Folk Art Paintings
FOLK ART STYLE
Folk art is a genre of art that shares the creator’s traditions, offering not just an artistic display but an opportunity to learn about a culture. Antique, new and vintage folk art typically reflects a heritage or location. It can include utilitarian objects and handmade art as diverse as weather vanes, duck decoys, portraiture and paintings, carnival art and quilts.
Quilts are a quintessential part of American folk art but their roots are international, with quilting dating back to Ancient Egypt. The practice spread to Europe and was especially prominent in the Middle Ages, with one of the oldest surviving examples being the Tristan quilt made in Sicily in the 14th century. They were made as bedcovers and clothing, including as a layer for knights to wear beneath their armor. Native American folk art includes functional objects reflecting their heritage, such as baskets, textiles and wooden pieces.
Elsewhere, the vast range of work associated with Mexican folk art includes masks made by Mexican craftspeople for traditional celebrations and ceremonial dances. Mexican masks are part of the country’s folk-art traditions that go back thousands of years and play a role in festivals and theater.
Works in the folk art tradition are valuable because of the skills involved, like weaving, hand-carving wood and even stonework. Many folk artists are self-taught, while some train as apprentices within their community. By using available materials and taking a personal approach to their creations, artists ensure each piece is unique and conveys a story.
During the Great Depression, artistic materials in America were hard to come by, so artisans used discarded wood from cigar boxes and shipping crates to make highly stylized, notched pieces — most often picture frames and boxes — that are today sought after by collectors. This folk art style is called tramp art and was popular from roughly 1870 until the 1940s.
Folk art brings vibrant culture and traditions into your home. Browse an extensive collection of antique, new and vintage folk art on 1stDibs.
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Item Ships From: Europe
Style: Folk Art
Balinese Painting, Artwork, Folk Art, 1980s
Located in Antwerp, BE
Balinese Painting; Artwork; 1980s; Balinese Art; Bali; Folk Art;
Balinese painting, dating from the 1980s. Balinese art has traditionally called upon religion (Hinduism), people, and the island itself. Bali’s art...
Category
1980s Balinese Vintage Folk Art Paintings
Materials
Canvas
Naive School Portrait Of A Man With A Map, Original Antique Oil Painting
Located in Bristol, GB
ANTIQUE ORIGINAL OIL ON CANVAS PAINTING DEPICTING A MALE SITTER
Depicting a rather portly man with a characterful face in a curly wig with a flouncy collar and sleeves. He is pointi...
Category
18th Century Antique Folk Art Paintings
Materials
Canvas
Swedish 19th Century Folk Art Oil Painting With Kids
Located in Haddonfield, NJ
Swedish naive oil painting with the original frame, from the 2nd part of the 19th Century.
This folk art work on canvas represents kids and a dog playing by a courtyard, opening the...
Category
Late 19th Century Swedish Antique Folk Art Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Wood
Canvas painting antique flowers
Located in Cantù, IT
Painting on canvas antique flowers Private Collection Domenico Rugiano
Category
1970s Italian Vintage Folk Art Paintings
Materials
Canvas
J. Gruber - Portrait of a Bavarian Folksy Man with Beer Mug, Oil on Wood
Located in Berghuelen, DE
J. Gruber - Portrait of a Bavarian Folksy Man with Beer Mug, Oil on Wood
A colorful oil painting depicting a beer drinking folksy Bavarian man in his sunday robe. Painted on wood with pastel colors around 1950s. Framed with wooden carved and gilded frame in Baroque style. Painted by J. Gruber. Signed in the lower left corner.
Alpine oil...
Category
Mid-20th Century German Folk Art Paintings
Materials
Wood
J. Gruber - Portrait of a Bavarian Folksy Man with Wine Glass, Oil on Wood
Located in Berghuelen, DE
J. Gruber - Portrait of a Bavarian Folksy Man with Wine Glass, Oil on Wood
An colorful oil painting depicting a wine drinking folksy Bavarian man in his sunday robe. Painted on wood with pastel colors around 1950s. Framed with antique wooden gilded frame...
Category
Mid-20th Century German Folk Art Paintings
Materials
Wood
Inge Woelfle - Portrait of a Bavarian Folksy Man, Oil on Wood
Located in Berghuelen, DE
Inge Woelfle - Portrait of a Bavarian Folksy Man, Oil on Wood
An colorful oil painting depicting a folksy Bavarian man in his sunday robe. Painted on wood with pastel colors around 1950s. Framed with wooden carved and gilded frame in Baroque style. Painted by Inge Woelfle. Signed on the right top corner.
Alpine oil...
Category
Mid-20th Century German Folk Art Paintings
Materials
Wood
J. Gruber - Portrait of a Bavarian Folksy Man with Beer Mug, Oil on Wood
Located in Berghuelen, DE
J. Gruber - Portrait of a Bavarian Folksy Man with Beer Mug, Oil on Wood
An colorful oil painting depicting a beer drinking folksy Bavarian man in his sunday robe. Painted on wood with pastel colors around 1950s. Framed with antique wooden gilded frame...
Category
Mid-20th Century German Folk Art Paintings
Materials
Wood
Inge Woelfle - Portrait of a Bavarian Folksy Man with Pipe, Oil on Wood
Located in Berghuelen, DE
Inge Woelfle - Portrait of a Bavarian Folksy Man with Pipe, Oil on Wood
An colorful oil painting depicting a pipe smoking folksy Bavarian man in his sunday robe. Painted on wood with pastel colors around 1950s. Framed with wooden carved and gilded frame in Baroque style. Painted by Inge Woelfle. Signed on the right top corner.
Alpine oil...
Category
Mid-20th Century German Folk Art Paintings
Materials
Wood
Large Painting 0f Jesus, Original Oil On Canvas, Circa 1900
Located in Amsterdam, Noord Holland
Antique Original Oil on Canvas Painting of Jesus in a nice wooden frame.
Unsigned but executed in a confident and competent manner.
I would date this to the 1900. The painting was fo...
Category
Early 20th Century Hungarian Folk Art Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Pine
Salum Mussa, African Tingatinga School Composition, Oil on Board, 1970s
Located in Warszawa, Mazowieckie
Salum Mussa, Tanzania, 1970s
Oil painting on board
Work signed by the artist
Work dimensions 61/61
Unframed work
Salum Mussa Mzee Lumumba (1926-1999) was one of Edward Saidi Ting Ti...
Category
1970s Tanzanian Vintage Folk Art Paintings
Materials
Paint
Saidi Nakoko, African Tingatinga School Painting, Oil on Canvas, 1970s, Framed
Located in Warszawa, Mazowieckie
Saidi Nakoko, Tingatinga, Tanzania, 1970s
Oil on canvas
Work signed by the artist
Working dimensions 44/33
Framed work
Tinga Tinga is an art style originating from East Africa. It w...
Category
1970s Tanzanian Vintage Folk Art Paintings
Materials
Canvas
Saidi Nakoko, African Tingatinga School Painting, Oil on Canvas, 1970s, Framed
Located in Warszawa, Mazowieckie
Saidi Nakoko, Tingatinga, Tanzania, 1970s
Oil on canvas
Work signed by the artist
Working dimensions 44/33
Framed work
Tinga Tinga is an art style originating from East Africa. It w...
Category
1970s Tanzanian Vintage Folk Art Paintings
Materials
Canvas
Watercolor Painting "Antique Perù and Magic Bolivia"
By Pit Piccinelli 1
Located in Alessandria, Piemonte
"Antique Peru' and magic Bolivia", by Pit Piccinelli, an Italian painter who lived almost all his life in those countries, among indigenous people -
O/8171.
Category
Late 20th Century Peruvian Folk Art Paintings
Materials
Paper
Large Oil Panting “Cleaning Fishes”, Social Realism Style
Located in AMSTERDAM, NH
Wonderful and interesting large social realism oil painting depicting fishermen and men and women at work, collecting and cleaning fishes.
We see the influence of folk art and socia...
Category
Late 20th Century Russian Folk Art Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Paint
Still Life with Flowers, Oil Painting on Canvas by American-Italian Artist
Located in Haddonfield, NJ
Artwork from US born Italian artist Emanuele Laustino (Pittsburgh 1916-Asti 1988). Laustino was the son of immigrants from Asti´s countryside in Northern Italy, and moved to the Unit...
Category
Mid-20th Century Italian Folk Art Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Wood
Folk Art Animal Painting Brown and White Cats and Mouse Oil on Panel
Located in Munich, DE
This charming naive painting of two cats, one with a white fur, one with a reddish brown tiger fur, has been painted on a wooden panel using oil paints. It was painted around the las...
Category
1890s French Antique Folk Art Paintings
Materials
Wood
Antique Pair of Folk Art Collages Paintings of Partridges in Tramp Art Frames
Located in Munich, DE
This charming pair of collages of a male and a female partridge has been skilfully made out of feathers. The game birds have been set in a colourful landscape surround painted in watercolours. The paintings have been mounted by the last owners in oat coloured passe - partouts with white boardes...
Category
1880s Austrian Antique Folk Art Paintings
Materials
Feathers
Naive Ethiopian Painting, Greatest Scenes of Religion, Society and History 1970s
Located in Budapest, HU
Naive Ethiopian painting, The Greatest Scenes of Religion, Society and History.
Oil on Canvas
Measures: 100 x 190 cm
s.b.r.
with Ge'ez language ...
Category
1970s Ethiopian Vintage Folk Art Paintings
Materials
Canvas
Naive Ethiopian Painting Circle of Life 'Scene of the Year', 1970s
Located in Budapest, HU
The upper two lines show Months of Year form September to February and March to August, below the scenes of life.
with Ge'ez language inscriptions.
Category
1970s Ethiopian Vintage Folk Art Paintings
Materials
Canvas
Naive Ethiopian Genre Painting, 1970s
Located in Budapest, HU
Naive Ethiopian Genre painting, 1970s
oil on canvas
with Ge'ez language inscriptions.
Category
1970s Ethiopian Vintage Folk Art Paintings
Materials
Canvas
Naive Ethiopian Painting for the 79th Anniversary Italo-Ethiopian War in 1975
Located in Budapest, HU
Mengistu Haile Mariam and other Generals looking at the celebrators
oil on canvas painting, 90 x 190 cm
with Ge'ez language inscriptions.
Category
1970s Ethiopian Vintage Folk Art Paintings
Materials
Canvas
Naive Ethiopian Painting, Traffic in Addis Ababa, 1970s
Located in Budapest, HU
Naive Ethiopian painting, Traffic in Addis Ababa, 1970s.
with Ge'ez language inscriptions.
Category
1970s Ethiopian Vintage Folk Art Paintings
Materials
Canvas
Naive Ethiopian Painting Hospital Scene, 1970s
Located in Budapest, HU
Naive Ethiopian Painting Hospital scene, 1970s
with Ge'ez language inscriptions.
Category
1970s Ethiopian Vintage Folk Art Paintings
Materials
Canvas
1950s German Oil Painting on Wood in an Old Gilded Frame by Josef Hofbauer
Located in Berlin, DE
This beautiful 1950s German Oil Painting on Wood in an old gilded Frame by Josef Hofbauer.
A unique piece which is a great eye-catcher for your anti...
Category
1950s German Vintage Folk Art Paintings
Materials
Hardwood, Fruitwood, Paint
Surreal Painting, Roland Gautier
Located in London, GB
A large oil painting on ply board by French artist Roland Gautier. A surreal figurative observation of the female form facing a male body in the foreground. Colourful and bold with a...
Category
Late 20th Century French Folk Art Paintings
Materials
Plywood, Paint
Surreal Figurative Painting, Roland Gautier
Located in London, GB
A large oil painting on ply board by French artist Roland Gautier. A surreal figurative observation of two forms with floating heads. A bold piece of qui...
Category
Late 20th Century French Folk Art Paintings
Materials
Plywood, Paint
African Ethiopian Tribal Folk Art Painting 20th Century
Located in Milan, IT
Ancient Ethiopian painting imported to Italy by a diplomat during the Italian occupation of Ethiopia, in the late 1930s. This genre scene painting is divided into eighteen squares bordered by a black frame and divided into three lines. The scene depicts the story of a couple with three children through the stories of their domestic life and their rural activity; each box has a caption written in the Amharic language. In the first line: they grind; they drink; …illegible… while they spin; they bring water.
In the second line: comb, cut your hair; treats your teeth; grind; they bring the wood; they bring water.
In the third section: they prepare beer; they prepare bread; they cook bread; they prepare lunch; while they eat; while they drink. This canvas is painted in shades of ocher and is mounteed on a ebonized frame. Dates back to the late 1930s. The canvas show minimal tears and signs of wear but we can customize a restoration.
The human figures are characterized by unrealistic proportions of the head and body and depicted in static positions. This sense of fixity and the narration in successive chapters in domestic environments make the paintings easily intelligible and suggestive.
A particularly fascinating aspect of Ethiopian art...
Category
Mid-20th Century Ethiopian Folk Art Paintings
Materials
Canvas
Naive Portrait of a Girl, English, Early 19th Century
Located in St Annes, Lancashire
Wonderful naive oil painting of a girl.
Fabulous muted colors. The austerity of the image is matched by the simplicity of the antique bleached oak frame.
I have chosen not to r...
Category
1840s English Antique Folk Art Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oak
Naive School Painting of An Assembly of Figures. French, C.1950
Located in St Annes, Lancashire
Delightful naive painting of possibly fisherfolk.
Most likely French. Possibly Breton?
Amazing colours.
Coarse canvas.
Artsist unknown. Initial A.D to bottom left.
Presented i...
Category
1950s French Vintage Folk Art Paintings
Materials
Canvas
Rustic Figures in a Farmyard, in the Manner of Jack Kampmann, C.1950.
By Jack Kampmann
Located in St Annes, Lancashire
Charming painting of 2 female farm labourers
Unsigned. In the style of Jack Kampmann
Oil on board.
Possibly Faroe Islands
Presented in an antique whi...
Category
1950s Faeroese Vintage Folk Art Paintings
Materials
Paint
African Ethiopian Tribal Folk Art Painting 20th Century Battle Scene on Canvas
Located in Milan, IT
African Ethiopian painting imported to Italy by a diplomat during the Italian occupation of Ethiopia, in the late 1930s. This tribal folk art painting depicts a battle scene and the canvas is mounted on a parallelogram-shaped frame.
It is a large battle painting...
Category
Mid-20th Century Ethiopian Folk Art Paintings
Materials
Canvas
Naive Illustrated Landscape in Bright Green-Yellow Colors by Nicole Fourcroy
Located in Salzburg, AT
Oil On Canvas Landscape Of Flowered Countryside With Villages And Animated Fields, Signed
Handmade shadow gap frame with gilding
Born March 26, 1926 in Luzarclus.
Nicole Four...
Category
1990s French Folk Art Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Wood
Danish Early 19th Century Oil Painting Of A Farm House
Located in Haddonfield, NJ
Danish early 19th Century oil painting of a farm house in a period gilded frame.
Category
Early 19th Century Danish Antique Folk Art Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Wood
Collection of Six 19th Century Folk Art Oil on Board Boxing Fighting Scenes
Located in Lowestoft, GB
A wonderful naive collection of six fighting scenes, with baker boys and chimney sweeps.
The six spilt up into two tryptic's one showing a fight in a ring that's abruptly slowed ...
Category
Late 19th Century English Antique Folk Art Paintings
Materials
Maple, Paper
Masonic Sheepskin Man Portrait
Located in London, GB
Masonic Sheepskin Man Portrait
We are proud to offer a highly unusual subject matter oil on canvas painting by the recently deceased Cornish artist James Scrase. A fine example from a member of the Royal Society of National Portraits members, trained under the guidance of Italian artist Annigoni in the early 1970s. James produced some wonderful piece of art in many different mediums. The unusual thing about this portrait is not only the fact that the subject sits proud in a sheepskin coat as his best attire, but also the fact that the artist name is hidden in the note painted...
Category
1950s British Vintage Folk Art Paintings
Materials
Canvas
Hand Painted Wall Decoration Chart Depicting the Story of a Murder Ballade
Located in Berghuelen, DE
Hand Painted Wall Decoration Chart Depicting the Story of a Murder Ballad
A rare hand painted wall decoration chart showing a murder ballad. Used to illustrate a steet Ballad in whi...
Category
Mid-20th Century German Folk Art Paintings
Materials
Canvas
German Folk Art Naïve Military Painting, circa 1870
Located in London, GB
A wonderful example of a circa 1870 German Folk Art naïve military scene in townscape annotated to celebrate a soldier. In ceremonial regalia in watercolou...
Category
1870s German Antique Folk Art Paintings
Materials
Paper
Late Naive English School "Bull Broke Loose" Bull Baiting Oil on Canvas
Located in Lowestoft, GB
A late 18th century oil on canvas depicting a bull baiting scene
In England during the time of Queen Anne, bull-baiting was practised in London at Hoc...
Category
Late 18th Century English Antique Folk Art Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Maple
19th Century Diorama of Frederiksborg Castle in Denmark
Located in Copenhagen, K
Amazing Danish model representing a scene with three-dimensional figures of Frederiksborg castle and gardens. With miniature people and trees in the f...
Category
Early 19th Century Danish Antique Folk Art Paintings
Materials
Paint
Folk Art paintings for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a broad range of unique folk art paintings for sale on 1stDibs. Many of these items were first offered in the 21st Century and Contemporary, but contemporary artisans have continued to produce works inspired by this style. If you’re looking to add vintage paintings created in this style to your space, the works available on 1stDibs include folk art, wall decorations and other home furnishings, frequently crafted with canvas, fabric and other materials. If you’re shopping for used Folk Art paintings made in a specific country, there are North America, and United States pieces for sale on 1stDibs. While there are many designers and brands associated with original paintings, popular names associated with this style include Purvis Young, Alejandro Rangel Hidalgo, M J Myers, and A. Tamme. It’s true that these talented designers have at times inspired knockoffs, but our experienced specialists have partnered with only top vetted sellers to offer authentic pieces that come with a buyer protection guarantee. Prices for paintings differ depending upon multiple factors, including designer, materials, construction methods, condition and provenance. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $2,380 and tops out at $2,600 while the average work can sell for $2,490.
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