1940s Paintings

Parke-Bernet Galleries Inc., New York , “An Important Collection of Early American Miniatures and Silver. Property of Mrs Dorothy Draper Hamlen Removed from Her Home in Wayland, Mass...

Another piece of every man's Nordic heritage: a fisherman and his wife, earning their living on the sea. Masts capture the gusts, propelling the pair forward on their journey, nets a...

1944 original painting by Miller. unframed.

A beautiful oil painting depicting sheaves of wheat in a summer landscape. It is a painting by the famous painter Christo Stefanoff. He is known for his mastery of showing light and ...

1663 Over sized oil painting of a couple during the civil war.

5118 Antique Scandinavian portrait of a beatiful young pigtailed beauty Framed Image size 11.5x19 Signed C.Keskulla 1941

WPA era (1930s/1940s ) Oil on Oval Canvas Grouping of 3 Paintings of Trains with a Ribbon and Floating Ball, a bit Surrealist. Inspired by Thomas ...

5140 Oversized Antique French oil painting depicting a Frenchman in an interior scene Framed

Painting by unknown artist, circa 1940. Oil on canvas. Ilegible signature. In original condition, with some visible signs of previous use and age, preserving a beautiful patina...

Italian painting dated 1942 on the back. Oil on masonite framework signed lower left Laustino, referable to Emanuele Laustino (1916-1988) depicting a pleasant still life with primros...

Billy Seay Airbrushed Parrot Lovers artwork (original airbrushed over a print) for the Turner Company, circa 1948, in the original white painted frame. This a great example of the post-WWII Hawaiian and tropical art/decorating boom. Great for vintage Art Deco dwellings and rattan-inspired rooms. The print is new old stock and has never been displayed until now. Bill Seay (1922-2012) started his working life as Billy Seay, a child actor, in the late silents and early talkies (“Kid Millions” with Eddie Cantor, “Topaze” with John Barrymore, and “The Unknown” with Lon Chaney and the young Joan Crawford, are the most noted of these films), then followed in his father’s footsteps as an artist, joining the designer Sacha Brastoff in his studio from 1952 to 1959, remaining a life-long friend and co...

A beautiful oil painting by the Belgian artist Hubert Glansdorff. It is a portrait of a young child. The child wears a kimono and looks at the viewer...

Esteve Serrat Paxinc painting. Made in Spain, circa 1979. Hand signed by the author In good original condition, with minor wear consistent with age and use, preserving a bea...

Painting by unknown artist, circa 1940. Oil on canvas. Handsigned. Ilegible signature. In original condition, with some visible signs of previous use and age, preserving a beau...

Condition: Original Vintage Condition Materials: Oil On Canvas, Gold Leaf Wood Frame Style: Realism

Framed Print of Saint Anthony. By unknown artist, circa 1940. In original condition, with some visible signs of previous use and age, preserving a beautiful patina. Material...

2568 Antique impressionist oil painting of a horse drawn carriage on a snow covered road Framed in a period frame Canvas applied to board Image size 17.5x23.5"

John Hare (American, 1908-1978) A pair of watercolor paintings: "Provencetown Rooftops” and “Afternoon Light - Cape Cod”, circa 1940s. sight: 8 by 6 ¾ inches frame: 17 ⅝ by 16 ½ in...

Painting by unknown artist, circa 1940. Oil on canvas. Unsigned. In original condition, with some visible signs of previous use and age, preserving a beautiful patina. Unfra...

A pair of framed Airbrushed watercolor paintings on paper by Shirrel Graves. Each painting features a male deer in the forest, gazing into the distance as the noon sun shines overhea...

The Last Flowering of the Middle Ages by Baron Joseph Van Der Elst. Published by Doubleday, Doran and Company Inc., 1944. Stated 1st Ed hardcover. An in-depth look into art of the Middle Ages. Contents: 1. The Times and the Men who Made Them: Men of Flanders; The Flemish Parade; The Good Black Earth; The Rise of the Towns; The Medieval Guilds; Of Love, the Dream; The Upward Glance; Pt. 2. The Flemish Masters: Jan van Eyck; Petrus Christus...

Paintings by 19th century and Contemporary American Artists, from the Collection of The Late Samuel T. Shaw, NY: Parke-Bernet Galleries, Nov. 21, 1945. Softcover, 89 pp. 15 b&w plate...

A painting of a garden landscape, oil on canvas signed left below 'M. Tytgat Aine'. Médard Tytgat (8 February 1871, Bruges – 11 January 1948, Brussels), a Belgian painter, lithograph...

An astonishing and important example of Moderne-Mid Century Modern industrial design, this original watercolor rendering of a short-lived Coca-Cola/coffee vending machine was painted...

Little Boy Blue Painting on Canvas Cloth. Classic Fairy Tale illustration of Little Boy Blue fallen asleep in the hay. Great for a little boys...

Ron Childer's "The Meeting" is an oil painting on thick paper . The painting offers a highly graphic work, borrowing some influences from cubism and semi-...

A modernist figurative oil painting on canvas titled “Stillness in the Nude” by Harold Cohn. Signed and dated 1941 on the lower right as well as verso. This evocative painting by Har...

This fresh and vibrant portrait of a young woman with glowing blond hair and a blue 1940s frock is one of the finest World War II vintage portraits we have ever offered. Her complex...

Primitive modernist oil painting on homasote board of a male and female figure ( a self portrait of Leon and his wife Thelma ) by Zoute (Leon Salter 1903-1976 North Rose, NY) Brillia...

Signed William Sheldon Horton impressionist landscape painting. This "Plein Air" artist has majestically captured the purple desert canyons of California. This substantial canvas is ...

Just in, this Pair of Rare Italian Hand Painted Pastoral scenes Panels, called "Harvest Time" by Italian artist Duane Perrigo. Beautiful blues and whites hand painted on Wood board...

Kurt Thorsén, Sweden. Oil on canvas. Self-portrait of the artist. Dated 1943. The canvas measures: 93 x 52 cm. The frame measures: 6 cm. In excellent condition. Signed and dated.

An oil on canvas of a fishing charter boat at sea with fishermen. Likely an illustration for a publication circa 1940s. canvas: 27 by 21 inches frame: 31 by 25 inches Fair overall...

A strikingly brutal piece that raises more questions than answers. It was painted during the early 1940s by the German relatively unknown artist Franz Kofron. The fragment has been cut out of a larger subject/motif. Either due to censor or the obvious blasphemy of the subject mattter. A simple act of vandalism without any motiv does not make any sense. The technique used is referred to as Grisaille where a variety of shades/nuances within one color, typically gray, is used to create dept, mystic and atmosphere. The subject matter is a female with powerfull physic and rather masculine facial features/traits carrying a decapitated mans head attached to a stick by his long hair. One can argue that it articulates a reference to Judiths beheading...

3308 Oil on canvas in a custom gilt wood frame Image size 15.5x11.5"

An African American self portrait by the surrealist painter Henry Leopold (1920-2009). Leopold studied fine art in Belgium, France and Italy. He attended the American Artists school, the Pratt...

Abstract modernist oil painting on canvas female nude ( his wife Thelma ) signed lower left corner Zoute '40. A great example of his earliest work. Zoute' - born Leon Salter 1903-197...

A striking example of WPA mural art, this study for one of the murals proposed for the new Queens Supreme Courthouse -- a 1930s Works Progress Administration project in Queens, New York -- was painted by Eugene Savage. Like many paintings from the period, the study is teeming with allegory and symbolism, surmounted at the top by the figure of Justice with a long sword, spurning businesspeople at her feet who offer gifts and favors. Savage is best known for a spectacular set of murals illustrating the history and lore of Hawaii commissioned by Matson Shipping Line for the S.S. Lurline, executed in the 1940s but not installed until the 1950s. The artist also painted other series of murals and paintings, include an enormous mural...

3288 Winter horse drawn carriage Oil on board Image size 19.5x 15.5"

Fitger Hermann - Vase of Flowers with Fruit Measures: 32cm x 44cm - frame excluded 50cm x 62cm - with antique fir frame oil on canvas applied to cardboard - 1946 20th cen...

Art Deco painting swimming pool Vue de ma table. France ca. 1940. Acrylic paint, watercolor on board. Framed. Monogrammed.

Hobson Pittman (1899-1972) Signed upper left. Oil on panel. Provenance: Boca Raton Museum of Art Many examples of Pittman's paintings can be found in numerous museum collections, ...

Original Bavarian Tyrolian Folk Art painting, signed and dated This charming folk painting is executed in oil on artist board. A beautiful and rus...

Voluptuous in its approach to scene and palette, this sumptuous portrait of two women, lounging side by side amongst pillows and fabrics in satin and silk, was painted by Rudolph Sch...

A very interesting and unusual Pfoutz Original Farm Scene Oil Painting by artist J. Earle Pfoutz. The painting is produced on artist and comes complete with what appears to be an original artist decorated/painted frame. The Pfoutz Original Farm Scene Oil Painting is signed on the front by the artist and appears to be dated 1948 on the rear. Known for his unusual subjects Pfoutz outdid himself with this effort, capturing the essence of a Lancaster County farm but with the startling twist of portraying a large turkey vulture in the foreground. Definitely unique. Overall frame Size approximately 33″ wide x 3″ deep x 26″ 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...

Laszlo Neogrady nacque a Budapest, in Ungheria, nel 1896. Era il figlio dell'artista Anatal Neogrady, e studiò pittura all'Accademia Ungherese di Belle Arti ...

An elegant and fine abstract painting by Leonard Maurer, signed and dated 1949, titled "Summer Landscape", in original painted frame. Leonard Maurer (19...

An important 14 3/8" x 13 5/8" oil on 'beaver board'. Signed upper left, and artist framed. Exhibited: 1947 Gallerie Lydia Conti, 1949 Havana (1st exhibited abstract art in Cuba) and...

This oil on canvas is signed and date in the upper left and measures 38" x 45.25" including the frame. Sam Uhrdin (Swedish School, 1886-1964). Sam Uhr...

Rare circular Art Deco scenes of the Smoky Mountains with date and details rendered behind the paintings. Beautifully hand painted in vivid hues and original circular gilt frames. Em...

Beautiful vintage oil painting in an original frame. The pinting is named Gypsy Woman from Zamutov. Originally from the region of Czechoslovakia. The painting was hanging in the firs...

Textural Floral and Fruit Still Life Signed Leyster. Oil on Board in the style of Cezanne. Solid wooden frame. Perfect classical piece for that fine dining room or hallway entry. Ple...

Belgium / 1940 / painting / Robert Deman / wood, canvas / Mid-century An oil painting of a solitary man seated at a rustic wooden table, exuding an air of contemplation and introsp...

An early "over-all painting". Oil and graphite on 'beaver board'. This painting is illustrated in "The Art of the Artist" Arthur Zaidenberg, Crown Publishers NY 1951. Signed on back....

Stupendo dipinto eseguito da Szantho Maria negli anni 40,le sue opere sono realistiche e ricche di dettagli e si ispirano all'edonismo dei nudi di Karoly lotz coniugato alla vivacita...

A vibrant impressionist style oil painting on bard, artist signed Derbino '41.. Framed in original frame. Born in Sicily, Italy, Rosario Gerbino became a landscape painter and illustrator who lived in New York City where he taught at the Leonardo da Vinci Art School. He studied at the National Academy of Design with George Maynard, Charles Hinton...

Morris Walton Leader (1877- 1966) Morris Walton Leader was born in Marshall, Texas, in 1877. He died in Austin, Texas, where he had lived since he was a young boy. He studied with ...

French mid-century (1940s) oak framed horizontal wall mirror with reverse glass painted Neoclassic scenes. (attributed to Pierre Lardin).