Austin Galleries Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Lionel S. Reiss (1894 - 1988) Lobstermen in Gloucester, Massachusetts, circa 1943 Watercolor on paper Sight 17 1/2 x 23 inches Signed lower left Provenance: Private Collection, Las Vegas, Nevada In describing his own style, Lionel Reiss wrote, “By nature, inclination, and training, I have long since recognized the fact that...I belong to the category of those who can only gladly affirm the reality of the world I live in.” Reiss’s subject matter was wide-ranging, including gritty New York scenes, landscapes of bucolic Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and seascapes around Gloucester, Massachusetts. However, it was as a painter of Jewish life—both in Israel and in Europe before World War II—that Reiss excelled. I.B. Singer, the Nobel Prize winner for Literature, noted that Reiss was “essentially an artist of the nineteenth century, and because of this he had the power and the courage to tell visually the story of a people.” Although Reiss was born in Jaroslaw, Poland, his family immigrated to the United States in 1898 when he was four years old. Reiss's family settled on New York City’s Lower East Side and he lived in the city for most of his life. Reiss attended the Art Students League and then worked as a commercial artist for newspapers and publishers. As art director for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, he supposedly created the studio’s famous lion logo. After World War I, Reiss became fascinated with Jewish life in the ‘Old World.’ In 1921 he left his advertising work and spent the next ten years traveling in Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. Like noted Jewish photographers Alter Kacyzne and Roman Vishniac, Reiss depicted Jewish life in Poland prior to World War II. He later wrote, “My trip encompassed three main objectives: to make ethnic studies of Jewish types wherever I traveled; to paint and draw Jewish life, as I saw it and felt it, in all aspects; and to round out my work in Israel.” In Europe, Reiss recorded quotidian scenes in a variety of media and different settings such as Paris, Amsterdam, the Venice ghetto, the Jewish cemetery in Prague, and an array of shops, synagogues, streets, and marketplaces in the Jewish quarters of Warsaw, Lodz, Krakow, Lublin, Vilna, Ternopil, and Kovno. He paid great attention to details of dress, hair, and facial features, and his work became noted for its descriptive quality. A selection of Reiss’s portraits appeared in 1938 in his book My Models Were Jews. In this book, published on the eve of the Holocaust, Reiss argued that there was “no such thing as a ‘Jewish race’.” Instead, he claimed that the Jewish people were a cultural group with a great deal of diversity within and between Jewish communities around the world. Franz Boas...

"Men in Barracks" WPA Mid 20th Century American Scene Realism Gay Modernism WWII. 18 x 24 inches Watercolor on paper. c. 1940s. Signed lower right. BIO ...

'Providenza' Italian School, 18th century ink and wash drawing on paper, framed within a light oak wood frame (behind glass) image size: 10.5 x 7 inches overall framed: 17 x 13 inche...

Beautifully executed original watercolor by French artist Fernand Guignier of a street scene in Montmartre, Paris. Signed lower right and dated 1949. Titled lower left, “Montmartre”. Fernand Guignier was a student of the sculptors Emil Derré and Jean-Antoine Injalbert at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris . Between 1926 and 1960 he took part in the Salon des Artistes Français in the Palais de Tokyo. The watercolor is housed in its original off white wood frame. Under glass. Condition is very good. Overall framed measurements are 18.25 by 16.5 inches. Provenance: A Sarasota, Florida collector. Fernand Guignier Born: 1902 Died: 1972 Known for: Paris street scene watercolor...

'Africa' Italian School, 18th century ink and wash drawing on paper, framed within a light oak wood frame (behind glass) image size: 10.5 x 7 inches overall framed: 17 x 13 inches co...

'Napoli' Italian School, 18th century ink and wash drawing on paper, framed within a light oak wood frame (behind glass) image size: 10.5 x 7 inches overall framed: 17 x 13 inches co...

Academic life drawing of two nude males with charcoal and graphite by Mark Beard, "MB 827" graphite, Conte crayon and charcoal on Arches paper 29.75 x 21.75 inches unframed Signed, l...

Figurative drawing of two male nudes made with graphite, conte crayon and charcoal on Arches paper 30 x 18.5 inches, unframed This unique life study drawing of two standing male n...

Figurative drawing of male nudes made with graphite, charcoal, and conte crayon on Arches paper 30 x 22 inches, unframed One piece of 30 x 22 inch Arches. Two drawings, one on either...

'Mgnaminia' Italian School, 18th century ink and wash drawing on paper, framed within a light oak wood frame (behind glass) image size: 10.5 x 7 inches overall framed: 17 x 13 inches...

Figurative drawing made with graphite, conte crayon and charcoal on Arches paper 21.5 x 28 inches, unframed This unique life study drawing of two seated male nude models was made ...

MB 702 (Contemporary Life Drawing of Male Nude by Mark Beard) graphite, Conte crayon and charcoal on Arches paper 30 x 19 inches unframed Con...