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Big Beautiful Doll, P 51 Mustang
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled "Big Beautiful Doll, P 51 Mustang" is a color offset lithograph by noted American artist Robert Summers, b.1940. It is hand signed, inc...
Category
Late 20th Century American Realist Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
A Festive Occasion
By Alan Maley
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled "Festive Occasion" 1989 is a color offset lithograph by noted British artist Alan Maley, 1931-1995. It is hand signed, titled and numbered 21/750 in pencil by the...
Category
Late 20th Century Impressionist Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Alexandria
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled "Alexandria" 1991 is an original color serigraph by noted American artist Susan Rios, b.1950. It is hand signed and numbered H.C 50/70 in pencil by the artist. With the blind stamp of the publisher Martin Lawrence Editions, Printed by American Serigraph, Los Angeles, CA. The image size is 27 x 22 inches, sheet size is 34 x 27.85 inches. It is in excellent condition.
About the artist:
Susan Rios was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, and spent her early years nurturing her natural artistic talent, eventually earning an art scholarship to California State University, Northridge in Los Angeles. Upon graduating, Rios began working for an advertising agency and later became a floral designer. This influence can be seen in her unique artwork, which does not ring true of any particular artistic style; instead, Rios blends realism and impressionism to her own personal techniques, creating something novel that appeals to all kinds of people. “No heart is so hard that it doesn’t respond to flowers,” Rios explained. Her warmth and gentle also touch countless people because her creations depict “the private times. They’re the details that people remember. Her beautiful, delicate creations are collected worldwide and her fans include Walter Matthau, Patty Duke Astin, and Priscilla Presley...
Category
Late 20th Century American Impressionist Figurative Prints
Materials
Screen
American Indian Navajo
By Ozz Franca
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork "American Indian, Navajo" is a offset lithograph on paper by noted Brazilan artist Ozz Franca, 1928-1991. The image size is 21 x 14.75 inches, framed size is 31.25 x 27 inches. Custom framed in a wooden brown/grey frame, with lith purple matting. It is in excellent condition.
About the artist:
Born October 2, 1928, França (pronounced FRON-suh) grew up in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and from an early age showed talent as an artist, as well as exceptional prowess as a competitive swimmer. At 14 he won first prize at the annual Spring Salon Art Competition. At 15, he qualified for the Brazilian Olympic Swimming Team. With two amazing talents, França was unsure what he should do with his life. Fate stepped in, and the Olympic Games were canceled the year França was to compete due to the outbreak of World War II. At that point, he decided to devote his life to art.
He held his first one-man show at the age of 18. Following what he would later say was the best advice anyone ever gave him, França came to the U.S, to accept a scholarship in Utah. A year later, he moved to Hollywood and began doing movie illustration for Walt Disney. His projects included Lady and the Tramp and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. He moonlighted as a swimmer when movie parts were available.
França painted many subjects, but he is best known for his esoteric images of Native American women. França's art enters the world of fantasy and dreams, where the spiritual meets the sensual. His works, with their floating imagery and airy, muted colors, evoke an aura of mystery. França said he always painted his subjects, which primarily were women, either in profile, looking toward the edge of the painting, or looking over her shoulder, "so that anyone could walk into it."
Joan Lee, print marketing professional, said that Ozz saw the spirituality and quiet dignity of Native American men and women. "there's a romance surrounding Native Americans that people appreciate seeing," said Lee.
Ozz França died in 1991.
Ozz Franca’s work is held in the collections of numerous celebrity, including:
Jacqueline Onassis
Lyndon B. Johnson
Patty Duke
Jerry Lewis
Kim Novak
Burt Lancaster
Gig Young
Tom Bradley
Sammy Davis, Jr.
Ronald Reagan
Red Skelton...
Category
Late 20th Century Realist Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Winter Landscape
By Hans Figura
Located in San Francisco, CA
Artist: Hans Figura (Austrian, 1898-1978)
Title: Winter Landscape
Year: Circa 1950
Medium: Color etching with aquatint on silk
Edition: Unknown
Plate mark (Image) size: 17.25 x 13.75 inches
Framed size: 23 x 19.5 inches
Signature: Hand signed in pencil by the artist
Condition: very good
Frame: Custom framed in a silver and gold frame
About the artist.
Hans Figura (Austrian, 1898-1978) was a noted painter and etcher, who was well known for his aquatint etchings on paper or satin of European and American landscape and cityscape scenes, as well as paintings of landscape and cityscape scenes, Tyrolean Alp scenes of villages and chalets, street scenes, harbor and marine scenes.
Hans Figura was born January 22, 1898, in the small town of Nagy-Kikinda near the Austro-Hungarian border, to Austrian parents. His father was a railway official and he spent his childhood in various small villages along the railway line between Vienna and Hungary. He graduated from the highschool in Vienna and also studied at the Higher Graphical Federal Education and Research Institute, a vocational school there (Höhere Graphische Bundes-Lehr und Versuchsanstalt)
As a young man, he served as an officer in the Austrian Army during WWI from 1916-18 on the Russian and Italian fronts. After the war he attended medical school at the University of Vienna for several years beginning in 1918, and seven semesters later, he passed his first state exam, but eventually decided that he preferred the arts to medicine. He also studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna (Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien) and by 1922 he had devoted himself to painting and etching, while also working in other artistic printing mediums, batik, illustration, bookbinding and working with leather.
From 1923-28, Figura made numerous art study trips throughout Europe including; Germany, Italy, France, Belgium, Holland, England, Czechoslovakia and Hungary. His first major success came in 1924, when he won acclaim for his etchings exhibited in Italy and the United States. In 1929, he visited the United States and in 1930, he traveled back to France, Holland and also Switzerland. During this time, Figura maintained studios in both New York City and Vienna, Austria. Throughout the course of his career, he exhibited his paintings and prints in many of the large cities throughout Europe and the United States and many of his etchings and paintings were acquired by museums and galleries, including The Kulturamt, Vienna, Austria; the Landesmuseum of Lower Austria; as well as The Society of Art Lovers, Berlin and Munich.
Select Exhibitions:
1924- Exhibitions in Italy and the United States.
Circa Mid 1920's-1939- All the exhibitions at the Kunstlerhaus, Vienna, Austria.
1926- "Secession...
Category
Mid-20th Century Realist Landscape Prints
Materials
Etching
Loin du Front
By Jean Louis Forain
Located in San Francisco, CA
Artist: Jean-Louis Forain (French, 1852-1931)
Title: Loin du Front
Year: 1918
Medium: Lithograph
Edition: Numbered 85/300 in pencil
Paper: Wove
Sheet size: 15 x 22.25 inche...
Category
Early 20th Century Impressionist Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Les Pessimistes
By Jean Louis Forain
Located in San Francisco, CA
Artist: Jean-Louis Forain (French, 1852-1931)
Title: Les Pessimistes
Year: 1918
Medium: Lithograph
Edition: Numbered 85/300 in pencil
Paper: Wove
Sheet size: 15 x 22.25 inc...
Category
Early 20th Century Impressionist Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Ride Em Vaquero
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled "Ride Em Vaquero" c.1980 is an original color lithograph on wove paper by American artist Vic Herman, 1919-1999. It is hand signed and numbered 73/300 in pencil by the artist. The image size is 8.5 x 22 inches, sheet size is 21.5 x 28 inches. It is in excellent condition, has never been framed.
About the artist:
Vic Herman was born in Fall River, Massachusetts. When Herman was one-year-old his father, who played in the famous Paul Whiteman band, moved the family to Los Angeles where they settled in the Mexican district of the city where young Vic grew up. He attended classes, through junior high school, in all Mexican-American schools, learned to speak Spanish, and grew to love his Mexican-American neighbors and their culture. Says Herman, "If the many peoples of Mexico, when seeing my exhibitions, accept my paintings as authentic in telling the story of their daily lives, and if the peoples of the United States understand the dignity, culture and arts of the Mexican peoples, They refer to him affectionately as "Papa Victorio. Having chosen his subject, Herman next proceeds to capture his or her likeness with a careful pencil drawing-with or without the subject's knowledge. brought home in this manner. A remarkable feature of Herman's method is his interpretation of mixed media. For Herman this means combining any number of different media such as oil, watercolor, casein, acrylic, tempera, pencil, pastel or India ink; once he used as many as eight. In 1969, during the bicentennial celebration of the founding of San Diego, Herman was awarded a Medallion of Honor for his part in furthering good relations between Mexico and the United States. Recently, he has been proposed as a candidate for the Order of the Aztec Eagle, the highest honor Mexico can grant to a foreigner for promoting better cultural relations between Mexico and his country, Mexico SELECTED ONE-MAN EXHIBITIONS California Museum of Science and Industry, Los Angeles Lincoln Center Gallery of Fine Arts, New York United States Embassy Gallery, Mexico City Westchester County Art Center, New York David E. Field Gallery, New York Palace of Fine Arts, Mexico City Galeria of Contemporary Arts, Beverly Hills Spanish Monastery Gallery, Miami World's Fair Spanish Pavilion Gallery, St. Louis Chicago Press Club Gallery, 1973 & 1976 Civic Center Gallery, San Diego Mexican Consulate General Gallery, Phoenix Gimbels Department Store Gallery James Aldrich Gallery, Houston, Texas Thackery Gallery, San Diego Foreign Correspondent Gallery, Mexico City 1965 & 1967 La Jolla Art Association Gallery, La Jolla, California Municipal Gallery, Veracruz, Mexico Lawrence W. Hellman Gallery, Indianapolis, Indiana Galeria Misrachi, Mexico City San Diego Art Institute Gallery, San Diego Galeria Instituto de ARtes, Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico Bullocks Department Store Gallery, Sherman Oaks, California Municipal Gallery, Monterrey, Mexico Municipal Gallery, Zacatecas, Mexico Famous Baar Gallery, St. Louis United States Consulate General Gallery, Tijuana, Mexico May Company Department Store Galleries Art Students League, New York California Expo. Gallery, Del Mar, California Galeria Instituto Morelia, Michoacan, Mexico United States Information Service Gallery, Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico University of Sonora Gallery, Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico Mexican Consul General Gallery, Boston Mexican Consul General Gallery, Los Angeles Mexican Consul General Gallery, New York Theodore Greene Gallery, New Rochelle, New York Miami City Convention Center Gallery, Miami, Florida Cheremoya Arts Council Gallery, Hollywood, California Arizona State University Gallery, Tempe, Arizona Balboa Fine Arts Gallery, San Diego, California SELECTED IMPORTANT COLLECTIONS 'The Vic Herman Collection' '-Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial Library, Hyde Park, New York General & Mrs. Omar Bradley-Beverly Hills, California The Estate of the late Rube Goldberg-New York City Senator & Mrs. George Murphy-Beverly Hills, California Mr. & Mrs. Fred Waring-Shawnee-on-Delaware, Pennsylvania Dr. & Mrs. Eugenio V. Pesqueira (Mexican Consul General-NYC) The Estate of the late Mayor of New York, Fiorello LaGuardia...
Category
Late 20th Century American Realist Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Summer Queen
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled "Summer Queen" c.1980 is an original color lithograph on wove paper by American artist Robert Raymond Anderson, 1945-2010. ...
Category
Late 20th Century American Modern Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Vanity
By Louis Russomanno
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled "Vanity" 1980 is an original sepia etching by American artist Louis Russomanno, b.1946. It is hand signed, titled and numbered 113/185 in pencil by the artist. Th...
Category
Late 20th Century American Realist Nude Prints
Materials
Etching
A Letter from Picasso
By George Deem
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled "A Letter from Picasso" 1974 is a color lithograph on Wove paper by noted American artist George Charles Deem, 1932-2008. It is hand signed and numbered 157/300 i...
Category
Late 20th Century American Realist Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Nature Morte aux Lapins (Still Life with Rabbits)
By Maurice Mourlot
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled "Nature Morte aux Lapins" (Still Life with Rabbits) c. 1950 is an original color lithograph on Arches paper by noted French ...
Category
Mid-20th Century Impressionist Animal Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Verdes, Loir et Cher, France
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled "Verdes, Loire et Cher, France" is an original lithograph by American artist Teall (La Verne Teall) Messer, 1897-1977. It is hand signed, titled, dated and numbered 36/40 in pencil by the artist. The image size is 10.65 x 13.65 inches, the sheet size is 14 x 21.5 inches. It is in excellent condition, especially considering the age of this piece.
About the artist:
Born in Dixon Illinois in 1897, Teall Messer dropped the name Lavern as soon as he came "of age". He went to New York to be an artist and intellectual. He hung out with the playwrights of the time and ended up with an award from the Rockefellers to go to Paris and study painting. This was in the 1920's. He stayed for several years in Paris being the stereotypical American painter there. He had contact with at least some of the famous painters and shared a studio with Alexander Calder. One story was that he and Alexander were dating two French sisters. The girls' mother told them to drop the Americans as they would never make much money. That was true for Teall, not so for Calder. He also knew Brancusi well enough to have a signed sketch dedicated "á Teall Messer avec amour". He knew Gertrude Stein well enough to heartily dislike her, considering her a phony.
In France Teall married a member of the Byrd...
Category
Early 20th Century American Impressionist Landscape Prints
Materials
Lithograph
A Kodak Moment
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled "A Kodak Moment" 1992 is an offset lithograph by renown Western artist Gary Carter, born 1938. It is hand signed and numbered 816/850 i...
Category
Late 20th Century American Realist Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Scott's Antiques
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled "Scotts Antiques" c. 1985 is an original sepia etching by American artist Scott Fitzgerald. It is hand signed, titled and numbered...
Category
Late 20th Century American Realist Figurative Prints
Materials
Etching
l'Entree du Port, Netherland
By Heran Chaban
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork "l'Entree du Port, Netherland" c. 1930 is an original color aquatint on wove paper by French/Armenian artist Heran Chaban, 1887-1939. It is h...
Category
Mid-20th Century Impressionist Landscape Prints
Materials
Aquatint
Montee de Seve, from the suite Pleni Luna.
By Wifredo Lam
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled "Montee de Seve, from the suite, Pleni Luna" 1974, is an original color lithograph on watermarked Arches paper by Cuban artist Wilfredo La...
Category
1970s Modern Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
America! America!
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled "America! America" is a color lithograph after noted American artist James Fetherolf, 1925-1994. It is hand signed at the lower rig...
Category
Late 20th Century American Realist Landscape Prints
Materials
Lithograph
The Purple Mountain’s Majestic
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled " The Purple Mountain's Majestic" 1973 is a color lithograph after artist Hall Drake Diteman, 1925-2009. It is hand signed at the l...
Category
Late 20th Century American Realist Landscape Prints
Materials
Lithograph
George Inn, Salisbury
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled "George Inn, Salisbury" is a chromolithograph by noted British artist Cecil Charles Windsor Aldin, 1870-1935. It is hand signed at the lower left corner by the artist. With the blindstamp of the Fine Art Trade Gulid, published and printed by Eyre and Spottiswoode ltd, London. The image size is 15 x 13 inches, sheet size is 17.5 x 14.25 inches. it is in excellent condition.
About the artist:
Cecil Charles Windsor Aldin RBA (28 April 1870 - 6 January 1935) was a British artist and illustrator best known for his paintings and sketches of animals, sports, and rural life.
Born in Slough, he was educated at Eastbourne College and Solihull Grammar School. He studied anatomy at South Kensington and animal painting under William Frank Calderon. He lived at The Abbots, Sulhamstead Abbots from 1913 to 1914 and was church warden of St Mary's church.
Early influences included Randolph Caldecott and John Leech. His drawings first made their way into print in The Building News of 12 September 1890, and began to appear throughout many popular journals and magazines; his work was published in The Graphic in 1891.
His illustrations include two of the original 1894 magazine publications of stories from Rudyard Kipling's The Second Jungle Book, the 1910 edition of Charles Dickens' The Pickwick Papers and The Bunch Book (1932, about Bunch, a Sealyham Terrier) by James Douglas. He also published a short series of fully illustrated books in 1923, Old Manor Houses and Old Inns.
His village scenes and rural buildings were executed in chalk, pencil and wash sketching was used for country scenes. Aldin was an enthusiastic sportsman and a Master of Fox Hounds and many of his pictures illustrated hunting.
An early work on a tiger in a zoo was studied from life, but found to be a copyright of the ideas in a photograph by Gambier Bolton.
A popular book by Aldin was Sleeping Partners, a sequence of pastel drawings of his dogs on a couch. It included his Irish Wolfhound Micky and his favorite model, Cracker, a Bull Terrier with a dark patch over one eye.
He also did some work for Cadburys advertising.
Born 28 April 1870. He was educated at Eastbourne College then Solihull Grammar School. Cecil Aldin's father was a keen amateur artist so Cecil started drawing at a very young age. He studied art at the studio of Albert Moore and then the National Art Training School which later became The Royal College of Art. After this he spent a summer with the fine animal painter and teacher, Frank Calderon.
In 1892 he bombarded the illustrated periodicals with his illustrations and thereby started a long association with The Illustrated London News. He was commissioned by The Pall Mall Budget in 1894 to illustrate "The Jungle Book" by Rudyard Kipling. At the invitation of the fine genre painter, Walter Dendy Sadler...
Category
Mid-20th Century Realist Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Spread Eagle Inn, Midhurst
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled "Spread Eagle Inn, Midhurst" is a chromolithograph by noted British artist Cecil Charles Windsor Aldin, 1870-1935. It is hand signed a...
Category
Mid-20th Century Realist Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
New Inn, Gloucester
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled "New Inn, Gloucester" is a chromolithograph by noted British artist Cecil Charles Windsor Aldin, 1870-1935. It is hand signed at the lower left corner by the artist. With the blindstamp of the Fine Art Trade Gulid, published and printed by Eyre and Spottiswoode ltd, London. The image size is 15 x 13 inches, sheet size is 17.5 x 14.25 inches. it is in excellent condition.
About the artist:
Cecil Charles Windsor Aldin RBA (28 April 1870 - 6 January 1935) was a British artist and illustrator best known for his paintings and sketches of animals, sports, and rural life.
Born in Slough, he was educated at Eastbourne College and Solihull Grammar School. He studied anatomy at South Kensington and animal painting under William Frank Calderon. He lived at The Abbots, Sulhamstead Abbots from 1913 to 1914 and was church warden of St Mary's church.
Early influences included Randolph Caldecott and John Leech. His drawings first made their way into print in The Building News of 12 September 1890, and began to appear throughout many popular journals and magazines; his work was published in The Graphic in 1891.
His illustrations include two of the original 1894 magazine publications of stories from Rudyard Kipling's The Second Jungle Book, the 1910 edition of Charles Dickens' The Pickwick Papers and The Bunch Book (1932, about Bunch, a Sealyham Terrier) by James Douglas...
Category
Mid-20th Century Realist Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
George Inn, Norton St. Philip
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled "George Inn, Norton St. Philipr" is a chromolithograph by noted British artist Cecil Charles Windsor Aldin, 1870-1935. It is hand signed at the lower left corner by the artist. With the blindstamp of the Fine Art Trade Gulid, published and printed by Eyre and Spottiswoode ltd, London. The image size is 12.75 x 15 inches, sheet size is 15 x 16.25 inches. it is in excellent condition.
About the artist:
Cecil Charles Windsor Aldin RBA (28 April 1870 - 6 January 1935) was a British artist and illustrator best known for his paintings and sketches of animals, sports, and rural life.
Born in Slough, he was educated at Eastbourne College and Solihull Grammar School. He studied anatomy at South Kensington and animal painting under William Frank Calderon. He lived at The Abbots, Sulhamstead Abbots from 1913 to 1914 and was church warden of St Mary's church.
Early influences included Randolph Caldecott and John Leech. His drawings first made their way into print in The Building News of 12 September 1890, and began to appear throughout many popular journals and magazines; his work was published in The Graphic in 1891.
His illustrations include two of the original 1894 magazine publications of stories from Rudyard Kipling's The Second Jungle Book, the 1910 edition of Charles Dickens' The Pickwick Papers and The Bunch Book (1932, about Bunch, a Sealyham Terrier) by James Douglas...
Category
Mid-20th Century Realist Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
George Inn, Dorchester
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled "George Inn, Dorchester" is a chromolithograph by noted British artist Cecil Charles Windsor Aldin, 1870-1935. It is hand signed at the lower left corner by the artist. With the blindstamp of the Fine Art Trade Gulid, published and printed by Eyre and Spottiswoode ltd, London. The image size is 12.75 x 15.25 inches, sheet size is 15 x 16.25 inches. it is in excellent condition.
About the artist:
Cecil Charles Windsor Aldin RBA (28 April 1870 - 6 January 1935) was a British artist and illustrator best known for his paintings and sketches of animals, sports, and rural life.
Born in Slough, he was educated at Eastbourne College and Solihull Grammar School. He studied anatomy at South Kensington and animal painting under William Frank Calderon. He lived at The Abbots, Sulhamstead Abbots from 1913 to 1914 and was church warden of St Mary's church.
Early influences included Randolph Caldecott and John Leech. His drawings first made their way into print in The Building News of 12 September 1890, and began to appear throughout many popular journals and magazines; his work was published in The Graphic in 1891.
His illustrations include two of the original 1894 magazine publications of stories from Rudyard Kipling's The Second Jungle Book, the 1910 edition of Charles Dickens' The Pickwick Papers and The Bunch Book (1932, about Bunch, a Sealyham Terrier) by James Douglas. He also published a short series of fully illustrated books in 1923, Old Manor Houses and Old Inns.
His village scenes and rural buildings were executed in chalk, pencil and wash sketching was used for country scenes. Aldin was an enthusiastic sportsman and a Master of Fox Hounds and many of his pictures illustrated hunting.
An early work on a tiger in a zoo was studied from life, but found to be a copyright of the ideas in a photograph by Gambier Bolton.
A popular book by Aldin was Sleeping Partners, a sequence of pastel drawings of his dogs on a couch. It included his Irish Wolfhound Micky and his favorite model, Cracker, a Bull Terrier with a dark patch over one eye.
He also did some work for Cadburys advertising.
Born 28 April 1870. He was educated at Eastbourne College then Solihull Grammar School. Cecil Aldin's father was a keen amateur artist so Cecil started drawing at a very young age. He studied art at the studio of Albert Moore and then the National Art Training School which later became The Royal College of Art. After this he spent a summer with the fine animal painter and teacher, Frank Calderon.
In 1892 he bombarded the illustrated periodicals with his illustrations and thereby started a long association with The Illustrated London News. He was commissioned by The Pall Mall Budget in 1894 to illustrate "The Jungle Book" by Rudyard Kipling. At the invitation of the fine genre painter, Walter Dendy...
Category
Mid-20th Century Realist Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Bell Inn, Waltham St Lawrence
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled "Bell Inn, Waltham St Lawrence" is a chromolithograph by noted British artist Cecil Charles Windsor Aldin, 1870-1935. It is hand signed at the lower left corner by the artist. With the blindstamp of the Fine Art Trade Gulid, published and printed by Eyre and Spottiswoode ltd, London. The image size is 15 x 13 inches, sheet size is 17.5 x 14.25 inches. it is in excellent condition.
About the artist:
Cecil Charles Windsor Aldin RBA (28 April 1870 - 6 January 1935) was a British artist and illustrator best known for his paintings and sketches of animals, sports, and rural life.
Born in Slough, he was educated at Eastbourne College and Solihull Grammar School. He studied anatomy at South Kensington and animal painting under William Frank Calderon. He lived at The Abbots, Sulhamstead Abbots from 1913 to 1914 and was church warden of St Mary's church.
Early influences included Randolph Caldecott and John Leech. His drawings first made their way into print in The Building News of 12 September 1890, and began to appear throughout many popular journals and magazines; his work was published in The Graphic in 1891.
His illustrations include two of the original 1894 magazine publications of stories from Rudyard Kipling's The Second Jungle Book, the 1910 edition of Charles Dickens' The Pickwick Papers and The Bunch Book (1932, about Bunch, a Sealyham Terrier) by James Douglas. He also published a short series of fully illustrated books in 1923, Old Manor Houses and Old Inns.
His village scenes and rural buildings were executed in chalk, pencil and wash sketching was used for country scenes. Aldin was an enthusiastic sportsman and a Master of Fox Hounds and many of his pictures illustrated hunting.
An early work on a tiger in a zoo was studied from life, but found to be a copyright of the ideas in a photograph by Gambier Bolton.
A popular book by Aldin was Sleeping Partners, a sequence of pastel drawings of his dogs on a couch. It included his Irish Wolfhound Micky and his favorite model, Cracker, a Bull Terrier with a dark patch over one eye.
He also did some work for Cadburys advertising.
Born 28 April 1870. He was educated at Eastbourne College then Solihull Grammar School. Cecil Aldin's father was a keen amateur artist so Cecil started drawing at a very young age. He studied art at the studio of Albert Moore and then the National Art Training School which later became The Royal College of Art. After this he spent a summer with the fine animal painter and teacher, Frank Calderon.
In 1892 he bombarded the illustrated periodicals with his illustrations and thereby started a long association with The Illustrated London News. He was commissioned by The Pall Mall Budget in 1894 to illustrate "The Jungle Book" by Rudyard Kipling. At the invitation of the fine genre painter, Walter Dendy Sadler...
Category
Mid-20th Century Realist Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
An Old Friend
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled "An Old Friend" c. 1985 is an original sepia etching by American artist Scott Fitzgerald. It is hand signed, titled and numbered 5...
Category
Late 20th Century American Realist Figurative Prints
Materials
Etching
Up in the Attic
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled "Up in the Attic" c. 1985 is an original sepia etching by American artist Scott Fitzgerald. It is hand signed, titled and numbered...
Category
Late 20th Century American Realist Figurative Prints
Materials
Etching
The Corner Drugstore
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled "The Corner Drugstore" c. 1985 is an original sepia etching by American artist Scott Fitzgerald. It is hand signed, titled and num...
Category
Late 20th Century American Realist Figurative Prints
Materials
Etching
The Curiosity Shop
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled "The curiosity Shop" c. 1985 is an original sepia etching by American artist Scott Fitzgerald. It is hand signed, titled and numbe...
Category
Late 20th Century American Realist Figurative Prints
Materials
Etching
Ashpahdua Habay Ashae-Gyoke
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled " Ashpahdua Habay Ashae-Gyoke" 1991 is a color offset lithograph on Artcote paper by Crow Indian artist Penni Anne Cross A.K.A. (A...
Category
Late 20th Century Realist Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
The Sporting Good Store
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled "The Sporting Good Store" c. 1985 is an original sepia etching by American artist Scott Fitzgerald. It is hand signed, titled and ...
Category
Late 20th Century American Realist Figurative Prints
Materials
Etching
Fireside Christmas
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled "Fireside Christmas" c. 1985 is an original color etching by American artist Scott Fitzgerald. It is hand signed, titled and numbered 158/250 in pencil by the artist. Published and printed by the artist. The image (plate mark) size is 11.5 x 17.65 inches, sheet size is 19.25 x 25.25 inches. it is in excellent condition, has never been framed.
About the artist:
Scott Fitzgerald received his Master’s Degree in Arts from California State University Fullerton, and went on to teach drawing and printmaking for 2 years at the university.
During his college years, he focused his study in contemporary art and photography, creating mixed media works often with social comments. It was not until the sophomore year, he discovered the traditional art of etching in his printmaking class. Immediately, he embraced the complex and difficult technical process of making prints from etching on copper plates.
Scott Fitzgerald established himself as a prominent printmaker in the next few years. With a strong interest in history, he accepted a commission to produce a series of etching depicting 15 Orange County historical landmarks. Besides producing very intricate prints in various sizes, he has engaged in many special projects. He worked with renowned English printer John Randle to produce a group of etchings...
Category
Late 20th Century American Realist Figurative Prints
Materials
Etching
Dreamland Toys
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled "Dreamland Touys" c. 1985 is an original sepia etching by American artist Scott Fitzgerald. It is hand signed, titled and numbered...
Category
Late 20th Century American Realist Figurative Prints
Materials
Etching
Trumpeteers
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled "Trumpeteers" 1976 is an original wood engraving by Russian/American artist Leon Gilmour, 1907-1996. It is hand signed, titled, dated ...
Category
Late 20th Century American Realist Figurative Prints
Materials
Woodcut
Waiting Game
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled "Waiting Game" 1991 is a color offset lithograph by noted African/American artist Yvonne Cole Meo, 1923-2016. It is hand signed, da...
Category
Late 20th Century American Impressionist Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Happy Sisters
By Ming Wai
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork Titled "Happy Sisters" 1977 in a color off set lithograph by renown Chinese/American artist Wai Ming A.K.A Lo Hing Kwok, b.1938. It is hand signed and inscribed A.P (Artist Proof) in pencil by the artist. The image size is 29 x 19 inches, sheet size is 36 x 25 inches. It is in excellent condition, the colors are fresh and bright, it has never been framed.
About the artist:
Wai Ming, was born in Canton, South China on November 11, 1938, the son of a school master with nine children. Extremely poor as a child, he was raised in Hong Kong enduring many hardships amidst a chaotic environment of war and refugee settlements. Wai Ming's love for art flourished and he developed his drawing techniques without any art education, just painting what he saw. In the 1960s, Ming found representation in Hong Kong and also took the unusual step of opening his own gallery to display his work in. His primary interest being to capture images of life in fishing villages, or 'fish-folk', who have retained traditional Chinese culture, his work was at home with the sensibilities of many art buyers in Hong Kong. Crossing the ocean in his mid-30s, Wai Ming arrived in San Francisco from Hong Kong in 1974. There, he experienced initial resistance from galleries and the official art world for a variety of reasons, but was ultimately embraced by dealer Jack Swanson...
Category
Late 20th Century Realist Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Kreuzenstein Courtyard, Austria
By Robert Kasimir
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled "Kreuzenstein Courrtyard, Austria" c. 1960 is a color etching on wove paper by noted Austrian artist Robert Kasimir, 1914-2002. It is hand signed in pencil by the artist at the lower center. The image (plate mark) size is 15.75 x 17.35 inches, framed size is 25.25 x 26 inches. Custom framed in a wooden antique silver frame, with decorated matting. It is in excellent condition, the colors are fresh and bright, the frame has minor restorations, practically invisible.
About the artist.
Born in Vienna in 1914, Robert Kasimir began drawing at age 4, taught by his grandfather Alois. He made his first etching at age 5. He graduated from Vienna schools and attended the Technological College before switching to the Academy for Graphic Art, where he studied under Professor Hans Frank, a painter and graphic artist.
Robert inherited the talent of his famous parents. His technique and subject matter are quite similar to those of his father. He signed his early etchings with the pseudonym "F.O. Robert" until he became established as a successful artist in his own right. Only then did he begin signing his etchings with his own name. In 1936 he came to the United States for a year of study at the Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia. During that year he made drawings for his American etchings, including the Capitol in Washington, Yale University, Broad Street, New York, and the University of California in Berkeley. He completed the actual etchings after his return to Vienna.
In 1938 he was drafted into the army. He was sent to several fronts (Belgium, Holland, France, Russia) as a war reporter. He did many drawings during the war. In 1945 he returned to Vienna.
For the next several years industrial commissions comprised most of his work, though he did several of his Viennese and Austrian scenes such as the Vienna Opera House...
Category
Late 20th Century Realist Figurative Prints
Materials
Etching
The Red Capote
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled " The Red Capote" 1986 is a color offset lithograph on Artcote paper by Crow Indian artist Penni Anne Cross A.K.A. (Alawa-Sta-We- ...
Category
Late 20th Century Realist Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Profile of Caroline
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled "Profile of Caroline" 1983 is a color offset lithograph on Rag-Cote paper by Crow Indian artist Penni Anne Cross A.K.A. (Alawa-Sta...
Category
Late 20th Century Realist Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Agnjnauq Amguut; Iniupiaq (Woman with Her Wolves)
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled "Agnjnauq Amguut; Iniupiaq (Woman with Her Wolves)" 1988 is a color offset lithograph on Artcote paper by Crow Indian artist Penni Anne Cross A.K.A. (Alawa-Sta-We...
Category
Late 20th Century Realist Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Dance Apache
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled "Dance Apache" 1988 is a color offset lithograph on Artcote paper by Crow Indian artist Penni Anne Cross A.K.A. (Alawa-Sta-We- Che...
Category
Late 20th Century Realist Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
The Dreamer
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled " The Dreamer" 1989 is a color offset lithograph on Artcote paper by Crow Indian artist Penni Anne Cross A.K.A. (Alawa-Sta-We- Ches) b...
Category
Late 20th Century Realist Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Cheh-Ayeh: Prey
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled " Cheh-Ayeh: Prey" 1989 is a color offset lithograph on Artcote paper by Crow Indian artist Penni Anne Cross A.K.A. (Alawa-Sta-We-...
Category
Late 20th Century Realist Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Biachee-Itdah Bah Achbeb
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled " Biachee-Itdah Bah Achbeb" 1990 is a color offset lithograph on Artcote paper by Crow Indian artist Penni Anne Cross A.K.A. (Alaw...
Category
Late 20th Century Realist Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
B'Achua Dlubh-Bia Bii; Noskiiah:The Gift Part II
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled " B'Achua Dlubh-Bia Bii; Noskiiah:The Gift Part II" 1990 is a color offset lithograph on Artcote paper by Crow Indian artist Penni Anne Cross A.K.A. (Alawa-Sta-We...
Category
Late 20th Century Realist Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Ach-Hua Dlubh: (Body Two) Half Breed
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled " Ach-Hua Dlubh: (Body Two) Half Breed" 1989 is a color offset lithograph on Artcote paper by Crow Indian artist Penni Anne Cross ...
Category
Late 20th Century Realist Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Biagoth Eecuebeh Hehsheesh-Chedah (Red Ridinghood and her Wolves)
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled " Biagoth Eecuebeh Hehsheesh-Chedah (Red Ridinghood and her Wolves)" 1989 is a color offset lithograph on Artcote paper by Crow Indian artist Penni Anne Cross...
Category
Late 20th Century Realist Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
The Quilt Makers
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled " The Quilt Makers" 1988 is a color offset lithograph on paper by Crow Indian artist Penni Anne Cross A.K.A. (Alawa-Sta-We- Ches) ...
Category
Late 20th Century Realist Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Ach-Hua Dlubh: Body II Half-Breed III
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled " Ach-Hua Dlubh: Body II Half-Breed III" 1991 is a color offset lithograph on paper by Crow Indian artist Penni Anne Cross A.K.A. (Alawa-Sta-We- Ches) 1939-2016....
Category
Late 20th Century Realist Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
The Red Capote
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled " The Red Capote" c.1990 is a color serigraph on Wove paper by Crow Indian artist Penni Anne Cross A.K.A. (Alawa-Sta-We- Ches) 1939-2016. It is hand signed, titled, inscribed Epreuve d'Artiste and numbered 17/27 in felt pen. The image size is 28 x 22 inches, sheet size is 36 x 25.5 inches. It is in excellent condition, has never been framed.
About the artist:
Crow Indian artist Penni Anne Cross, (Alawa-sta-we-ches) was born in Washington state in 1939. She first studied with her portrait-painter mother, before beginning more formal studies in 1968.
Her work is commercially oriented, sentimentalizing her paintings of Native Americans...
Category
Late 20th Century Realist Figurative Prints
Materials
Screen
"Master Arthur" from the suite "Cirque de l'Etoile Filante" Original aquatint.
By Georges Rouault
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled "Master Arthur" from the suite "Cirque de l'Etoile Filante" created in 1934, printed in 1938 is an original color aquatint, etching and drypoint by renown French ...
Category
Mid-20th Century Expressionist Figurative Prints
Materials
Aquatint
"Portrait of Phyllis #22" from the suite "41 Etchings and Drypoints"
By Richard Diebenkorn
Located in San Francisco, CA
Richard Diebenkorn (American, April 22, 1922 – March 30, 1993) is associated with abstract expressionism and the Bay Area Figurative Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. This piece title...
Category
Late 20th Century Abstract Expressionist Figurative Prints
Materials
Etching
Untitled, Two Women Sitting
By Isaac Maimon
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork "Untitled, Two Women Sitting" is an original color serigraph on paper by noted Israeli artist Isaac Maimon, b.1955. It hand signed and numbered XXVI/CXXV in pencil by t...
Category
Late 20th Century Modern Figurative Prints
Materials
Screen
Unknown
By Mahmoud Farshchian
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork "Untitled" is a color lithograph by acclaimed Iranian artist Mahmoud Farshchian, born 1930. It is hand signed and numbered 217/250 in p...
Category
Late 20th Century Surrealist Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Untitled II
By Alvar Sunol Munoz-Ramos
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork "Untitled II" is an original color lithograph with embossing by noted Spanish artist Alvar Sunol Munoz Ramos, b.1935. It is hand signed and numbered 101/260 in pencil by...
Category
Late 20th Century Modern Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Hana
By Rudolph Carl Gorman
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled "Hana" 1982 Is an original lithograph by renown Navajo artist Rudolph Carl Gorman, 1932-2005. It is signed, dated and numbered 199/250 in pencil by the artist. With the blind stamp of the artist and printer. The image size is 19.5 x 26 inches, the sheet size is 22 x 30 inches, framed size is 33 x 41 inches. Custom framed in a dark wood frame, with fabric matting. the artwork is in excellent condition, the frame is in very good condition, it has minor restorations, barely visible.
About the artist:
Born in Canyon de Chelly, Arizona and raised in a hogan on the Navajo Reservation, R.C. Gorman became one of the Southwest's best known late 20th-century artists. His signature works were Navajo women in a variety of poses. Many persons have been fascinated by the fact that he, an Indian artist, became famous in the white man's world with some calling him the "Picasso of Indian artists". Of this kind of attention, he said: "I wish people would quit pushing my being Indian. The only time I was interviewed as If I were a normal person was by the Jewish Press in Tucson. It was the first time I felt international and almost white". (Samuels 222)
His parents were Carl Nelson...
Category
Late 20th Century Realist Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Baden Baden, Casino
By LeRoy Neiman
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled "Baden Baden, Casino" 1988 is an original color serigraph by noted American artist LeRoy Neiman, 1921-2012. It is hand signed and numbered 261/375 in pencil by the artist. The image size is 36 x 42 inches, sheet size is 42 x 48 inches. With the blind stamp of the printer Styria Studio at the lower left corner margin. It is in excellent condition, three small pieces of hanging tape remain on the back.
About the artist:
Mr. Neiman's kinetic, quickly executed paintings and drawings, many of them published in Playboy, offered his fans gaudily colored visual reports on heavyweight boxing matches, Super Bowl games and Olympic contests, as well as social panoramas like the horse races at Deauville, France, and the Cannes Film Festival.
Quite consciously, he cast himself in the mold of French Impressionists like Toulouse-Lautrec, Renoir and Degas, chroniclers of public life who found rich social material at racetracks, dance halls and cafes.
Mr. Neiman often painted or sketched on live television. With the camera recording his progress at the sketchpad or easel, he interpreted the drama of Olympic Games and Super Bowls for an audience of millions.
When Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky faced off in Reykjavik, Iceland, to decide the world chess championship, Mr. Neiman was there, sketching. He was on hand to capture Federico Fellini directing "8 ½" and the Kirov Ballet performing in the Soviet Union.
In popularity, Mr. Neiman rivaled American favorites like Norman Rockwell, Grandma Moses and Andrew Wyeth. A prolific one-man industry, he generated hundreds of paintings, drawings, watercolors, limited-edition serigraph prints and coffee-table books yearly, earning gross annual revenue in the tens of millions of dollars.
Although he exhibited constantly and his work was included in the collections of dozens of museums around the world, critical respect eluded him. Mainstream art critics either ignored him completely or, if forced to consider his work, dismissed it with contempt as garish and superficial — magazine illustration with pretensions. Mr. Neiman professed not to care.
Maybe the critics are right," he told American Artist magazine in 1995. "But what am I supposed to do about it — stop painting, change my work completely? I go back into the studio, and there I am at the easel again. I enjoy what I'm doing and feel good working. Other thoughts are just crowded out."
His image suggested an artist well beyond the reach of criticism. A dandy and bon vivant, he cut an arresting figure with his luxuriant ear-to-ear mustache, white suits, flashy hats and Cuban cigars. "He quite intentionally invented himself as a flamboyant artist not unlike Salvador Dalí, in much the same way that I became Mr. Playboy in the late '50s," Hugh Hefner told Cigar Aficionado magazine in 1995.
LeRoy Runquist was born on June 8, 1921, in St. Paul. His father, a railroad worker, deserted the family when LeRoy was quite young, and the boy took the surname of his stepfather.
He showed a flair for art at an early age. While attending a local Roman Catholic school, he impressed schoolmates by drawing ink tattoos on their arms during recess.
As a teenager, he earned money doing illustrations for local grocery stores. "I'd sketch a turkey, a cow, a fish, with the prices," he told Cigar Aficionado. "And then I had the good sense to draw the guy who owned the store. This gave me tremendous power as a kid."
After being drafted into the Army in 1942, he served as a cook in the European theater but in his spare time painted risqué murals on the walls of kitchens and mess halls. The Army's Special Services Division, recognizing his talent, put him to work painting stage sets for Red Cross shows when he was stationed in Germany after the war.
On leaving the military, he studied briefly at the St. Paul School of Art (now the Minnesota Museum of American Art) before enrolling in the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where, after four years of study, he taught figure drawing and fashion illustration throughout the 1950s.
When the janitor of the apartment building next door to his threw out half-empty cans of enamel house paint, Mr. Neiman found his métier. Experimenting with the new medium, he embraced a rapid style of applying paint to canvas imposed by the free-flowing quality of the house paint.
While doing freelance fashion illustration for the Carson Pirie Scott department store in Chicago in the early 1950s, he became friendly with Mr. Hefner, a copywriter there who was on the verge of publishing the first issue of a men's magazine.
In 1954, after five issues of Playboy had appeared, Mr. Neiman ran into Mr. Hefner and invited him to his apartment to see his paintings of boxers, strip clubs and restaurants. Mr. Hefner, impressed, showed the work to Playboy's art director, Art Paul, who commissioned an illustration for "Black Country," a story by Charles Beaumont about a jazz musician.
Thus began a relationship that endured for more than half a century and established Mr. Neiman's reputation.
In 1955, when Mr. Hefner decided that the party-jokes page needed visual interest, Mr. Neiman came up with the Femlin, a curvaceous brunette who cavorted across the page in thigh-high stockings, high-heeled shoes, opera gloves and nothing else. She appeared in every issue of the magazine thereafter.
Three years later, Mr. Neiman devised a running feature, "Man at His Leisure." For the next 15 years, he went on assignment to glamour spots around the world, sending back visual reports on subjects as varied as the races at Royal Ascot, the dining room of the Tour d'Argent in Paris, the nude beaches of the Dalmatian coast, the running of the bulls at Pamplona and Carnaby Street in swinging London. He later produced more than 100 paintings and 2 murals for 18 of the Playboy clubs that opened around the world.
"Playboy made the good life a reality for me and made it the subject matter of my paintings — not affluence and luxury as such, but joie de vivre itself," Mr. Neiman told V.I.P. magazine in 1962.
Working in the same copywriting department at Carson Pirie Scott as Mr. Hefner was Janet Byrne, a student at the Art Institute. She and Mr. Neiman married in 1957. She survives him.
A prolific artist, he generated dozens of paintings each year that routinely commanded five-figure prices. When Christie's auctioned off the Playboy archives in 2003, his 1969 painting Man at His Leisure: Le Mans sold for $107,550. Sales of the signed, limited-edition print versions of his paintings, published in editions of 250 to 500, became a lucrative business in itself after Knoedler Publishing, a wholesale operation, was created in 1975 to publish and distribute his serigraphs, etchings, books and posters.
Mr. Neiman's most famous images came from the world of sports. His long association with the Olympics began with the Winter Games in Squaw Valley in 1960, and he went on to cover the games, on live television, in Munich in 1972, Montreal in 1976, Lake Placid in 1980, and Sarajevo and Los Angeles in 1984, using watercolor, ink or felt-tip marker to produce images with the dispatch of a courtroom sketch artist. At the 1978 and 1979 Super Bowls, he used a computerized electronic pen to portray the action for CBS.
Although he was best known for scenes filled with people and incident, he also painted many portraits. Athletes predominated, with Muhammad Ali and Joe Namath among his more famous subjects, but he also painted Leonard Bernstein, the ballet dancer Suzanne Farrell...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary American Modern Figurative Prints
Materials
Screen
Left Bank Cafe, Paris
By LeRoy Neiman
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled "Left Bank Cafe, Paris" 1987 is an original color serigraph by noted American artist LeRoy Neiman, 1921-2012. It is hand signed and numbered H.C 166/175 in pencil by the artist. The image size is 26 x 38 inches, sheet size is 32.25 x 44 inches. With the blind stamp of the printer Styria Studio at the lower left corner margin. It is in excellent condition, two small pieces of hanging tape remain on the back.
About the artist:
Mr. Neiman's kinetic, quickly executed paintings and drawings, many of them published in Playboy, offered his fans gaudily colored visual reports on heavyweight boxing matches, Super Bowl games and Olympic contests, as well as social panoramas like the horse races at Deauville, France, and the Cannes Film Festival.
Quite consciously, he cast himself in the mold of French Impressionists like Toulouse-Lautrec, Renoir and Degas, chroniclers of public life who found rich social material at racetracks, dance halls and cafes.
Mr. Neiman often painted or sketched on live television. With the camera recording his progress at the sketchpad or easel, he interpreted the drama of Olympic Games and Super Bowls for an audience of millions.
When Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky faced off in Reykjavik, Iceland, to decide the world chess championship, Mr. Neiman was there, sketching. He was on hand to capture Federico Fellini directing "8 ½" and the Kirov Ballet performing in the Soviet Union.
In popularity, Mr. Neiman rivaled American favorites like Norman Rockwell, Grandma Moses and Andrew Wyeth. A prolific one-man industry, he generated hundreds of paintings, drawings, watercolors, limited-edition serigraph prints and coffee-table books yearly, earning gross annual revenue in the tens of millions of dollars.
Although he exhibited constantly and his work was included in the collections of dozens of museums around the world, critical respect eluded him. Mainstream art critics either ignored him completely or, if forced to consider his work, dismissed it with contempt as garish and superficial — magazine illustration with pretensions. Mr. Neiman professed not to care.
Maybe the critics are right," he told American Artist magazine in 1995. "But what am I supposed to do about it — stop painting, change my work completely? I go back into the studio, and there I am at the easel again. I enjoy what I'm doing and feel good working. Other thoughts are just crowded out."
His image suggested an artist well beyond the reach of criticism. A dandy and bon vivant, he cut an arresting figure with his luxuriant ear-to-ear mustache, white suits, flashy hats and Cuban cigars. "He quite intentionally invented himself as a flamboyant artist not unlike Salvador Dalí, in much the same way that I became Mr. Playboy in the late '50s," Hugh Hefner told Cigar Aficionado magazine in 1995.
LeRoy Runquist was born on June 8, 1921, in St. Paul. His father, a railroad worker, deserted the family when LeRoy was quite young, and the boy took the surname of his stepfather.
He showed a flair for art at an early age. While attending a local Roman Catholic school, he impressed schoolmates by drawing ink tattoos on their arms during recess.
As a teenager, he earned money doing illustrations for local grocery stores. "I'd sketch a turkey, a cow, a fish, with the prices," he told Cigar Aficionado. "And then I had the good sense to draw the guy who owned the store. This gave me tremendous power as a kid."
After being drafted into the Army in 1942, he served as a cook in the European theater but in his spare time painted risqué murals on the walls of kitchens and mess halls. The Army's Special Services Division, recognizing his talent, put him to work painting stage sets for Red Cross shows when he was stationed in Germany after the war.
On leaving the military, he studied briefly at the St. Paul School of Art (now the Minnesota Museum of American Art) before enrolling in the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where, after four years of study, he taught figure drawing and fashion illustration throughout the 1950s.
When the janitor of the apartment building next door to his threw out half-empty cans of enamel house paint, Mr. Neiman found his métier. Experimenting with the new medium, he embraced a rapid style of applying paint to canvas imposed by the free-flowing quality of the house paint.
While doing freelance fashion illustration for the Carson Pirie Scott department store in Chicago in the early 1950s, he became friendly with Mr. Hefner, a copywriter there who was on the verge of publishing the first issue of a men's magazine.
In 1954, after five issues of Playboy had appeared, Mr. Neiman ran into Mr. Hefner and invited him to his apartment to see his paintings of boxers, strip clubs and restaurants. Mr. Hefner, impressed, showed the work to Playboy's art director, Art Paul, who commissioned an illustration for "Black Country," a story by Charles Beaumont about a jazz musician.
Thus began a relationship that endured for more than half a century and established Mr. Neiman's reputation.
In 1955, when Mr. Hefner decided that the party-jokes page needed visual interest, Mr. Neiman came up with the Femlin, a curvaceous brunette who cavorted across the page in thigh-high stockings, high-heeled shoes, opera gloves and nothing else. She appeared in every issue of the magazine thereafter.
Three years later, Mr. Neiman devised a running feature, "Man at His Leisure." For the next 15 years, he went on assignment to glamour spots around the world, sending back visual reports on subjects as varied as the races at Royal Ascot, the dining room of the Tour d'Argent in Paris, the nude beaches of the Dalmatian coast, the running of the bulls at Pamplona and Carnaby Street in swinging London. He later produced more than 100 paintings and 2 murals for 18 of the Playboy clubs that opened around the world.
"Playboy made the good life a reality for me and made it the subject matter of my paintings — not affluence and luxury as such, but joie de vivre itself," Mr. Neiman told V.I.P. magazine in 1962.
Working in the same copywriting department at Carson Pirie Scott as Mr. Hefner was Janet Byrne, a student at the Art Institute. She and Mr. Neiman married in 1957. She survives him.
A prolific artist, he generated dozens of paintings each year that routinely commanded five-figure prices. When Christie's auctioned off the Playboy archives in 2003, his 1969 painting Man at His Leisure: Le Mans sold for $107,550. Sales of the signed, limited-edition print versions of his paintings, published in editions of 250 to 500, became a lucrative business in itself after Knoedler Publishing, a wholesale operation, was created in 1975 to publish and distribute his serigraphs, etchings, books and posters.
Mr. Neiman's most famous images came from the world of sports. His long association with the Olympics began with the Winter Games in Squaw Valley in 1960, and he went on to cover the games, on live television, in Munich in 1972, Montreal in 1976, Lake Placid in 1980, and Sarajevo and Los Angeles in 1984, using watercolor, ink or felt-tip marker to produce images with the dispatch of a courtroom sketch artist. At the 1978 and 1979 Super Bowls, he used a computerized electronic pen to portray the action for CBS.
Although he was best known for scenes filled with people and incident, he also painted many portraits. Athletes predominated, with Muhammad Ali and Joe Namath among his more famous subjects, but he also painted Leonard Bernstein, the ballet dancer Suzanne Farrell...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary American Modern Figurative Prints
Materials
Screen
Leopard
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork "leopard" c.1990 is an offset lithograph by noted animals wildlife artist Jacquie Marie Vaux. It is hand signed and numbered 366/750 in...
Category
Late 20th Century American Realist Animal Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Racoon
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork "Racoon" c.1990 is an offset lithograph by noted animals wildlife artist Jacquie Marie Vaux. It is hand signed and numbered 442/750 in ...
Category
Late 20th Century American Realist Animal Prints
Materials
Lithograph