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Orientation: Vertical
untitled (Nude)
By Peter Marks
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Photograph, gold leaf and magazine mixed media collage Unsigned Provenance: Estate of the artist Sheet: 16 x 14" Peter Marks (1935 -2010) was born in New York City on January 18...
Category

Early 2000s Abstract Mixed Media

Materials

Mixed Media

Quick Change
By Honore Guilbeau
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Quick Change Watercolor on paper, 1930-1931 Signed lower right: Honore Guilbeau Illustrated in American Art Review, August 2014, page 84 in an article by Dr. M...
Category

1930s American Modern Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor

Verse 1 through Verse 60
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Verse 1 through Verse 60 From: Leyli o Majnun by Nizami Ganjavi (1141-1209CE) This folio comprises the first 60 verses of the epic Persian poem “The masnavi of Leyli va Majnun (4,60...
Category

Early 1600s Other Art Style Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Pigment

Untitled (Plate 3)
By Terry Haass
Located in Fairlawn, OH
From: Kaleidoscope (6 plates) Signed and numbered in pencil Edition: 100 (3/100) Printer: Lacouriere et Frelaut Imprimeur, Paris Paper: BFK RIVES watermark on some sheets from the se...
Category

1970s Abstract Abstract Prints

Materials

Aquatint

Untitled (Plate 6)
By Terry Haass
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Signed and numbered in pencil From: Variations (8 plates) Edition: 100 (56/100) Printer: Frelaut et Lacouriere Imprimeur, Paris Paper: BFK RIVES watermark on some sheets from the ser...
Category

1970s Abstract Abstract Prints

Materials

Etching

Lola De Valence
By Édouard Manet
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Lola De Valence Etching, 1862 Signed in the plate lower left: “Ed Manet” Printed on chine collee paper, without watermark From the first edition, published by Cadart and Luquet, Paris, before the removal of the inscription “ Ed. Manet sculpt” From the 1863 edition, before the 1874 Portfolio, 1890 Portolio. 1894 Dumont edition and the Strolin edition of 100 in 1905 Pencil inscription with title below the plate in the lower margin Conditiono: Excellent Image size: 10 7/8 x 6 7/8 inches Plate size: 18 3/4 x 13 inches Reference: Harris-Manet 33 iii/III Guerin-Manet 23 vi/VIII The painting that this etching is inspired by is in the collection of the Musee d'Orsay, Paris. "Lola de Valence is a painting by the painter Édouard Manet in 1862 . The canvas represents a dancer dressed intraditional Spanish clothes...
Category

1860s Impressionist Figurative Prints

Materials

Etching

WARNING! Register*Vote, INFLATION means DEPRESSION
By Ben Shahn
Located in Fairlawn, OH
WARNING! Register*Vote, INFLATION means DEPRESSION Photo lithograph, 1946 Signed in the image lower left Published by CIO (Congress of Industrial Organizations) before their merger w...
Category

1940s American Realist Figurative Prints

Materials

Offset

French Iris I
By Donald Sultan
Located in Fairlawn, OH
French Iris I Reducutve color woodcut, 1982 Unsigned Stamped verso “Imprimerie Arnera Archives/Non Signe” From: Tramp Picture series "The printer was Claude Jinchat at Imprimerie Arn...
Category

1980s Contemporary Still-life Prints

Materials

Linocut

French Stacks
By Donald Sultan
Located in Fairlawn, OH
French Stacks Linocut printed in color Unsigned Stamped verso “Imprimerie Arnera Archives/Non Signe” Printer: Jaime Arnera, Vallarius, France (their stamp verso) Condition: Printed ...
Category

1980s Abstract Expressionist Landscape Prints

Materials

Linocut

Napoleon Standing
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Napoleon Standing Lithograph, 1822 Signed in the stone lower left corner of image (see photo) From: Arnault, A. V. Vie Politique et Militaire de Napoleon (120 plates) Published, Paris, Librairie Historiquem 1822 Printed by C. Motte, Paris Considered to be the major pictorial treatise on Napoleon and his military conquests. Image size: 14 x 9 3/4 inches Sheet size: 23 5/8 x 17 3/4 inches Condition: Very good Horizontal prints...
Category

1820s Romantic Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Untitled
By Andre Minaux
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Unsigned Edition: Large edition as published and bound into the catalog raisonne of the artist's lithographs From: Minaux Lithographe Published by Leon Amiel, Paris Printed by Fe...
Category

1970s Portrait Prints

Materials

Lithograph

untitled (Still Life with Cup and Horn)
By Tomoe Yokoi
Located in Fairlawn, OH
untitled (Still Life with Cup and Horn) Color mezzotint, c. 1980 Numbered and signed in pencil by the artist (see photos) Edition: 100 (53/100) Published by John Szoke Graphics, New ...
Category

1980s Contemporary Still-life Prints

Materials

Mezzotint

Russian Orthodox Church, Middle 19th Century
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Unknown Russian Artist Russian Orthodox Church, Middle 19th century Unsigned Illuminated in red, yellow blue and green pigments and gold leaf on paper ...
Category

Mid-19th Century Old Masters Abstract Paintings

Materials

Pigment

Cover illustration for Die Graphischen Kunste, Volume 22
By Henri Riviere
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Cover illustration for Die Graphischen Kunste, Volume 22 Color lithograph, 1899 Signed with the artist's initials lower center (see photo) From: The Graphic Arts, Volume 22, 1899 ...
Category

1890s Art Nouveau Landscape Prints

Materials

Lithograph

The White Gate (New Castle, Delaware)
By Stow Wengenroth
Located in Fairlawn, OH
The White Gate (New Castle, Delaware) Lithograph, 1961 Signed in pencil lower right (see photo) Numbered and title in the lower left (see photos) Condition: Excellent Image size: 15 ...
Category

1960s American Realist Landscape Prints

Materials

Lithograph

The Century Magazine
By Edward Henry Potthast
Located in Fairlawn, OH
After Edward Henry Potthast The Century Magazine Chromolithograph, July 7, 1896 Printed by W.B. Orcutt Co., NY Note: This image won an honorable mention in a poster contest sponsored...
Category

1890s Art Nouveau Portrait Prints

Materials

Lithograph

untitled
By Peter Marks
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Unsigned Provenance: Estate of the artist Dimensions: Sheet: 17 x 14"; Image: 5 5/8 x 3 3/4" Peter Marks (1935 -2010) Peter Marks was born in New York City on January 18, 1935. A lifetime New Yorker, Marks graduated from the High School of Music and Art in 1952 and Amherst College in 1956. After a brief stint as a graphic designer in publishing, Marks became a private art dealer and opened his gallery Peter Marks Works of Art, Inc. in 1960. During this time he specialized in the sale of Southeast Asian and Islamic antiquities and made many contributions to the field both as a dealer and an advocate of his profession. Above all, Marks was motivated by a strong desire to find great art and make it available to large audiences. After retiring from art dealing in 2002, Marks transformed his Manhattan gallery space into a studio where he drew prolifically and painted large non-objective canvasses. This time in his studio was a happy one for Marks, who viewed this period of his life not as retirement, but rather fulfillment, a fact that is confirmed by passionate artistic output in the years leading up to his passing in 2010. In 2012, Thomas French...
Category

Early 2000s Abstract Photography

Materials

Mixed Media, Photographic Paper

Black and White Cat
By Sam Spanier
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Black and White Cat Ink and watercolor on paper, c. 1970 Unsigned Provenance: Estate of the artist (Estate No. 737) Condition: Excellent Image/Sheet size: 4 3/4 x 6 1/4 inches Sam Spanier (1925-2008) Born in Brooklyn New York, Sam Spanier studied painting with Hans Hofmann (1949–50) and also at the Taos Valley Art School (1951). His formative years as a working artist were spent in Paris (1951–52), where he also became involved with the work of G. I. Gurdjieff, through his disciple, Mme. Jeanne de Salzmann. By 1953, Spanier’s work had already begun to meet with critical acclaim. That year, he had his first solo gallery show, and was selected by Milton Avery and Hans Hofmann to receive the prestigious Lorian Fund Award. His second solo exhibition, in 1955, was curated by renowned museum director, Gordon Washburn. Spanier’s early work was reviewed by Dore Ashton, Donald Judd, Fairfield Porter, Stuart Preston, and Irving Sandler, among other significant critics of the period. Spanier’s spiritual path increasingly became the central focus of both his life and his art. In 1960, he was introduced to the teachings of Sri Aurobindo, which led to visits to the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry, India, in 1962 and 1964, during which he was inspired to leave New York City and found Matagiri (in 1968)—a spiritual center in Woodstock, New York—with his lifelong partner, Eric Hughes. The work he embarked upon there bifurcates his life as an artist, separating him from New York’s art world, and radically altering the trajectory of his career. From that point forward, it would be difficult, perhaps impossible, to consider his artistic endeavor apart from the life of dedication he had undertaken, and to which he remained committed. As early as 1954, Dore Ashton had recognized in Sam Spanier a “haptic visionary;” in 1960, Irving Sandler wrote that the people in Spanier’s paintings “seem to have witnessed some transfiguring event.” In his later paintings—usually worked in oil pastel on panel or paper—made during intermittent creative periods, from the mid-1970s to the final years of his life, the artist’s inner life remains always apparent in his subject matter; and from the portraits and abstract Buddha-like figures and heads, to the fantasy landscapes, the paintings are redolent with a rich intensity of color and light that can only be described as inspired. Sam Spanier’s works are in the collections of the Historical Society of Woodstock Museum, and the Woodstock Artists Association & Museum. He received the Woodstock Artists Association Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007. Selected Solo Exhibitions: Urban Gallery, New York (1954, 1955, 1956); Wittenborn Gallery, New York (1958); Gallery Mayer, New York (1958, 1959, 1960); Unison Gallery, New Paltz (1986, 1995, 2009); Limner Gallery, New York (1988); Fletcher Gallery, Woodstock, New York (1999). Selected Group Exhibitions: Salon des Comparaisons, Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris, France (1952); October Exhibition of Oil Paintings, New York City Center Gallery, New York (1954); Salon de Mai, Musée d’Art moderne de la ville de Paris, Centre Culturel de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Paris, France (1954); Carnegie International, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (1955); Les Plus Mauvais Tableaux, Galerie Prismes, Paris (1955); Première Exposition Internationale de l’Art Plastique Contemporain, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris (1956); Recent Paintings USA: The Figure, The Museum of Modern Art (1960); Winter’s Work, Woodstock Artists Association, Woodstock, New York (1985); Juried Group Show, Woodstock Artists Association, Woodstock, New York (1986); Woodstock Artists, Self-Portraits, Historical Society of Woodstock Museum, Woodstock, New York (1988); Portraits, Albert Shahinian Fine Art, Poughkeepsie, New York (2003); The World We Live In, Upstate Art, Phoenicia, New York (2003); Show of Heads, Limner Gallery, Phoenicia, New York (2004). Selected Writings on the Artist: Dore Ashton, “Sam Spanier,” Art Digest (May 1, 1954) and “Sam Spanier,” The New York Times (March 16, 1960); Cassia Berman, “Sam Spanier: A Divine Calling,” Woodstock Times (February 7, 2008); Lawrence Campbell, “Sam Spanier: Exhibition of Paintings at Urban Gallery,” Art News...
Category

1970s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Ink, Watercolor

The Dutiful Youth of Mino Province Collecting Wood to Warm His Old Father
By Utagawa Kuniyoshi
Located in Fairlawn, OH
The Dutiful Youth of Mino Province Collecting Wood to Warm His Old Father Color woodcut, c. 1842-43 Signed and sealed lower right (see photo) From the Series: "Honcho nijushi-ko" (Tw...
Category

1840s Other Art Style Figurative Prints

Materials

Woodcut

Ecce Homo VII
By Werner Drewes
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Ecce Homo VII Woodcut, 1921 Signed, titled, and dated in pencil by the artist One of only three known impressions Created while the artist was studying at the Bauhaus in Weimar, Germany. Extreme rarity-One of three know impressions Note: In 1921 Drewes went to the Bauhaus in Weimar, where, after completing the compulsory preliminary course with Johannes Itten, he continued to study with Paul Klee, Oskar Schlemmer and Georg Muche and initially went to the wall painting workshop. He then traveled extensively through Europe, North America and Asia. After returning to Germany in 1927, he went back to the Bauhaus, this time to his new location in Dessau, where he studied in the classes of László Moholy-Nagy and Wassily Kandinsky. He was one of the first artists to introduce the groundbreaking concepts of the Bauhaus School in the United States through his painting, printmaking, and teaching. Condition: Excellent Missing small voids in the upper margin from removal of the original hinges. Image size: 9 7/8 x 8 3/16 inches Reference: Rose 30 Provenance: From the estate of Drewes's teacher at the Bauhaus. During the pasot WW2 the professor lived in East Germany. WERNER DREWES 1899-1985 Werner Drewes initially studied architecture before enrolling, in 1921-22, at the Bauhaus in Weimar under Klee, Kandinsky, Itten and Feininger. For four years - 1923 to 1927 - he travelled the world with his bride, before completing his Bauhaus training in Dessau in 1929. He immigrated to the United States in 1930, documenting that move to New York through series of woodcuts. In 1936/37 he was an active founder of the American Abstract Artists and participated in the Federal Arts Project in New York before moving on to a teaching career at Washington University in St. Louis. As an artist for over sixty five years, he employed various media from drawing and watercolor, through woodcut and etching, to painting and collage. Translating an early interest in subjective cubistic forms, his work evolved into nonobjective abstraction. He was creative until the day of his death. Courtesy: Toby C. Moss Werner Drewes (1899–1985) was a painter, printmaker, and art teacher. Considered to be one of the founding fathers of American abstraction, he was one of the first artists to introduce concepts of the Bauhaus school within the United States. His mature style encompassed both nonobjective and figurative work and the emotional content of this work was consistently more expressive than formal. Drewes was as highly regarded for his printmaking as for his painting. In his role as teacher as well as artist he was largely responsible for bringing the Bauhaus aesthetic to America. Early life and education Drewes was born in 1899 to Georg Drewes, a Lutheran pastor, and Martha Schaefer Drewes. The family lived in the village of Canig within Lower Lusatia, Germany. From age eight to eighteen he attended the Saldria Gymnasium, a boarding school in Brandenburg an der Havel. There, he showed talent both for painting and woodblock printing. Graduating from Saldria in 1917, he was drafted by the German army and served in France from then until the close of the war. About this period of his life he is reported to have said that the horrors of life at the front were only made tolerable by his sketchbook, a copy of Goethe's Faust and a volume of Nietzsche. For a decade following the close of the war he studied, made paintings and prints, and traveled widely. His friend, Herwarth Walden, helped shape his appreciation for expressionist literature and art. Walden produced the quarterly magazine, Der Sturm and ran a gallery of contemporary art, Galerie Der Sturm, from which, in 1919, Drewes purchased an expressionist painting by William Wauer titled Blutrausch (Bloodlust). In the same year he made the acquaintance of Heinrich Vogeler and participated in Vogeler's socialist utopian artists' commune, Barkenhoff, at Worpswede, Lower Saxony. In 1919 Drewes also enrolled at the Königlich Technischen Hochschule Charlottenburg to study architecture and the following year he studied the same subject at the Technischen Hochschule Stuttgart. Preferring art over architecture, he then enrolled in Stuttgart's school of applied arts (Kunstgewerbeschule) where he studied life drawing and learned to work with colored glass. At this time he joined a group of artists and architects associated with the newly formed Merz Akademie, a college of design, art, and media in Stuttgart. In 1921 his friendship with a French artist, Sébastien Laurent, led him to begin studies in Weimar at Bauhaus, then a new school which taught an integrated approach to the fine and applied arts. His instructors were Johannes Itten and Lyonel Feininger, whose paintings were expressionist and abstract, and Paul Klee, who taught bookbinding, stained glass, and murals. While at Bauhaus Drewes produced a portfolio of ten woodblock prints entitled "Ecce Homo." In 1923 and 1924 he studied art during travels throughout Italy, Spain, the United States, and Central America and in 1926 he traveled to San Francisco, Japan, and Korea, thence taking the Trans-Siberian railway to Manchuria, Moscow, and Warsaw. He later said the El Grecos he saw proved to be most influential in his work. While traveling, he exhibited: (1) etchings in Madrid (1923) and Montevideo (1924), oils and etchings in Buenos Aires and St. Louis (1925), and (3) etchings in San Francisco (1926). He paid his way by the sales these exhibits produced and by taking commissions to paint portraits. While in San Francisco he set up a shop from which he sold prints he had made in Spain and South America. After his return to Germany in 1927 he resumed study at Bauhaus, which had been forced to relocate in Dessau, Saxony-Anhalt. His instructors at that time were László Moholy-Nagy (metal work), Wassily Kandinsky, and (painting), and Lyonel Feininger (prints). At this time he also worked and exhibited in Frankfurt. With the rise of Nazism abstract artists found it increasingly difficult to sell their work and, in 1930, Drewes, finding the political pressure unbearable, emigrated to the United States. There, despite the world economic crisis, Drewes was able to earn a living as a professional artist. Mature style After Drewes moved to New York, Kandinsky, who was both friend and mentor, continued to exert a strong influence over his style. Later in life he said he had a hard time getting away from Kandinsky's influence as he developed his own style. In time he was able to bring a more emotional approach to his work and to base it, more than Kandinsky did, on natural forms. In 1930 Drewes had a solo exhibition at the 135th Street Branch of the New York Public Library and a two-person show at the S.P.R. Penthouse Gallery...
Category

1920s Expressionist Abstract Prints

Materials

Woodcut

Untitled (Double sided watercolor) Recto: Figures seated at a table
By Ben Shahn
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Watercolor on paper Most probably related to the artist's creation of images surrounding Haggadah (Passover) which he started in 1930 and finished with the publication of his book in...
Category

1960s American Modern Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor

Ecce Homo Plate X
By Werner Drewes
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Ecce Homo Plate X Woodcut, 1921 Signed, titled, and dated in pencil by the artist (see photos) Edition: One of two known impressions This image wwas unknown to the catloger Ingrid Rose in 1984 when she published the catalog raisonne of Drewes prints. Done while Drewes was studying at the Bauhaus. Reference: Ingrid Rose, Werner Drewes: A Catalogue Raisonne of His Prints (Munich: Verlag Kunstgalerie Esslingen, 1984), 33, one of two known impressions. Provenance: Gift of the artist to one of his Bauhaus professors. Held in East Germany until the opening of the wall Jorg Maas Kunsthandel, Berlin Other image from the suite of Ecce Homo images are available. Extremely early, rare Bauhaus works. n 1921 Drewes went to the Bauhaus in Weimar, where, after completing the compulsory preliminary course with Johannes Itten, he continued to study with Paul Klee, Oskar Schlemmer and Georg Muche and initially went to the wall painting workshop. He then traveled extensively through Europe, North America and Asia. After returning to Germany in 1927, he went back to the Bauhaus, this time to his new location in Dessau, where he studied in the classes of László Moholy-Nagy and Wassily Kandinsky. He was one of the first artists to introduce the groundbreaking concepts of the Bauhaus School in the United States through his painting, printmaking, and teaching. Werner Drewes (1899–1985) was a painter, printmaker, and art teacher. Considered to be one of the founding fathers of American abstraction, he was one of the first artists to introduce concepts of the Bauhaus school within the United States. His mature style encompassed both nonobjective and figurative work and the emotional content of this work was consistently more expressive than formal. Drewes was as highly regarded for his printmaking as for his painting. In his role as teacher as well as artist he was largely responsible for bringing the Bauhaus aesthetic to America. Early life and education Drewes was born in 1899 to Georg Drewes, a Lutheran pastor, and Martha Schaefer Drewes. The family lived in the village of Canig within Lower Lusatia, Germany. From age eight to eighteen he attended the Saldria Gymnasium, a boarding school in Brandenburg an der Havel. There, he showed talent both for painting and woodblock printing. Graduating from Saldria in 1917, he was drafted by the German army and served in France from then until the close of the war. About this period of his life he is reported to have said that the horrors of life at the front were only made tolerable by his sketchbook, a copy of Goethe's Faust and a volume of Nietzsche. For a decade following the close of the war he studied, made paintings and prints, and traveled widely. His friend, Herwarth Walden, helped shape his appreciation for expressionist literature and art. Walden produced the quarterly magazine, Der Sturm and ran a gallery of contemporary art, Galerie Der Sturm, from which, in 1919, Drewes purchased an expressionist painting by William Wauer titled Blutrausch (Bloodlust). In the same year he made the acquaintance of Heinrich Vogeler and participated in Vogeler's socialist utopian artists' commune, Barkenhoff, at Worpswede, Lower Saxony. In 1919 Drewes also enrolled at the Königlich Technischen Hochschule Charlottenburg to study architecture and the following year he studied the same subject at the Technischen Hochschule Stuttgart. Preferring art over architecture, he then enrolled in Stuttgart's school of applied arts (Kunstgewerbeschule) where he studied life drawing and learned to work with colored glass. At this time he joined a group of artists and architects associated with the newly formed Merz Akademie, a college of design, art, and media in Stuttgart. In 1921 his friendship with a French artist, Sébastien Laurent, led him to begin studies in Weimar at Bauhaus, then a new school which taught an integrated approach to the fine and applied arts. His instructors were Johannes Itten and Lyonel Feininger, whose paintings were expressionist and abstract, and Paul Klee, who taught bookbinding, stained glass, and murals. While at Bauhaus Drewes produced a portfolio of ten woodblock prints entitled "Ecce Homo." In 1923 and 1924 he studied art during travels throughout Italy, Spain, the United States, and Central America and in 1926 he traveled to San Francisco, Japan, and Korea, thence taking the Trans-Siberian railway to Manchuria, Moscow, and Warsaw. He later said the El Grecos he saw proved to be most influential in his work. While traveling, he exhibited: (1) etchings in Madrid (1923) and Montevideo (1924), oils and etchings in Buenos Aires and St. Louis (1925), and (3) etchings in San Francisco (1926). He paid his way by the sales these exhibits produced and by taking commissions to paint portraits. While in San Francisco he set up a shop from which he sold prints he had made in Spain and South America. After his return to Germany in 1927 he resumed study at Bauhaus, which had been forced to relocate in Dessau, Saxony-Anhalt. His instructors at that time were László Moholy-Nagy (metal work), Wassily Kandinsky, and (painting), and Lyonel Feininger (prints). At this time he also worked and exhibited in Frankfurt. With the rise of Nazism abstract artists found it increasingly difficult to sell their work and, in 1930, Drewes, finding the political pressure unbearable, emigrated to the United States. There, despite the world economic crisis, Drewes was able to earn a living as a professional artist. Mature style After Drewes moved to New York, Kandinsky, who was both friend and mentor, continued to exert a strong influence over his style. Later in life he said he had a hard time getting away from Kandinsky's influence as he developed his own style. In time he was able to bring a more emotional approach to his work and to base it, more than Kandinsky did, on natural forms. In 1930 Drewes had a solo exhibition at the 135th Street Branch of the New York Public Library and a two-person show at the S.P.R. Penthouse Gallery...
Category

1920s Bauhaus Nude Prints

Materials

Woodcut

Isaiah's Prayer
By Marc Chagall
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Isaiah's Prayer Etching, c. 1931-1939 Signed in the plate (see photo) Plate No. 99 From: La Bible. L'Ancien Testament (105 plates) Edition of 275 unsigned (there were an additional 2...
Category

1930s French School Figurative Prints

Materials

Etching

Butterfly and Heart
By Damien Hirst
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Butterfly and Heart Drawing in black felt pen over color screenprint 'spot' composition Signed in full (bottom edge) and dedicated (top edge) Dedicated by the artist Annotated in fe...
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Ink

Abstraction
By Abraham Walkowitz
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Signed and dated in ink lower center Provenance: Charlotte Bergman, noted collector and patron of Walkowitz. See photo for additional information.
Category

1930s Modern Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Ink, Pen

Standing Female Nude
By Paul Cadmus
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Standing Female Nude Colored chalks on tan Strathmore paper, c. 1975 Signed in chalk upper right (see photo) Condition: Excellent Housed in an 8 play acid free rag matting S...
Category

1970s American Realist Nude Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Chalk

The Draped Figure, Seated
By James Abbott McNeill Whistler
Located in Fairlawn, OH
The Draped Figure, Seated Lithograph on fine japanese paper, 1893 Signed in pencil with the butterfly (see photo) Signed in the stone with the butterfly on the sofa (see photo) Numbered: "No. 20" in pencil Printed by Thomas Way, London A beautiful impression with tonal variations in the stump work (shading) As published in: L'Estampe Originale, Paris, 1893, Album IV Edition: 107 impressions, this No. 20 There were an additonal 24 impressions printed by Way for Whistler and 20 impressions printed for the Fine Art Society, London Lacking the huge support sheet and embossed series stamp by Charpentier With the letterpress lower left: "T. Way. Imp London" The stone erased in 1904 The majority of the lifetime impressions are in public collections Condition: Excellent condition Hinges from original issuance of L'Estampe Originale verso at top as described in Spink Three hinges residue along right edge of the sheet from a later matting of the print Image size: 8 1/4 x 6 3/8 inches Sheet size: 11 3/8 x 9 1/16 inches Reference: Spink/Tadeschi 72, published edition Levy 74 Way 46 A superb Neoclassical lithograph...
Category

1890s American Impressionist Nude Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Nude
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Nude Monotype in colors, 1936 Signed, dated, and inscribed in pencil (see photo) Annotated: "Orig. Monotype," dated Munchen 8 Sept. 1936" Condition: Excellent Image/plate size: 12 7/8 x 10 5/8 inches Sheet size: 20 1/2 x 16 5/8 inches Provenance: Frederick Baker, Inc., Chicago Hans Hermann...
Category

1930s Romantic Nude Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Monotype

Tribute to Bix Beiberbecke
By Stephen Longstreet
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Tribute to Bix Beiberbecke Mixed media collage, 1974 Signed and titled in ink; lower right recto (see photo) Signed and dated ’74 in red crayon verso Image size: 32.5 x 22.75 inches Condition: Wrinkles due to collage and support sheet Provenance: Joseph Erdelac, Cleveland (friend and patron of Longstreet) One of the first Jazz Legends. He died at age 28 from alcoholism. Leon Bismark "Bix" Beiderbecke (March 10, 1903 – August 6, 1931) was an American jazz cornetist, pianist, and composer. Stephen Longstreet (1907-2002) Born Chauncy Weiner (sometimes spelled Wiener) in New York City in 1907, Longstreet reinvented himself on a regular basis. Changing his name first to “Henry,” then “Henri,” he started his career as a commercial artist for a department store. In various public biographies he claimed to have studied in New York, London, and Paris, and said he was a student of cartoonist Ralph Barton (1891-1931). Facts that can be documented are that he was art editor for Golfer and Sportsman magazines, and was a contributor to various other magazines including The New Yorker, Saturday Evening Post, Colliers, Life, and Hooey, among others. He wrote sketches for NBC radio and the Rudy Vallee Show. In the 1930s, Longstreet worked and wrote under the names Thomas Burton, David Ormsbee, and Paul Haggard...
Category

1970s American Modern Mixed Media

Materials

Mixed Media

Five Ideas for Sculpture
By Henry Moore
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Five Ideas for Sculpture Lithograph, 1981 Signed and numbered in pencil by the artist lower margin. (see photos) Edition: (35/50) 50 There were also 15 Roman Numeral artist's proofs....
Category

1950s Modern Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Untitled Art Nouveau Rondelle
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Unknown Artist, France, late 19th century Anonymous c. 1900 Rondelle on antique laid paper Ink, Watercolor and or Gouache Unsigned An Art Nouveau preliminary design for a decorative ...
Category

Early 1900s Art Nouveau Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Ink, Watercolor, Pigment

Cahiers d'art, Surrealist Composition 1
By Joan Miró
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Cahiers d'art, Surrealist Composition 1 Pochoir, 1934 Unsigned as issued in Cahier's edition Published in Cahier's d'art, 1934 Unsigned Edition of 1200 There was also a pencil signed...
Category

1930s Surrealist Abstract Prints

Materials

Stencil

Dames charmante et charmante a tous egard
By Marc Chagall
Located in Fairlawn, OH
(A charming lady chatting with a lady perfect in every possible way) Signed in the plate. No pencil signed impressions are existent. Edition: 368 (including 50 imps on japan) includi...
Category

1920s French School Figurative Prints

Materials

Etching

Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art 1968/ 1983
By James Rosenquist
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art 1968/ 1983 Off-set lithographic poster, 1983 Signed in ink by the artist in the bottom margin (see photo) Poster celebrating the 15 year anniver...
Category

1980s American Modern Abstract Prints

Materials

Offset

Plate I, Le Cocu Magnifique
By Pablo Picasso
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Plate I, Le Cocu Magnifique Etching, 1968 From: Le Cocu Magnifique Unsigned as issued in the portfolio The set of 12 etching & aquatints is signed by Picasso on the justification pa...
Category

1960s French School Figurative Prints

Materials

Etching

Mlle. Jeanne at the Window, No. II
By Benjamin G. Benno
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Mlle. Jeanne at the Window, No. II Charcoal on paper, 1933 Signed and dated lower right (see photo) Illustrated: Gustafson, Zimmerli Museum, 1988, "Benjamin Benno: A Retrospective Ex...
Category

1930s Surrealist Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Charcoal

Claude Renoir, la Tete Baisee (Claude Renoir, Head Lowered)
By Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Claude Renoir, la Tete Baisee (Claude Renoir, Head Lowered) Lithograph, 1904 Edition 1,000, this one of 950 on wove paper with the stamp signature (there were also 50 impressions pri...
Category

Early 1900s Impressionist Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

The Web
By Ray H. French
Located in Fairlawn, OH
The Web Engraving and soft ground, 1950 Signed, titled, dated and numbered by the artist Edition: 35 (26/35) Printed by Master Printer, Jon Clemens, 2000 Provenance: Estate of the ar...
Category

1950s Surrealist Figurative Prints

Materials

Engraving, Etching

Headdress Procession
By Honore Guilbeau
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Headdress Procession Watercolor, c. 1950's Signed by the artist in ink, lower right The Headdress Procession occurs every year as part of the Christmas celebrations in Oaxaca. Guilbe...
Category

1950s American Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor

El Ultimo viaje del buque fantasma, Plate III
By Wifredo Lam
Located in Fairlawn, OH
El Ultimo viaje del buque fantasma, Plate III Color lithograph, 1976 Signed and numbered in pencil From: Gabriel Garcia Marquez, El Ultimo viaie del buq...
Category

1970s Surrealist Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Preliminary Study for the painting Rose and Gold, 1913
By William McGregor Paxton
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Preliminary Study for the painting Rose and Gold, 1913 Graphite on paper, 1913 Signed in pencil lower left (see photo) Titlted "Lizzy Young" in pencil upper left (see photo) Lizzy was a modle that Paxton depicts numerous times. The painting that this drawing is related to, is illustrated in Lee & Krause, William McGregor Paxton, 1869-1941, Plate 32, text on page 132. The painting was formerly in the collection of Victor Spark and the Honorable Paul Buchanan. It is currently in a Texas Collection. Provenance: Private Collection, Florida William McGregor Paxton (June 22, 1869 – 1941) was an American painter and instructor who embraced the Boston School paradigm and was a co-founder of The Guild of Boston Artists. He taught briefly while a student at Cowles Art School, where he met his wife Elizabeth Okie Paxton, and at the Museum of Fine Arts School in Boston. Paxton is known for his portraits, including those of two presidents—Grover Cleveland and Calvin Coolidge—and interior scenes with women, including his wife. His works are in many museums in the United States. Early life He was born on June 22, 1869, in Baltimore to James and Rose Doherty Paxton. William's father moved the Paxton family and established a catering business in Newton Corner, Massachusetts, in the mid-1870s. Education Paxton attended Cowles Art School on a scholarship he attained at the age of 18. He studied with Dennis Miller Bunker...
Category

1910s American Impressionist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Graphite

J. Becquet, Sculptor
By James Abbott McNeill Whistler
Located in Fairlawn, OH
J. Becquet, Sculptor Etching & drypoint, 1859 Unsigned as issued From: The Thames Set Printed on this Japanese tissue Rich impression Condition: Excellent Plate/Image size: 9 7/8 x 7...
Category

19th Century Impressionist Portrait Prints

Materials

Drypoint, Etching

Preliminary drawing for the painting entitled Trapezoids
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Ink, graphite and colored pencil on graph paper The final composition measured 28 x 28 inches Annotated #615 in the lower right corner of the sheet Provenance: Francine Seders Galler...
Category

1950s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Color Pencil

Untitled
By Leon Kelly
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Untitled Graphite on paper, 1930 Signed and dated upper right (see photo) Exhibited: Francis Nauman, Leon Kelly: Draftsman Extraordinaire, New York, April 4 - May 23, 2014. (label) C...
Category

1920s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Pencil

Antelope Canyon, Arizona
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Antelope Canyon, Arizona Color photograph, n.d. Signed in ink on verso (see photo) Titled, numbered on verso (see photo) Edition: 50 (2/50) Shaped by millions of years of water and w...
Category

2010s Abstract Landscape Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper

La grande incognita (The great unknown)
By Ray H. French
Located in Fairlawn, OH
La grande incognita (The great unknown) Collage elements with paint, paint and paper foil, 1964 1964 Created while the artist was studying at the Accademia d'Arte, Florence Signed an...
Category

1960s Abstract Mixed Media

Materials

Mixed Media

WO RO SI IA ZIN Russian Soldier with His Family
Located in Fairlawn, OH
WO RO SI IA ZIN Russian Soldier with His Family Color woodcut, 1861 2nd month Signed upper left (see photo) Titled upper right in black cartouche (see photo) Format: oban Style: Yokohama-e Publisherr: Sagamiya Tokichi (Marks #435) active 1955-1866 Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, has an impression of this image RARE Condition: with usual aging Image size: 13 7/8 x 9 3/8 inches Rebecca Salter in her Japanese Popular Prints... on page 18 gives a different take on the situation that Yoshifuji found himself in. "A giant of the period, however, was Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-861). Although best known for warrior prints which reflected the militaristic undercurrents of the time, he was also responsible for some of the most light-heartend and humorous works in this book. His followers in the Utagawa school, Utagawa Yoshitsuya...
Category

1860s Other Art Style Figurative Prints

Materials

Woodcut

Moon Rays
By Ray H. French
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Moon Rays Graphic Construction (three sheets layered in a shadow box presentation), 1967 Signed lower right. Editioned lower left. (see photos) Edition: 60 f...
Category

1960s Op Art Abstract Prints

Materials

Other Medium

The Second Wave, Coyote Buttes, Paria Canyon-Vermilion Clifts Wilderness, AR
Located in Fairlawn, OH
The Second Wave, Coyote Buttes, Paria Canyon-Vermilion Clifts Wilderness, Arizona Photograph on Kodak Professional Paper, c. 1980's Unsigned Condition: Excellent Mi...
Category

1980s Naturalistic Landscape Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper

Le Groupe
By Alexander Archipenko
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Le Groupe Lithograph, 1963 Signed and numbered in pencil, lower right Edition: 75 (68/75) see photo Publisher: Erker Presse, St. Gallen blindstamp lower left. see photo From the suit...
Category

1960s Cubist Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Three Graces
By Ray H. French
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Three Graces Pentel marker on paper, 1965 Signed and dated by the artist lower left (see photo) Part of a series of 100 drawings, this number 97 (annotated lower right corner) Condition: Excellent Sheet/Image size: 20 x 15 inches Provenance: Estate of the Artist Martha A. French Trust Ray H. French: The Evolution of an Artistic Innovator Printmaker, painter, and sculptor Ray H. French was born in Terre Haute, Indiana on May 16, 1919. Terre Haute was a cultural wasteland before the opening of the Sheldon Swope Art Museum in 1942. Thus, with a father as a coal miner and carpenter, art remained a luxury for Ray. Nevertheless, local art teachers Mabel Mikel Williams and Nola E. Williams helped to foster his creativity and unshakable drive to create things of beauty. After high school, Ray attended the John Herron School of Art in Indianapolis. His studies there were interrupted by the outbreak of World War II, during which he developed surveillance photographs for the Army Air Force. After the war, Ray transferred to the University of Iowa on the G.I. Bill, where he received both his BFA and MFA degrees. The University of Iowa during the 1940s was a cultural mecca with many major art historians and artists. While in Iowa, Ray played an important role in this culture by becoming a founding member of the Iowa Print...
Category

1960s American Modern Nude Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Permanent Marker

Chorus Line
By Sam Spanier
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Chorus Line Oil pastel on paper, c. 1960's Signed (see photo) Provenance: Estate of the Artist Estate of the artist (Estate No. 745) Condition: Excellent Image/Sheet size: 5 3/4 x 4 inches Sam Spanier (1925-2008) Born in Brooklyn New York, Sam Spanier studied painting with Hans Hofmann (1949–50) and also at the Taos Valley Art School (1951). His formative years as a working artist were spent in Paris (1951–52), where he also became involved with the work of G. I. Gurdjieff, through his disciple, Mme. Jeanne de Salzmann. By 1953, Spanier’s work had already begun to meet with critical acclaim. That year, he had his first solo gallery show, and was selected by Milton Avery and Hans Hofmann to receive the prestigious Lorian Fund Award. His second solo exhibition, in 1955, was curated by renowned museum director, Gordon Washburn. Spanier’s early work was reviewed by Dore Ashton, Donald Judd, Fairfield Porter, Stuart Preston, and Irving Sandler, among other significant critics of the period. Spanier’s spiritual path increasingly became the central focus of both his life and his art. In 1960, he was introduced to the teachings of Sri Aurobindo, which led to visits to the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry, India, in 1962 and 1964, during which he was inspired to leave New York City and found Matagiri (in 1968)—a spiritual center in Woodstock, New York—with his lifelong partner, Eric Hughes. The work he embarked upon there bifurcates his life as an artist, separating him from New York’s art world, and radically altering the trajectory of his career. From that point forward, it would be difficult, perhaps impossible, to consider his artistic endeavor apart from the life of dedication he had undertaken, and to which he remained committed. As early as 1954, Dore Ashton had recognized in Sam Spanier a “haptic visionary;” in 1960, Irving Sandler wrote that the people in Spanier’s paintings “seem to have witnessed some transfiguring event.” In his later paintings—usually worked in oil pastel on panel or paper—made during intermittent creative periods, from the mid-1970s to the final years of his life, the artist’s inner life remains always apparent in his subject matter; and from the portraits and abstract Buddha-like figures and heads, to the fantasy landscapes, the paintings are redolent with a rich intensity of color and light that can only be described as inspired. Sam Spanier’s works are in the collections of the Historical Society of Woodstock Museum, and the Woodstock Artists Association & Museum. He received the Woodstock Artists Association Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007. Selected Solo Exhibitions: Urban Gallery, New York (1954, 1955, 1956); Wittenborn Gallery, New York (1958); Gallery Mayer, New York (1958, 1959, 1960); Unison Gallery, New Paltz (1986, 1995, 2009); Limner Gallery, New York (1988); Fletcher Gallery, Woodstock, New York (1999). Selected Group Exhibitions: Salon des Comparaisons, Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris, France (1952); October Exhibition of Oil Paintings, New York City Center Gallery, New York (1954); Salon de Mai, Musée d’Art moderne de la ville de Paris, Centre Culturel de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Paris, France (1954); Carnegie International, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (1955); Les Plus Mauvais Tableaux, Galerie Prismes, Paris (1955); Première Exposition Internationale de l’Art Plastique Contemporain, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris (1956); Recent Paintings USA: The Figure, The Museum of Modern Art (1960); Winter’s Work, Woodstock Artists Association, Woodstock, New York (1985); Juried Group Show, Woodstock Artists Association, Woodstock, New York (1986); Woodstock Artists, Self-Portraits, Historical Society of Woodstock Museum, Woodstock, New York (1988); Portraits, Albert Shahinian Fine Art, Poughkeepsie, New York (2003); The World We Live In, Upstate Art, Phoenicia, New York (2003); Show of Heads, Limner Gallery, Phoenicia, New York (2004). Selected Writings on the Artist: Dore Ashton, “Sam Spanier,” Art Digest (May 1, 1954) and “Sam Spanier,” The New York Times (March 16, 1960); Cassia Berman, “Sam Spanier: A Divine Calling,” Woodstock Times (February 7, 2008); Lawrence Campbell, “Sam Spanier: Exhibition of Paintings at Urban Gallery,” Art News (April 1, 1954); Sam Feinstein, “Sam Spanier: Exhibition of Paintings at Urban Gallery,” Art Digest (March 1, 1955); Pat Horner, “Big Heart, Timeless Art —Sam Spanier Retrospective at Fletcher Gallery, Woodstock Times (July 1, 1999); Donald Judd, “In the Galleries: Sam Spanier,” Arts Magazine (April 1960); Liam Nelson, “Human Force...
Category

1960s Abstract Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Oil Crayon

Nude on a Stool
By Aaron Bohrod
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Nude on a Stool Ink on paper, c. 1970-80 Signed in red ink lower right Illustrated: Elliott & Wooden, page 232 A copy of this hardbound books accompanies purchase Condition: Excell...
Category

1970s American Realist Nude Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Ink

Untitled
By Leon Kelly
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Untitled Pastel on paper, 1922 Initialed and dated lower right (see photo) Exhibited: Francis Nauman, Leon Kelly: Draftsman Extraordinaire, New York, April 4 - May 23, 2014. Provenance: Estate of the Artist The Orange Chicken...
Category

1920s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Pastel

Untitled
By Leon Kelly
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Untitled Pastel on paper, 1922 Initialed lower right (see photo) Exhibited: Francis Nauman, Leon Kelly: Draftsman Extraordinaire, New York, April 4 - May 23, 2014. Condition: excellent Image size: 11 8 7/8 inches Frame size: 18 1/4 x 16 1/4 inches Provenance: Estate of the artist The Orange Chicken...
Category

1920s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Pastel

Dona Ascensione
By Kenneth M. Adams
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Dona Ascensione Off set lithograph, 1932/published 1950 Signed in pencil by the artist lower right (see photo) Titled in the stone, lower left From: New Mexico Artist...
Category

1930s American Realist Portrait Prints

Materials

Offset

The Jolly Corner. A portfolio of 21 etchings.
By Peter Milton
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Portfolio of 21 photosensitive etchings and engravings on Rives Heavyweight Buff Signed by the artist in pencil on frontispiece Plate No. II:2; Signed by the artist Numbered 27/150 in pencil on the colophon page along with chop marks of artist/printers Robert E. Townsend and Gretchen Ewert, and the chop of Impressions Workshop, Boston Edition: 150 References And Exhibitions: A portfolio edition of Henry James' ghost story first published by "The English Review" in December, 1908 Principal Portfolio Edition Published by Aquarius Press Baltimore, MD Reference: Kneeland McNulty, Peter Milton: Complete Etchings 1960...
Category

1970s Contemporary More Prints

Materials

Etching

L'Angellus (The Angel)
By Alfredo Müller
Located in Fairlawn, OH
L'Angellus (The Angel) Etching, engraving and acquatint on Arches paper, 1908 Signed lower right by the artist (see photo) This is a first state impression printed in a brown/black ink There was also a color edition of 50 impressions published by Sagot Reference: Wurzer 27 Provenance: Edmund Sagot, the publisher Sagot Heirs Condition: Rich impression. Verso: print has staining. Printer's crease visibile from verso only. Image/Plate size: 19 1/4 x 15 1/2" (48.9 x 39.37 cm) Sheet size: 24 x 17 3/8 inches From the British Museum: "Colour etcher. Born in Livorno from a family of wealthy Swiss cotton merchants, studied with Giuseppe Ciaranfi and Michele Gordigiani in Florence. In 1886 exhibited with Fattori, Achille Lega and Tommasi in the Prima Esposizione delle Belle Arti in Livorno. In 1888 he and his family moved to Paris, where he studied first with François Flameng until 1892 and later with Carolus-Duran. Müller remained in the French capital until the outbreak of the First World War, taking French citizenship in 1913. He worked in the countryside at Barbizon, Suresnes and elsewhere, but also made frequent visits to his native country, where he exhibited regularly in Florence with the Promotrice Fiorentine. His early work was indebted to Fattori and Plinio Nomellini, but he soon became interested in the Impressionists and was credited by the critic Mario Tinti with introducing the luminism of Monet into Italian art. Müller was a member of the Société des Artistes Indépendents and exhibited regularly in the Paris dealer...
Category

Early 1900s Art Nouveau Figurative Prints

Materials

Etching

Woman's Head
By Elie Nadelman
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Edition of 50 printed by Charles White in 1951 for the estate Bibliography: Lincoln Kirstein, Elie Nademan (New York: The Eakins Press, 1973),, 20 Elie Nadelman Born 1882, Warsaw...
Category

1920s American Modern Prints and Multiples

Materials

Drypoint

Untitled
By Leon Kelly
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Untitled Pastel on paper, 1922 Signed with the artist's initials in pencil Provenance: Estate of the artist Francis M. Nauman (label) Private collection, NY A very early abstract/cubist work by Kelly. Created while the artist was studying with Arthur Carles in Philadelphia. Leon Kelly (October 21, 1901 – June 28, 1982) was an American artist born in Philadelphia, PA. He is most well known for his contributions to American Surrealism, but his work also encompassed styles such as Cubism, Social Realism, and Abstraction. Reclusive by nature, a character trait that became more exaggerated in the 1940s and later, Kelly's work reflects his determination not to be limited by the trends of his time. His large output of paintings is complemented by a prolific number of drawings that span his career of 50 years. Some of the collections where his work is represented are: The Metropolitan Museum in New York, The Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Boston Public Library. Biography Kelly was born in 1901 at home at 1533 Newkirk Street, Philadelphia, PA. He was the only child of Elizabeth (née Stevenson) and Pantaleon L. Kelly. The family resided in Philadelphia where Pantaleon and two of his cousins owned Kelly Brothers, a successful tailoring business. The prosperity of the firm enabled his father to purchase a 144-acre farm in Bucks County PA in 1902, which he named "Rural Retreat" It was here that Pantaleon took Leon to spend every weekend away from the pressures of business and from the disappointments in his failing marriage. Idyllic and peaceful memories of the farm stayed with Leon and embued his work with a love of nature that emerged later in the Lunar Series, in Return and Departure, and in the insect imagery of his Surrealist work. "If anything," he once said,"I am a Pantheist and see a spirit in everything, the grass, the rocks, everything." At thirteen, Leon left school and began private painting lessons with Albert Jean Adolphe, a teacher at the School of Industrial Art (now the University of the Arts) in Philadelphia. He learned technique by copying the works of the old masters and visiting the Philadelphia Zoo, where he would draw animals. Drawings done in 1916 and 1917 of elephants, snakes and antelope, as well as copies of old master paintings by Holbein and Michelangelo, heralded an impressive emerging talent. In 1917, he studied sculpture with Alexander Portnoff but his studies came to an abrupt halt with the start of World War I. Being too young to enlist, he joined the Quartermaster Corp at the Army Depot in Philadelphia, where he served for more than a year loading ships with supplies and, along with other artists, working on drawings for camouflage. By 1920, the family's fortunes drastically changed. His father's business had failed due to the introduction of ready made clothing and his marriage, unhappy from the beginning, dissolved. Broken by circumstance Pantaleon left Philadelphia to begin a wandering existence looking for work leaving Leon to support his mother and grandmother. He found a job in 1920 at the Freihofer Baking Company where he worked nights for the next four years. Under these circumstances Leon continued to develop his skills in drawing and painting and learned of the revolutionary developments in art that were taking place in Paris. During the day he was granted permission to study anatomy at the Philadelphia School of Osteopathy where he dissected a cadaver and perfected his knowledge of the human figure. He also met and studied etching with Earl Horter, a well known illustrator, who had amassed a significant collection of modern art which included work by Brancusi, Matisse, and Cubist works by Picasso and Braque. Among the artists around Horter was Arthur Carles, a charismatic and controversial painter who taught at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Leon enrolled in the Academy in 1922, becoming what Carles described as, "his best student". In the next three years Leon work ranged from academic studies of plaster casts, to pointillism, to landscapes of Fairmount Park in Philadelphia, as well as a series of pastels showing influences from Matisse to Picasso. Clearly influenced by Earl Horter's collection and Arthur Carles he mastered analytical cubism in works such as The Three Pears, 1923 and 1925 experimented with Purism in Moon Behind the Italian House. In 1925 Kelly was awarded a Cresson Scholarship and on June 14 he left for Europe. Paris The first trip to Europe lasted for approximately three and a half months and introduced Kelly to a culture and place where he felt he belonged. Though he returned to the Academy in the Fall, he left for Europe again a few months later to begin a four-year stay in Paris. He moved into an apartment at 19 rue Daguerre in Paris and began an existence intellectually rich but in creature comforts, very poor. "I kept a cinderblock over the drain in the kitchen sink to keep the rats out of the apartment" he once explained. He frequented the cafes making acquaintances with Henry Miller, James Joyce and the critic Félix Fénéon as well as others. His days were split between copying old master paintings in the Louvre and pursuing modernist ideas that were swirling through the work of all the artists around him. The Lake, 1926 and Interior of the Studio, 1927, now in the Newark Museum. Patrons during this time were the police official Leon Zamaran, a collector of Courbets, Lautrecs and others, who began collecting Kelly's work. Another was Alfred Barnes of the Barnes Collection in Philadelphia. In 1929 Kelly married a young French woman, Henriette D'Erfurth. She appears frequently in paintings and drawings done between 1928 and the early 1930s. Philadelphia The stock market crash of 1929 made it impossible to continue living in Paris and Kelly and Henriette returned to Philadelphia in 1930. He rented a studio on Thompson Street and began working and participating in shows in the city's galleries. Work from 1930 to 1940 showed continuing influences and experimentation with the themes and techniques acquired in Paris as well as a brief foray into Social Realism. The Little Gallery of Contemporary Art purchased the Absinthe Drinker...
Category

1920s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Pastel

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