1940s Wall Decorations

This classic example of WPA-period mural painting, executed by Verona Burkhardt for the Immigration and Naturalization Center in Los Angeles, depicts five Pueblo Indians in the foreground and a magnificent landscape of canyons and Pueblo dwellings in the background. This served as a study for one of five large canvases she delivered to California in 1941 or 1942, but the building was cordoned off due to America's entrance into World War II. Burkhardt (or Burkhard) was the daughter of two important artists and was introduced to painting and crafts at an early age. In her prime, she won seven U.S. Government mural commissions in national competitions for buildings in Wyoming, Montana, North Carolina, and Washington, D.C. She settled in Grand Junction...

Original vintage winter sport poster - Ski in Old Quebec Chateau Frontenac - featuring stunning artwork depicting a smiling lady with blonde hair wearing a patterned pink jumper with small images of snow covered chalets and trees, mountains and skiers on it, standing on top of a snowy slope holding a ski pole and looking up to the blue sky in the background, the title in stylised white lettering above and in black below. The historic Chateau Frontenac hotel opened in 1893 in Old Quebec Canada (now the luxury hotel Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac); this iconic building is located in the old walled city by the St Lawrence River...

Original vintage RAF Royal Air Force recruitment poster for the Air Training Corps - Air Training Today and Tomorrow - featuring artwork by Jonath...

Signed still life oil painting by unknown Swedish artist. Dated 1946.

Vintage Swedish framed embroidery of a native woman in a tropical environment. A "Bloomsbury" bohemian style embroidery made in the 1940s. A dreamy kind o...

Sensuous, finely rendered and full of mystery, this very rare signed print by Andrey Avinoff was one of several he created for "The Fall of Atlantis," a monumental and fantastical po...

Highly important both artistically and historically, this high style Art Deco bronze panel, full of symbolism and patriotic fervor, was commissio...

Rare Mid-Century Modern signed 1949 cubist gouache painting of skyscrapers, rooftops and skyline of the City of New York including The Chrysler building by painter Theodore "Theo" Ha...

Well executed watercolor/gouache showing the great windjammer Kobenhaven under sail. The massive four masted barque has most sails set. Matted and framed. Titled lower left “Kobenhav...

Karl Blossfeldt photogravure from the edition of the book 'Wunder in der Natur' in 1942. Photography number 2. 'Dispsacus laciniatus. Schilitzblätterige Karde, Weberkarde, Weberdi...

Karl Blossfeldt Photogravure from the edition of the book 'Wunder in der Natur' in 1942. In original condition, with minor wear consistent with age and use, preserving a beautiful...

Original vintage World War Two poster - The Attack Begins in the Factory - depicting soldiers working together to pull heavy artillery guns up a hill with ropes and pulleys in the ju...

Modelled as the face of a gentleman, possibly a Pope, approx. 24cm height.

Original vintage poster - Send By Rail / Verzend Per Spoor - featuring an image by the Dutch artist Fedde Weidema (1915-2000) of a wine basket labelled Express Goods Den Haag in fron...

Original US film poster for the 1948 drama directed Max Ophuls and starred Joan Fontaine, Louis Jordan. The poster was printed in 2 sheets and designed to be pasted up on bill board...

Vintage Native American photograph, circa 1960 Silver Gelatin Print 16 x 20 inches. Unsigned from unknown photographer Very good cond...

Karl Blossfeldt Photogravure from the edition of the book 'Wunder in der Natur' in 1942. Photography number 111. 'Impatiens glanduligera. Balsamine, Springkraut. Stengel mit Verzweigung, natürlich Größe.' In original condition, with minor wear consistent with age and use, preserving a beautiful patina. Karl Blossfeldt (June 13, 1865 – December 9, 1932) was a German photographer...

Original vintage Pan Am travel poster - to Australia and New Zealand PAA Pan American World Airways The World's Most Experienced Airline ...

Vintage photo gravure by the photographers Fiery Crags and Peter Stackpole, circa 1940. Wood frame with passe-partout and high quality museum's glass....

Karl Blossfeldt Photogravure from the edition of the book 'Wunder in der Natur' in 1942. Photography number 30. 'Chrysanthemum Leucanthemum. Gemeine Wucherblume, große Maßliebe, Mar...

Original IArgentine film poster for Rebecca, 1940. Daphne du Maurier's gripping 1938 novel was made into a film in 1940 by Alfred Hitchcock. It was ...

Original Argentinean film poster from (1940) 43 x 29 in. (109 x 74 cm) This poster would have been used outside the cinema at the films original release. This psychological drama-t...

Original vintage World War Two pictorial map for New Zealand her natural and Industrial resources featuring a great illustration by the notable graphic designer, cartographer and artist MacDonald Gill (Leslie MacDonald Gill aka Max Gill...

Somehow naively charming and sophisticated at the same time, this pierced sculptural panel by Jolan Cser, a Hungarian artist, depicts a nude shepherd youth playing the pipes, accompa...

Original vintage travel poster promoting Winter Sports in Torino Capital of the Alps / Sport Invernali Torino Capitale Delle Alpi - featuring artwork by Alberto Campagnoli (1905-1983) of a red cable car ski lift traveling up past snow covered trees with a mountain and bright sun in the background, the colourful bold title text below and slogan diagonally across the image. Issued by ENIT the Italian...

Karl Blossfeldt set of 3 from Photogravures from the edition of the book 'Wunder in der Natur' in 1942. In original condition, with minor wear consistent with age and use, preserv...

Vincent van Gogh Framed Color Cliché, Editions du Chêne, 1947 Medium: Color cliché Publisher: Editions du Chêne, Paris, France Date: 1947 Frame: Solid wood (example shown, final fra...

Beautiful American modernist abstract acrylic painting on board in a beautiful new silver wood frame By Zoute’. Bold graphic imagery and vibrant colors. Signed lower right corner Z...

Original Italian film poster for the 1948 war, romance staring Ingrid Bergman, Charles Boyer, Charles Laughton. The movie did not get release in Italy un...

Product description: Both the beginning and the end of Charles Eyck's life (1897 - 1983) took place in the Dutch province of Limburg. In his life he produced paintings, sculptures, b...

Original vintage World War Two poster - Salute to the Resistance and forward / Salut a la Resistance et en avant! - featuring artwork of resistance fighters in the foreground, two me...

Large-scale Folk Art Carnival game board, American, circa 1940s. This painted carnival game board came from Texas and combines wonderfully patinate...

Original vintage World War Two propaganda poster - Back Them Up! A raid by "Hudsons" of the Coastal Command on German shipping at Aelesund Norway in which eleven ships were hit - fea...

Original British film poster for the 1947 Ealing Studios drama starring Googie Withers, Jean Kent, John McCullum. The film was directed by Charles Frend.

Original vintage skiing poster for the Dartmouth Winter Carnival held on 7-8 February 1941 featuring a dynamic design by Stanley Samuelson Pratt Institute depicting a skier wearing a...

Original vintage World War Two naval military recruitment poster Engagez-vous dans la Marine / Join the Navy featuring dynamic artwork of a warship at sea with the title in bold red ...

Karl Blossfeldt Photogravure from the edition of the book 'Wunder in der Natur' in 1942. Photography number 4. In original condition, with minor wear consistent with age and u...

A Fabulous set of Hand Coloured Etching by Joaquim Terruella Matilla (1891-1957) of Bullfighting Nephew and follower of Segundo Matilla, Joaquín Terruella was also a disciple of Sa...

Karl Blossfeldt Photogravure from the edition of the book 'Wunder in der Natur' in 1942. Photography number 30. 'Chrysanthemum Leucanthemum. Gemeine Wucherblume, große Maßliebe, M...

Original Italian Movie poster for the Classic 1948 gangster film directed by John Ford and with the amazing cast including, Bogart, Robinson and Bacall. The poster has two stamps on...

Original vintage World War Two propaganda poster - The Gloucesters, a famous regiment from Great Britain, raided Letpadan and drove the Japanese from the town, inflicting heavy casua...

Painting of a Gypsy, Bohemian woman drawing the cards. Representation of a Cartomancer and Fortune Teller. Oil on canvas. Very well represented. fine and pleasant features. Delicate work. Signed lower right by M. Callewaert circa 1940 Maurice CALLEWAERT is a Belgian artist born in Belgium in 1900 and died in France in Paris in 1986. Belgian painter from West Flanders...

Karl Blossfeldt Photogravure from the edition of the book 'Wunder in der Natur' in 1942. Photography number 75. In original condition, with minor wear consistent with age and us...

Karl Blossfeldt Photogravure from the edition of the book 'Wunder in der Natur' in 1942. Photography number 12. 'Phacelia tanacetifolia. Bienenfutterpflanze. Blüterispen in 4 fach...

A very interesting and unusual Lancaster Covered 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 and is dated 1936 on the rear. Overall frame Size approximately 28″ wide x 2″ deep x 22″ 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...

Original vintage World War Two warning propaganda poster - Careless Talk Brings Tragedy In Wartime - featuring numbered and captioned illustrations of 1. a young soldier on the phone...

Original vintage soviet victory propaganda poster issued in 1945 at the end of world war two featuring a dynamic design by the notable cartoonist and bolshevist agitpop poster artist...

Original vintage World War Two French liberation poster featuring a large blue, white and red flag flying on the side of the Eiffel Tower with the Blason de Paris / coat of arms of P...

Lettrer between Georges Bataille and Calmann-Lévy, 1947. Hand-signed by Bataille and paper with Calmann-Lévy's letterhead In good original condition, with consistent with age a...

This exquisite artwork is a rare and remarkable example of Pablo Picasso's innovative approach to portraiture, executed in 1943 on the unique medium of silk. Known for his constant e...

Original vintage World War Two poster featuring an image of an ARP Warden resting his head on his hand while napping against a brick wall below a notice - ... It all depends on me an...

Painted in vivid, glowing colors by Robin Artine Smith, this depiction of a 1940-era blonde in a tangerine-hued swimsuit striding into the surf is a...

Rare pen drawing by Giovanni Gariboldi for Paolo Buffa.

This rare and remarkable tile produced at the close of World War II in Delft, depicting the Nazi dragon being slayed by the Dutch people, is a superb example of Art Deco cloisonné...

Vintage photo gravure by the photographer Dudley P. Lee, circa 1940. Wood frame with passe-partout and high quality museum's glass. In original condition, with minor wear consist...

This brilliant Surrealist composition, with the stylization and exaggerated plant forms of Art Deco, was painted by Jan Matulka in 1944. Both Surrealism and "Moderne" decorative arts thrived in the 1940s, and here the artist draws from both styles. Matulka was born in Prague and came to America as a young man, and trained here and in Paris, where he became exposed to Cubism. He exhibited in New York, created illustrations for New Masses which advanced the interest of American workers...

Original 1942 lithograph artwork print of a nude woman, barechested in a sea of silk with soft nighttime rim light sculpting her body in this silhouette. The print comes in its origi...

French blue & white Faience oyster platter Moustiers style, circa 1940. 12 inches diameter.