1930s Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

A Striking, Early Modern, Figurative Abstract Watercolor by Notable New York Avant Garde Artist, Hannah Harari (Am. 1912-2000). Titled "Les trios graces" (The Three Graces), the art...

The pastel portrait of Stella Samuel, very likely a starlet from the thirties, created in the style of Charles Sheldon, emanates timeless elegance. With a delicate interplay of color...

A Striking, Colorful 1930s Modern Surrealist Abstraction by Notable New York Avant Garde Artist, Hannah Harari (Am. 1912-2000). Titled "Signal Set Up", the artwork is colored pencil...

Signed and dated in ink lower center Provenance: Charlotte Bergman, noted collector and patron of Walkowitz. See photo for additional information.

"NY Street Signs" Mid-20th Century WPA 1938 Modernist Abstract Realism Pop Art Stuart Davis (American, 1892-1964) "Street Signs" Modernist gouache and traces of pencil on paper in the proto-pop art style Davis is celebrated for, 1938, signed to lower right, framed. Image: 11 1/4 x 15 1/4 inches. Frame by Bark: 18 1/2 x 22 inches. LITERATURE: A, Boyajian, M. Rutkowski, Stuart Davis, A Catalogue Raisonne, Vol. 2, New Haven, Connecticut, 2007, vol. II, p. 632, no. 1232, illustrated. EXHIBITIONS: ACA Galleries, New York American Artists' Congress: Group Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, Dec. 3-16, 1939 (SDAB I, 12/3/39, p. 129). Outlines Gallery, Pittsburgh, Stuart Davis, Mar. 3-16, 1946. Coleman Art Gallery, Philadelphia, 5 Prodigal Sons: Former Philadelphia Artists: Ralston Crawford, Stuart Davis, Charles Demuth, Julian Levi, Charles Sheeler, Oct 4 - 30, 1947 (pamphlet), no. 12. PROVENANCE: The artist; Mr. and Mrs. Frank Bowles, New York, Apr. 3, 1956; thence by descent, Private Collection, New York. NOTES: According to the Catalogue Raissonne, "the title 'Street Signs' is recorded in the artist's account books...

Set against a deep green background of layered paint and wavy lines, Benjamin Benno’s textured composition features an array of unidentifiable figures of varying sizes and shapes. Th...

Executed in 1930, this abstract yet representational biomorphic charcoal work by African American Artist Charles Henry Alston prefigures his ...

Sonia Delaunay - Original Watercolor on paper Dimensions: 21 x 21 cm. Authentified by her son Charles Delaunay on the back. Sonia Delaunay was known for her vivid use of color and her bold, abstract patterns, breaking down traditional distinctions between the fine and applied arts as an artist, designer and printmaker. Born Sarah Stern on November 14, 1885 in Gradizhsk, Ukraine, she was adopted in 1890 by her maternal uncle, Henri Terk, a lawyer in St. Petersburg, where she grew up, exposed to music and art, and learning several foreign languages. In 1903, she moved to Germany to study drawing with Ludwig Schmidt-Reutler (1863–1909) at the Karlsruhe academy of fine arts; Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951), composer-to-be, was among her classmates there. In 1905, she traveled to Paris where she attended art classes at the Académie de la Palette, learned printmaking from Rudolf Grossman (1889–1941), and met Amédée Ozenfant (1886–1966), André Dunoyer de Segonzac (1884–1974), and Jean-Louis Boussingault (1883–1943). Sonia spent much of her time at exhibitions and galleries in Paris, which showed works by Paul Cézanne, Vincent Van Gogh, Pierre Bonnard, and Edouard Vuillard, as well as Les Fauves, Henri Matisse and André Derain. She did, however, maintain contact with Germany, exhibiting at the Galerie Der Sturm, Berlin, in 1913, 1920 and 1921. During her first year in Paris, Sonia met the German collector and art-dealer, Wilhelm Uhde (1874–1947), whom she married on December 5, 1908, and whose Montparnasse gallery, the Galerie Notre-Dame des Champs, showed her first solo exhibition. Through Uhde, Sonia encountered many painters, including Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Maurice de Vlaminck, and Robert Delaunay (1885–1941). In 1910, Sonia divorced Uhde by mutual agreement, married Delaunay that same year, and gave birth to their son, Charles, in January 1911. Together Sonia and Robert Delaunay pursued the study of color, influenced by theories of Michel-Eugène Chevreul (1786–1889). Sonia’s interest in simultaneous contrast, as evidenced in her early collages, book bindings, small painted boxes...

Art Deco Illustrator Charles Perry Weimer creates a powerfully graphic depiction of a 1930s couple in front of a classic Art Deco building with a...

The piece is unframed. It is mounted in an archival white mat, with an overall mat size of 30 x 24 inches. Fritz Bultman set himself apart from other Abstract Expressionists with h...

Jim’s of Lambertville is proud to offer this artwork by: Ramstonev Co-operative Project (1937 - 1939) In the late 1930s, Charles Ramsey became close friends with Charles Evans and ...

Marsden Hartley ALPSPITZE #3 (with Zabriskie Gallery Label), 1933 Pencil on cream wove paper. In original vintage frame with Zabriskie Gallery label Sticker label, framed with Zabris...

A captivating 1930s Surrealist graphite still life drawing with a hammer, palette and chopper by notable New York Modern artist, Jan Matulka. Artwork size: 8 1/2 x 11 inches. Archivally matted to 14 x 16 1/2 inches. Estate stamped. Provenance: Estate of the artist. An innovative drawing by Matulka reminiscent of the famed series of Modern works by the American painter and contemporary of Matulka, the New York artist Stuart Davis. In 1927, Davis began work on a series of five paintings based on a still life he had created by nailing an eggbeater, an electric fan, and a rubber glove to a table in his studio. Using this group of incongruous and unlikely items, he created his first truly abstract works. An example of these paintings, Egg Beater...

A Colorful, 1930s Modern Surrealist Abstraction by Notable New York Avant Garde Artist, Hannah Harari (Am. 1912-2000). Titled "The Military", the artwork is ink and colored pencil ...

A Colorful, 1930s Modern Surrealist Abstraction by Notable New York Avant Garde Artist, Hannah Harari (Am. 1912-2000). Titled "The Military", the artwork is ink and colored pencil ...

A Striking, Colorful 1930s Modern Surrealist Abstraction by Notable New York Avant Garde Artist, Hannah Harari (Am. 1912-2000). Titled "To the Wind", the artwork is colored pencil a...

CYRIL POWER (British 1872-1951) STUDIES FOR THE COLOR LINOCUT REVOLUTION II, 1931 Pencil on thin wove paper. Unsigned. Consists of two 3 inch square pencil drawings on one sheet of thin wove paper 10 x 7 3/8 inches. Preliminary studies for Power's Grosvenor School...

Pioneering female abstract artist Elsie Driggs paints stylized abstract organic forms in a warm palette of orange browns and tope. She merges abstraction with some figuration. A structured face composed of lines and tone emerges from an orange background. It's 1939, and even though Driggs is not well known, she is preceding many of the marquee names of abstraction by a decade. Although under the radar, this is a major work and is titled on the back stretcher is " Egyptian Gothic." It features the artist's inventiveness with her fine pencil lines incorporated in flat washes of color and collage elements. Signed lower right and inscribed on frame verso with title, artist and the date of 1939. Provenance, Christie's, Freemans. Framed under glass.. Elsie Driggs (1898 – July 12, 1992 in New York City) was an American painter known for her contributions to Precisionism, America's one indigenous modern-art movement before Abstract Expressionism, and for her later floral and figurative watercolors, pastels, and oils. She was the only female participant in the Precisionist movement, which in the 1920s and 1930s took a Cubist-inspired approach to painting the skyscrapers and factories that had come to define the new American landscape. Her works are in the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Houston Museum of the Fine Arts, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the James A. Michener Art Museum in Pennsylvania, and the Columbus Museum of Art, among others. She was married to the American abstract artist Lee Gatch. Career Born in Hartford, Connecticut, Driggs grew up in New Rochelle, a suburb of New York City, in a family that was supportive of her artistic interests. After a summer spent painting with her sister in New Mexico in her late teens, she felt she had found her life's calling. At twenty, she enrolled in classes at the Art Students League of New York, where she studied under George Luks and Maurice Sterne, both of whom were charismatic, inspirational figures in her early life. She also attended the evening criticism classes held at the home of painter John Sloan. Driggs spent fourteen months in Europe from late 1922 to early 1924, drawing and studying Italian art. There she met Leo Stein, first in Paris and later in Florence, who became an important intellectual influence, and who urged her to study Cézanne. He also introduced her to the works of Piero della Francesca, the Renaissance artist for whom she felt throughout her life the greatest admiration.[1] Driggs eventually settled in New York City, where she found representation with the progressive Charles Daniel Gallery.[2] (Advised that the old-fashioned and misogynistic Daniel would be unlikely to take on a woman artist, she signed the works she left for his consideration simply "Driggs" and waited to meet him in person until he had expressed his eagerness to include her in his gallery.)[3] In sympathy with those artists Daniel represented who were part of the burgeoning Precisionist movement, such as Charles Demuth, Charles Sheeler, George Ault, Niles Spencer, and Preston Dickinson, she too painted "the modern landscape of factories, bridges, and skyscrapers with geometric precision and almost abstract spareness."Impressionism and academic or Ashcan realism represented the past, in Driggs' view, and she intended to be resolutely modern. She was an attractive and engaging woman, but her demeanor belied a strong ambition and a clear sense of what it would take to make her mark in the New York art world. Driggs was part of the pre-eminent first group of Precisionist painters, including Demuth and Sheeler, who exhibited at the Daniel Gallery in the 1920s. Although a later group of Precisionist painters, including Louis Lozowick, Ralston Crawford and others, came on the American Art scene during the 1930s, Driggs felt that the style came to an end with the 1929 stock market crash.[5] In 1926 she painted her most famous work, Pittsburgh, a dark and brooding picture now in the permanent collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art, which depicts the gargantuan smokestacks of the Jones & Laughlin steel mills in Pittsburgh. Its focus is an overpowering mass of black and gray smokestacks, thick piping, and crisscrossing wires with only clouds of smoke to relieve the severity of the image, yet it was an image in which she found an ironic beauty. She called the picture "my El Greco" and expressed surprise that viewers in later years interpreted the painting as a work of social criticism. Like the other Precisionists (e.g., Demuth, Charles Sheeler, Louis Lozowick, Stefan Hirsch), she was concerned with applying modernist techniques to renderings of the new industrial and urban landscape, not in commenting on potential dangers the overly mechanized modern world of 1920s America might present. If anything, Precisionism, like Futurism, was a celebration of man-made energy and technology. One year later, she painted Blast Furnaces, in a similar vein. As noted above, Piero della Francesca's mural depicting "The Story of the True Cross" in Arezzo, with its tubular, static and frozen forms was the major influence on Driggs' "Pittsburgh" (it may have been the major influence for "Blast Furnaces" as well).[7] After Pittsburgh, Driggs' most acclaimed work was probably Queensborough Bridge...

Study No. 12 - German Newsprint Collage German newspaper collage on paper by Janet Todd Young. An abstract collage by Janet Todd Young, early AAA member and lifelong abstract artist...

An abstract collage by Janet Todd Young, early AAA member and lifelong abstract artist. Janet Todd Young was born in Illinois in 1908, and earned a bachelor's degree in languages fr...

An early abstract figurative painting on paper by American artist, Harry Bowden. Harry Bowden was an abstract painter, photographer, and educator, who lived, worked and exhibited in...

A rare work of art by an female modernist artist from the 1930s, by Janet Todd Young. Janet Todd Young is a very interesting artist. She was born in Illinois in 1908, and earned a bachelor's degree in languages from Oberlin College, specializing in French, Italian and German.  After graduating, Janet travelled to Europe to put her language skills to use, working for her father. While living in Berlin in the early 1930s she met and married Beckford Young, an American artist from Petaluma, California who had recently been working with Hans Hofmann at UC Berkeley.  Hofmann, widely considered to be one of the most influential abstract artists of the time, was returning to Germany and convinced Beckford to travel with him so the two could be closer the the cutting edge of emerging modern art in Europe. Through Beckford and Hofmann, Janet, a midwesterner, and the daughter of a congregational minister, was introduced to cutting edge ideas in the modern art world.  Soon after their marriage, Janet and Beckford travelled to Positano, Italy where Vaclav Vytlacil, a leading modern American artist, was teaching at an art colony.  In 1937, the unrest in Europe forced the Youngs to leave Europe for California. While living in California, Janet exhibited her work in New York City with the American Abstract Artists, which had been recently created by leading American abstract artists with the sole purpose of exposing the American public to American abstract art. In California Janet exhibited her work at the San Francisco Museum of Art in 1938, the Golden Gate International Exposition in 1939, and with the San Francisco Art Association in 1956. Janet, who had already been making and exhibiting Russian constructivist inspired constructions, was introduced to furniture making by her husband, and made constructivist furniture...

Edmund D. Kinzinger was born in 1888, to an upper-middle class family in Pforzhein, Germany. In Munich he studied at the Kirr Schule and the Staatliche Akademie, and pursued graduate studies at the Academie Modern, Paris. Before serving in the German Army, Kinzinger was a master student of Adolph Holzel at the Staatcliche Akademie, Stuttgart; he returned to study under Henrich Waldschmidt after nearly five years of artillery service. Several of Kinzinger’s fellow students in Germany, such as Johannes Itten, would go on to be associated with the Bauhaus school. Coming into contact with all manner of artistic influences in Europe after World War One, Kinzinger’s work may be viewed as a “synthesis” of modernist styles. The influences of Abstract Expressionist, Cubist, and Futurist styles in Kinzinger’s work at this time are symptomatic of his contact with the likes of Hans Hofmann, Pablo Picasso, and Alexander Archipenko. Philip Van Keuren...

This original pen and ink drawing on paper, titled “Woman and Window,” is a rare and captivating example of Erté’s (Romain de Tirtoff’s) early work, showcasing his signature elegance...

GWENDOLEN KITTY YOUNG (1914-1994) Red, Yellow & Grey Design Signed on the reverse Gouache Unframed 21.5 by 4.5 cm., 8 ½ by 1 ¾ in. (mount size 35.5 by ...

"Sculpture Model" Abstract American Drawing Modernism Mid 20th Century Cubism Charles Biederman (American, 1906-2004) Sculpture Model Ink and gouache on Arches paper Sight: 18 x 1...

The fishing is an original China ink and watercolor drawing on paper, realized in 1938 by the Surrealist artist Eugène Berman. Monogrammed and dated "E. B." in China ink on the lowe...

Place de la Bastille is a really joyful original drawing on paper, realized around the first decades of XX century by the French artist Eliane Diverly (1914 - 2012). Titled and date...

The piece is unsigned. It is mounted in an archival white mat, with an overall mat size of 30 x 24 inches. Fritz Bultman (1919-1985) was an American Abstract Expressionist painter,...

Drawing, 1938. Signed and dated with the artist cypher. Paper size 7 9/16 x 6 1/4" (19.3 x 15.8 cm). Werner Drewes (1899-1985), painter, printmaker, educator and lecturer, wa...

Untitled Fabric Design Gouache on paper, 1920-1935 Signed with the Atelier Stamp verso (see photo) Numbered with the Atelier Litt Archive number verso (see photo) Condition: E...

The piece is unsigned. It is mounted in an archival white mat, with an overall mat size of 30 x 24 inches. Fritz Bultman (1919-1985) was an American Abstract Expressionist painter, ...

Pastel (modern), 1932 62.00 cm. x 46.50 cm. 24.41 in. x 18.31 in. (paper) Charcoal drawing enhanced with pastel A charcoal drawing on one of art history's major themes. Here, the...

Non-Objective Drawing (Double sided composition) Graphite on paper, 1938 Initialed "B" by the artist lower right corner Created while the artist was imprisoned in a Gestapo Prison fo...

An abstract pencil drawing in paper by Janet Todd Young, early AAA member. Janet Todd Young was born in Illinois in 1908, and earned a bachelor's degree in languages from Oberlin Co...

Untitled Abstraction Pen and ink on paper, 1932 Signed and dated in ink lower center Condition: Excellent Sheet/Image size: 10 3/8 x 6 1/4 inches Frame size: 16 1/2 x 12 1/2" Provena...

Untitled Fabric Design Gouache on paper, 1920-1935 Signed with the Atelier Stamp verso (see photo) Numbered with the Atelier Litt Archive number verso (see photo) No. 05535 ...

Untitled Fabric Design Gouache on paper, 1920-1935 Signed with the Atelier Stamp verso (see photo) Numbered with the Atelier Litt Archive number verso (see photo) No. 37365 ...

Mlle. Jeanne at the Window, No. II Charcoal on paper, 1933 Signed and dated lower right (see photo) Illustrated: Gustafson, Zimmerli Museum, 1988, "Benjamin Benno: A Retrospective Ex...

This vintage 1938 ink drawing by Charles Ragland Bunnell (1897–1968) beautifully depicts a church nestled amid the dramatic Rocky Mountains of Georgetown, Colorado. Executed in bold ...

Charcoal, 1930 Handsigned by the artist in pencil LCD4084

Charcoal, 1930 Handsigned by the artist in pencil LCD4087

Delightful petite abstract work by American abstract artist Vaclav Vytlacil. About this artist: Born in 1892 to Czechoslovakian parents in New York, Vaclav Vytlacil and his parents ...

This Harry Beckhoff illustration is masterfully rendered and intricately designed in line and wash. It's as abstract as it's representational with its graphic style, clean lines, and flat patterning. Every element in the composition works in harmony without a line out of place. The flat and abstract nature of the work rivals that of the great modernist painters of the 1930s. Perhaps this was done for a major newsstand magazine like Collier's. Although he studied with Dean Cornwell and Harvey Dunn, he didn't pursue the style of painterly brushstrokes and impastos. Instead, he defined his forms with flat shapes, whose internal forms are defined by thin lines. The emphasis is more on silhouette and line than it is on texture and lighting. Beckhoff also described his work as having been influenced by illustrators like Pierre Brissaud...

MODERNIST DRAWING New Hope Mid-Century WPA Abstract Non-Objective Jazz Modern. Signed with a "Ramstonev" stamp lower right. RAMSTONEV Cooperative Art Project (1937-1939). In the late 1930s, Charles Ramsey became close friends with Charles Evans and Louis Stone. He persuaded them to join him teaching his New Hope summer classes in non-objective painting. Soon, a history-making collaboration began. In 1937, meeting in Evans' studio at the rear of Cryer's Hardware store on Main Street in New Hope, a decision was made to establish the Co-Operative Painting Project. They were intrigued by the cooperative ad-lib process by which jazz musicians created their music. Believing this to be the quintessential American contribution to music, they theorized that a similar result might be obtainable with art, a "visual jam session." This particlarly fascinated Ramsey, who was a jazz buff and had a large collection of jazz records. The objective was to jointly collaborate in the creation of a painting as well as applying collective criticism during its creation. By creating forward movement by general consent, they believed they could produce a higher level of beauty. By consensus it was decided that subject matter would be non-objective. Up to eight people would participate and stop when the painting "felt" finished by common agreement. These co-operative works were done in several different mediums- the majority in pastel, but some in watercolor, gouache, graphite or cut paper collage. On occasion, the group would create a series, as opposed to a single work, created in steps by three or four artists. One of the occasional participants was famed New Hope poet, Stanley Kunitz. These series could range in number from four to sixteen paintings in each. The first of a series would be very basic and the last a fully finished work. In the scope of importance among the New Hope Modernist...

The piece is unframed. It is mounted in an archival white mat, with an overall mat size of 30 x 24 inches. Fritz Bultman (1919-1985) was an American Abstract Expressionist painter,...

Abstract American Modernism Mid-Century WPA Era Drawing Woodstock 20th Century, Sight size is 16 x 12 inches. Konrad Cramer (1888-1963) Abstract Mixed media on paper 17 x 12 inches ...

Pen Drawing is an original pen drawing realized by Leo Longanesi in 1937. The drawing is in good conditions, no signature. Leo Longanesi, born Leopoldo...

Abstract Still Life c/1935-1945) Gouache and watercolor on paper 17 3/4" x 24" 21 1/2" x 27 1/2" x 1 1/4" framed Signed "E Cory" lower right.

Serge Tchekhonine was a Russian artist who studied applied drawing, ceramics, and pottery in St. Petersburg. He settled in France in 1928, gaining attention for his finely crafted ce...

The work is hand signed in ink by the artist "b.ost" in the lower right corner, and hand dated "36" next to the signature. The drawing was created in 1936. Provenance: Collection So...

Untitled Fabric Design Gouache on paper, 1920-1935 Signed with the Atelier Stamp verso (see photo) Numbered with the Atelier Litt Archive number verso (see photo)No. 26190 Con...

Untitled Fabric Design Gouache on paper, 1920-1935 Signed with the Atelier Stamp verso (see photo) Numbered with the Atelier Litt Archive number verso (see photo) No. 24680 Co...

E. Simms Campbell was the first African-American illustrator/ cartoonist published in nationally distributed, slick magazines, he created Esky, the familiar pop-eyed mascot of Esquire. This early work of 1930 was done on assignment for an interior page of Life Magazine. It features two Rowing teams engaged in spirited competition with cheering onlookers. This is a highly stylized black-and-white illustration and is masterfully executed. The work is composed of two illustrations, 6 x 9 inches and 2-3/4 x 2 inches respectively. It is initialed center bottow ESC. unframed Campbell left the University of Chicago and transferred to and received his degree from the Chicago Art Institute.[3] Professional career During a job as a railroad dining-car waiter, Campbell sometimes drew caricatures of the train passengers, and one of those, impressed by Campbell's talent, gave him a job in a St. Louis art studio, Triad Studios. He spent two years at Triad Studios before moving to New York City in 1929. A month afterward, he found work with the small advertising firm, Munig Studios, and began taking classes at the National Academy of Design.During this time, he contributed to various magazines, notably Life, & Judge Following the suggestion of cartoonist Russell Patterson to focus on good girl art, Campbell created his "Harem Girls", a series of watercolor cartoons that attracted attention in the first issue of Esquire, debuting in 1933. Campbell's artwork was in almost every issue of Esquire from 1933 to 1958 and he was the creator of its continuing mascot, the cartoon character in a silk top hat. He also contributed to The Chicagoan, Cosmopolitan, Ebony, The New Yorker, Playboy, Opportunity: A Journal of Negro Life, Pictorial Review, and Redbook. His commercial artwork for advertising included illustrations for Barbasol, Springmaid, and Hart Schaffner...

To see our other Designs including Architectural Drawings, scroll down to "More from this Seller" and below it click on "See all from this Seller." Anonymous Foire de Paris...

The piece is unsigned. It is mounted in an archival white mat, with an overall mat size of 30 x 24 inches. Fritz Bultman (1919-1985) was an American Abstract Expressionist painter,...

LOUIS MARCOUSSIS (1883-1941) (Ludwik Kazimierz Wladyslaw Markus) 1878 or 1883 Łódź, Poland – 1941, Cusset, France (Polish/French) Title: The Balcony (Drawing for Plate I, Plan...

MINO DELLE SITE 1914-1996 [Domenico Delle Site] Lecce 1914-1996 Rome (Italian) Title: Untitled Senza Titolo, 1935 Technique: Signed and Dated Crayon...

The piece is unsigned. It is mounted in an archival white mat, with an overall mat size of 30 x 24 inches. Fritz Bultman set himself apart from other Abstract Expressionists with h...

Untitled - Still Life 2 Benjamin Benno, American (1901–1980) Date: 1936 Ink on paper, signed and dated Size: 3.63 x 5.25 in. (9.21 x 13.34 cm) Frame Size: 10.75 x 12.25 inches