Thomas French Fine Art Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Couple Embracing Sumi ink drawing, c. 1928 Signed lower right: Shinsui (early variant signature) Most probably an illustration for one of the four volum...

Staten Island Watercolor on paper, c. 1928 Signed with the Estate stamp lower left Sheet size: 19 1/8 x 23 7/8 inches Titled on verso Part of small series of watercolors done of the ...

Standing Male Nude Graphite on wove paper, c. 1890's Unsigned Sheet size: 9 5/16 x 6 inches Provenance: Rookwood Pottery Factory Collection, Cincinnati Ira Spanierman, New York (labe...

Snow White pen and ink with watercolor, 1999 Signed with the artist's initials and dated along the bottom edge (see photo) Sheet size: 6 x 6 inches Peregrine Honig (born 1976 in San Francisco, CA) is an American artist whose work is concerned with the relationship between pop culture, sexual vulnerability, social anxieties, the ethics of luxury and trends in consumerism. Honig appeared on season one of Bravo’s artist reality television show, Work of Art: The Next Great Artist, which aired from June 9–August 11, 2010, finishing in second place. Career Born in San Francisco and raised in The Castro and in Project Artaud, Honig moved to Kansas City, Missouri, at 17 to attend the Kansas City Art Institute. At age 22, Honig was the youngest living artist to have work acquired by the Whitney Museum of Art’s permanent collection. Honig’s work is included in private and public collections, including: The Art Institute of Chicago, Yale University Art Gallery, The Fogg Art Museum, Milwaukee Art Museum...

Untitled (Joe Louis knocking out Max Schmeling in 1938 rematch) Pen and ink with wash on heavy wove sketchbook paper, 1938 Signed lower right: Fletcher Martin Directly related to Martin's famous painting of 1942 entitled "Lullaby", which was also used in the lithograph of the same name. (see photo) The drawing depicts the third and final knockdown of Max Schmeling in their rematch of 1938. Condition: Mat staining at the edges of the sketchbook page edges Toning to verso from previous framing. Does not affect framed presentation "It was here that Louis first used sport to bridge America's cavernous racial divide. With Hitler on the march in Europe and using Schmeling's victory over Louis as proof of “Aryan supremacy,” anti-Nazi sentiment ran high in the States. Louis had long grown accustomed to the pressures of representing his race but here the burdens were broader and deeper. Now he was shouldering the hopes of an entire nation. A few weeks before the match Louis visited the White House and U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, whose tenure lasted even longer than Louis' would, told him, “Joe, we need muscles like yours to beat Germany.” Those muscles certainly beat Schmeling on fight night...

Head of a Deco Woman (recto) Standing Male Model (verso) Graphite on paper, 1925 Signed with the artist's initials "PW" and dated 1925 Created while the artist was studying at the ...

Portrait of Dr. Auguste Soins Black chalk on paper, c. 1883 Signed with the artist’s estate stamp, Lugt 1305a lower right (see photo) Note: This possibly is the preliminary drawing f...

Preliminary drawing for the sculpture Diadem Black Crayon on paper, 1957 Signed and dated lower left The preliminary drawing for the 1957 sculpture of the same name in the collection of the Baltimore Museum of Art...

Bull engaging the muleta (Bull Fight) Signed with the Estate stamp lower left (See photo) Provenance: Estate of the Artist Marbella Gallery Inc., NYC Refer...

Woman Pulling on a Slip Conte on paper, c. 1910 Signed lower right: "E. Shinn" (see photo of legs, signature on right) Provenance: Estate of the Artist (see label) Graham Gallery, N...

Nude Female Torso Charcoal on paper, c. 1920 Stamped and initialed in pencil "Asa Cheffetz/A.D.C" Estate signature by wife, A.D.C. Exhibited: Museum of F...

Three Nudes in a Garden Graphite, c. 1928-1933 Initialed in pencil lower left (see photo) Illustrated: Elliott & Wooden, Aaron Bohrod: Figure Sketches, Fige 9, page 32 (see photo) A...

Readings from the "Communion of Saints": folio from an Italian Missal Pigment on vellum Mid 17th century Provenance: Otto F. Ege (1888-1951) Phillip Duechnes Bookseller, New York, c. 1948 References And Exhibitions: Otto F. Ege Box Folio 27 Ege describes these folios as: Epistolary (Epistolarium), Italy, Middle 15th century Latin Text: Rotunda or Round Gothic Script, square rhetorical neumes Sister folio are in the following rare book libraries: Case Western Reserve University Cincinnati Public Library Cleveland Institute of Art Cleveland Public Library Denison University Kent State University Kenyon College...

Academic Nude Study by E. Rantz Charcoal on laid paper signed in charcoal Lalanne Watermark, c. 1880-1900 Image: 24 3/4 x 18 3/4"

Signed lower center edge Annotated verso: “5 Juin 1966 _____ et de soleil, de et d’oseille” Image: 6 3/4 x 4 5/8" Frame: 14 1/2 x 12 3/4" Finishe...

Turn of the century drawing signed E. Rantz on laid paper. Watermark: Lalanne Frame: 29 3/4 x 24 Image: 24 3/4 x 18 3/4"

Woman with child Watercolor on paper, c. 1930 Signed with the estate stamp lower right (see photo) Exhibited: Marbella Gallery, New York Illustrated: Robert Hallowell: An Artist Redi...

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...

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...

untitled (Maine Autumn Landscape across the narrows from Mt. Desert) Watercolor, 1945-1955 Signed by the artist lower left in pencil (see photo) Provenance: Estate of the artist Cond...

Plum Branches and Flowers watercolor on wove paper, 1985 Signed and dated in pencil lower right corner From the artist's 1985 sketchbook Inspired by O'Sickey's love of Japanese and Chinese art and calligraphy. Provenance: Estate of the artist Condition: Excellent Image/Sheet size: 13 5/8 x 17 inches Joseph B. O’Sickey, Painter 1974 CLEVELAND ARTS PRIZE FOR VISUAL ARTS The title conferred on him by Plain Dealer art critic Steve Litt in a 1994 article, “the dean of painting in northeast Ohio,” must have pleased Joseph O'Sickey. It was more than 30 years since he had burst onto the local (and national) art scene. O’Sickey was already in his 40s in that spring of 1962 when he had his first one-man show at the Akron Art Museum and was signed by New York’s prestigious Seligmann Galleries, founded in 1888. In the decade and a half that followed, he would have seven one-man shows at Seligmann, which had showed the work of such trailblazing figures as Seurat, Vuilliard, Bonnard, Leger and Picasso, and appear in all of the group shows. O’Sickey took the Best Painting award in the 1962 May Show at the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA). He and would capture the same honor in back-to-back May Shows in 1964 and ’65, and again in 1967. The remarkable thing, noted the Plain Dealer’s Helen Borsick, was that he accomplished this sweep in a variety of painterly styles, even using that most hackneyed of subjects, flowers. “The subject doesn’t matter,” he told her, “what the artist brings to it is the important thing.” O’Sickey’s garden and landscape paintings were big and bold, eschewing delicate detail in favor of vitality and impact. The great art collector and CMA benefactor Katherine C. White, standing before one of O’Sickey’s vivid garden paintings, compared the sensation to “being pelted with flowers.” Though he might represent an entire blossom with one or two smudged brush strokes or a stem with a simple sweep of green, O’Sickey rejected the moniker of Impressionist—or Pointillist or Abstract painter or Expressionist. “My work,” he said, “is a direct response to the subject. I believe in fervor and poetic metaphor. I try to make each color and shape visible and identifiable within the context of surrounding colors and shapes. A yellow must hold its unique quality from any another yellow or surrounding color, and yet read as a lemon or an object, by inference. It does not require shading or modeling—the poetic evocation is part of the whole.” “The subject,” O’Sickey used to tell his students at Kent State University, where he taught painting from 1964 to 1989, “has to be seen as a whole and the painting has to be structured to be seen as a whole.” He liked to think of it as “a process of controlled rapture.” When, in the 1960s, fond childhood memories drew him to the zoo, he found himself responding to the caged animals in their lonely dignity (or indignity) with sharp-edged, almost silhouette-like forms that evoked Matisse’s paintings and cut-paper assemblages. One observer was left with the impression that the artist had “looked at these animals, past daylight and into dusk when they lose their details in shadow and become pure shapes, with eyes that are seeing the viewer rather than the other way around. This is a world of shape and essence,” wrote Helen Borsick. “All is simplification.” O’Sickey attributed his ability to capture his subjects with just a few strokes—in an almost iconographic way—to a rigorous exercise he had imposed upon himself over a period of several months. Limiting his tools to a large No. 6 bristle brush and black ink, he set himself the task of drawing his pet parakeet and the other small objects in its cage (cuttlebone, feeding dish, tinkling bell) hundreds of times. The exercise gave him “invaluable insights into painting. . . . Because of the crudity of the medium, every part of these drawings had to be an invention and every mark had to have its room and clarity.” Then he began adding one color at a time—“still with the same brush and striving for the same clarity”—and headed off to the zoo where “the world opened up to me. I learned how little it took to express the subject.” Born in Detroit at the close of the First World War, O’Sickey grew up in St. Stanislaus parish near East 65th and Fleet on Cleveland’s southeast side. (The apostrophe was inserted into the family’s proud Polish name by a clerk at Ellis Island.) An early interest in drawing and painting may have been kindled by the presence on the walls of Charles Dickens Elementary School, one of only three grade schools in the district with a special focus on the arts, of masterful watercolors by such Cleveland masters as Paul Travis, Frank N. Wilcox and Bill Coombes. As a youngster O’Sickey took drawing classes at the Cleveland Museum of Art, and he and his brother spent hours copying famous paintings; while a student at East Tech High School in the mid-’30s, he attended free evening classes in life drawing with Travis and Ralph Stoll at the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Institute, and Saturday classes at the Cleveland School (later the Cleveland Institute) of Art, where he earned his degree in 1940 under the tutelage of Travis, Stoll and such other legendary figures as Henry Keller, Carl Gaertner, William Eastman, Kenneth Bates...

West Gouldsboro (Looking Across Mt. Desert Narrows) Watercolor on paper, c. 1945-1955 Unsigned Provenance: Estate of the Artist Condition: Excellent Image/Sheet size: 9 7/8 x 12 1/2 inches Regarding the Maine subject matter of her watercolors, we know that Allen taught art in West Gouldsboro, ME, located near Arcadia National Forest. This watercolor was most probably done in that vicinity. A local Maine newsletter mentions “the artist Greta Allen’s house” as artist residing in West Gouldsboro, Maine in a house formerly owned by James Hill. West Gouldsboro is located just east of the Mt. Desert Narrows, across Frenchman Bay from Mt. Desert Island and Arcadia National Park. Please see attached images for detailed information about the artist's life and time in Maine. Greta Allen, who is sometimes listed under her married name Dietz, was born in Boston in 1881. At the Massachusetts Normal Art School she took elementary lessons from Joseph R. DeCamp, then Frank Benson was her teacher at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Although her work seems to be only in private collections today, Allen exhibited at the Boston Art Club, at the Copley Society...

Untitled Abstraction Graphite on paper. c. 1946 Unsigned Provenance: Estate of the Artist Inherited by his neighbor/caregiver Condition: Staining at corners ...

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...

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...

Hai (Abba) (Hebrew translation: Hey Father) Signed in ink lower left by the artist’s widow “AL” (Adele Lozowick) Original label from early exhibition verso at The Art Corner Graphit...

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...

Signed and dated in ink lower center Provenance: Charlotte Bergman, noted collector and patron of Walkowitz. See photo for additional information.

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...

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...

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 ...

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...

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...

The Dark Aspect of the Great Goddess Devi Pigment on paper (unfinished), 19th century Unsigned as is usual Condition: Good color Voids at edges of the sheet Image s...

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...

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...

Temple of Isis Philae (verso) Dpouoble sided watercolor, 1902 Signed on front lower left: "Henry Bacon" and dated 1902 Note: The Temple of Isis is located on the Island of Philae at ...

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...

Two Boys (one standing, the other seated and drawing) Graphite and colored pencils on wove paper, 1975 Signed and dated lower left center (see photo) Condition: Excellent Slight waviness visible only on reverse Image size: 11 1/2 x 13 3/4 inches Sheet size: 14 x 17 3/4 inches Provenance: Estate of the Artist By descent Mary Spain (Colie) (1934-1983) Mary Spain was born in Raleigh, North Carolina. She taught art in Chagrin Falls...

Untitled Watercolor on paper, c,. 1890 Unsigned Provenance: Estate of the artist Image/Sheet size: 3 1/4 x 4 1/8 inches From Wikipedia "Francis Augustus Lathrop (June 22, 1849 – Oct...

Unknown Artist, Thailand, 19th century Miniatures with Text from the "Legend of Phra Malai" Double folio; ink, color and gold leaf, c. 1900 Unsigned Script: Khmer (Cambodian) These texts are written in Khom script, a variant of Khmer script often used in Central Thai religious manuscripts. Paired devas (lesser gods) on throne-like plinths addorse Khmer (Cambodian) script containing tales of Phra Malai, a Sri Lankan arhat or Buddhist saint known for his travels to hell. There, the compassionate monk gave teachings and comfort to sufferers. Phra Malai stories taught the karmic effects of human actions to the faithful as well as conveying Maitreya's message of hope for attaining nirvana. Though known in neighboring countries, the stories of Phra Malai achieved their greatest popularity and influence in Siam (present day Thailand) Condition: Very good Sight window) size: 11-1/8 x 27 inches Frame size: 19-5/8 x 34-7/8 x 3/4 inches The legend of Phra Malai, a Buddhist monk of the Theravada tradition said to have attained supernatural powers through his accumulated merit and meditation, is the main text in this 19th-century Thai samut khoi (folding book) held in the Thai, Lao, and Cambodian Collections of the British Library. Phra Malai figures prominently in Thai art...

Unknown Artist, Thailand, 19th century Two Miniatures and text from the "Legend of Phra Malai" Ink and color on paper, c, 1900 Unsigned as usual Script: Aksar Chrieng or Khmer These texts are written in Khom script, a variant of Khmer script often used in Central Thai religious manuscripts. Phra Malai was a Budhist monk whose meditations permitted him to travel to heaven and hell. Condition: Good, with minor staining to text Sight (window) size: 11-1/8 x 27 inches Frame size: 19-3/4 x 35 x 3/4 inches Framed in solid cherry wood with archival, acid free materials The legend of Phra Malai, a Buddhist monk of the Theravada tradition said to have attained supernatural powers through his accumulated merit and meditation, is the main text in this 19th-century Thai samut khoi (folding book) held in the Thai, Lao, and Cambodian Collections of the British Library. Phra Malai figures prominently in Thai art...

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...

Irish Sea Watercolor, 1947 Signed and dated by the artist lower right Condition: Excellent Image/Sheet size: 12 x 18 inches Provenance: Estate of the Artist ...

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...

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...

Inspiration (Seated Couple) Graphite on paper, c. 1967 Signed twice in pencil by the artist on recto (see photos) Condition: Excellent Image size: 13 x 16 inches Note: Although not t...

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...

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...

Nude Reclining on a Mat Ink on paper, n.d. Signed in red ink lower right Same model used in Elliott & Wooden pages 198 and 199 Condition: Excellent Provenance: Estate of the Artist Warren Shaull, Dodge City, KS (collector's stamp verso) Aaron Bohrod (21 November 1907 – 3 April 1992) was an American artist best known for his trompe-l'œil still-life paintings. Education Bohrod was born in Chicago in 1907, the son of an emigree Bessarabian-Jewish grocer. Bohrod studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Art Students League of New York between 1926 and 1930. While at the Art Students League, Bohrod was influenced by John Sloan and chose themes that involved his own surroundings. Career He returned to Chicago in 1930 where he painted views of the city and its working class. He eventually earned Guggenheim Fellowships which permitted him to travel throughout the country, painting and recording the American scene. His early work won him widespread praise as an important social realist and regional painter and printmaker and his work was marketed through Associated American Artists in New York. Bohrod completed three commissioned murals for the Treasury Departments Section of Fine Arts in Illinois; Vandalia in 1935, Galesburg in 1938 and Clinton in 1939. During World War II, Bohrod worked as an artist; first in the Pacific for the United States Army Corps of Engineers' Army War Art Unit...

Surrealist landscape with organic shapes Watercolor on paper, 1960-1970 Signed CE Harris lower right corner (see photo) Stamped with the artist’s estate stamp verso (see photo) Reference: Beni Kosh Collection Estate Stamp #705 Provenance: Estate of the artist A wonderful example by one of the few African American Surrealist painters. “An African-American born Charles E. Harris, the name under which he painted until the early 1960s when he took the name of Kosh. His paintings span the period 1949-71, and reflect abstract and surreal figurative subjects which include Cleveland street scenes, jazz clubs, and depictions of Christ.” Courtesy of Rachel Davis Fine Art “Beni E. Kosh was born as Charles Elmer Harris, in Cleveland Ohio. He changed his name in the 1960’s, which translates to “Son of Ethiopia”. He rarely exhibited or sold his work and was affiliated with the African-American artists’ “Sho-nuff Art Group” and the Karamu House and studied under Cleveland artist Paul Travis. His style is very diverse and he experimented with Cubism, portraiture and abstractions in series. His paintings span from 1949 – 1971, and reflect abstract and surreal figurative subjects, which include Cleveland street scenes, jazz clubs, and depictions of Christ. He received little recognition during his lifetime and was only “rediscovered” literally days after his death when hundreds of his paintings were rescued by an art dealer.” (Courtesy Pennsylvania Art...

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...

Deco Woman Crayon on paper, c. 1920 Signed in ink lower left: "Wm. Sommer" (see photo) Provenance: Estate of the artist Edwin Sommer (the artist’s son) Jose...

untitled (Rocks along the Coast) Gouache and watercolor on paper, c. 1950 Signed with the estate stamp signature lower left (see photo) This is a preliminary study for a large exhibition painting...

The Duomo, Florence Watercolor, 1914 Signed and dated lower center edge (see photo) Florence Cathedral, formally the Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore, is the cathedral of Florence, Italy. It was begun in 1296 in the Gothic style to a design of Arnolfo di Cambio and was structurally completed by 1436, with the dome engineered by Filippo Brunelleschi. Condition: Excellent Image size: 16 3/4 x 14 1/2 inches Frame size: 24 1/4 x 22 inches Donald Shaw MacLaughlan was born in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada on November 9, 1876. His family moved to Boston, Massachusetts in 1890 where he began to experiment with different art media; watercolor, oil painting and finally, etching – with a few attempts at lithography. He spent much of his early years at the Boston Public Library studying the work of printmakers, from Durer and Rembrandt to the 18th century English, French and Italian masters. Like many American artists of the time MacLaughlan traveled to Europe to study in Paris, enrolling in the Ecole des Beaux Arts and studied further with Jean Leon Gerome and Jean Paul Laurens. In 1899 he began producing etchings, which became his major interest until his death in 1938. He became acquainted with James NcNeill Whistler (1834-1903) and other artists who created etchings and spent time studying the etchings of Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) and other old masters in the collection of the Bibliothèque Nationale. Both Rembrandt and Whistler would have major influences on his art. In 1900 he created a set of 25 etched views of Paris and in 1901 exhibited two etchings in the Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. He returned to the U.S. in 1903, then went back to Paris the following year. He traveled extensively in Europe, visiting England, Switzerland, Italy and Spain as well as various locales in France. His etched views of Venice were well-known. MacLaughlan exhibited views of Paris, Rouen, Normandy and Italy in 1906 in a solo show at the American Art Association Galleries in Paris. He also displayed his work in the 1906 exhibitions of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts and the Société des Peintres-Graveurs Français. MacLaughlan even instructed other expatriate Canadian artists then living in Paris, most notably Clarence...

Untitled (Man at Desk) Pen and ink on paper, 2012 Signed lower right Series: Portraits of Community: Hidden in Plain Sight, 2012 References And Exhibitions: Illustrated: Swarthmore College video for their exhibition "Hidden in Plain Sight," Jan 24- Feb 24, 2013. Born in Fort Worth in 1975, Huckaby has been creating some form of art since his childhood. In 1995, he began his formal art studies at Texas Wesleyan University in Fort Worth. After a brief stay he transferred to Boston University, where he received a BFA degree. He then earned a MFA degree from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Huckaby is known for his powerful use of color and his exploration of cultural roles and the heritage of the African American family. His work has evolved from portraiture to objects and interiors that venerate his personal family legacy rooted in Fort Worth, Texas. Portraying these familiar subjects on a large scale and pushing his use of materials, Huckaby defines the significance of family and tradition while touching on the subject of ethnographic stereotypes in our culture. For the past few years he has concentrated his efforts on a series of quilt paintings. One of the series he created is a tribute to both of his Grandmothers and a celebration of the African American quilting tradition. He used the actual quilts sewn by family members as models for his paintings. These quilts document significant events in his family history. According to Huckaby, the paintings represent an artistic family legacy. The colorful, rhythmic abstracted patterns come together like the musical notes in African American musician John Coltrane's famous jazz composition, A Love Supreme, from which the painting series acquired its name. He has earned national acclaim for his work over the past several years. Huckaby has received the 2001 Louis Comfort Tiffany Award and the 2004 Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant Program Award. More recently, he was the 2008 recipient of the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship Award, which allowed him to travel the country and paint African-American quilts from private and public collections. Past Guggenheim Fellowship Award winners include Ansel Adams, Langston Hughes, Henry Kissinger, and Isamu Noguchi. He has exhibited at the Resource Center of African American Art in Atlanta, the Danforth Museum in Framingham, and the Studio Museum in Harlem. His work, including a painting titled Study for Little D and the Dollar, in the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, can be found in important collections throughout the United States, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Minneapolis Museum of Art. Currently, Huckaby’s 18-by-14-foot oil painting Hidden in Plain Site (2011) is on view in the Amon Carter Museum’s atrium through October. Public Collections: Wichita Falls Museum of Art at Midwestern State University, American Dad African American Museum, Dallas, Texas, Grandmother’s Quilt The Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas, The 99% - Highland Hills The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, "Girl World" Study for Sustenance Installation Ball State University Museum of Art, Muncie, Indiana, "The Truth about Hip Hop" Study for Sustenance Installation Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, Texas Brandywine Workshop, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, The 99% - Highland Hills City of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, TX, The Welcome Space Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, Corporate Aviation, Texas, A Place Between Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, Hyatt Regency Hotel, Texas, William Madison (Gooseneck Bill) McDonald Fort Worth Central Library, Fort Worth, Texas, Hazel Harvey Peace Portrait Grace Museum, Abilene, Texas, Cobby Harvard Art Museum, Cambridge, MA, Selection from The 99% Holdworth Center, Austin, TX, Selection from The 99% Jesuit Dallas Museum, Dallas, Texas, “Gone But Not Forgotten: Sha” Kansas African American Museum, Wichita, Kansas, Self Portrait (2) McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas, Untitled (Anthony) Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, Minnesota (Untitled) Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, Enocio Museum of Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas, Big Momma...

Impossible Solutions at The Fountain of Youth Collage on paper, 1987 Signed with the artist's initials and datedlower left Condition: Good, with the ...

untitled (The White Barn with Farmers and Horse) Watercolor, c. 1950 Signed by the artist in ink lower right: Wm. C. Grauer Numbered in pencil verso: 152 Provenance: Estate of the Artist Gretchen Grauer Vanderhoof, the artist's daughter Condition: Excellent Image/Sheet size: 18 3/4 x 24 inches William C. Grauer (1895-1985) William C. Grauer (1895-1985) was born in Philadelphia to German immigrant parents. After attending the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art, Grauer received a four year scholarship from the City of Philadelphia to pursue post graduate work. It was during this time that Grauer began working as a designer at the Decorative Stained Glass Co. in Philadelphia. Following his World War I service in France, Grauer moved to Akron, Ohio where he opened a studio in 1919 with his future brother-in-law, the architect George Evans...

Untitled (Abstraction) Ink on textured paper, c. 1958 Signed lower right "Scarlett" (see photo) Condition: Excellent Archival framing with OP3 Acrylic Sheet size: 21 3/4 x 30 inches Frame size: 28 1/2 x 36 1/2 inches Note: A rare mid to late 1950s example of the artist's abstract expressionist style. Provenance: estate of the artist Private Collection, Hudson River Valley, New York Rolph Scarlett B. 1889, GUELPH, ONTARIO; D. 1984, WOODSTOCK, NEW YORK Born on June 13, 1889 in Guelph, Canada, and into an artistic family, Rolph Scarlett spent his teenage years as an apprentice in his uncle’s jewelry firm and briefly studied at the Art Students League, New York. While working in the jewelry industry, Scarlett found time to paint and design theatrical sets in his free time, including one for the 1928 world premiere of Eugene O’Neill’s drama Lazarus Laughed (1926). In 1923, while on a business trip to Switzerland, Scarlett had met the artist Paul Klee and soon after abandoned his figurative painting style in favor of an abstract language that suggested more universal, cosmic truths. In 1937, after permanently settling in New York, Scarlett became acquainted with the artist and curator Hilla Rebay, the first director of the Museum of Non-Objective Painting (renamed the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 1952). Rebay provided Scarlett with a Guggenheim Foundation scholarship to paint full-time and obtained several of his paintings for the museum’s collection. From 1940 to 1946, Scarlett served as the museum’s chief lecturer, giving Sunday afternoon talks on art. Through Rebay, Scarlett became acquainted with the nonobjective works of Rudolf Bauer and Vasily Kandinsky and further refined his abstract style. Works from this era such as Yellow Bar (1942) are defined by overlapping geometric planes of bright, primary colors set against mute backgrounds. Scarlett avoided any reference to the outside world and believed that nonobjective painting was an act, in his words, of “pure creation.” During his lifetime, solo shows of his work were held at the Jacques Seligmann Gallery, New York (1949); Sioux City Art Center, Iowa (1951); and Washburn Gallery...

Stolen Moments #2 Watercolor on Twinrocker All Purpose Paper Signed with the artist's initials lower right (see photo) From the series: Stolen Moments Signed with the artist's "Yummy...