Robert Funk Fine Art

Autumn colors flourish as late afternoon light illuminates Upper East Side trees, emphasizing their orange and red color. The image is unexpected as a juxtaposition of nature and ma...

A dreamy young blond woman holding a Bengal cat is depicted relaxing in a deckchair. She gazes upward and outward, pondering—the distinctive marbling of the cat echos the floral back...

Pioneering English Female Illustrator Helen Stratton masterfully renders in pen and ink a scene from "The Little Mermaid" in George Newnes's 1899 editi...

As they take center stage, four acrobats are depicted, forming an architectural structure composed of contorted human bodies. The small gallery of onlookers displays a variety of ex...

Campy and sexy illustration of two French chorus girls for the mid-century Avon paperback Les Girls. Story of the Folies Bergere Unsigned and unframed. George Ziel...

Dick Stone was a top mid-century illustrator who worked for the most famous brands. He was an assignment artist hired by such esteemed Ad Agencies as BBDO ...

Early work when Stuart Davis was an illustrator. Christie's, New York Catalogue Raisonné

New York City is renowned as a center of world-class Museums and tastemaker Art Galleries. However, some of the greatest art is street art mad...

A black woman with outrageous long blond braids is captured in a cafe. She is seen through a window, and the nature of her hair integrates with the surrounding color structure. Si...

A boldly composed Las Vegas casino sign consisting of a three-dimensional red die rests on a King of Clubs. The very graphic sign is captured in an equally bold way by street photog...

Study for "The Glorious Flight - Across the Channel with Louis Bleriot"; 1983; Gouache on Illustration Board; 14.5" x 13.75"; Signed Lower Right; Unframed. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Alice Rose[1] Provensen (née Twitchell; August 14, 1918[2] – April 23, 2018[3]) and Martin Provensen...

A perfect day with penetrating light and a deep cobalt-blue sky was the ideal context for Mitchell Funk to photograph the punchy primary colors of a mid-century Las Vegas hotel sign....

A New York City snowstorm changes the superficial look of the city and, for photographers, yields creative possibilities. Veteran Street Photographer Mitchell Funk captures a toddler...

A parade of New York City spires is on full display in this unique view of Manhattan from Queens. Taken in 1974, its composition and graphic appeal still inspires after 50 years. Sa...

While in Central Park, Photographer Mitchell Funk captures a moment where a leafless tree trunk and a faceless human with a flowering hat have a symbiosis. They are both weird lookin...

Mid-century artist Lawrence Kupferman paints a madly eerie New York street scene. An exaggerated upward view of two 19th-century walk-ups is split by a forced perspective of a downwa...

Executed in 1930, this abstract yet representational biomorphic charcoal work by African American Artist Charles Henry Alston prefigures his ...

This meticulously planned, designed, and executed work depicts an ultra-wide angle view of a rock quarry/mine. The viewer looks down at close-up-stylized rock formations and then out at a horizon line with rust-colored mine trestles. Atherton hints at perspective with a broken white line that is wider in the foreground and tapers to a hairline as it recedes to the background. The work was done in 1951 at the height of America's most important art movement: Abstract Expressionism. John Atherton absorbs its influences but retains elements of representation. Atherton was an in-demand commercial artist who worked for most blue-chip clients. It is possible that this was an editorial assignment for Fortune Magazine. At the same time, Atherton was also a fine artist and the work could be an expression of pure creative pursuits. The work looks better in person and one can look at it for hours and not get bored. Look carefully and you may discover a deeper meaning in this painting of precisely arranged rocks. Signed lower right. Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, sold to benefit the acquisitions program ____________________ From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia John Carlton Atherton (January 7, 1900 - September 16, 1952) was an American painter and magazine illustrator, writer and designer. His works form part of numerous collections, including the Museum of Modern Art,[1] Whitney Museum of American Art and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.[2][3][4] Early Years He was the son of James Chester Atherton (1868-1928) and Carrie B. Martin (1871-1909). He was born in Brainerd, Minnesota.[5] His father was Canadian born. His parents relocated from Minnesota to Washington State, with his maternal grandparents whilst he was still an infant. He attended high school in Spokane, Washington. Career During his early years he never displayed an aptitude for art; rather, his first love being nature and the activities he relished there, mainly fishing and hunting. He enlisted in 1917, serving briefly in the U.S. Navy for a year during World War I. At the end of the war, determined to get an education he worked various part-time jobs, as a sign painter and playing a banjo in a dance band to pay his enrolment fee at the College of the Pacific and The California School of Fine Arts (now the San Francisco Art Institute). Once there, he also worked in the surrounding studios developing his oil painting techniques. A first prize award of $500 at the annual exhibition of the Bohemian Club in 1929, financed his one way trip to New York City, which helped to launch his career as an artist.[6] Atherton had aspired to be a fine artist, however his first paid jobs were for commercial art firms designing advertisements for corporations such as General Motors, Shell Oil, Container Corporation of America, and Dole. However, by 1936, encouraged primarily by friends, such as Alexander Brook, an acclaimed New York realist painter, he returned to the fine arts. Atherton continued to accept numerous commissions for magazine illustrations; such as Fortune magazine, and over the years he would paint more than forty covers for The Saturday Evening Post starting with his December 1942 design, “Patient Dog.” This picture is reminiscent of his friend Norman Rockwell ‘Americana style’ and captures a poignant moment of nostalgia, where a loyal dog looks toward a wall of hunting equipment and a framed picture of his owner in military uniform. Selected One person Exhibitions Atherton accomplished his first one-man show in Manhattan in 1936. His Painting, “The Black Horse” won the $3000 fourth prize from among a pool of 14,000 entries. This painting forms part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art collection in New York.[7] Atherton achieved recognition in New York City and elsewhere during the 1930s. Having exhibited at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York,[8] his paintings began to be collected by museums; including the Museum of Modern Art[9] and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. His reputation increased with his art deco stone lithograph poster for the 1939 New York World's Fair. In 1941, his design won first place in the Museum of Modern Arts “National Defense Poster Competition”. Selected Public Collections Fleming Museum of Art, Burlington, Vermont Albright-Knox Art Gallery,[10] Buffalo, NY Art Institute of Chicago,[11] Chicago Wadsworth Atheneum,[12] Hartford, CT Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York The Museum of Modern Art,[13] New York Whitney Museum of American Art,[14] New York Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts,[15] Philadelphia De Young Museum,[16] San Francisco Smithsonian American Art Museum,[17] Washington DC Butler Institute of American Art[18] Youngstown, OH The Famous Artists School Founded in 1948 in Westport, Connecticut, U.S.A. The idea was conceived by members of the New York Society of Illustrators (SOI), but due to the Society's legal status, could not be operated by it. SOI member Albert Dorne led the initiative to set up a separate entity, and recruited the support of Norman Rockwell, who was also an SOI member. For the founding faculty, Dorne recruited Atherton, as well as accomplished artists such as Austin Briggs, Stevan Dohanos, Robert Fawcett, Peter Helck, Fred Ludekens, Al Parker, Norman Rockwell, Ben Stahl, Harold von Schmidt and Jon Whitcomb.[19] He collaborated with Jon Whitcomb with the book “How I Make a Picture: Lesson 1-9, Parts 1”.[20][21] Society of Illustrators Atherton as an active member from his arrival in New York. The society have owned many of his works. Ex-collection includes: Rocking Horse (ca. 1949) [22] Atherton, as his peers had many of his works framed by Henry Heydenryk Jr.[23] Personal On November 2, 1926, he married Polly “Maxine” Breese (1903-1997).[24][25] They had one daughter, Mary Atherton, born in 1932. Atherton's often chose industrial landscapes, however found himself spending considerable time in Westport, Connecticut, with an active artistic community, and it became home for him, and his family. He then moved to Arlington, Vermont.[26] Norman Rockwell enlisted Atherton in what was to be the only collaborative painting in his career.[27] He was part of a group of artists including a Norman Rockwell, Mead Schaeffer and George Hughes who established residences in Arlington.[28] Atherton and Mead Schaeffer were avid fly fishermen and they carefully chose the location for the group,[29] conveniently located near the legendary Battenkill River. In his free time, Atherton continued to enjoy fly-fishing.[30] He brought his artistic talent into the field of fishing,[31] when he wrote and illustrated the fishing classic, “The Fly and The Fish”.[32] He died in New Brunswick, Canada in 1952,[33] at the age of 52 in a drowning accident while fly-fishing.[34] Legacy The Western Connecticut State University holds an extensive archive on this artist.[35] His wife, Maxine also published a memoir “The Fly Fisher and the River” [36] She married Watson Wyckoff in 1960. Ancestry He is a direct descendant of James Atherton,[37][38] one of the First Settlers of New England; who arrived in Dorchester, Massachusetts in the 1630s. His direct ancestor, Benjamin Atherton was from Colonial Massachusetts...

Famed Art Deco Sculptor Boris Lovet-Lorski depicts his signature "Stallion." in this stunningly elegant drawing. It features a nude female that is c...

Female Illustrator of the Golden Age, Ruth Mary Hallock, paints a sensitive, heartwarming portrait of Mother and Child in a post-impressionist style. Richly saturated hues and gestur...

Rendered with an alla prima paint application and quick gestural brushstrokes, "Tender Family Portrait - Mother and Child" reflects Margery Ryerson's deep knowledge of academic training. Reyerson studied with Robert Henri at The Art Students League. This painting is aesthetically pleasing and communicates a sense of maternal tenderness from a female artist. Margery Ryerson did a book on her former teacher. Henri's philosophical and practical musings were collected by former pupil Margery Ryerson and published as The Art Spirit (1923), a book that remained in print for several decades. Signed. Lower Left Margery Austen Ryerson (September 15, 1886 - 1989) was an American artist, painter, etcher, lithographer and watercolorist.Her work is included in the collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum Biography Ryerson earned her Bachelor's of Fine Arts in English from Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, after attending private schools in Morristown. She went on to study under Charles Hawthorne at the Cape Cod School of Art in Provincetown, Massachusetts, and with Robert Henri at the Art Students League in New York. During the years 1920 through 1940 Ryerson taught in New York settlement houses. There she got the privilege to paint and draw the children in their care. The subjects of these paintings were often the children of the underclass and immigrants. Her artistic technique and subjects gained universal recognition and appealed to many people. Miss Ryerson is most known for her portraits...

Italian illustrator Gianni Benvenuti depicts a dramatic scene from the epic Spanish novel by Miguel de Cervantes. With unrivaled skill, Benvenuti captures a peak moment of drama when...

Trailblazing Gay Female illustrator of the Golden Age, Ida Waugh, paints a powerful narrative of a young woman coming to the aid of another who, due to an accident, is lying prostrate in an unpaved road. The reason why the work is in black and white is because this was assignment art for a book or magazine and color printing was not yet available for mass publications Signed lower left. Framed under glass, Ida Waugh (October 24, 1846 – January 25, 1919) was an American illustrator of children's literature who often collaborated with her lifelong companion, Amy Ella Blanchard. Personal life Ida Waugh was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on October 24, 1846, the daughter of painter Samuel B. Waugh and his first wife, Sarah Mendenhall, therefore she was half-sister of painter Frederick Judd Waugh. Her step-mother was Mary Eliza Young Waugh, a miniaturist. She attended Académie Julian and Académie Delécluse in Paris, studying with Georges Callot, Paul-Louis Delance, and Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant.In 1868 she attended the first "Ladies Life Class" at Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts; in the same class there were Emily Sartain and Catherine Ann Drinker. Career Ida Waugh collaborated with her partner Amy Ella Blanchard in publishing children's books, Waugh as illustrator and Blanchard as writer. Waugh also published books on her own Other than a children's book illustrator, Waugh was an award-winning painter. In 1869 she exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts two works, "The Bargain" and a portrait bust of Carl Gaertner. Her self-portrait and another painting, "Little Cosette" (1870), are in the permanent collection of the Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia, both donated by Mrs. John S. Haug in 1961.They were part of the exhibition "Women and Biography" in 2014, including: Elizabeth Shippen Green, Violet Oakley, Edith Emerson, Anne Minich, Catherine Mulligan, Mitzi Melnicoff, Alice Kent Stoddard, Aubrey Levinthal, Martha Armstrong...

Street Photography meets Fashion Photography in this boldly graphic image of a stylish woman with an umbrella crossing the street. The composition is minimal as its color scheme is b...

Trailblazing Gay Female illustrator of the Golden Age Ida Waugh paints and powerful narrative of a woman cowering in a tree while a hungry pack of wolves wait beneath her for dinner feast. Signed lower left. Framed under glass, Ida Waugh (October 24, 1846 – January 25, 1919) was an American illustrator of children's literature who often collaborated with her lifelong companion, Amy Ella Blanchard. Personal life Ida Waugh was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on October 24, 1846, the daughter of painter Samuel B. Waugh and his first wife, Sarah Mendenhall, therefore she was half-sister of painter Frederick Judd Waugh. Her step-mother was Mary Eliza Young Waugh, a miniaturist. She attended Académie Julian and Académie Delécluse in Paris, studying with Georges Callot, Paul-Louis Delance, and Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant.In 1868 she attended the first "Ladies Life Class" at Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts; in the same class there were Emily Sartain and Catherine Ann Drinker. Career Ida Waugh collaborated with her partner Amy Ella Blanchard in publishing children's books, Waugh as illustrator and Blanchard as writer. Waugh also published books on her own Other than a children's book illustrator, Waugh was an award-winning painter. In 1869 she exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts two works, "The Bargain" and a portrait bust of Carl Gaertner. Her self-portrait and another painting, "Little Cosette" (1870), are in the permanent collection of the Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia, both donated by Mrs. John S. Haug in 1961.They were part of the exhibition "Women and Biography" in 2014, including: Elizabeth Shippen Green, Violet Oakley, Edith Emerson, Anne Minich, Catherine Mulligan, Mitzi Melnicoff, Alice Kent Stoddard, Aubrey Levinthal, Martha Armstrong...

The quintessential symbol of San Francisco is small in the picture frame but still is the central focus of the composition. Mitchell Funk's photograph of a Cable Car is as unexpecte...

Two Tango Dancers immersed in their art, strike-the-pose under the towering classical half down. Street Photographer Mitchell Funk was there at the perfect moment to capture a non...

This cartoon by Charles Addams is generations ahead of its time. To get the punch line, the viewer must know the meaning of a Satyr or Pan. Satyr: Part man and part beast. - A male ...

Fabled Vogue Magazine Cover Artist Eduardo Garcia Benito depicts a perfectly posed long-neck flapper with her reflection in a mirror, Her extrav...

Fabled Vogue Magazine Cover Artist Eduardo Garcia Benito depicts a perfectly posed long-neck flapper with her reflection in a mirror, Her extrav...

An urban youth shrouds his head in a blue sweater as he coils up against a blue Soho wall marked with Graffiti. Reminiscent of Picasso's Blue Period, the photograph is characteriz...

The Kelpie of Snooziepool - William Heath Robinson illustrated this whimsical fantasy work featuring a semi-nude beauty in a pool of water with children. Based on the Metropolitan ...

Street Costumes by Ruth Kreps. Signed lower right. Most likely for a book published in the 1930's about turn of the century women's fashion. "Costume Design of the Gay Nineties" T...

Immigrant children from New York's Lower East Side are joyfully captured whizzing down on a slide. From the window of a tenement building, a lone adult with child witnesses the foli...

In an unexpected bronze light, Mitchell Funk captures a classic view of San Francisco with a portrait of a famed cable car. The reflection of light in the car's left window gives the...

Street Photographer Mitchell Funk makes a statement about two New York icons. The majestic Plaza Hotel proudly rises against a deep cobalt blue sky in the crisp early morning light....

In a 1971 interview with Ebony Magazine, Alvin Hollinsworth commented on his African Jesus Christ painting, "I have always felt that Christ was a Blac...

Rays of golden light burn through New York's streets and illuminate a man dressed in a vivid African-themed shirt with matching shorts. He dominates the composition that emphasizes ...

A tourist bus adorned with punchy hi-key graphics passes in front of a soaring Times Square billboard of similar nature. Street Photographer Mithcell Funk captures the precise momen...

In the 1970s, the Times Square/ Mid-Town area of New York City was a gritty place of X-rated movies, Strip Bars, Pimps, Street Walkers, and cheap by-the-hour Hotels. The place was a...

Mitchell Funk follows the light. Come along with him and become illuminated. Ephemeral rays of golden light strike an Upper East Side pre-war facade under renovation. The resulting...

It's 1964, and the brilliantly inventive artist/illustrator Bob Peak is turning the world of commercial art upside down. In "Pregame Football Players" for Sports Illustrated, Peak pu...

This powerful and graphically composed image of a black man with white angel wings was painted in a realist style by African American artist Thomas Blackshear...

Mitchell Funk revisits popular tourist locations and shoots them in a way that perhaps millions of tourists never imagined. Not unlike Pop Art, he shows us a new way to look at icon...

Occupying the lower third of the picture plane, a herd of humans stride down Fifth Avenue. They form an overall pattern. The top of the picture is also comprised of a simple pat...

Mediterranean Revival style, Bendle Apartments, constructed in 1923, is located at 826 Collins Ave. Miami Beach, Florida, is seen here th...

Only Ballantine Ale Brews "Brewer's Gold," ad illustration appeared in the major magazines of the day. A magic moment is caught at a peak point of drama. It's the instant of friends having fun. A cold beer from the fridge is offered and it's is acknowledged with a head nod. The woman in the foreground covers her giggling face reacting to a funny comment. The decisive moment is preserved. Sounds like a critique of an art photograph? No, it's an illustrator. This ingenious Infiniti "S" composition simultaneously represents the best of photography and painting. Cartier-Bresson could have captured the precise moment. While Nicolas Poussin could have rendered the complex figural composition. Add to it , a painting technique and color scheme with the quick drama of a post-impressionist. We have a great work of art by an overlooked American illustrator/artist/painter, Mike Ludlow...

“Graduation Day” is emblematic of mid-century American Illustration. But the real story of this storytelling work is that it embodies the lost art of portrait painting and graphic design. Alex Ross borrows on the classical tradition and flaunts his skills as a narrative painter. In “Graduation Day”, he paints a complex composition involving at least thirteen portraits. The subjects are beautifully rendered and lit. They are set against a dark grey background and jump off the surface at the viewer. The composition is complexly designed. The future graduate in the red jacket engaging with a girl photographer is a compositional device that leads the viewer's eye to the main subject - a father congratulating his son on graduating from medical school. Creating art that relies on facial expressions and body gestures is a talent absent in contemporary art. Why? It’s very hard to do and takes years and training and practice to get it right. Despite Alex Ross's folksy subject matter, this work is a high example of naturalism and representation by an important member of the Golden Age of American Illustration. Signed lower right Born in the town of Dunfermline, Scotland, Alexander Sharpe Ross (1908-1990) moved with his family to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1911. After attending Carnegie Tech (now Carnegie Mellon University), Ross moved to New York and joined the Charles E. Cooper Studio, where he worked among such notable illustrators as Ward Brackett, Stevan Dohanos, J. Frederick Smith...

A lonely-looking wide-eyed boxer peers out a car window in anticipation that his owner will return. On closer examination, this is not a photograph of a real Boxer but a cut out of...

The ephemeral nature of weather is on display in this hyper-dramatic photograph of Manhattan's Flatiron Building. Dark storm clouds crack open for a brief moment and spotlight the w...

Two Women by George Tooker is a psychologically engaging portrait of contrasts. An untidy, older, overweight woman is seen slumped in a chair, asleep and lost in a dream. Her head ti...

An unexpected pedestrian is caught walking across Park Avenue on a rainy day. We are not sure where he came from or where he is going, but he seems to be on a mission. The Astronaut...

Illuminated in rim lighting, a lone man sits crouched in front of an early example of street art. A giant abstract painting raises seven stor...

Light jumps out. Players jump up. Light bounces off a window. Basketball bounces off a backboard. The interplay of extreme light and shadow makes "Street Basketball with Angelic Light " a unique and pioneering photograph. Taking in 1974, it was a rejection of contemporary color photography at the time, which was not concerned with light. This image by Funk is a glorification of light. As light strikes form, it becomes stylized and almost abstract, creating a new relationship between subject and style. An indication of the date this was taken is revealed by the old fashion TV antennas...

Recently, women artists have been soaring in price to millions of dollars. In many cases, many of these women were quite obscure. For example, recently acknowledged Gertrude Abercrombie, a naive surrealist artist, has recently seen her paintings rise to the area of $400K. Lorraine Fox, who is a consummate female artist/ illustrator whose work rivals any of the recently anointed female stars is still an unknown quantity. She has exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum and is in the collection of the Smithsonian Archives of American Art, and she is a member of the Famous Artists School in Westport, Connecticut along with Norman Rockwell, Today she is relatively unknown and completely off the radar of the so-called art establishment. Wedding Day is a wonderful example of her mid-century, somewhat naive style. The work is signed lower right and was exhibited at the Brandywine River...

Two Facades. Mickey's Place was Bar / Restaurant in Chelsea opposite the old West Side Highway. In this photograph, late afternoon light illuminates the old walk-up building giving ...

Street Photographer Mitchell Funk captures a frontal portrait of an older woman with an inventively outrageous look. Piercing blue circular eyeglasses and a handmade pointy hat remin...

They say that Photography captures the truth. That couldn't be more true than in this photograph, "Runner in Angelic Light". It captures both the physical truth and also the spiritu...

A solitary hooded figure crosses a desolate Manhattan street as light snow and rain come down. For 54 years, Mitchell Funk has been chronicling the effects of light on form; here, h...

Nature Photography in the City. Central Park's Autumn foliage is transformed into a delightful abstract pattern where natural organic shapes interact with the architectonic shapes of...