Robert Funk Fine Art

Art imitates life. A five-story wall painting of a verdant tree seamlessly blends in with a similar tree in the foreground, creating a double take. To the immediate right, direction...

San Francisco de Assisi Mission Church in Taos was photographed in 1973 by Mitchell Funk. The image is characterized by radical cropping and a simplification of elements and is set ...

Deck chairs randomly positioned on an Upper East Side balcony are captured by Photographer Mitchell Funk. Raking light produces abstract long shadows giving the overall arrangement of elements a casual abstract look. In the center of the composition is a yellow and green chair with colors...

A unique vantage point, a vibrant sunset, and bleeding colors give this view of New York's Whitestone and Throgs neck Bridges a dreamy quality. This archival color photograph by ...

Extreme late light darts down a street in Times Square. It illuminates a colorful and semi-abstract window display. A single female figure at the extreme right of the compostion sh...

Original illustration was done by Renna for the novel "Journey to the Center of the Earth" by Jules Verne, published in 1963. What makes this work special is how brilliantly the subj...

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...

Street Photographer Mitchell Funk grabs a taxi moment in front of Grand Central Station. The image communicates the spirit of wintery New York, with skies filled with falling snow. I...

Questions about the nature and boundaries of reality are contextualized in this dreamy image of a woman strolling in a fantasy forest that breathes high-pitched color. Pioneering pho...

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...

Veteran Street Photographer Mitchell Funks' signature style is to energize traditional photojournalism/ street photography with overly dramatic light, color, and composition. This wo...

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 ou...

Golden rays transform power lines into luminous lines of light that stretch across the Aspen landscape. A solitary biker punctuates the scene. Over his 55-year photography career, M...

115 years after they were created, one can view these silhouettes differently than the artist’s intent. After all, the genesis of this work was an editorial illustration for Life Magazine to showcase elaborate women’s hats. They were done for a commercial assignment with a deadline, and picky editors were overseeing the final work. Today, they have a dual meaning. These charming silhouettes are abstractions as much as they are representations. Moreover, each one is a compact little gem stuffed with observational detail. Golden Age female illustrator Jesse Gillespie's mastery of technical skill, is apparent in minute details and composition. Young women, old women, pendants, necklaces, feathers, and laced vails all contribute to the works understated complexity. The identity of the subjects are revealed by small areas of exposed neck and chin. As the viewers eyes goes from left to right - all six silhouettes read as fashion hieroglyphs in a sentence with a visual rhythm and cadence. . Initialed JG lower right., Matted but not framed. Published: Life Magazine, March 17th, 1910. Provenance: Honey and Wax Bookstore ________________________________ From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jessie Gillespie Willing (March 28, 1888 – August 1, 1972) was an American illustrator during the Golden Age of illustration. She was considered the foremost silhouette illustrator of her time, although she did traditional illustration as well. Willing illustrated for books and magazines including Life, The Ladies' Home Journal, Woman's Home Companion, Mother and Child, McClure's Magazine, Childhood Education, the Sunday Magazine, Association Men (the magazine of the YMCA), Farm and Fireside, Every Week, Children: The Magazine for Parents (which became Parents Magazine), and the American Magazine. She is perhaps most well known for her work for the Girl Scouts. Early life Willing was born in Brooklyn on March 28, 1888 to John Thomson Willing (August 4, 1860 – July 8, 1947)[1][2] and Charlotte Elizabeth Van Der Veer Willing (December 1, 1859 – March 4, 1930).[3] Thomson Willing was a noted illustrator and art editor. He was also well known for finding new artistic talent. Jessie Willing was the eldest of three children. Her brother Van Der Veer (November 30, 1889 – January 14, 1919), who died of pneumonia at the age of 29, was an advertising agent.[4] Her sister Elizabeth Hunnewell Willing (July 26, 1908 – August 15, 1991) was one of the first women to graduate from the Philadelphia Divinity School.[5][6] Elizabeth married the Rev. Orrin Judd, rector of St. Mary's Episcopal Church, on September 22, 1931, and was active in church work.[citation needed] The Willing family moved to the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia in 1901 or 1902. Jessie Willing attended the Stevens School, from which she graduated in 1905. She then went on to attend the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts from 1906 to 1907.[7][8] Career Willing used her middle name Gillespie as her professional surname. She also often signed her illustrations J.G.[9] The story goes that the art editor of Life magazine was in Thomson Willing's office when he was the art editor of the Associated Sunday Magazine syndicate. Thomson Willing had some of Jessie's artwork on his desk, which the Life editor saw and admired. He asked for the artist's information so that he could give her freelance work. Thomson Willing did not want to be accused of nepotism so he persuaded Jessie to use Jessie Gillespie as her professional name, which she did.[10][11] In addition to her extensive illustration work, Willing was also the editor of Heirlooms and Masterpieces from 1922 to 1931 and the art editor of Jewelers' Circular-Keystone from 1933 to 1939.[12] She specialized in jewelry publicity and advertising. In 1966 she won the Gold medal of the Printing Week Graphic Arts Exhibit in Philadelphia for her Christmas catalog for J.E. Caldwell Co., Philadelphia. Willing was a member of the Plastic Club of Philadelphia,[13] the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) and the National Arts Club of New York.[14] She was an honorary life member of the National Arts Club[15] and served on its Board of Governors from 1941-1970. In 1963, she received the Gold Medal of the National Arts Club in recognition of 32 years of selfless devotion.[15] Additionally, she was the national director of the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) from 1943 to 1946.[15] Previous to this she served as the Program Chairman of the AIGA and in that position she put together a travelling exhibit on the "history of narrative art from the first recorded picture story to the comic book of the twentieth century."[16][17] Illustrations in books With Tongue and Pen--Frederick Bair, et al. (MacMillan, 1940) Masoud the Bedouin--Alfred Post Carhart (Missionary Education Movement, 1915) The Path of the Gopatis--Zilpha Carruthers (National Dairy Council, 1926) The Schoolmaster and His Son: A Narrative of the Thirty Years War--Karl Heinrich Caspari (Lutheran Publication Society, 1917) On a Rainy Day--Dorothy Canfield Fisher and Sarah Scott Fisher (A.S. Barnes and Co., 1938) Book of Games for Home, School and Playground--William B. Forbush and Harry R Allen...

A disheveled young man lies passed out on Ludlow Street in New York City's Lower East Side. As if he was invisible, herds of pedestrians shuffle by. An angel benevolently comes to hi...

What America looked like in 1979. This three-storied house with peeling paint, dilapidated terraces, and a clothesline was shot in Hartford, Connecticut. Signed, dated and numb...

In the 1970s, senior citizens were fixtures on New York City park benches. In this image, golden light conveys the expressive nature of a disparate relationship between an old man an...

20th Century Italian Illustrator Gianna Renna depicts a emotionally-charged scene of three men on a raft descending into a fiery abyss. His conception and execution of Jules Verne's ...

A dark and exotic looking male dancer with chiseled features wears a blue hat made of flowers and feathers is depicted in vibrant colors that evokes festiv...

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

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...

A familiar scene to all New Yorkers and millions of tourists is pictured in a way that none see with their own eyes in person. This luminous image of the Billionaires Row skyline is ...

The work represents a carefully rendered and meticulously observed environmental portrait of a young girl absorbed in study in front of a book case. It celebrates the intelligence o...

Two men have a conversation and joke-it-up on the steps of a boarded-up store named Nicks Cleaners. The whole scene is awash in dreamy blues and reds. Absorbing the influence of bot...

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...

Four young English girls with flowers are shown in a line and moving from left to right. They are pushed forward on the picture plane as if they were on a stage with a simple indica...

A silhouetted man looks out to infinity and ponders the buried memories on the hallowed grounds of Vicksburg. He is seen in silhouette in the bottom half of the composition. The top half shows two Civil War...

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...

Famed Puerto Rican Fashion Illustrator Antonio Lopez creates an oversized illustration for Vogue Patterns Magazine 1971. He uses a variety of media whic...

Conceptual Photographer Mitchell Funk created a Sci-Fi image 2 years before the iconic Close Encounters of a Third Kind was released in 1977. Funk's work is really two images combine...

Perched high on the roof of an East Side highrise, Mitchell Funk merges the boroughs. Funk creates a new New York City Skyline composed of buildings and smokestacks by selecting the...

Street Photographer Mitchell Funk's signature hi-color/design photography merges with photojournalism in this introspective New York City Taxi Portrait. Signed, dated, numbered low...

Heavy snow blankets Bethesda Fountain and simplifies the landscape so that only a few sick-figure people dot the blue on the blue-white ground. The one figure with a red coat acts ...

Nature's Splendor is captured with deer grazing at sunset on East Hampton's famous Louse Point. This image is signed, dated and numbered 3/15 lower right recto. Other sizes are ava...

A New York City snowstorm allows Street Photographer Mitchell Funk to transform facades of Upper Eastside walkups into a stunning impressionist cityscape. Monochromatic grays are pun...

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...

What makes this work important? It's not that it's a commissioned artwork for a men's 60s pulp adventure magazine depicting the instant a soldier is shot. The big point of the painting is how brilliantly the formal elements are thought out, designed, and executed. John McDermott tells a story using a complex figural composition in an unexpected wide-angle vision. The work is as abstract as it is representation. His use of light is significant because it creates a high-contrast two-color style that bears the mark of its creator. This is a work done by a master artist/illustrator without peers compared to artists living today. If the contemporary art world gave awards for draftsmanship, painting technique, and graphic design .... John McDermott would win the highest accolades. Initialed lower left - unframed John McDermott (August 30, 1919 – April 20, 1977), also known under the pen names J.M. Ryan and Mariner, was an American illustrator and author noted for action and adventure illustrations.[1] McDermott worked as an in-between and effects animator for Walt Disney Studios and as a US Marine combat artist,before establishing himself as a cover illustrator for 1950s paperbacks and pulp magazines such as Argosy, American Weekly, and Outdoor Life. Under his J.M. Ryan pen name, he wrote the novels The Rat Factory (1971), a derogatory satire of Walt Disney and the Disney studio; Brooks Wilson Ltd (1967), on which the 1970 film Loving was based; and Mother's Day (1969) about Ma Barker. Under his own name, he novelized director-writer Bo Widerberg's screenplay for the 1971 film Joe Hill, which would be his final published book. Early life John Richard McDermott was born 30 August 1919 in Pueblo, Colorado, the younger of two sons of Henry McDermott, an oil broker. McDermott was a young child when his father committed suicide.[4] The family eventually moved to Los Angeles where McDermott's mother, Hazel, worked in a beauty parlor. He graduated from Hollywood High School in 1936. Although he had had no formal art education, he took a job as an artist at Walt Disney Animation Studios. Career Disney At Disney, McDermott worked as an in-betweener and effects animator on Brave Little Tailor, Pinocchio, The Reluctant Dragon and Fantasia. His experiences while working at Disney, particularly during the time of the 1941 Disney animators' strike, would later become the basis for his 1969 satirical novel The Rat Factory. McDermott left Disney to fight with US forces during World War II. US Marines McDermott World War II sketch titled "Buddy is Wounded" On September 29, 1942, McDermott enlisted with the US Marine Corps. He served as a "pistol and palette" combat artist assigned to the map-making section. As a sergeant with the III Amphibious Corps, McDermott was involved in battles in the South Pacific theater of war, documenting the Guam, Okinawa and the Guadalcanal Campaigns. McDermott considered his wartime years to be his art education. "In the Marines, as a combat artist, I traveled with the troops and for three years got all the drawing opportunity anyone could want. My work changed enormously during this time and I’m sure it was due to constant drawing, every single day, from life, just putting down what I saw around me. In a few instances it was a dangerous kind of scholarship." According to the Marine Corps history journal Fortitudine, McDermott was so prolific that his contemporary style pen-and-ink sketches became easily recognizable to both Marines, from published work in Leatherneck Magazine, and civilians, from glossy copies supplied by the Marine Corps to the nation's press.His wartime art appears in World War II history books and is displayed at the Pentagon and the National Museum of the Marine Corps. Illustration Following the end of World War II, McDermott moved from California to New York City to work as a freelance illustrator. McDermott made his reputation drawing modern action, war and adventure scenes. His work adorned the covers and inside story pages of popular pulp magazines of the 1950s such as Argosy, Adventure, Blue Book, Outdoor Life and American Weekly. McDermott's illustrations appeared on numerous covers of 1950s paperback novels published by Dell, Fawcett Gold Medal, Bantam Mystery and others. His action graphics were geared toward thriller and detective genres, such as Donald Hamilton's Matt Helm books Murderers' Row and The Betrayers. He also created covers for science fiction comic titles such as Voyage to the Deep[citation needed] and horror-themed paperbacks such as the classic 1955 science fiction novel The Body Snatchers...

Devils depicted. Artist Wilson Bigaud paints a graphic narrative of mid-century life in Haiti without modern medicine. A man is dying yet there is no doctor present. In the struggle...

A bustling street scene of everyday life in front of the famed Marché in Cap-Haïtien is rendered in Sénèque This is a relatively early work by Obin's signature brightly colored and flat naive style. Signed lower right. Provenance: Galerie Issa - Port-Au-Prince, Haiti - Owned by Issa El Saieh of later named El Saieh Gallery Sénèque Obin...

This cartoon by Charles Addams is generations ahead of its time. To get the punch line, you need to know the meaning of a Satyr or Pan. Satyr: Part man and part beast. - A male nature spirit with ears and a tail resembling those of a horse, as well as a permanent, exaggerated permanent erection. Early artistic representations sometimes include horse-like legs; Satyrs were characterized by their vulgar, indecent ribaldry, and were rowdy lovers of wine, music, dancing, and women. They inhabited remote locales, such as woodlands, and they often attempted to seduce or rape nymphs and mortal women alike. It's prudish 1950s America, where TV programs show husband and wife sleeping in separate beds. The discussion and representation of sex was repressed. To make a bold statement about censorship and the uncompromising moral climate of the time, Addams uses a reference from the mythical world to make a statement about the real world. In doing so, he anticipates the sexual revolution of the late 1960s and 1970s. The satyr/pan symbolizes nonconformistism. He has his own earthy customs, attitudes, and ideas. Because of that is being handcuffed and formally taken away by the state whose goal is to repress natural erotic fun and frolic that is ubiquitous in todays society. A proper and perfectly pressed Park Ranger cleans out a lustful undesirable from pristine woodlands. With startled expressions, a vulnerable family of correct women witness the event as they are about to have a picnic. The Satyr grasps his Pipes of Pan just over his crotch. The background is populated by phallic symbols. This is one a the rare instances where Addams address the issue of sex. The Ranger is a dead ringer as a self portrait of Addams. Original illustration for a cartoon, showing a uniformed ranger leading away a manacled satyr, in front of a startled picnic party. Ink and grisaille wash on Whatman cold press illustration board, signed "Chas Addams...

Salvatore Grippi was my art professor at Ithaca college from 1970- 1971 Who was doing paintings like this in 1950? Jackson Pollack, Willem De Kooning and Salvatore Grippi, and a few...

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...

This early work from 1955 by Dong Kingman N.A. is as surreal as it is a document of a place. The artist effectively captures a slice of American urban life but constructs the compo...

Norman Mills Price depicts a handsome, nude blond boy with classical good looks. He is lying on his stomach in straw in the loft of a barn with his buttocks exposed. The artist captu...

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...

This is a self-portrait with a 1950s girly cut-out set against a dramatic tropical sky. It's is a straight shot. The camera is on a tripod while the photographer slides over to bec...

Italian illustrator Gianni Benvenuti paints a charming fantasy scene. It's of an extreme closeup of a tiny crowned and winged Prince and Princess They are standing upright in a dand...

Mitchell Funk captures a timeless image of New York scene in a fresh way. The unorthodox composition leaves the center of the picture vacant, leaving the two subjects on the extreme edges of the picture plane. The old State Island...

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 ...

Handmade Arts & Crafts channeled oak frame with chiseled relief farm animal decoration on each corner, pin and dovetail construction, artist cipher and date carved verso, 45"h x 31.5"w (outside), 37"h x 24"w (inside) Anna Vaughn Hyatt Huntington...

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...

It's a picture of the unknown. We do not know who the artist is. We do not know what the subject is. We do not know where the location is. It is all left to conjecture, yet the image...

The paper in some of these photos looks overly textured due to the sharpness of the high-res digital camera. In person, with the human eye, the paper looks reasonably smooth with out blemishes. For this fashion illustration, Georges Lepape paints a stunning abstract pattern for the subject dress that is repeated in her hair. The work represents an early use of metallic paint, with silver metallic in the dress and bronze metallic in the blouse. Lepape's highly detailed drawing becomes more evident the closer you look. It's quite amazing how deftly he rendered facial feature on such a small scale. "Eva" 1918 Gouache, watercolor, and ink on paper Signed and dated, lower right: '1918' Inscribed, verso: "Costume for L'enfantement du mort, (miracle en pourpre, et or.). Devised by Marcel L'Herbier and performed at the Théatre Edouard VII and the Comédie des Champs-Elysées, 1919" Provenance: Ex-collection Lucien...