1930s Paintings

Beautiful and affecting, this gentle depiction of a young woman holding a rose, her hair embellished with clusters of pearls and her dress evincing a fashionable patchwork of colors à la Paul Poiret, is by Marie Laurencin, and was painted as the basis for a print she issued. Laurencin -- whose paintings are being celebrated in a major exhibition at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia now -- is known for her focus on lovely women painted in delicate shades of blue, pink and gray, with dark eyes and blushing lips, as here. This painting, executed in gouache and watercolor, may have served as a study for a larger painting in oil...

An extraordinary example of Art Deco painting with allegorical meaning -- like so many murals painted in the 1920s and 1930s -- this large work by William L'Engle depicts five nude male figures laboring in the field, symbolizing life in Provincetown, Massachusetts. A Black male figure in the foreground is planting crops, while two other figures in the distance are pulling a rope, perhaps alluding to fishing boats tied up at the dock, while another nude seems to be sinking into sleep beneath a pier -- all with the waters of the Atlantic Ocean in the background. L'Engle called this "The Five Josephs," perhaps referring to Joseph of Arimathea and other figures in the New Testament. William L'Engle was a towering figure in the Provincetown art colony, and was extremely well connected with America's artistic elite, starting with his trip to Europe as a young man with Waldo Pierce and George Biddle. Over time, William and his life Lucy became close to a wide range of important figures in painting, theater and the arts, including Charles Hawthorne, Eugene O'Neill, Gerrit Beneker, John Dos Passos, Edmund Wilson and Mary McCarthy, William and Marguerite Zorach, Edna St. Vincent-Millay, Charles Demuth, Childe Hassam, George Biddle, Edwin Dickinson...

Paul JOUVE (1878-1973) : "Touareg and Camel". Circa 1932. This painting is one of the best work by famous artist Paul Jouve. It has a perfect documentation being published in the ref...

1930 "Struggle of the Centaurs" oil painting on canvas with coeval frame, painted by Luigi De Servi (4 June 1863-25 June 1945) French-Italian painter. It has artist's signature and a...

This gorgeous and important mural study, depicting a sleeping couple under a starlit sky, watched by the goddess Diana overhead, was painted in gouache and gold by Dunbar Beck, in pr...

A remarkable find, this original manuscript for an unpublished book, "Pila and the Lizard," along with cover art and a total of 12 Art Deco watercolors painted to illustrate the book...

A magnificent example of her work, this portrait of a Navajo woman and her child has all the hallmarks of Martha Walter's mature work, confident and bold ...