Palm Beach - Nude Paintings

Simka Simkhovitch (Russian/American 1893 - 1949) This came with a small grouping from the artist's family, some were hand signed some were not. These were studies for larger paintings. Simka Simkhovitch (Симха Файбусович Симхович) (aka Simka Faibusovich Simkhovich) (Novozybkov, Russia May 21, 1885 O.S./June 2, 1885 N.S.—Greenwich, Connecticut February 25, 1949) was a Ukrainian-Russian Jewish artist and immigrant to the United States. He painted theater scenery in his early career and then had several showings in galleries in New York City. Winning Works Progress Administration (WPA) commissions in the 1930s, he completed murals for the post offices in Jackson, Mississippi and Beaufort, North Carolina. His works are in the permanent collections of the Dallas Museum of Art, the National Museum of American Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Born outside Kyiv (Petrograd Ukraine) into a Jewish family who owned a small department store. During a severe case of measles when he was seven, Simcha Simchovitch sketched the views outside his window and decided to become an artist, over his father's objections. Beginning in 1905, he studied at the Grekov Odessa Art School and upon completion of his studies in 1911 received a recommendation to be admitted to the Imperial Academy of Arts. Though he enrolled to begin classes in architecture, painting, and sculpture at the Imperial Academy, he was dropped from the school roster in December because of the quota on the number of Jewish students and drafted into the army. Simchovitch served as a private in the 175th Infantry Regiment Baturyn [ru] until his demobilization in 1912. Re-enrolling in the Imperial Academy, he audited classes. Simka Simkhovitch exhibited paintings and sculptures in 1918 as part of an exhibition of Jewish artists and in 1919 placed 1st in the competition "The Great Russian Revolution" with a painting called "Russian Revolution" which was hung in the State Museum of Revolution. In 1922, Simkha Simkhovitch exhibited at the International Book Fair in Florence (Italian: Fiera Internazionale del Libro di Firenze). In 1924, Simkhovitch came to the United States to make illustrations for Soviet textbooks and decided to immigrate instead. Initially he supported himself by doing commercial art and a few portrait commissions. In 1927, he was hired to paint a screen for a scene in the play "The Command to Love" by Fritz Gottwald and Rudolph Lothar which was playing at the Longacre Theatre on Broadway. Art dealers began clamoring for the screen and Simkhovitch began a career as a screen painter for the theater. Catching the attention of the screenwriter, Ernest Pascal, he worked as an illustrator for Pascal, who then introduced him to gallery owner, Marie Sterner. Simkhovitch's works appeared at the Marie Sterner Gallery beginning with a 1927 exhibit and were repeated the following year. Simkhovitch had an exhibit in 1929 at Sterner's on circus paintings. In 1931, he held a showing of works at the Helen Hackett Gallery, in New York City and later that same year he was one of the featured artists of a special exhibit in San Francisco at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park. The exhibit was coordinated by Marie Sterner and included four watercolors, including one titled "Nudes". He is of the generation of Russian Soviet artists such as Isaac Pailes, Serge Charchoune, Marc Chagall, Chana Orloff, Isaac Ilyich Levitan, and Ossip Zadkine. In 1936, Simkhovitch was selected to complete the mural for the WPA Post office project in Jackson, Mississippi. The mural was hung in the post office and courthouse in 1938 depicted a plantation theme. Painted on the wall behind the judge’s bench, “Pursuits of Life in Mississippi”, a depiction of black workers engaged in manual labor amid scenes of white professionals and socialites, was eventually covered over in later years during renovations due to its stereotypical African American imagery. Simka painted what he thought was typical of Jackson. His impression of pre-civil rights Mississippi was evidently Greek Revival column houses, weeping willow trees, working class families, and the oppression of African Americans. He painted African American men picking cotton, while a white man took account of the harvest and a white judge advised a white family, calling it Pursuits of Life in Mississippi. Though clearly endorsed by the government and initially generally well-received, the mural soon raised concerns with locals as the climate toward racial segregation began to change. The main concern was whether depictions that show African Americans in subjugated societal roles should be featured in a courtroom. The following year, his painting "Holiday" won praise at an exhibition in Lincoln, Nebraska. In 1940, Simkhovitch's second WPA post office project was completed when four murals, "The Cape Lookout Lighthouse and the Orville W. Mail Boat", "The Wreck of the Crissie Wright", "Sand Ponies" and "Canada Geese" were installed in Beaufort, North Carolina. The works were commissioned in 1938 and did not generate the controversy that the Jackson mural had. The main mural is "The Wreck of the Crissie Wright" and depicts a shipwreck which had occurred in Beaufort in 1866. "The Cape Lookout Lighthouse and the Orville W. Mail Boat" depicted the lighthouse built in 1859 and the mail boat that was running mail during the time which Simkhovitch was there. The boat ran mail for the area until 1957. "Sand Ponies" shows the wild horses common to the North Carolina barrier islands and "Canada Geese" showed the importance of hunting and fishing in the area. All four murals were restored in the 1990s by Elisabeth Speight, daughter of two other WPA muralists, Francis Speight...

Nude in the old Roman baths by M. Bondi (Italian, 20th C.) Excellent execution and details. Oil on linen Image 47"H x 23.5"W Signed lower right "M Bondi" On verso "M Bondi - Livorno,...

Study of a nude woman on a stool by American Impressionist artist Genevieve Rogers. Unsigned, but acquired with a collection of her work. Presented in a cre...

This original painting is a beautifully depicted nude figure study in a cozy interior space with southwest elements by San Jose, California artist David D....

Beautiful oil painting of nude study titled "The Red Table Cloth" by Bay Area, California artist Shirley Loyst (American, b-1928), circa 1960. Exhibition...

Gorgeous oil-on-canvas of a reclining nude female figure by Monterey California-area artist Patricia Gillfillan (American, 1924-2016). Signed "Gillfillan" lower left. Unframed. Size,...

Wonderful mid century Bay Area figurative painting of a reclining nude by Berkeley artist Marjorie Cathcart (American, 1918 - 2014), circa 1964. The woman reclines on a bright red drape, stretching diagonally across the horizontal canvas...

Compelling mid century nude figure study of a black woman reclining by Raul Anguiano (Mexican/American, 1915-2006), 1968. Signed and dated lower left hand corner "R. Anguiano." Presented in wood frame under plexiglass. Image size: 25"H x 34"W. Framed size: 35"H x 43.75"W. Raúl Anguiano was born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, on February 26th, 1915. He started drawing cubist pictures at the age of 5, taking as his first models movie stars, as Mary Pickford, Pola Negri and Charlie Chaplin. Anguiano first artistic influence or aesthetic emotion came from the Holy Family by Rafael Sanzio. At the age of 12, Anguiano attended Guadalajara's Free School of Painting under the tuition of Ixca Farias. From 1928 to 1933, he studied with the Master painter José Vizcarra, the disciple of Santiago Rebull and José Salomé Piña, and organised the group "Young Painters of Jalisco" with other artists. During this period, Anguiano worked with different kinds of models: workmen, employees and a few intellectuals like Pita Amor. In 1934 Anguiano moved to Mexico City. He began teaching in primary schools and taught drawing and painting at La Esmeralda academy and the UNAM School of Art. Anguiano was a member of the Mexican Artistic Renaissance movement which was started in the 1920's by the Mexican School of Art in which he belonged. This renaissance began with the San Carlos Academy movement -- among whose leaders were Ignacio Asúnsolo and Jose Clemente Orozco -- and which emerged out of the students' and teachers' discontent with the traditional paintings methods (academicism), and the close contact that the young artists had with the problems of Mexico and its people, explaining the marked critical realism to the painters of the time, including Anguiano himself. The same year, Anguiano received a commission to paint his first mural, Socialist Education, a 70 meters fresco located at A. Carrillo School in Mexico City. Other works followed, including Mayan rituals (oils on canvas and wood), for the Mayan Hall in the National Museum of Anthropology, and Trilogy of Nationality (acrylic on canvas and wood), for the Attorney General's Office. In 1936 he moved into his surrealist period, which lasted almost a decade. He painted circus performers and prostitutes. The most notable among his works of the time are: The Madame (gouche, 1936), The Clown's Daughter (oil, 1940), the Pink Circus Artist and the Grey Circus Artist (oil, 1941). Also during this period, Anguiano produced a series of drawings based on his dreams, with cold tones and silver-greys predominating. In 1937 Anguiano joined the Revolutionary Writers and Artists League. Together, with Alfredo Zalce and Pablo O'Higgins, he was also a founding member of the Popular Graphics Workshop, where artists practised a graphic style based on Mexico's folk traditions. This was due to the powerful influence of the recently discovered Jose Guadalupe Posada and Goya. Raúl Anguiano belonged to the so-called "Third Generation" of post-revolutionary painters, along with Juan O'Gorman, Jorge González Camarena...

Looking Out by Vadim Zang is an oil painting that is 18" x 14"". This is painted in the style of Impressionism. Vadim Zanginian was born in Armenia in 1965. He is a graduate from A...

The work of Gian Marco Capraro mixes the old master's imagery mostly religious with a fresh technique, blurring some of the main characters, evoking a sense of mystery. The bold bright colours of the fish in this painting, make the fish stand...

Dazzling reclining nude figurative in a dreamy, twilight setting with desert tones by Scottsdale, Arizona artist Thomas (Tom) P. Darro (American, b. 1946), circa 1990. Signed "T.P. Darro" lower right corner. Displayed in a carved wood frame, with linen liner and wood fillet. Image, 18"H x 36"W. Raised in an artistically rich atmosphere, Tom Darro has spent his entire life in the world of the arts. His father, Peter Darro, is a renowned painter and sculptor. His mother, Ann Darro, was an opera singer with the Chicago Civic Opera. In addition, three of Tom's uncles served as art directors for various organizations. Born in Chicago, Tom opted not to take an offered scholarship to the Chicago Art Institute and instead headed for New York City. While there, he began his education in the intricacies of the art world. Later, Tom took the opportunity to move to Los Angeles to concentrate on his art studies. For over two years he took private lessons from European trained painter Theodore Lukits at his studio and workshop. He then studied color theory under artist Christian Title...

Late 19th century California School reclining nude female figure by anonymous 19th Century artist. In the style of William-Adolphe Bouguereau. ...