Paintings

Clearly influenced by Raoul Dufy, Marie Laurencin and Hollywood set designs, this striking depiction of two nude female figures around a table with a bowl of fruit was painted in 194...

Exotic and highly atmospheric, this nocturnal Art Deco scene of the famed Egyptian prince, Saif ul Malook, from the fairy tale by Mian Muhammad Baskh, was painted by Gösta Adrian-Nil...

This lovely sensual rare French Art Deco engraving from the coveted portfolio Chansons de Bilitis in the 1920s France is by the famed artist; George Barbier. It is exquisitely executed with an Egyptian Revival feel with Art Deco influences of wonderful colors and sensual subject matter. It has been recently custom museum quality reframed with a gold leaf frame with red clay under rub and silk mat. There is a gold thin inner liner frame inside of the silk mat to enhance the custom framing to a higher level. The colored part of the engraving size is 6.5" W x 7" H. There is a tan silk mat that is 3" all around with a 4" Bottom size. This Art Deco work of art is a true beauty. This is from the late 1920s. There were only 133 copies produced making this portfolio a very special and sought after achievement of pure art deco illustration...

Beautifully painted by Giovanni Colacicchi in rich, verdant colors, this depiction of a nude, youthful Adam figure in the midst of the Garden of Eden, accompanied by God in a hooded,...

Antique Oil Painting – Studio of Robert Henri – Sailor Boy Mick – Early 20th Century Artwork Experience the timeless beauty of this Robert Henri Cozad Sailor Boy Mick Oil Painting o...

A brilliant example of American Cubism, this vividly-hued still life depicts an autumnal array of fruit, green and red grapes, lemons, figs and persimm...

Original Post War Framed Paintings with red hibiscus, by Tip Freema Featuring a red floral Hibiscus against a light background in its original wood frame. Tip Freeman...

Olga Lau (1875-1960), Danish artist. Oil on canvas. Large painting. Seated woman seen from the back lost in deep thoughts. Inspired by Italian Renaissance works. Modernist style. V...

Antique Seascape with a Five Masted Bark, by Julius Gregersen (German: 1860 - 1953), circa 1921 - 1928, an oil on canvas seascape with view of the five masted bark KOBENHAVN sailing ...

A very interesting and unusual Lancaster Bridge Original Oil Painting by artist J. Earle Pfoutz. The painting is produced on artist board and comes complete with what appears to be an original artist decorated/painted frame. The painting is signed on the front by the artist. Overall frame Size approximately 42″ wide x 2″ deep x 30″ high J. Earle Pfoutz had a long and distinguished career as a self trained artist. More can be learned about him from reading this article produced by Gary Hawbaker at askART Earle Pfoutz Born: 1891 – Lancaster, Pennsylvania Died: 1957 Known for: Landscape, figure, still life painting An image of J Earle Pfoutz Biography from the Archives of askART J. Earle Pfoutz (John Earle Pfoutz) – (Oct 23, 1891-Nov 9, 1957) “A seventh generation descendant of a Swiss family which arrived in America early in the 17th Century, J. Earle Pfoutz was born in Lancaster, PA, son of John Bachman and Susan Allison Pfoutz. He painted houses for a living and pictures for a life. A self-taught artist, described as a primitive, he was distinctive for his vivid imagination and bold color application. He painted hundreds of Lancaster County scenes. Pfoutz traveled through the hills near his home and along the Susquehanna River in search of scenes. He began painting with a brush when he was fourteen, but added a palette knife after suffering an eye injury. He completed eighth grade in the Lancaster Public Schools and there his formal education ended. However, the Department of Public Instruction of the State of Pennsylvania thought so highly of his work as an artist that officials certified him as an art instructor and he taught for a year in the York (PA) public schools. He also was an art instructor under the program for disabled veterans, sponsored by the Veterans Administration, when he gave private instruction to veterans in their homes. In 1947, J. Earle Pfoutz finally earned national recognition as an artist. His painting, Opalescent October, was chosen by the Museum of Art of Dayton Ohio, to travel all over the country for a year with its Group Exhibition. Described as a “very colorful, calm scene, iridescent in color, sweeping in design,” the painting started on its journey around the country early in 1948. In an interview with the Sunday News (Lancaster, PA – Nov 2, 1947), Pfoutz stated that he didn’t know whether he was a “primitive” or an “impressionist.” No master taught him, no school channeled his style. “Sometimes I didn’t eat, but I always managed to paint,” he recalled. Many of his hundreds of canvases -most of them not sold, but given away to friends – found their way to other parts of the country. “I never remember the day when I did not love color,” Pfoutz said. “I was about 12 years old when I saw my first palette – a string of different colored paint paddles that graced the stores of that day. As a boy I had two great desires. One was to be able to eat all the strawberry jam I could, and the other to possess a string of those beautiful paint paddles. Well, I’ve got my fill of jelly, but I’ve never yet got my fill of beautiful colors.” In 1950, Pfoutz’s one man show of paintings made front page headlines in the Lancaster Intelligencer Journal: “Most of the twenty oil paintings on exhibition are landscapes, although there are several interesting figure studies. Colors again, as in all Pfoutziana are rich and full-bodied, but for the most part not as startlingly as in some of the earlier work. Most of the paintings were done during the past year, and also reveal the painter’s characteristic heavy impasto technique, in which the rich swirls of paint carry their own message. Among the figures, The Banjo Picker, and The Magician, are the most provocative. Both are character studies; the first being of a tramp musician whose drab clothing is set-off by a luminous aqua blue background. Modern in feeling and treatment is The Magician, a clown-faced wizard whose spinning ball in the air suggests the fourth dimension – space. The use of the primary colors in this picture serves to emphasize the theme effectively. A large colorful landscape, Opalescent October, depicting rolling hills against a late afternoon sky is new to Lancastrians, as it has just returned from Dayton, Ohio, where it hung in the Dayton Art Institute. Another landscape with soft dreamy colors is Fantasie D’Autumne, and one of the loveliest pictures in the show. Pennsylvania Dutch Country is another with eye appeal, and was one of the works which was hung in the Old Customs House in Philadelphia during Pennsylvania Week, and before that in a collection of Pfoutz work in the same place. In deep contrast to the sunny skies and brilliant foliage of many of the pictures, is the somewhat morbid Worry, in which the center of interest is a tremendous rat. This, the painter explains, was symbolic of 1948 in China, which was ‘The Year of The Rat’ in the Chinese calendar. Background material for the picture was furnished to Pfoutz by author Pearl Buck. Other pictures include Autumn Prelude, Miners Village, painted at Cornwall, PA; Humid Day, Saint Peters Kierch, at Middletown, PA; Lady Pfoutz, inspired by the painter’s wife; Sun Flowers, Sentimental Journey, Gyne, Luzon Woman, Old Bridge, The Cow Path. Lemures, based on Roman mythology, and Ethiopian, painted from an ebony wood carving from Kenya Province, S. Africa.” In 1953, Pfoutz was installed as President of the Lancaster County Art Association. A. Z. Kruse, New York City artist, writer and member of the faculty of the Brooklyn College and the Cartoonists and Illustrators School, Manhattan, was the guest speaker. In January of 1953, thirty-five Pfoutz oils were exhibited at the Old Custom House in Philadelphia, PA under the sponsorship of the Carl Schurz Memorial Foundation. Several Lancaster County landscapes and covered bridges were included as well as Katy, a Pennsylvania Dutch scene. Symbolic paintings included End of the Second Day, the artist’s visualization of the second coming of Christ, and Twilight, typifying the grief of mothers of all lands for sons lost in battle. In June of 1953, a Pfoutz oil made history in Lancaster. From the Lancaster New Era: “For the first in local art history, a painting has been withdrawn from an exhibition because of objections from viewers and hostesses serving at the show. The painting, Jeune Fille, a standing nude done by Pfoutz, was one of the paintings in the annual spring exhibition of the Art Association and had become the center of the controversy. Pfoutz said he took the painting down… ‘graciously but reluctantly.’ ‘From an artistic standpoint, there is nothing offensive about the painting,’ Pfoutz said. ‘This community just wants its nudes with clothes on.’ “It is most brilliant in color, and because it is so brilliant I thought it would make a nice lively spot for the show. This is the first time I’ve had to take a picture off the walls. I substituted a seascape for it.’ Pfoutz said he felt the painting brought a lot of viewers to the show because it was so controversial. It had never been exhibited before. ‘If this had been shown in a metropolitan city,’ he commented, ‘people wouldn’t have given it a second glance. But the viewpoint here is more conservative, even though I don’t think moderns would have minded.’ He said he felt the painting was neither ‘objectionable nor pornographic,’ but had complied with the wishes of fellow members of the Art Association who telephoned him to relay the protests they had received. The art controversy was the first to arise here publicly since the showing of Amish Grandmother, an oil by William Gropper which was part of the Gimbel Pennsylvania exhibit at the Griest Building several years ago. — Numerous viewers of Amish Grandmother, [a painting showing an Amish woman holding a white goose], expressed themselves quite vocally, calling it an affront to the Plain Folk. But it stayed on exhibit throughout the length of the Gimbel show. Pfoutz expressed no rancor, implying that if Gropper could take it so could he.” After his death, there were several shows of Pfoutz’ work organized by his son J. Earle, Jr. J. Earle, Jr. also saw to it that President Eisenhower would receive an oil called The Cow’s Path. The president first saw the painting in 1950 when, as president of Columbia University, he visited Lancaster to address a student assembly at Franklin and Marshall College. After his address was over, the then Gen. Eisenhower stopped at the Fackenthal Library on the campus to view an exhibition of Pfoutz’s paintings. The Cow’s Path intrigued him. For some time, as his aides fumed to get him back on his time schedule, Eisenhower and Pfoutz talked, as artist to artist. Prior to his death, Pfoutz requested that The Cow’s Path be given to the President if he wanted it. The painting was presented to Ike at the White House in November of 1959. Mrs. Eisenhower owned a Pfoutz painting titled, In the Manor. Though house painting was his livelihood, he worked for Millersville State Teachers College (now a university) for a time during World War II, and called himself “the Chimney Sweep of MSTC.” During that period he knocked out a dizzying canvas in the surrealist style (he thought it was terrible) and got into the campus newspaper when one of the students spotted it. Earle Pfoutz was not the humble, downtrodden artist, not the Douanier Rousseau type at all. As he developed his skill and style through the years, he also fashioned a resilient confidence in himself as an artist. Whether he was building his own home (he built two) or painting one for somebody else, he never lost faith in his ultimate recognition—though he was never sure he would live to see it. Whether he was working as a rigger for a hoisting company, in the Stehli Silk Mill of Lancaster, carving Cloister-style chairs, decorating old chests, cementing bricks from the old Safe...

Ingvar Engdahl, Swedish artist. Oil on board. Interior with two people in modernist style. In very good condition. Would benefit from a clean. Signed and dated '48. Dimensions: 67.0 ...

In an era when fine art and natural history museums commissioned artists to travel the world to draw, paint and sculpt the native cultures they saw, Paul Travis' travels to Africa we...

[Authentic work] ◆ Kodo Umemura ◆ Diagram of Kiyoshi Miyama ◆ Master: Yoshifumi Kikuchi ◆ Co-box ◆ Handpainted ◆ Paper ◆ Hanging scroll ◆ Kodo Umemura Born in Osaka in 1898 He grad...

Billy Seay airbrushed parrot lovers (original airbrushed over a print) for the Turner Company, circa 1948, in the original white painted frame. A great exam...

An antique 20th Century oil on canvas piece by Frederick Thomas Daws portraying a Jack Russell Terrier. Daws, famed for his depictions of dogs created this piece in the 1920's in Eng...

1940s oil on canvas of 2 workers sawing. Signed.

James Kirk Merrick (American, 1905-1985), Stormy Seascape, watercolor on paper, signed "James Kirk Merrick" at lower right, loose and unframed. About: Merrick studied at Philadelphi...

The subtle yellows and soft pinks provide a stark contrast from the deep greens and neutral grays of the background, resulting in a piece that grabs your eye and brings you into it's...

Vintage Nantucket Watercolor of Old North Wharf, by Doris and Richard Beer, circa 1940, a watercolor on paper view of shell lane down center of ol...

Snowy Creek, creek with snow and trees - signed lower right - Unframed.

Vintage Framed painting depicting a woman fishing again a scenic mountain and forest lake scene. Signed Nell Wigging Cambell 1921 on the back. Vintage Condition with age with cracks,...

This unusual presentation of Mercury, the Greek god of speed and communications, was painted by François-Louis Schmied, one of France's two leading artists specializing in high-end b...

Western still life oil painting by listed artist Ruth Wilcox-Soho Location.

French 40's Gouache on paper. Custom framed with sandblasted oak frame with acid free paper and UV glass.

Fresh as a crisp fall day, this painting of a woman taking down laundry at the base of a hill dominated by her home above is a reassuring depiction of wholesome rural life in 1941, p...

Abstract Cubist oil painting on canvas from 1940s France. Moody and dynamic, the image depicts the beginnings of a town. A smoky gray sky gives the scene an industrial feeling, while...

1940s Signed Realist WPA Banana Flower Oil Painting Offered for sale is a stunning 1940s realist WPA oil painting oil on board. The painting is signed a...

This quintessential Art Deco image, executed in a brilliant palette of Carmen, pale purple, rose and green, depicts a wide-eyed and exotic Spanish woman with bright red hair ornament and a rose clenched in her mouth. Surrounding her is a lush Art...

A striking and atmospheric depiction of women fetching water in jugs and urns, descending into a lovely, picturesque hill town in Italy, this painting was made in 1942 by Sophie-Loui...

A wonderful painting by famous illustrator and artist Walter De Maris, 1877-1947, of two turn of the century businessmen in a beautifully illuminated o...

Very captivating set of two early 20th C still life paintings by Alexandre 'Alex' Denonne (Belgium, 1879-1953): still life "Asparagus and eggs" and still life "Melon". Oil on canvas...

[Authentic work] ◆ Hirai Hirai ◆ Boat trip in the rain ◆ Kyoto ◆ Hand-painted ◆ Silk ◆ Hanging scroll ◆ Hirai Baisen Baisen Hirai [Art yearbook appraised value 70 10,000 yen] 1889 ...

Chinese New Year paintings (nian hua) are colorful folk paintings created to celebrate the annual Spring Festival. Drawn or printed by folk artists in regional studios, nian hua pain...

Paul Wightman Williams, American (20th century). This diminutive mixed-media watercolor, pastel, and ink on paper depicts a haunting abstracted face. It is float-mounted in a faux-g...

Ismael de la Serna (1898-1968) ''The House'' Oil on canvas. Published in the catalogue held at "Centro Cultural Conde Duque" in 1990 Signed and dated 1929.

These are two stunning watercolor renderings of quintessential 1940s interiors. One is a beautiful teal and cream living room. The other is a cha...

One of the finest examples of illustration art and Art Deco painting we have ever offered, this elegant and sophisticated view of New Yorkers skating arm in arm on a frozen pond or l...

Original 1940s Mid-century vibrant Hawaiian Casablanca Lily airbrush on paper in original glass plate frame with a tropical-themed matte. This artwork captures the exotic beauty of C...

Mixed-media painting with sand on canvas titled "New York Sunset" by Marjorie Bishop, American, 1940s (signed on front, title on sticker on back). This...

19th Century portrait of a woman painted in oil on canvas with the frame dated in 1940 Measurements with frame: 69 x 69 x 3 cm.

A Classic Art Deco painting with a humorous look at domestic life in 1940s America, the scene focuses on a cat waiting for its owner as she arrives home, appearing in the porthole window of the front door. The painter was Karl Gasslander...

Painting "Portrait of an Ancestor", 19th century Dimensions: Frame height 134 cm, width 112.5 cm The painting height 102 cm, width 80 cm.

Hans Ekegardh (b. 1881, d.1962), Swedish artist. Oil on canvas. Seated nude model, landscape in the background. 1940s. In very good condition. Signed. ...

In 1943, when the Second World War still raged a continent away, Eleanor Reed painted this beautiful and haunting view of the New Mexico landscape, featuring a rosy-toned adobe churc...

The American public was fascinated with all things exotic in the 1930s and 1940s, including aquatic and seaside themes and Art Deco hotels and residential interiors often featured pa...

Colorful impressionistic oil on canvas painting of fishing boats in a harbor. Greens, blues and reds comprise the majority of the color pallet. Nicely framed and signed Bolus. 33" x ...

Best known for her depictions of New Mexico and the Southwest, here Virginia True painted a brilliantly-hued Cubist scene reflecting her years in New York. Showing the influence of P...

Vintage framed Renoir reproduction of Nude Female in stylized wooden frame. Ready to hang with wire along the back French, circa 1920. Size of frame: 14 x 16 inches; 2.5"D Condit...

The picture is painted with oil paint on canvas. Origin : Scandinavia Author : x Dimensions: Frame: height 28 cm / width 40 cm Image: height 18 cm / width 30 cm

This is a wonderful example of a rural landscape painting. It has serene coloring and is framed in a versatile champagne-silver wood frame. This landscape is stylish enough to hang a...

Albert Serwazi (American 1905-1992) "Gertrude with Parrot". Oil on canvas. Signed and dated 1944 upper right. Measures: 24" x 31" (Image size without frame) A painter from Philadelphia, Albert Serwazi was also a designer and illustrator. He was a student at the Pennsylvania School...

1940s WPA School Winter Scene Oil Painting by A. Stuz Offered for sale is a large 1940s WPA school oil painting on canvas of a playful wi...

One of the most exotic and gorgeously colored Art Deco paintings we have ever seen, this scene of an elaborately robed Chinese couple, clearly of royal blood, conversing by a pool su...

An energetic and bright watercolor on paper showcasing an example of modern American Impressionism by Harry Glassgold. Signed bottom right and dated 19...

Created in the 1940s, this painting has an air of nostalgia and foreboding. It depicts a house set against the backdrop of not-so-distant skyscrapers. The city fades into gray in con...

Brilliantly painted in striking shades of tomato red, green-blue and chalky white, this painting was made by Béla Kádár, increasingly appreciated and collected today as Hungary's ...

Saburosuke Okada (b. Japan 1869, d. 1939). Watercolor on paper. Landscape with a tree, circa 1920. Visible dimensions: 29 × 22 cm. The frame measures: 2.5 cm. In very good conditi...

Stunning oil painting "Ballerina" executed by Fried Pal in the 1940s,this painting is exemplary of the pictorial style of the author,whose portraiture combines a soft naturakistic re...