Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 5

"Music with Conch and Lyre, " Study for White House Piano by Dunbar Beck, 1938

$4,500
£3,341.01
€3,893.20
CA$6,247.45
A$6,988.17
CHF 3,636.68
MX$86,026.75
NOK 46,266.16
SEK 43,406.78
DKK 29,047.13
Shipping
Retrieving quote...
The 1stDibs Promise:
Authenticity Guarantee,
Money-Back Guarantee,
24-Hour Cancellation

About the Item

One of the most important embellishments to the White House during the Franklin Delano Roosevelt administration was the gift of an important grand piano by the Steinway company, embellished with painted scenes by Dunbar Beck. Beck is best known for his WPA work and his mural painting at the 1939-1940 New York World's fair, but his work with Steinway is equally important, artistically and historically. Beck painted a series of figures along the side of the piano, and generated a series of studies for the piano lid, including this scene of gods and goddesses, including a triton blowing a conch shell, and other gods with lyre, cymbals and flute. The medium is gouache and pencil on heavy paper.
  • Creator:
    Dunbar D. Beck (Painter)
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 14.25 in (36.2 cm)Width: 20.5 in (52.07 cm)Depth: 0.1 in (2.54 mm)
  • Style:
    Art Deco (Of the Period)
  • Materials and Techniques:
  • Place of Origin:
  • Period:
  • Date of Manufacture:
    1938
  • Condition:
  • Seller Location:
    Philadelphia, PA
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU865113159091

More From This Seller

View All
"Female Nude with Lyre, " Spectacular, Rare Art Deco Framed Tile by Greek Artist
By S.S. Simonaky
Located in Philadelphia, PA
Dominated by an elegant female nude embracing a Greek lyre, this spectacular framed Art Deco glazed panel shows the period's fascination with Classical imagery interpreted in a modern way. Awash in tones of rose and blue highlighted in a metallic gold glaze, both the nude's hair and robes are depicted as flowing waves of dreamy color. The Greek artist...
Category

Vintage 1930s Greek Art Deco Decorative Art

Materials

Ceramic

"Orpheus Over the Globe, " Important Mural Study for 1939-1940 NY World's Fair
Located in Philadelphia, PA
Painted by Dunbar Beck, one of America's finest muralists in the 1930s and 1940s, this classic example of Art Deco stylized allegorical painting served as a study for a series of mur...
Category

Vintage 1930s American Paintings

Materials

Paper

"Actaeon, " Large Art Deco-Mid Century Painting by Hollywood Figure
By Leon (Dusso) d'Usseau
Located in Philadelphia, PA
Large and arresting, this stylized depiction of the great hunter in Greek mythology, Actaeon, resting on a slab of marble with his bow and quiver of arrows, was painted by Leon Dusso...
Category

Vintage 1940s American Art Deco Paintings

Materials

Paint

"Music, " High Accomplished Painting with Multiple Nudes by Conner, 1946
By John Ramsey Conner
Located in Philadelphia, PA
This detailed and highly-finished study by John Ramsey Conner for an allegorical painting depicts a relaxed grouping of nude figures executed in pale tones of ivory, mossy green and ...
Category

Vintage 1940s American Art Deco Paintings

Materials

Paint

"Spirit of Oshkosh, " Art Deco Mural Study by Eugene Savage, 1937
By Eugene Francis Savage
Located in Philadelphia, PA
This very rare and important study for "The Spirit of Oshkosh," a major mural in Wisconsin, was painted by Eugene Savage in 1937. Savage is best know...
Category

Vintage 1930s American Art Deco Paintings

Materials

Paint

"Neptune's Kingdom", Elaborate Art Deco Painting with Mermaids, Hippocampi
Located in Philadelphia, PA
High style and highly-stylized, this Art Deco painting by Bruno Seuchter presents an aquatic scene teeming with life, centered around Neptune with his trident held high. Surrounding ...
Category

Vintage 1920s Austrian Art Deco Paintings

Materials

Paint

You May Also Like

"Ce qu'évoquent les Livres" by Émile Aubry '1880-1964'
By Louis Aubry
Located in Saint-Ouen, FR
"Ce qu'évoquent les Livres" Allegory of the Literature Oil on canvas Signed on the lower part beside parchment 111 x 133 x 2 cm Framed 125 x 146 x 7 cm Provenance: Collection Georges AUBRY, brother of the artist Bibliography: Illustrated in catalogue «Regards de peintre» , Suzanne AUBRY-CASANOVA, 1997, p.104 After trying years of forced confinement due to the war, he composed this allegorical fresco on the theme of Literature, Science and Arts was painted by Émile Aubry for his younger brother Georges Aubry, who had intended it for his library. This work, composed on the theme of the book it symbolizes, in its diversity by allegorical characters, he cannot help ordering the painting around Art, which he places at the top of the scale of human...
Category

Vintage 1940s French Art Deco Paintings

Materials

Canvas

Ismael de la Serna (1898-1968) "Music" oil on canvas signed and dated 1929
By Ismael González de la Serna
Located in Saint-Ouen, FR
Ismael de la Serna "Music" oil on canvas signed and dated 1929. Published in the catalogue held at "Centro Cultural Conde Duque" in 1990
Category

Vintage 1920s Spanish Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Paint

Jazz-Age Plaster Mural of a Band of Musicians, France, circa 1930s
Located in Isle Sur La Sorgue, Vaucluse
Very large, decorative polychrome plaster bas-relief representing a band of musicians. Formed part of the decor of a Parisian Jazz club.
Category

Mid-20th Century French Art Deco Wall-mounted Sculptures

Materials

Plaster

Original Emile Aubry Art Deco Painting "La Voix De Pan", Groupe Symbolique
By Woka Lamps
Located in Vienna, AT
Emile Aubry, France, 1932 documentation, comparable with a similar work - catalogue "Salon des Independents" Paris from 1932 Muse´e des Beaux-Arts, Pau, Be´arn, Pyre´ne´es-Atlantique...
Category

Vintage 1930s French Art Deco Paintings

Materials

Acrylic, Plywood

Gilbert Ledward - 1930s Watercolour Design for a Decorative Sculptural Frieze
Located in London, GB
GILBERT LEDWARD, RA, PRBS (1888-1960) Tennis, Golf, Shooting, Ice-Skating, Dreaming – Proposed Design for Decorative Frieze in the Italian Drawing Room at Eltham Palace, commissioned by Stephen Courtauld Signed and dated July 9th 1933 Watercolour and pencil 12.5 by 49.5 cm., 5 by 19 ½ in. (frame size 36 by 67 cm., 14 ¼ by 26 ¼ in.) Exhibited: The artist’s daughter; London, The Fine Art Society, A Centenary Tribute, Feb 1988, no. 43. Gilbert Ledward was born in London. He was educated at St Mark’s College, Chelsea. In 1905 he entered the Royal College of Art to study sculpture under Edouard Lanteri and in 1910 he entered the Royal Academy Schools. In 1913 he won the Prix de Rome for sculpture, the Royal Academy’s travelling award and gold medal, which allowed him to travel in Italy until the outbreak of the Wold War I. During the war he served as a lieutenant in the Royal Garrison Artillery and was appointed as an official war artist in 1918. Following the war he was largely occupied as a sculptor of war memorials including the Guards Division memorial in St James’s Park and the Household Division’s memorial in Horse Guards Parade. In 1934, supported by Eric Gill and Edwin Lutyens, he established a company called Sculptured Memorials and Headstones, which promoted better design of memorials in English churchyards. His war memorials after World War II include one in Westminster Abbey to the Submarine Service, Commandos and Airborne Forces. Ledward was Professor of Sculpture at the Royal College of Art (1927-1929) and in 1937 was elected at Royal Academician. He became President of the Royal Society of British Sculptors and a trustee of the Royal Academy. The present work is a design for an intended decorative frieze for the Italian Drawing Room of Eltham Palace. In 1935 the remains of the medieval royal palace of Eltham was rescued from decay by Stephen and Virginia Courtald who built an ultra modern Art Deco house to adjoin the existing Great Hall. They employed the architects John Seeley and Paul Edward Paget and the fashionable Mayfair interior designer the Marchese Peter Malacrida to design the strikingly glamorous 1930s interiors of the new house. The dramatic entrance hall was created by the Swedish designer Rolf Engstromer...
Category

1930s Art Deco Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Watercolor

Charming Painting by A.Ochoar "Concierto" 1973
Located in St.Petersburg, FL
A charming and self taught artist painting entitled "Concierto" or concert by A.Ochoar, dated 1973. Reminiscient of Massimo Campigli, with stylized ...
Category

Vintage 1970s American Mid-Century Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas