right
Louis Wolchonok was an author of ar...
Category
1920s Post-Impressionist William Zorach Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Watercolor
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, ...
Category
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 ...
Category
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...
Category
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.