Pennsylvania - Wall Decorations

Chinese Watercolours of Flowers and Butterflies on Pith Paper, Set of Eight, Circa 1840-60. The superb set of Chinese watercolours of flowers and insects are painted on pith paper a...

A very interesting and unusual Pfoutz Original Farm Scene Oil Painting by artist J. Earle Pfoutz. The painting is produced on artist and comes complete with what appears to be an original artist decorated/painted frame. The Pfoutz Original Farm Scene Oil Painting is signed on the front by the artist and appears to be dated 1948 on the rear. Known for his unusual subjects Pfoutz outdid himself with this effort, capturing the essence of a Lancaster County farm but with the startling twist of portraying a large turkey vulture in the foreground. Definitely unique. Overall frame Size approximately 33″ wide x 3″ deep x 26″ 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...

This is a 1960s Photo Compilation Book of photographs from Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill's design of The National Life Center in Nashville, Tennessee. These works are of great import...

Francois Nicholas Martinet bird engraving, circa 1770. The framed Francois Martinet engraving is from Buffon's Historie Naturelle des Oiseaux displa...

Full of dramatic, shifting light and deep, atmospheric colors, this landscape painting by Norwood MacGilvary depicts rolling farmland and a winding road, with a dramatic mountainside...

Le Sucre, a mounted, offset printed lithograph illustrated by the French naturalist, Émile Deyrolle – printed for the classroom by Bernard Carant, Paris, France, circa 1930s-1940s. ...

Johann Seligmann Bird Print, Le Merle Rofette, Tab XXXIX After George Edwards circa 1770 The Johann Seligmann engraving of Le Merle Rofette, Tab XXXIX is mounted in a decoupa...

This is a mid century vintage brass and steel wall sculpture by Curtis jere. This wall sculpture has an Asian inspiration with pleated fans in brass, black and silver steel. This wal...

William Conlon, "Untitled " Framed Poster, 15th Annual Community Holiday Fesitval, 1985. Signed lower right. An example from this series is illustrated in Art at Lincoln Center: T...

Bold and extraordinary and clearly influenced by Diego Rivera, Frieda Kahlo and the Mexican muralists, this large painting by John Greathead depicts a nude American Indian woman...

Expressive clown painting - signed "Jen" circa 1950 - great frame Frame size = 22.5 x 26.5 Image size = 15.5 x 19.5.

Impressionist large Philadelphia - A brisk morning walk under the Manayunk bridge. A bundled up man takes a stroll along the canal trail. A historic Philadelphia bridge cascades acro...

A fine antique English watercolor landscape painting. Depicting the ruins of Rievaulx Abbey in England circa July 1881. Pencil signed to the lower right: Rievaulx Abbey July 1881 ...

CHARLES ADELIN MOREL DE TANGUY French, 1857-1930 Sailing at Sunset Oil on Panel housed in an almost certainly original giltwood frame Signed lower right in script "Morel de Tanguy...

Created by one of the great masters of bas relief sculpture in America, John Flanagan, this profile depiction of the goddess Aphrodite was used as the model for the famous "Aphrodite/Swift Runners" bronze medal issued in 1932 by the Society of Medalists...

Offered here for your consideration is a vintage original Earl MacPherson pastel painting of a pin-up girl. Depicting a blond, smiling, nude pin-up girl dressed only with two larg...

Original French lithograph hand embellished signed and numbered by Frédéric Delanglade (1907-1970). Furstenberg Gallery poster for the surrealist art works of Delanglade inspired by ...

Sailor's Woolwork Nautical Picture, Inscribed:The British Ship Gold Finder on her voyage to Melbourn, August 2, 1864. Worked by T.J. Francis, Circa 1864 This sailor's woolwork depicts aportside view of the the Gold Finder. The Gold Finder was a 3-masted iron ship built in 1863 by J. Laing of Sunderland. There is a detailed inscription below including the maker's name- T.J. Francis. A notice in the Liverpool Mercury on Tuesday May 3, 1853......This ship is expected to sail very fast, has all her passenger arrangements on a novel and peculiar plan, affording an amount of light and ventilation such as no other passenger ship ever possessed. The ships bell has recently been acquired by the Merseyside Maritime Museum. It seems though that the ship's description involved a degree of hyperbole as she was in fact laid down as a coal ship and converted to passenger accommodation later to meet the demand for the Gold Rush in Australia. Dimensions: Framed: 28 3/10 inches high x 31 inches wide (72cm x 79 cm). The Australian gold rush started after Edward Hargraves found the precious metal in New South Wales in 1851. He was not the first to discover gold but is credited with launching the stampede when thousands tried their luck at unearthing wealth - and some succeeded. Hargraves (1816-1891), a former hotelier and cattle farmer, played a small part in the California gold rush of 1849. He didn't get rich but met people who knew about gold and where it could be found - they pointed out similarities between California and New South Wales. Hargraves headed back to Australia to test these theories and stake a claim for a Government reward for the discovery of viable gold fields. Despite initial setbacks, he organised fellow prospectors in the quest for gold which was successful. Hargraves was granted massive rewards of more than pounds 12,000 and later a pension of pounds 250 a year. He was born in Gosport, Hampshire, the son of an army officer, and educated at Lewes and Brighton Grammar School. Hargraves joined the merchant navy before arriving at Sydney in 1832 and marrying Eliza Mackie four years later. Publicity about the gold rush prompted many migrants to sail from Liverpool to seek their fortunes - the first licence was issued in Victoria on 21 September 1851. Australia's population boomed as the emigrants...

Original 1970 "Pablo Picasso Festival D'Avignon Au Palais des Papes" Glass Front Framed Lithograph Poster. Circa 1970. Measurements: Frame: 32" H x 22.25" W x 1.25" D Poster: 29.25"...

FRENCH BARBIZON 19th century Women Washing Clothing by the River's Edge at Golden Hour 18 3/8" H x 30 7/8" W [frame] 14 3/8" H x 26 7/8" W [canvas] A wonderfully rendered late 19t...

Antique Persian Iznik Qajar Style ceramic pottery oval Tile Kneeling Woman C3. Item features an original crackle glazed finish, heavy ceramic pottery construction, very impressive de...

Remarkable in its size, ambition and complexity, this large Art Deco mirrored panel depicts a grape stomping scene at its center, surrounded by a farm scene full of life, executed in...

Lawrence Chvotzkin (American, 20th Century) Original Painting on Canvas

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...

A cross between "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and Bosch's "Garden of Earthly Delights," this marvelous painting depicts an interlaced group of faeries and nymphs, all with lilacs and d...

Johann Seligmann Bird Print, Le Colibri rouge & Le petit Colibri brun, Tab LXIII Circa 1770 The Johann Seligmann engravings of two birds on a branch- Le Colibri rouge & Le petit Co...

An extraordinary and rare drawing produced by one of the great artists associated with the Harlem Renaissance, this depiction of a devil figure whis...

Botanical Print after the painting of the Austrian painter, Joseph Nigg, (1782-1863) Artist: Joseph Nigg (1782-1863) Medium: Lithograph Dimensions: 39 3/4 inches high x 31 i...

Sea shell pair of engravings, from Index Testarum Conchyliorum by Niccolo Gualtieri, Engraved by Antonio Pazzi & Giuseppe Menabuoni, 1742. Pair of framed hand colored sea shell...

Stunning and very rare, this high style Art Deco mirror features a pair of deer under a spreading tree, all alive with a silvery shimmer that is entrancing. The background is reverse...

Madame Pauline Knip Engraving of A Pigeon, Colombar Wallia, Femelle (Columba Abyssinica, femina), From Les pigeons par Madame Knip, née Pauline de Courcelles ; le texte par C.J. Them...

Compellingly drawn in a Cubist-influenced Art Deco manner, this strong and vivid portrait of a man in a driving cap was made by Misha Reznikoff, a Ukranian-American artist. Reznikof...

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...

JOHANN BERNARD DE HOOG Dutch, 1866-1943 Interior Scene of a Mother and Infant Daughter Oil on canvas signed Bernard de Hoog lower right Item # 40...

A late entry in America's string of public murals painted in the 1930s, 40s and 50s telling the story of various towns and regions, this 1962 Art Deco study b...

Filled with floating nude, mythological figures, highly stylized in the Art Deco manner, this study for the lid of the famous grand piano given by the Steinway Company to the White H...

Rare and striking, this molded and patinated brass plaque -- which depicts a 1940s Spitfire in the midst of Art Deco clouds with the sun shining behind -- was made by the Walsall Li...

Antique Persian Iznik Qajar Style Ceramic Pottery Tile Man and Woman Embrace C1. Original crackle glazed finish, heavy ceramic pottery construction, very impressive detail, wonderful...

The rich Impressionistic brushwork and bright palette of this painting makes it a vivid find. No doubt painted in preparation for a mural, the text in Latin – translated as “Work is Sweet and Conquers All” – would have been a noble sentiment for a public space at the time. The painter, Milton Bancroft...

Huang Gang (Chinese b. 1961) a monumental painting done in Chinese lacquer and mineral pigment on board, signed "Huang Gang, 2003". In good condition with a...

A Classic example of WPA-era sculpture celebrating the worker, this beautiful bronze bas relief depicts a shirtless laborer in the fields, with a scythe in one hand and a sheaf of wh...

Large and impressive, this bronze bas relief rondel depicts a nude St. George on his valiant horse, spearing a fearsome dragon below. The relief is bold and expressive, and the bron...

This drawing is a highly important and rare window into a relationship that impacted the larger world of Abstract Expressionism in New York just a few years after it was made in 1949...

Suffused with both sensuality and alienation, this large oil painting depicts a couple in the bedroom, the female figure poised with a head of cabbage and a doll, and her lover -- ev...

A gorgeous example of Cubist-Art Deco design, this 19th century book was given a new cover and end papers designed by Reinoso for the Printemps department store in the 1920s. The co...

In our opinion, the finest work ever painted by Jules Schyl, one of Sweden's leading Modernists in the 1920s and 1930s, this spectacular piece depicts a female nude in the upper righ...

This is a set of eight original photographs from 1963 of the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale University, taken by the celebrated architectural photographer Ezra Stoll...

Large Curtis Jere Mid-Century Modern mixed metal copenhagen city buildings wall sculpture. Item features a large impressive size, figural street scene ...

OUTSTANDING CIGAR SILK PIECEWORKTABLE COVER WITH UNUSUALLY LONG RIBBON FRINGE AND GREAT GRAPHICS, 1880-1910: Silk bands like these were used to wrap bunc...

Jean Chaleye (French, b. 1878 - d. 1960) "Theater" - oil on board , signed upper right. Depicting a balcony view towards an orchestra pit in a theater.

WILLIAM SHAYER, SR. British, 1788-1879 "Sussex Coast" (1854) Oil on canvas signed lower left "William Shayer '54" titled in graphite on stretcher bars verso Item # 404REX19W Th...

French Victorian glass beaded purple flower casket wreath wall sculpture (B). Item featured hand beaded in France with glass beads with impressive flower detail, very nice antique it...

Peter Max Original Karma 50/100 dated 1971. Paper Size is 30 x 22" and image size is 29 x21" tall. Nice condition with no fading or damage.

Extremely rare and important, this painting by Eugene Savage served as the preparatory study for one of six monumental Art Deco murals commissioned by the Matson Shipping company in ...

Lovely and bucolic, this view of an idyllic lakeside landscape, complete with classical sculpture, a pair of swans, and brilliantly-colored flowering trees, was painted by George Stimmel for the Metropolitan Opera in New York, either as a set piece or to suggest the backdrop for an opera production in 1930. Stimmel's work was exhibited at the Knoedler Gallery in New York, but his opera paintings...

One of the finest midcentury architectural renderings we have ever seen, this large and vivid painting executed in gouache and oil o...

This is a mid-century vintage acrylic on board country landscape. This painting is presented in a wide rustic pine frame with a decorative gold border on the inside edge. This painti...

Painted by one of America's most important mural painters in the 1930s, this allegorical celebration of American agriculture was made by Edwin Boyd Johnson for a larger work that may never have been executed. Johnson is best known for a series of murals in Chicago; Melrose Park, East Aurora, and Tuscola, Illinois; Dickson, Tennessee; and Sioux Falls...

Robert Alan DeVoe (1928-) "Striding Moon" Monoprint C.1987 Height: 40 in Width: 52 in Born in Elmira, New York, Robert Devoe earned his BFA and MFA from the Tyler Art School in P...

ALEXANDRE PAU DE SAINT-MARTIN French, 1751-1820 "Vue de Bagatelle (The Entrance of the Duke of Bordeaux in the Parc de Bagatelle)" Oil on canvas unsigned stock ref. 405VFP22G 31...