20th Century Drawings
to
209
873
528
1,440
Height
to
Width
to
280
226
156
16
14
10
7
4
3
2
2
2
1
1
1
1
162
303
1,440
223
226
598
415
21
12
78
127
75
81
121
124
93
62
1,198
258
134
77
69
683
476
396
311
120
1,440
1,440
1,440
14
11
11
10
10
Period: 20th Century
Dora Maar Pointillist Surrealist Landscape Double Drawing Framed
By Dora Maar
Located in Barcelona, Barcelona
Pointillist composition by Dora Maar.
Authenticity stamp of the auction that took place in 1998 in Paris.
Second Drawing on the back.
20th century, undated.
In good original ...
Category
French Mid-Century Modern 20th Century Drawings
Materials
Paper
$5,096 Sale Price
50% Off
Mid-20th Century Original Maison Jansen Architectural Detail Pencil Drawing
Located in New York, NY
An original Maison Jansen pencil drawing depicting an architectural detail "Rosace de Plafond Louis XIV" page 136 Stamped: Jansen, 9 Rue Royale Paris 8e.
Category
French 20th Century Drawings
Materials
Paper
Paul VerBurg Untitled 38 Signed Contemporary Abstract Pen & Ink Monoprint Framed
Located in Keego Harbor, MI
A contemporary abstract pen and ink monoprint on paper "Untitled 38" by Paul Verburg. Hand signed lower right. At the center, a cellular-like structure—resembling an abstract organis...
Category
American Modern 20th Century Drawings
Materials
Paper
Emil Betzler 'Legend' German Expressionist Ink Painting
By Emil Betzler
Located in Niederdorfelden, Hessen
Emil Betzler
German Expressionist painting 'Legend', 1962 ('Sage')
Pen and brush ink drawing on velin paper.
Signed and dated by the artist.
Shown in 'Emil Betzler' - monograph...
Category
German Expressionist Vintage 20th Century Drawings
Materials
Paper
Alfred Owles "The Long Wait" Original Watercolor, circa 1970s
Located in San Francisco, CA
Alfred Owles (1894-1978) "The Long Wait" original watercolor, circa 1970s
Fine watercolor of two cowboys waiting for the stagecoach in an American West...
Category
American 20th Century Drawings
Materials
Other
Late 20th Century Vintage Boho Pen and Ink Drawing on Paper
Located in West Palm Beach, FL
Add a splash of vibrant, free-flowing energy to your interiors with this expressive vintage original drawing. Executed in pen and ink with lively washes of green on paper, the artwor...
Category
American Modern 20th Century Drawings
Materials
Wood, Paint, Paper
Paul VerBurg Untitled 36 Signed Contemporary Pen & Ink Over Acrylic Monoprint
Located in Keego Harbor, MI
A contemporary pen and ink drawing over acrylic monoprint on paper "Untitled 36" by Paul VerBurg. Hand signed lower right. The composition layers gestural acrylic washes of red, gree...
Category
American Modern 20th Century Drawings
Materials
Paper
Paul VerBurg Untitled 22 Signed Contemporary Pen & Ink with Oil Paint on Paper
Located in Keego Harbor, MI
A contemporary abstract pen and ink with oil paint "Untitled 22" by Paul VerBurg. Hand signed lower right. A vibrant interplay of color, texture, and pattern that fuses detailed pen ...
Category
American Modern 20th Century Drawings
Materials
Paper
"Study for Icarus, " Drawing by Emlen Etting, 1940s
By Emlen Etting
Located in Philadelphia, PA
Emlen Etting returned again and again to the theme of Icarus Falling, in part because it gave him an opportunity to depict the nude male in motion. This large drawing served as a stu...
Category
American Mid-Century Modern Vintage 20th Century Drawings
Paul VerBurg Three and Five Signed Contemporary Pen and Wash on Paper Framed
Located in Keego Harbor, MI
A contemporary abstract ink and watercolor wash titled "Three and Five" by Paul VerBurg. Hand signed lower right. Overlapping organic shapes in deep green, amber, and maroon create a...
Category
American Modern 20th Century Drawings
Materials
Paper
Paul VerBurg Circle in a Square Signed Contemporary Pen & Ink Wash Paper Framed
Located in Keego Harbor, MI
A contemporary abstract pen and ink wash on paper titled "Circle in a Square" by Paul VerBurg. Hand signed lower right. The composition explores spatial tension and balance through l...
Category
American Modern 20th Century Drawings
Materials
Paper
"Battle of the Gods, " Mural Preparatory Drawing by Dunbar Beck, Art Deco
Located in Philadelphia, PA
Full of drama and a tour de force of figurative drawing heavily influenced by Renaissance masters, this piece was made by Dunbar Beck in preparation for a large mural painting...
Category
American Art Deco Vintage 20th Century Drawings
Materials
Paper
"St. George and the Dragon, " Art Deco Drawing with Male Nude by Goor
By Gaston Goor
Located in Philadelphia, PA
This dramatic drawing of St. George and the dragon was executed in 1954 by Gaston Goor, who was famous for illustrating a number of books by Roger Peyrefitte and others in France. Go...
Category
French Art Deco Vintage 20th Century Drawings
"Gods in the Sky, " Tour de Force, High-Style Art Deco Ink Drawing with Nudes
Located in Philadelphia, PA
This virtuosic pen-and-ink drawing shows several gods cavorting with wild-maned horses in an Art Deco galaxy. All the figures are perfectly stylized as if parading across a classical...
Category
American Art Deco Vintage 20th Century Drawings
Gisbert Palmie Drawing, 1958
Located in St.Petersburg, FL
An interesting figurative colored chalks, charcoal drawing by Gisbert Palmie. A noted "anti-modernist" whose works were collected by leading Nazis inclu...
Category
American Modern Vintage 20th Century Drawings
Materials
Crayon
Monumental Axel Salto Budding Vase Watercolor Paper Vintage Mid-Century Danish
By Axel Salto
Located in Hyattsville, MD
Original artwork by the master. It is in as-found poor condition. It will be shipped in a tube without glass or framing. Pencil signed with information on backing paper, crayon numb...
Category
Danish Scandinavian Modern Vintage 20th Century Drawings
Materials
Paper
$9,600 Sale Price
36% Off
Arthur Reiwald drawing
Located in grand Lancy, CH
Arthur Reiwald drawing
Category
Swiss Vintage 20th Century Drawings
Materials
Paper
"Adam and Eve, " Early Art Deco Drawing by Glidden Parker
Located in Philadelphia, PA
A classic example of stylized Art Deco drawing with attenuated figures, this depiction of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden was created by Glidden Parker, who is most famous for his...
Category
American Art Deco Vintage 20th Century Drawings
Materials
Paper
$2,320 Sale Price
20% Off
Robert Freiman, 1956, "Third Avenue at 57th Street"
Located in St.Petersburg, FL
A wonderful Robert Freiman watercolor, from 1956, entitled " Third Avenue at 57th Street".
Robert J Freiman (b. 1917 - d. 1991), deaf from birth, was born in New York City and attended the Lexington School for the Deaf. He studied art at the National Academy of Design, Pratt Institute, the Art Students League, the Parsons School of Design, and, in Paris, at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. Freiman’s spectrum of styles evolved considerably over the course of his long career, ranging from early portraiture and realistic landscape to mixed-media works using watercolor, acrylic, and pen. He was a regular exhibitor at the Sidewalk Art...
Category
American Modern Vintage 20th Century Drawings
Materials
Watercolor
Charcoal Drawing of a Cat Washing by Dutch Artist Estella Den Boer
Located in Doornspijk, NL
Wonderful and powerful work of a cat washing itself by Dutch artist Estella den Boer.
Such a pleasure to look at. This trusting cat in utmost concentration to clean its coat. It is drawn almost minimalistically, causing all attention to go to this cleaning lady.
Signed on the front: Estella. Work comes from the legacy of Estella den Boer.
Estella den Boer (1912-2010) was born in Middelburg, the Netherlands. She made expressive and abstract work, drawings, paintings and ceramics and found absolute freedom in constructive art. A visit to Piet Mondrian's retrospective exhibition in 1955 in the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague made an overwhelming impression on her. Her conviction that geometric arrangements are the most appropriate visual language to act out of Material limitations and find a way to a larger space was confirmed here. Den Boer was influenced by the Russian Constructivists like Kandinsky. In later works we see influences from Italian Futurists, such as Gino Severini. In playfulness and use of color her painting is sometimes related to that of the artist Sophie Taüber...
Category
Dutch Modern 20th Century Drawings
Materials
Paper
Sophie Fordon Cordoba Spain 1971 Signed Modernist Watercolor Drawing Framed
Located in Keego Harbor, MI
A modernist watercolor on paper titled "Cordoba Spain" by Michigan artist Sophie Fordon. Signed, titled, and dated 1971 in pencil on the bottom right. A ...
Category
American Vintage 20th Century Drawings
Materials
Paper
Early 20th Century Modern Standing Female Nude Figure Original Charcoal Drawing
Located in South Salem, NY
Modernist nude study of the female figure by an anonymous artist, circa early 20th century. Loose, expressive strokes with emphatic shading. Drawn in charcoal on paper. We have two r...
Category
French 20th Century Drawings
Materials
Other
Abstract Expressionist Mixed Media by Burt Hasen, 1961
By Burt Hasen
Located in Brooklyn, NY
Burton Stanley Hasen (New York City, 1921 - 2007) abstract expressionist mixed media (watercolor and ink) on paper. A New York native, Hasen relocated to Paris to study art at the Ac...
Category
American Vintage 20th Century Drawings
Materials
Paint
Drawing by Paul Wonner and William Theophilus Brown
Located in Palm Springs, CA
Drawing on paper by Paul Wonner and William T. Brown. Titled 'Farewell to Belvedere'. Drawing is not framed.
Paul John Wonner (April 24, 1920 – April 23, 2008) was an American artis...
Category
American Vintage 20th Century Drawings
Materials
Paper
$2,800 Sale Price
28% Off
"Boxer in Triumph, " Rare Ink Drawing of Male Boxer with Arms Raised, 1929
Located in Philadelphia, PA
This 1929 vintage ink and inkwash drawing of a bare-chested boxer is turned away from the viewer, his gloved hands raised high as if the fight has just been won. The artist, William ...
Category
American Art Deco Vintage 20th Century Drawings
Paul Cornoyer "Three Story House"
Located in Sharon, CT
These Paul Cornoyer pencil sketches all bear labels from the David Findlay Jr.
Gallery and were exhibited in the 1973 Cornoyer Retrospective at The Lake...
Category
American Antique 20th Century Drawings
Materials
Paper
20th Century Oil on Board French Mountain Landscape Signed Painting, 1960
Located in Vicoforte, Piedmont
Oil painting on board from 20th century. French painting signed lower right, for antique dealers and collectors. Work depicting a mountain landscape of great charm and good pictorial...
Category
French Vintage 20th Century Drawings
Materials
Wood
Italian Midcentury Drawing: Natura Morta, Pencil and Charcoal.
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Italian Painting from the 1960s: Accademia di Belle Arti, Venezia.Overall, charcoal drawing is a dynamic and expressive medium that offers artists a wide range of creative possibilit...
Category
Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage 20th Century Drawings
Materials
Paper
Luigi Veronesi "Composizione" Drawing
Located in Barcelona, Barcelona
'Composizione' original drawing by Luigi Veronesi, circa 1984.
Crayon on paper.
In original good condition.
Luigi Veronesi (1908-1998) was an Italian photographer, painter, ...
Category
Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage 20th Century Drawings
Materials
Paper
$2,605 Sale Price
50% Off
French Noble portrait Graphite drawing with carved gilded wood frame
Located in Valladolid, ES
Outstanding French Noble portrait with carved frame, graphite drawing, ff. XIX, pp. XX
Technical data
Drawing on paper
Title of the work: Untitled
Author: anonymous
Portrait paintin...
Category
Vintage 20th Century Drawings
Materials
Wood
$805 Sale Price
20% Off
Giorgios Mavridis, Naked women, large work on paper, 1990
Located in Catonvielle, FR
Large work on paper by Georgios Mavridis, titled "Married Woman Pissing with Two Characters", dating from the 1990s. On an ocher background, the artist casts...
Category
Belgian Other 20th Century Drawings
Materials
Acrylic, Paper
Hand Inked on Paper Surrealist Male Portrait Drawing Signed Ken Kreel 1989
Located in Van Nuys, CA
Hand-inked artwork on Paper Surrealist Male Portrait Etching Signed Kea Kreel 1989. The print features an intricate detailed scenic with a man in contemplation against geometric shap...
Category
American Vintage 20th Century Drawings
Materials
Paper
$1,537 Sale Price
44% Off
G. Verdey " Life of the French Cavalry Summer 1914 " Watercolour 20th Century
Located in Beuzevillette, FR
Large Watercolor depicts the daily life of French soldiers belonging to the cavalry. This scene can be dated thanks to the clothes worn by the men in this work. Indeed, the bright bl...
Category
French Beaux Arts Vintage 20th Century Drawings
Materials
Paper
1970s Zebra Watercolor Abstract Gouache Painting
Located in Chula Vista, CA
Calming blue abstract Zebras in watercolor and or gouache on paper, signed Virginia P
25 H x 27.5 x .75Thick (frame), Art 14 x 21
Original preowned unrestored vintage condition. Mat ...
Category
American Modern Vintage 20th Century Drawings
Materials
Paper
Winold Reiss (attributed) Art Deco Fashion Watercolor
By Winold Reiss
Located in Sharon, CT
An American Art Deco 'fashion plate', in period and in a Winold Reiss style. Reiss, was an artist and designer of many styles, and this unsigned watercolor is in the style of his Emp...
Category
American Art Deco Vintage 20th Century Drawings
Materials
Paper
Man portrait drawing diptyque, 1960s.
Located in Lisboa, PT
Drawing diptyque composed by two portraits representing a "Seated man" and a "Lying man", charcoal and chalk drawing. France, 1960s
Category
French Vintage 20th Century Drawings
Materials
Wood
$2,973 / set
Landscape Drawing, Black Marker Boat and Harbor Scene, France 1966
Located in ROUEN, Normandie
Landscape Drawing, Black Marker Boat and Harbor Scene, France 1966.
This vintage black felt-tip pen drawing from 1966 captures a scene of the Cape Antibes, located on the French Riv...
Category
French Mid-Century Modern 20th Century Drawings
Materials
Wood, Paper, Parchment Paper
"Picnic Apocryphal, " Sophisticated Art Deco Drawing by Benito, Vogue Pioneer
Located in Philadelphia, PA
This large and important drawing was made by Eduardo Benito, the pioneering artist who helped to establish the impossibly sophisticated images of modern...
Category
French Art Deco Vintage 20th Century Drawings
Materials
Paper
"Nude with Totem Pole, " Rare Surrealist Drawing by Dunbar Beck
Located in Philadelphia, PA
Best known for his WPA and World's Fair murals, this drawing is a rare example of Dunbar Beck's foray into Surrealism. His depiction of a nude male facing a Totem pole with one arm o...
Category
American Art Deco Vintage 20th Century Drawings
"Triton Blowing Seashell", Very Fine Art Deco Drawing, Allyn Cox, Possibly UCLA
By Allyn Cox
Located in Philadelphia, PA
Demonstrating an impressive confidence and mastery of detail, this drawing of a nude male triton, blowing a trumpet made from a seashell, was made by Allyn Cox, no doubt as a study f...
Category
American Art Deco Vintage 20th Century Drawings
Materials
Paper
Vintage Original Wood Framed and Signed Deer and Tree Artwork
Located in Seattle, WA
Vintage Matted and Framed Artwork , possibly Pencil on Paper. Signed in the Lower Corner as Pictured. Vintage Condition Consistent with Age as Pictured.
Dimensions. 15 W ; 1/2 D ; 18 H
Category
Mid-Century Modern Vintage 20th Century Drawings
Materials
Wood
20th Century Oil on Board Italian Signed Popular Scene Painting, 1970
Located in Vicoforte, Piedmont
Italian oil painting on board from 20th century. Artwork depicting popular scene The Sunday game in Impressionist style. Artwork of excellent pictorial quality signed lower right (se...
Category
Italian Vintage 20th Century Drawings
Materials
Glass, Wood
Jules Pascin "La Loge" Etching, 1925
By Jules Pascin
Located in Astoria, NY
Jules Pascin (Bulgarian/French, 1885-1930), "La Loge" [The Theater Box], Etching in Colors, 1925, signed in pencil lower right, Wolseley Fine Arts Gallery label to verso, giltwood fr...
Category
20th Century Drawings
Materials
Paper
Graphite on Paper Two Artist Studies of Hands and Extended Foot
Located in San Francisco, CA
Graphite on paper: two artist studies of hands and extended foot; each ell-rendered artist's study depicting grasping hands and a foreshortened foot; very nicely detailed; unsigned; ...
Category
Unknown Neoclassical Antique 20th Century Drawings
Materials
Paper
$2,600 Sale Price / set
20% Off
Original Gouache & Ink Architectural Masterwork of Vienna Hofburg Palace, 1910
Located in Encinitas, CA
Original gouache & ink masterwork on paper. The artist captures the magnificence of the era with precise architectural perspective. Cerulean, ochre, & shell white celebrate the nosta...
Category
Italian Renaissance Revival 20th Century Drawings
Materials
Paper
$5,950 Sale Price
30% Off
Nissim Merkado, listed Bulgarian/French artist. Abstract composition.
Located in København, Copenhagen
Nissim Merkado (born 1935), a listed Bulgarian/French artist.
Colored crayon and mixed media. Abstract composition on cardboard.
Untitled.
Studio stamp.
In perfect condition.
Dimensi...
Category
French Vintage 20th Century Drawings
Materials
Other
Mid-20th Century Maison Jansen Original Architectural Detail Drawing, France
Located in New York, NY
An original Maison Jansen pencil drawing on velum, depicting an architectural detail "Rosace de Plafond" page 135 Stamped: Jansen, 9 Rue Royale Paris 8e
Category
French 20th Century Drawings
Materials
Paper
1980s Byron Gálvez Art Pastel Ink Black Paper
By Byron Gálvez
Located in Chula Vista, CA
1980s Byron Gálvez Mexico Vibrant Modernism Artwork Pastel ink black paper
Signed art
25.5 x 19.75
Preowned original vintage unrestored art
See all images.
Category
Mexican Modern Vintage 20th Century Drawings
Materials
Paper
A Robert Freiman Gouache on Paper "Cathedrale" 1961
Located in St.Petersburg, FL
An interesting gouache on paper by Robert Freiman, signed and dated 1961.
Robert J Freiman (b. 1917 - d. 1991), deaf from birth, was born in New York City and attended the Lexington School for the Deaf. He studied art at the National Academy of Design, Pratt Institute, the Art Students League, the Parsons School of Design, and, in Paris, at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. Freiman’s spectrum of styles evolved considerably over the course of his long career, ranging from early portraiture and realistic landscape to mixed-media works using watercolor, acrylic, and pen. He was a regular exhibitor at the Sidewalk Art...
Category
American Modern Vintage 20th Century Drawings
Materials
Gouache, Paper
Nude Female Figural Pencil on Paper Drawlings in Gold Tone Frame, Pair
Located in Van Nuys, CA
Unsigned pair of pencil on-paper figural drawing panels of the nude female form, each page features a panel of 4 to 5 figure drawings in antique-styled neoclassic leaf and berry gold...
Category
20th Century Drawings
Materials
Paper
$335 Sale Price
55% Off
Eugene Berman Costume Design Gouache Annabella from "Tis a Pity She's a Whore"
Located in Sharon, CT
Gouache on paper costume design for Annabella, for the John Ford play: "Tis a Pity She's a Whore" by Eugene Berman signed with the cypher (E.B.), dated 1942 and annotated. Pencil ske...
Category
American Elizabethan Vintage 20th Century Drawings
Materials
Paper
20th Century Oil on Cardboard Italian Impressionist Style Landscape Painting
Located in Vicoforte, Piedmont
Italian painting from the second half of the 20th century. Oil painting on cardboard depicting a glimpse of an Impressionist-style country road. Framework signed in the lower right corner (see photo) signature under study. Modern silver plated wooden frame equipped with protective glass (see photo). Small size painting...
Category
Italian 20th Century Drawings
Materials
Paper
Jerry O'Day Nude Drawing #1
By Jerry O'Day
Located in Pasadena, CA
A mild, pensive drawing nude of a woman leaning against a wall.
Jerry O'Day is also known as Geraldine Heib. Born in Oakland, CA on June 17, 1912. Geraldine Heib assumed the name Jerry O'Day at an early age. She grew up in Washington and studied in Seattle at the Cornish School of Fine Arts. Upon moving to the San Francisco Bay area in 1938, she further studied with Bufano as a muralist for two years. She wed sculptor David Lemon...
Category
American Mid-Century Modern 20th Century Drawings
Materials
Paper, Wood
$320 Sale Price
33% Off
White Bunny Drawing by Oleg Cassini for Playboy October 1979, Signed
By Oleg Cassini
Located in Brooklyn, NY
White Bunny Drawing by Oleg Cassini for Playboy October 1979, Signed.
Illustration of a woman wearing a white body suit, choker, and hat. Signed by Oleg Cassini. Notice the body suit is in the shape of the head of a bunny with clever use of the 'whiskers'.
Approximate Measurements: Length: 11" Width: 14"
Property from the Collection of Steven Rosengard, Chicago, Illinois
This original drawing was commissioned by Playboy and included in the October 1979 issue of Playboy Magazine (pages 225-227) in a feature that included works from designers such as Bill Blass, Oleg Cassini, Edith Head, Fernando Sanchez, and Monika Tilley, among others, who create their versions of the Playboy bunny costume. Candace Collins can be seen modeling some of the designs in the feature.
Oleg Cassini is an icon of twentieth-century fashion. Though born to Russian aristocracy and raised in Italy, he built a fashion empire that was unmistakably American. Cassini is perhaps best known for the hundreds of designs he created for First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy (see images 4-8), but his achievements as a collector, connoisseur, and quintessential twentieth-century man go far beyond Camelot.
In 1913, Oleg Cassini was born in Paris to the Russian diplomat Count Alexander Loiewski and Countess Marguerite Cassini, a Russian aristocrat of Italian ancestry who also had an interesting link to America. The daughter of Count Arthur Cassini, Russian Ambassador to the United States during the McKinley and Roosevelt administrations, Marguerite dazzled turn-of-the-century Washington as her father’s official hostess and left her mark on the capital city. Stationed in Denmark when the Russian Revolution toppled the czar, Ambassador Cassini and family were exiled to Switzerland before settling in Florence, Italy, where young Oleg was raised. A true Renaissance man, he spoke Russian, French, and Danish before adding Italian and English; he studied medieval and modern European military history and costume and learned to draw; he learned horseback riding, fencing, and the art of chivalry; and, most importantly, he came to understand the struggles of the Russian titled class and other European aristocrats in the wake of the Russian Revolution and World War I.
Countess Cassini started a successful fashion business in Florence, and soon the talented young Oleg was sent to Paris to sketch the latest collections for recreation in Italy. In Rome in his early 20s, Cassini created fashions for high society women and designed for a few films, which planted the seed for his move to Hollywood. The drive to reinvent himself brought Cassini to America in the 1930s; in his autobiography he describes arriving nearly penniless in mid-Depression New York City where his title as an exiled Russian Count meant even less than in war-devastated Europe. Down and out, Cassini struggled for employment, having sketching skills but no knowledge of the wholesale trade required for survival in Manhattan’s Seventh Avenue fashion district. However, he excelled at making connections, and Cassini slowly entered New York society. He was soon joined by younger brother Igor (who had studied in America and travelled with the young Emilio Pucci) and his parents, the once-dazzling Countess and his father, the displaced diplomat still loyal to Russia. The family settled in Washington, D.C., and Igor worked his way up the Hearst newspaper chain to become the famous society columnist Cholly Knickerbocker.
In New York, Oleg Cassini married the troubled socialite Merry Fahrney (who would go on to marry eight times), but the marriage ended in scandal for Oleg, and he decided to follow his original intention and head for Hollywood. Despite initial difficulties, Cassini gained access to Hollywood’s elite (partially through his skills on the tennis court), and was soon hired as a designer at Paramount Pictures alongside the redoubtable Edith Head. In her 1941 film debut I Wanted Wings, Veronica Lake wore a memorable Cassini design. That same year, Cassini met and married the newest young Hollywood star on the scene, the beautiful 20th Century Fox–talent Gene Tierney.
With the outbreak of World War II, Cassini enlisted in the Coast Guard but was transferred to the U.S. Army Cavalry which allowed officers of foreign birth. He attended basic training at Fort Riley, Kansas, and the horsemanship he learned as a boy served him greatly. He attended Officer Candidate School and reached the rank of First Lieutenant (he also became an American citizen at this time, losing his title of Count). Cassini spent several years posted at Fort Riley, where Tierney joined him before he landed a convenient military post in Hollywood. As Tierney’s career thrived (she played the title role in Otto Preminger’s Laura in 1944), she was able to assert her influence over 20th Century Fox’s head Daryl Zanuck, who hired Cassini as designer for Tierney on her 1946 film The Razor’s Edge, which proved to be a brilliant showcase for his talents. The pair separated the same year and, again seeking reinvention, Cassini re-established himself in New York City as a fashion designer. By 1950, the Oleg Cassini label was born.
Combining his knowledge of Old World and modern Europe, Hollywood, the tennis courts of Palm Beach and Newport, and of course, New York City, Oleg Cassini invented a new brand of fashion that was distinctly American and of its moment. For his first collection, Cassini took to the stage, narrating the looks and imbuing the scene with his personality, unusual in an industry where the designers typically remained backstage and the models were called by number over a PA. The first collection was a smash — the president of Lord & Taylor devoted all of their storefront windows to his designs — and by 1955 sales had reached $5,000,000. Oleg Cassini’s career had turned a very positive corner.
Cassini spent the early 1950s traversing the country, personally selling his collections to department stores in the interior, something his predecessors had never done, and moving between the Hollywood and New York scenes. Cassini’s brother Igor coined the term “the Jet Set” for this generation that constantly flew from New York to Los Angeles (then a ten-hour flight), Las Vegas, Paris, Rome, and the Riviera. In 1954, Cassini set out to woo Grace Kelly and sent her roses every day. The two were briefly engaged before her marriage to Prince Rainier of Monaco.
In December 1960, Cassini’s career-defining opportunity came when he was chosen by Jacqueline Kennedy to design her fashions for the White House. Cassini had long known Joe Kennedy and his war-hero son John, and had first met Jacqueline Bouvier before her marriage in the early 1950s. Invited by President-Elect Kennedy to meet Jacqueline at Georgetown Hospital (she had just given birth to son John Jr.) to present to her drawings of potential dresses and First Lady looks, Cassini worked furiously to prepare a new line for the First Lady. Mrs. Kennedy had always had her clothes made by the top French couturiers of the day, but for the White House she wanted an American designer. Cassini wrote in his autobiography that he told the First Lady: “‘You have an opportunity here,’ I said, ‘for an American Versailles.’ She understood completely what I was trying to communicate; she began to talk excitedly about the need to create an entirely new atmosphere at the White House. She wanted it to become the social and intellectual capital of the nation” (Oleg Cassini, In My Own Fashion, 1987, p. 327).
Mrs. Kennedy loved Cassini’s design for a gown to wear to the Inaugural Gala (she had already ordered a dress from Bergdorf’s for the Inaugural Ball), and Cassini was selected as the First Lady’s designer and was soon dubbed the “Secretary of Style.” From 1960 to 1963, Oleg Cassini would design over 300 items for Mrs. Kennedy, creating the “Jackie Look” that contributed not only to a fashion revolution but also the dawn of a new age. Cassini wrote that “Jackie played a very active role in the selection of her clothes. She loved brilliant colors — pistachio, hot pink, yellow, and white among others. Her sense of style was very precise; she would make editorial comments on the sketches I sent her. She always knew exactly what she wanted; her taste was excellent” (Oleg Cassini, In My Own Fashion, 1987, p. 334).
After the Camelot years, Cassini’s business flourished and grew into a major industry; his name appeared on everything from couture to tennis-, sport-, and swimwear, car interiors, housewares, and perfume. He collected beautiful and rare artwork, arms and armor, and antique furniture, and lived the lifestyle projected by his image. From this period onward, Cassini also came to live in important homes. Of his Gothic Gramercy Park townhouse on Manhattan’s 19th Street he would write imaginatively, “I walked into the foyer and immediately fell in love. It was a place unlike any other in New York, a sixteenth-century Dutch house transported brick by brick from Europe by the Wells Fargo family in the early twentieth century. There was a vaulted, twenty-foot ceiling in the living room, leaded windows, elegantly carved wood paneling...
Category
Italian 20th Century Drawings
Materials
Paper
$2,752 Sale Price
20% Off
Sigurd Swane (1879-1973). Mixed media on paper. Landscape with trees
Located in København, Copenhagen
Sigurd Swane (1879-1973), Danish artist. Mixed media on paper.
Landscape with trees. Expressive lines.
Mid-20th century.
Signed in pencil.
In good condition with some paint loss and ...
Category
Danish 20th Century Drawings
Materials
Other
Vintage Framed Pen Drawn Cartoon by "Ole Olsen" from comedians "Olsen & Johnson"
Located in Van Nuys, CA
Vintage Framed Pen Drawn Cartoon by "Ole Olsen" from comedians "Olsen & Johnson". $
This original pen-drawn cartoon depicts a crowd in front of a man on a ...
Category
Vintage 20th Century Drawings
Materials
Paper
$1,980 Sale Price
44% Off
Charcoal Artists Drawing of Reclining Nude Male Model
Located in W Allenhurst, NJ
A fine charcoal and chalk reclining nude study of a handsome young man. Soft lines with charcoal and contrasting chalk.
Category
American American Classical 20th Century Drawings
Materials
Paper
Pastel Drawing of Mother Child on Paper by Leon Pierre Collard
Located in San Diego, CA
Figurative pastel painting of mother and child drawing on paper by Leon Pierre Collard (1916-2011). This drawing is rendered nicely and the im...
Category
American 20th Century Drawings
Materials
Paper
$780 Sale Price
20% Off
Clifford Ellis, Curlew II
Located in London, GB
Pencil on paper
H25 x W31.5 cm (framed dimensions)
Category
20th Century Drawings
Materials
Paper
Vintage Drawing Depicting a Courtroom Scene After the Original by Honoré Daumier
By Honoré Daumier
Located in Bristol, GB
Vintage Original Pencil and Charcoal Study
A drawing after the original artwork by Honoré Daumier, French (1808-1879). The original, which constitutes No. 22 of ‘Les Gens de Justic...
Category
French 20th Century Drawings
Materials
Paper, Glass
Recently Viewed
View AllMore Ways To Browse
Siena Italy Plates
Silver Clothes Brush
Silver Dresser Jars
Silver Muffineer
Silver Playing Card Box
Silver Shotgun
Silver Teapots With Burner
Snake Murano
Soldier Clock
Spade Diamond Club Heart
Spanish Armada
Spanish Bull Sculpture
Spanish Vargueno
Spirit Burner Sterling
Spoon Rack Antique
Spring Glory Sterling Silver Set
Staffordshire Porcelain Spaniels
Staffordshire Tea Cups