Manhattan - Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

"Marc Chagall" Original Drawing Illustration Caricature William Saroyan book This drawing was published in the 1976 edition of William Saroyan's SONS ...

Colby 10 (Abstract painting) Spray paint, pencil, ink, watercolor on paper - Unframed Peter Soriano is an abstract artist who divides his time between New York City and Penobscot, ...

Spray paint, pencil, ink, watercolor on paper. Unframed. Peter Soriano is a Philippines-born French-American abstract artist who divides his time between New York City and Penobscot...

Marilla Palmer Intertwining Vines, 2025 watercolor, embroidery, pressed flowers, Durabright prints on Arches paper 30 x 22 in. (pal265) Marilla Palmer lives and works in Brooklyn, N...

The location of this early oil pastel drawing was identified by other pieces from the same drawing book. The oil pastel was a new invention - just on the market in 1921 and it appea...

Covers 20 Red A (Abstract Drawing) Gouache on handmade Khadi paper - Unframed. Joanne Freeman's works on paper are made with gouache on handmade Indian Khadi paper. She uses tape t...

Albert Marquet Boats in Tunisia, ca. 1920 Ink on paper 5 7/10 × 5 1/5 in l 14.5 × 13.3 cm Hand-signed by the monogram lower right

ZIG [Louis Gaudin]. La Mariee. Costume design for the entertainer Mistinguette for her production at the Moulin Rouge in Paris. Watercolor, Signed Zig. Ca 19...

Artist: Clemente Pujol de Guastavino (1850-1905) Origin: Spanish Signature: signed C. Pujol (lower right) Medium: oil on canvas Dimension: 25 1/2 in x 19 3/4 in. Framed 34 by 2...

Oscar Bluemner was a German and an American, a trained architect who read voraciously in art theory, color theory, and philosophy, a writer of art criticism both in German and English, and, above all, a practicing artist. Bluemner was an intense man, who sought to express and share, through drawing and painting, universal emotional experience. Undergirded by theory, Bluemner chose color and line for his vehicles; but color especially became the focus of his passion. He was neither abstract artist nor realist, but employed the “expressional use of real phenomena” to pursue his ends. (Oscar Bluemner, from unpublished typescript on “Modern Art” for Camera Work, in Bluemner papers, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, as cited and quoted in Jeffrey R. Hayes, Oscar Bluemner [1991], p. 60. The Bluemner papers in the Archives [hereafter abbreviated as AAA] are the primary source for Bluemner scholars. Jeffrey Hayes read them thoroughly and translated key passages for his doctoral dissertation, Oscar Bluemner: Life, Art, and Theory [University of Maryland, 1982; UMI reprint, 1982], which remains the most comprehensive source on Bluemner. In 1991, Hayes published a monographic study of Bluemner digested from his dissertation and, in 2005, contributed a brief essay to the gallery show at Barbara Mathes, op. cit.. The most recent, accessible, and comprehensive view of Bluemner is the richly illustrated, Barbara Haskell, Oscar Bluemner: A Passion for Color, exhib. cat. [New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 2005.]) Bluemner was born in the industrial city of Prenzlau, Prussia, the son and grandson of builders and artisans. He followed the family predilection and studied architecture, receiving a traditional and thorough German training. He was a prize-winning student and appeared to be on his way to a successful career when he decided, in 1892, to emigrate to America, drawn perhaps by the prospect of immediate architectural opportunities at the Chicago World’s Fair, but, more importantly, seeking a freedom of expression and an expansiveness that he believed he would find in the New World. The course of Bluemner’s American career proved uneven. He did indeed work as an architect in Chicago, but left there distressed at the formulaic quality of what he was paid to do. Plagued by periods of unemployment, he lived variously in Chicago, New York, and Boston. At one especially low point, he pawned his coat and drafting tools and lived in a Bowery flophouse, selling calendars on the streets of New York and begging for stale bread. In Boston, he almost decided to return home to Germany, but was deterred partly because he could not afford the fare for passage. He changed plans and direction again, heading for Chicago, where he married Lina Schumm, a second-generation German-American from Wisconsin. Their first child, Paul Robert, was born in 1897. In 1899, Bluemner became an American citizen. They moved to New York City where, until 1912, Bluemner worked as an architect and draftsman to support his family, which also included a daughter, Ella Vera, born in 1903. All the while, Oscar Bluemner was attracted to the freer possibilities of art. He spent weekends roaming Manhattan’s rural margins, visiting the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and New Jersey, sketching landscapes in hundreds of small conté crayon drawings. Unlike so many city-based artists, Bluemner did not venture out in search of pristine countryside or unspoiled nature. As he wrote in 1932, in an unsuccessful application for a Guggenheim Fellowship, “I prefer the intimate landscape of our common surroundings, where town and country mingle. For we are in the habit to carry into them our feelings of pain and pleasure, our moods” (as quoted by Joyce E. Brodsky in “Oscar Bluemner in Black and White,” p. 4, in Bulletin 1977, I, no. 5, The William Benton Museum of Art, Storrs, Connecticut). By 1911, Bluemner had found a powerful muse in a series of old industrial towns, mostly in New Jersey, strung along the route of the Morris Canal. While he educated himself at museums and art galleries, Bluemner entered numerous architectural competitions. In 1903, in partnership with Michael Garven, he designed a new courthouse for Bronx County. Garven, who had ties to Tammany Hall, attempted to exclude Bluemner from financial or artistic credit, but Bluemner promptly sued, and, finally, in 1911, after numerous appeals, won a $7,000 judgment. Barbara Haskell’s recent catalogue reveals more details of Bluemner’s architectural career than have previously been known. Bluemner the architect was also married with a wife and two children. He took what work he could get and had little pride in what he produced, a galling situation for a passionate idealist, and the undoubted explanation for why he later destroyed the bulk of his records for these years. Beginning in 1907, Bluemner maintained a diary, his “Own Principles of Painting,” where he refined his ideas and incorporated insights from his extensive reading in philosophy and criticism both in English and German to create a theoretical basis for his art. Sometime between 1908 and 1910, Bluemner’s life as an artist was transformed by his encounter with the German-educated Alfred Stieglitz, proprietor of the Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession at 291 Fifth Avenue. The two men were kindred Teutonic souls. Bluemner met Stieglitz at about the time that Stieglitz was shifting his serious attention away from photography and toward contemporary art in a modernist idiom. Stieglitz encouraged and presided over Bluemner’s transition from architect to painter. During the same period elements of Bluemner’s study of art began to coalesce into a personal vision. A Van Gogh show in 1908 convinced Bluemner that color could be liberated from the constraints of naturalism. In 1911, Bluemner visited a Cézanne watercolor show at Stieglitz’s gallery and saw, in Cézanne’s formal experiments, a path for uniting Van Gogh’s expressionist use of color with a reality-based but non-objective language of form. A definitive change of course in Bluemner’s professional life came in 1912. Ironically, it was the proceeds from his successful suit to gain credit for his architectural work that enabled Bluemner to commit to painting as a profession. Dividing the judgment money to provide for the adequate support of his wife and two children, he took what remained and financed a trip to Europe. Bluemner traveled across the Continent and England, seeing as much art as possible along the way, and always working at a feverish pace. He took some of his already-completed work with him on his European trip, and arranged his first-ever solo exhibitions in Berlin, Leipzig, and Elberfeld, Germany. After Bluemner returned from his study trip, he was a painter, and would henceforth return to drafting only as a last-ditch expedient to support his family when his art failed to generate sufficient income. Bluemner became part of the circle of Stieglitz artists at “291,” a group which included Marsden Hartley, John Marin, and Arthur Dove. He returned to New York in time to show five paintings at the 1913 Armory Show and began, as well, to publish critical and theoretical essays in Stieglitz’s journal, Camera Work. In its pages he cogently defended the Armory Show against the onslaught of conservative attacks. In 1915, under Stieglitz’s auspices, Bluemner had his first American one-man show at “291.” Bluemner’s work offers an interesting contrast with that of another Stieglitz architect-turned-artist, John Marin, who also had New Jersey connections. The years after 1914 were increasingly uncomfortable. Bluemner remained, all of his life, proud of his German cultural legacy, contributing regularly to German language journals and newspapers in this country. The anti-German sentiment, indeed mania, before and during World War I, made life difficult for the artist and his family. It is impossible to escape the political agenda in Charles Caffin’s critique of Bluemner’s 1915 show. Caffin found in Bluemner’s precise and earnest explorations of form, “drilled, regimented, coerced . . . formations . . . utterly alien to the American idea of democracy” (New York American, reprinted in Camera Work, no. 48 [Oct. 1916], as quoted in Hayes, 1991, p. 71). In 1916, seeking a change of scene, more freedom to paint, and lower expenses, Bluemner moved his family to New Jersey, familiar terrain from his earlier sketching and painting. During the ten years they lived in New Jersey, the Bluemner family moved around the state, usually, but not always, one step ahead of the rent collector. In 1917, Stieglitz closed “291” and did not reestablish a Manhattan gallery until 1925. In the interim, Bluemner developed relationships with other dealers and with patrons. Throughout his career he drew support and encouragement from art cognoscenti who recognized his talent and the high quality of his work. Unfortunately, that did not pay the bills. Chronic shortfalls were aggravated by Bluemner’s inability to sustain supportive relationships. He was a difficult man, eternally bitter at the gap between the ideal and the real. Hard on himself and hard on those around him, he ultimately always found a reason to bite the hand that fed him. Bluemner never achieved financial stability. He left New Jersey in 1926, after the death of his beloved wife, and settled in South Braintree, Massachusetts, outside of Boston, where he continued to paint until his own death in 1938. As late as 1934 and again in 1936, he worked for New Deal art programs designed to support struggling artists. Bluemner held popular taste and mass culture in contempt, and there was certainly no room in his quasi-religious approach to art for accommodation to any perceived commercial advantage. His German background was also problematic, not only for its political disadvantages, but because, in a world where art is understood in terms of national styles, Bluemner was sui generis, and, to this day, lacks a comfortable context. In 1933, Bluemner adopted Florianus (definitively revising his birth names, Friedrich Julius Oskar) as his middle name and incorporated it into his signature, to present “a Latin version of his own surname that he believed reinforced his career-long effort to translate ordinary perceptions into the more timeless and universal languages of art” (Hayes 1982, p. 189 n. 1). In 1939, critic Paul Rosenfeld, a friend and member of the Stieglitz circle, responding to the difficulty in categorizing Bluemner, perceptively located him among “the ranks of the pre-Nazi German moderns” (Hayes 1991, p. 41). Bluemner was powerfully influenced in his career by the intellectual heritage of two towering figures of nineteenth-century German culture, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. A keen student of color theory, Bluemner gave pride of place to the formulations of Goethe, who equated specific colors with emotional properties. In a November 19, 1915, interview in the German-language newspaper, New Yorker Staats-Zeitung (Abendblatt), he stated: I comprehend the visible world . . . abstract the primary-artistic . . . and after these elements of realty are extracted and analyzed, I reconstruct a new free creation that still resembles the original, but also . . . becomes an objectification of the abstract idea of beauty. The first—and most conspicuous mark of this creation is . . . colors which accord with the character of things, the locality . . . [and which] like the colors of Cranach, van der Weyden, or Durer, are of absolute purity, breadth, and luminosity. . . . I proceed from the psychological use of color by the Old Masters . . . [in which] we immediately recognize colors as carriers of “sorrow and joy” in Goethe’s sense, or as signs of human relationship. . . . Upon this color symbolism rests the beauty as well as the expressiveness, of earlier sacred paintings. Above all, I recognize myself as a contributor to the new German theory of light and color, which expands Goethe’s law of color through modern scientific means (as quoted in Hayes 1991, p. 71). Hayes has traced the global extent of Bluemner’s intellectual indebtedness to Hegel (1991, pp. 36–37). More specifically, Bluemner made visual, in his art, the Hegelian world view, in the thesis and antithesis of the straight line and the curve, the red and the green, the vertical and the horizontal, the agitation and the calm. Bluemner respected all of these elements equally, painting and drawing the tension and dynamic of the dialectic and seeking ultimate reconciliation in a final visual synthesis. Bluemner was a keen student of art, past and present, looking, dissecting, and digesting all that he saw. He found precedents for his non-naturalist use of brilliant-hued color not only in the work Van Gogh and Cezanne, but also in Gauguin, the Nabis, and the Symbolists, as well as among his contemporaries, the young Germans of Der Blaue Reiter. Bluemner was accustomed to working to the absolute standard of precision required of the architectural draftsman, who adjusts a design many times until its reality incorporates both practical imperatives and aesthetic intentions. Hayes describes Bluemner’s working method, explaining how the artist produced multiple images playing on the same theme—in sketch form, in charcoal, and in watercolor, leading to the oil works that express the ultimate completion of his process (Hayes, 1982, pp. 156–61, including relevant footnotes). Because of Bluemner’s working method, driven not only by visual considerations but also by theoretical constructs, his watercolor and charcoal studies have a unique integrity. They are not, as is sometimes the case with other artists, rough preparatory sketches. They stand on their own, unfinished only in the sense of not finally achieving Bluemner’s carefully considered purpose. The present charcoal drawing is one of a series of images that take as their starting point the Morris Canal as it passed through Rockaway, New Jersey. The Morris Canal industrial towns that Bluemner chose as the points of departure for his early artistic explorations in oil included Paterson with its silk mills (which recalled the mills in the artist’s childhood home in Elberfeld), the port city of Hoboken, Newark, and, more curiously, a series of iron ore mining and refining towns, in the north central part of the state that pre-dated the Canal, harkening back to the era of the Revolutionary War. The Rockaway theme was among the original group of oil paintings that Bluemner painted in six productive months from July through December 1911 and took with him to Europe in 1912. In his painting journal, Bluemner called this work Morris Canal at Rockaway N.J. (AAA, reel 339, frames 150 and 667, Hayes, 1982, pp. 116–17), and exhibited it at the Galerie Fritz Gurlitt in Berlin in 1912 as Rockaway N. J. Alter Kanal. After his return, Bluemner scraped down and reworked these canvases. The Rockaway picture survives today, revised between 1914 and 1922, as Old Canal, Red and Blue (Rockaway River) in the collection of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D. C. (color illus. in Haskell, fig. 48, p. 65). For Bluemner, the charcoal expression of his artistic vision was a critical step in composition. It represented his own adaptation of Arthur Wesley’s Dow’s (1857–1922) description of a Japanese...

Boy Kong (b. 1993, Orlando) is a self-taught multi-media artist. Raised in Orlando and of Chinese-Vietnamese heritage, his growing body of work draws inspiration from a vast array of...

William Glackens, 1870-1938 M. Durand... Arrived on the Scene, 1903 Ink, wash, charcoal and Chinese white on paper Signed (at lower left): W. Glackens...

Colored pencil and graphite on plastic paper. Unframed. Screech of Ice is a new series of drawings made by holding a bunch of pencils in two hands and letting them to do the control...

Deco Dancing Hungarian Expressionism European Drawing Modernism Figurative Dance. 22 1/2 x 16 inches. Signed lower left. Framed. BIO Hugó Scheiber was born in Budapest in 1873. At the age of eight, he moved with his family from Budapest to Vienna. In 1898, to help support his family after they had returned to Budapest. He started working during the day, attending painting classes at the Commercial Art School in the evening. In 1900, he completed his studies. Scheiber showed an early interest in German Expressionism and Futurism. In 1915 he met Marinetti, who invited him to join the Futurist movement. Because Scheiber's paintings conflicted with academic style of the Hungarian art establishment, his work was virtually ignored in his own country. In 1919, he and his friend Béla Kádár held an exhibition organized by Hévesy in Vienna, which was a great success, so much so that the Budapest Art Museum purchased two of his drawings. In 1920, Scheiber returned to Vienna. A turning point in his career came in 1921 when Herwarth Walden, founder of Germany's leading avant-garde periodical, Der Sturm...

Eyewitnesses I Mixed media on paper on canvas 200cm x 200cm Eleanna Martinou was born in Athens (1981). Studied at the Athens School of Fine Arts (200...

Alexandra Alexandrovna Exter Colour Dynamic, 1918 Russian avant-garde watercolor and gouache on paper Signed on the front Collection of Solomon Shuster, Leningrad (with collection la...

Saul Steinberg Malibu, 1984 Pencil and colored pencil on paper 10 1/4 x 13 3/4 inches (sheet) 23 1/2 x 25 1/2 inches (frame) Signed recto Silver metal frame, float mount with window...

Oil on paper. Signed and dated 'Walinska 57' (lower left). image size 20 x 13 1/2 in. framed size 28 1/3 x 22 1/2 inches Provenance Martha Jackson Gallery Anderson Gallery, Buffalo...

Delicate and meticulously rendered, Two Dandelions by Margot Glass is a silverpoint drawing on toned paper that showcases the artist’s masterful technique and deep appreciation for b...

Linda Stein, Profile Notation 418.006 - Signed Feminist LGBTQ+ Colorful Ink on Paper Drawing Profile Notation 418.006 is from Linda Stein's Profiles series--drawings, collages and ...

Olivia Fraser Breath III, 2019 Stone pigments & Arabic gum on handmade paper 36 x 87 inches OF031 Olivia Fraser (b. 1965, London) is a Delhi-based artis...

This beutiful unique edition is framed on a custom black box frame, all archival materials. Rosie Emerson, born in 1981, is a contemporary artist working almost exclusively on representing the female form. Emerson’s figures draw reference from archetypes old and new, from Artemis to the modern day super model, each solitary figure, an allegory of her own fantasy. Interested in surface, the interplay between photography and painting. Emerson’s works are playful constructs; Photography is used, not as a device for capturing reality but for creating romanticised optical illusions. Inspired by her love of theatre, performance, shrines and rituals, she uses lighting, costume, set and prop making, alongside printmaking and painting to create other worldly one off pieces. Her photography is inspired by both the drama of the baroque, and ethereal qualities of Pre Raphaelite works. Other important influences include late medieval and renaissance paintings, Japanese prints, and magical realist literature. Emerson’s screen...

MEDICINAL PLANTS, PAPAVER SOMNIFERUM L. (OPIUM), 2013 Tempera on paper 49,5 x 38,5 cm Born in 1967 in Trikala, she grew up in Athens, Greece, where s...

Yiddish Theatre Cubist Costume Design 1924 Deco Color Field Modernism Broadway. Boris Aronson (1898 – 1980) "Day and Night," 17 ½ x 13 inches. Gouache ...

Graphite on museum board This work is offered by ClampArt in New York City.

Poupee Espagnole. Costume design for the entertainer Mistinguette for her production at the Moulin Rouge in Paris. Watercolor. Signed Zig. Ca 1928, . Framed. Provenance: Nephew of M...

Signed, titled, and dated, verso India ink and watercolor on paper This work is offered by ClampArt in New York City.

Of her recent works, Urso states, "I make exploratory paintings, working in response to my immediate environment. My approach involves moment-to-moment extrapolation governed by intu...

These elegant graphite dandelion drawings belie the rigor of their process. Once the surface of the paper is prepared, Glass uses a stylus to carefully delineate the lacy quality of ...

Whip Maze is a watercolor painting by Italian artist Lucio Pozzi. The canvas is signed and titled by the artist himself, and the work is currently housed at Hal Bromm Gallery.

This beautiful intricate, Rotring pen and markers on paper, on 350gsm Colorset white paper. This piece is framed on a white wood frame, uv glass and all archival materials. GUILLAUM...

Marilla Palmer A Lucious Iris, 2025 watercolor, embroidery, pressed flowers, Durabright prints on Arches paper 30 x 22 in. (pal266) Marilla Palmer lives and works in Brooklyn, NY a...

ARTIST— Juan Carlos Vazquez Lima Juan Carlos was born in Havana Cuba June 30th 1986. He Studied at Eduardo Garcia Delgado School of Art. He currently lives and works in Havana. PAI...

Mark di Suvero Study for Atman (hand signed twice), ca. 1978 Marker wash on paper (hand signed twice by Mark di Suvero) Signed twice by Mark di Suvero on the lower front center and a...

Charles Burchfield (1893-1967) Untitled (Preparatory Drawing for Skyscape), Early 20th Century Pencil on paper 12 1/4 x 18 3/4 in. Inscribed: blue / white / blue / RV Born in Ashtab...

Lester Johnson untitled charcoal, conte crayon, and spray enamel on board from 1972. Framed.

This beautiful intricate, Rotring pen and markers on paper, on 350gsm Colorset white paper. This piece is framed on a white wood frame, uv glass and all archival materials. GUILLAUM...

KAWS Cloud Drawing done in white marker on colored paper, 2010 Signed, dated and inscribed to David in white marker with a dateline of Paris Floated and framed in a white wood frame ...

Ink on paper, Acrylic and / or watercolor, signed in the front, framed in a thin blond wood frame, glass. Philip Wittmann work is based on signs. Sign...

Charcoal with red and white conté crayon on Rives BFK paper Signed and dated, recto This artwork is offered by ClampArt, located in New York City. Mark Beard, born in 1956 in Salt ...

Ink on paper, Acrylic and / or watercolor, signed in the front, framed in a aluminum silver frame, glass. Philip Wittmann work is based on signs. Sign...

Robert Mangold Untitled minimalist drawing, ca. 1980 Drawing in Ink on Paper Hand signed and inscribed on lower front Inscription reads as follows: Best Wishes David Bob Mangold Fram...

The murder of John Lennon. The birth of my children. Nixon’s resignation. Brain surgery. Driven by the desire to express myself, and leave a physical record of my life and times, I’v...

Jack Youngerman October 1, from Betty Parsons Gallery, 1964 India ink on paper, with original Betty Parsons Gallery label Pencil signed and dated '64 on the front; also signed, title...

Guillermo Bublik is an Argentinian/American painter based in New Jersey. His works are easily recognizable by their bold combinations of colors and abstract geometric forms. Commonly...

Polly Apfelbaum Color Circle and Star, 2004 Fabric Marker and Fabric Dye on Velvet Cotton Signed and dated in ink by the artist on the front with artist's inkstamp. Frame Included Si...

Billy Al Bengston Turkey Dracula, 1973 Color lithograph with hand coloring and watercolor (unique variant) on Lanaquaralle paper with deckled edges Hand signed and numbered A.P. #6, ...

Reuben Mednikoff Untitled, 1946 Watercolor on paper Artwork: 9 x 11 7/8 in. l 23 x 30 cm Framed: 12 5/8 x 15 1/3 in. l 32 x 39 cm Signed lower left and dated on the back Born in Lo...

Crossways is a watercolor painting by the Italian artist Lucio Pozzi. The paper is signed and titled by the artist himself, and the work is currently housed at Hal Bromm Gallery.

ink drawing on paper blind contour drawing artists self-portrait

Abstract vs. Figurative Neutral Original Watercolor by Cuban Artist Alain Pino Pino’s new works continue his exploration on the intersection between identity and industrial design. ...

This large scale conceptual text based painting by New York artist, David Kramer, features, in bold type the phase: "... I AM STILL WAITING FOR MY...

Spring, Bleecker Street, Ruellan's conté crayon drawing from 1938, shows young people out in the world. And their world is Bleecker Street, New York City. The heart of Greenwich Vil...

Sister Mary Corita Kent Love You, ca. 1975 Original signed watercolor painting on paper Signed in graphite pencil on the recto Floated and framed in white wood frame This is a unique work Measurements: Framed: 5.5" x 5.5" x 1.5" Artwork alone: 4" x 4" Extremely difficult to find unique watercolor works on paper on the market by Sister Corita...

Louis Bouché was based in New York and taught at the Art Students League. The figure was an important subject in his oeuvre. An ink drawing on tan paper, ...

Winold Reiss (1886-1953), who scholars increasingly recognize as a pivotal figure in early 20th-century American art, is known for his evocative portraits that capture the spirit and...

Linda Stein, Profile Notation 418.007 - Signed Feminist LGBTQ+ Colorful Ink on Paper Drawing Profile Notation 418.007 is from Linda Stein's Profiles series--drawings, collages and ...

About the Series: “Sensitive Material” In this Work on Paper Series, started in 2020, Claire Gilliam continues her exploration of Visual Language. She uses a common motif, the Latin ...

"Sapath II" by Halsey Chait Acrylic on Paper Halsey Chait's drawings develop according to the rules and mathematics that govern the growth processes of life forms and molecular stru...

In the 1950s and 60s Grambs worked on many commissions. This ink drawing with a lobster, crab, and a shrimp, was probably for a cookbook; the sheet is cut in a free-form, modernist...