1940s Paintings

Decorative painting from the 1940s. Red, blue and yellow. Children playing on a bicycle. Framed in a beautiful gold frame with a linen liner.

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

Painting title "New Jersey Bathers" circa 1949 (1908-1986) works represented in over 30 Museums. Was president of the American Artists league and past president Audubon Artists and a...

Decorative painting from the 1940s. Painting has a beautiful gold frame with a linen liner.

Large oil on canvas by Paul Ackerman, entitled « personnage dans l’arbre » (« character in a tree »). Biography Paul Ackerman, Romania-France (1908-1981) Paul Ackerman is a Romanian painter, lithographer, sculptor and theater designer, living in France since 1912, he belongs to the School of Paris . Paul Ackerman was four years old when, in 1912, his father, a company director and great art lover, decided, out of constraint in the face of « the anti-Semitism which is a harsh reality in Romania », to come and settle in Paris, in a large villa facing the Bois de Vincennes. He did his secondary studies at the Lycée Charlemagne (where he befriended Gabriel Arout, future playwright for whom he would later design the sets), then at the Ecole Alsacienne. From 1925, Ackerman studied law and letters at the Sorbonne, but, frequenting the Louvre Museum assiduously, he knew that his vocation lay elsewhere. In 1933, Paul Ackerman met Simone Laverrière, a native of Royan, whom he married in 1935. In 1936, in his studio at 100, rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, he designed projects for posters, fabrics and jewelry for Elsa Schiaparelli and Marcel Rochas while visiting Fernand Leger’s studio. In 1939 Paul Ackerman was mobilized, taken prisoner then released, he found his wife Simone in Vichy where he was expelled as a Jew and left for Saint-Tropez. He then leads a cloistered life in the south of France, made up of small means (painting on...

Vintage Watercolor of Nantucket Railroad, by Doris and Richard Beer, circa 1940, a watercolor on paper view of the Nantucket narrow gauge "Dummy...

French 1940s gouache on paper. Custom framed with sandblasted oak frame with acid free paper and UV glass.

Painted by Cuba's most important figural painter in the mid-20th century, this portrait by Victor Manuel depicts a young man with a bicycle cap and a white and red striped shirt, loo...

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...

French 1940s gouache on paper. Custom framed with sandblasted oak frame with acid free paper and UV glass.

The oil painting on canvas by Ejner Johansen from 1948 sounds like a delightful piece of art. Ejner Johansen was a Danish artist known for his paintings, often featuring still life c...

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...

Signed Winter Church Scene by F. Michaels. Nice New England winter scene composition. Framed in a solid wooden frame. Signed lower right.

An oil on board painting by Australian painter W. Hayward Veal (1913-1968), entitled Nocturne No. 4, depicting a night scene of a park and tree in the foreground with a man walking, ...

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

Vintage Original Oil Painting Depicting a Fish Depicting a slumped skate on the kitchen worktop ready for the chop with a slightly anthropomorphic smi...

A striking and richly-hued example of American Scene painting, this depiction of a yellow calla lily framed by undulating hills in tones of purple and red was painted by Richard Taflinger. The artist's celebration of his native Oklahoma landscape...

Reminiscent of the work of Jared French in its material (tempera), its color palette and its approach to the male figure, this lovely depiction of two dancing angels, one in the fore...

Oil on board of Ivo Patcevitch founder of Conde Nast attributed to Renee Bouche.

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.

1940s Pastel Painting On Paper Of Asian Woman Signed Dorothy Dwin Illustration Wood Frame and glass Colors: pink, blue, white

The picture is painted with oil paints on canvas. Dimensions: Frame: height 82 cm / width 109 cm Image: height 71 cm / width 96 cm

1940s Watercolor Painting On Paper Of Asian Woman Wearing Hat Wearing a Nón Lá (traditional Vietnamese hat) Signed Dorothy Dwin Illustration

Unique and large frame hand quilted pheasants that stand out in vivid hues. Imported artwork and sold by the heritage Woodwards Store in Canada. Excellent for use in study or bedroom...

Signed French framed painting resting nude woman from the 1940. Traditionally those paintings were hung above the bed in a master bedroom in France. ...

Oil on artist board signed and dated lower right featuring pool players playing a point match in the pool hall. Great WPA feel and texture impasto. Most likely the original frame measuring 15.25" x 19.25" overall. Born in New York in 1915, Campanella studied at the Leonardo Da Vinci Art School where the curriculum was based on the Naples Academy founded in the 1440s. He took this classical Renaissance training to the streets of New York, then-rural Astoria, Monhegan Island, and Wyoming. As an easel artist for the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in the 1930s he painted and taught in Rock Springs, Wyoming. There his style became Abstract and works of Classical Abstraction were recognized in art reviews and exhibitions. He was represented by the Rehn Gallery in New York until the death of Frank Rehn in 1956. His work has been shown at The Art Institute of Chicago, Carnegie Institute, Brooklyn Museum, Corcoran Art Gallery, Denver Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, San Diego Museum, San Francisco Museum, Seattle Museum, Toledo Museum, Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Universities of Nebraska, Tennessee and Wyoming. He was a Fellow at the MacDowell Colony in 1968. Retrospective shows of his work have been held at Hunter College (1995) and the Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art (2007). Campanella taught at the University of Wyoming (1940), Columbia University (1946-49), the Kansas City Art Institute (1949-52) and Park College (1952-80). Notable students include Robert Morris, Wilbur Niewald...

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 ...

Step into the rustic charm of a bygone era with this captivating 1940s Expressionist French oil painting. Skillfully depicting a vibrant farmer's market scene, the canvas comes alive...

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

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...

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...

Pulsating with life and color, this depiction of a crowded mom-and-pop store in wartime America, filled with a sailor in full regalia, homemakers and children, grandmothers and worki...

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...

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

In his early years, artist Ivan Bartlett was known for his WPA mural painting, such as for the Ada County courthouse in Boise, Idaho, but in the 1940s and 1950s he became famous for ...

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...

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...

Striking and handsome, this depiction of a Bedouin in his traditional robe has the color and intensity one would associate with the fierce sun and heat of North Africa. The painting ...

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...

A remarkable vision of brotherly utopia, with a hint of homoeroticism, this beautiful study was painted by British artist George Frederick Hinchcliff in preparation for a proposed mu...

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

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...

P. Oliver-Smith (American, XX), Abstract Cubist Figural Composition, Oil on Canvas, 1947, signed and dated lower right, signed and initialed to verso. On wooden stretchers, unframed....

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...

A striking example of graphic design in the 1940s, which was moving from elegant Art Deco stylization to a looser, collage-like assemblage of overlapping images, this original painti...

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...

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...

Saturated with the brilliant hues of earth and sea, and filled with symbols and signs of Hawaii's spectacular landscape and rich history -- including an angry Hawaiian king with his traditional feathered headdress or "mahiole" -- this watercolor was painted in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor...

Painted during the heyday of American Surrealism, this watercolor depicts a sleeping nude female figure holding a laurel wreath, seemingly disconnected from a pair of male nudes saun...

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

A true masterpiece of genre painting, with its depiction of idyllic World War II-era suburban life filled with children playing and adults attending to their homes and chores, this piece was created by Allan Jones in 1944. It is a stunningly beautiful spring day, and the view is looking through an open window with a blackbird sitting on the sill, into the backyards of a half dozen tidy brick and wood houses. The homeowners are attending to their Victory Gardens...

The painting "Forest landscape" ref. August Jacobsen, oil on canvas. dimensions 47cm x 61cm

In an era when Reginald Marsh, Paul Cadmus and many other painters loved to capture the joy and energy of crowded beach scenes in America, John Winters created this lovely genre scene of a male bather in his one-piece swim suit reposing on the sand (probably the Lincoln Park beach in Chicago...

A superb example of allegorical mural painting, this circular study depicting a female figure in Grecian robes overlooking a child with a plumb line, surrounded by scenes of construc...

Artist George Samerjan's (1915-2005) WPA style watercolor titled "Roller at Van Nuys" 1941, in its original artist selected and hand painted frame, but re-fra...

Le Pont Neuf, the oldest existing bridge to span the Seine in Paris, is the subject of this painted board in giltwood frame, signed and dated in the lower left corner by the artist, ...

Clifford Edgar Jones 1915-1975 American Chickens, 1948. Oil on canvas 30 x 24 inches unframed and 34" x 27.5" inches including the frame. Signed at lower right Clifford Jones ‘48’. ...

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...